Mariah’s Biocube 32

[MariahP]

Congratulations on finding a good LFS and getting your tank going. Now it gets fun and really starts to test your patience, lol. I know it’s been hard to keep the slow pace with my BC32… but I did wait a month before turning lights on and adding my first little clownfish. I can’t wait to watch your reef grow.. congrats again and happy reefing..

Thank you!!! It does seem like the patience gets harder to come by the more is in the tank. Would love to skip ahead but won’t. Im hoping that using wet rock and two types of bottle bacteria will help speed things up, but I’ll let the parameters do the talking.

 

[MariahP]

Yes. Good idea. I also have a Biocube for about a year now and have stacked the rocks. Early on I had a smaller rock on top of a bigger one. I had turbo snails which I believe moved the rock while my fire fish was underneath it. I’m pretty sure that’s what did him in.
I have been nervous to add turbos agai for that reason. I did move the smaller/lighter rocks onto the substrate. I am about to add a couple of turbos to help with gha I hope I don’t regret it.

I agree though it helps remove each rock when needed.

Oh nooooo - that rock accident is my nightmare!

 

[Reef_Tank_Fan_SC]

Thank you!!! It does seem like the patience gets harder to come by the more is in the tank. Would love to skip ahead but won’t. Im hoping that using wet rock and two types of bottle bacteria will help speed things up, but I’ll let the parameters do the talking.

It will be ready to go before you know it. If I can give any advice at all it would be once your cycle is done don’t over stock to fast or you will shock the system and it will cycle again to catch up with heavier stock. Slow and steady wins the race.. also I’ve noticed with my BC32 that by slowly ramping up my lights I haven’t gotten near the ugliness that I got on past tanks when I just cut them in full blast and reacted to algae growth. Either way I can’t wait to see what’s next for you..

 

[MariahP]

It will be ready to go before you know it. If I can give any advice at all it would be once your cycle is done don’t over stock to fast or you will shock the system and it will cycle again to catch up with heavier stock. Slow and steady wins the race.. also I’ve noticed with my BC32 that by slowly ramping up my lights I haven’t gotten near the ugliness that I got on past tanks when I just cut them in full blast and reacted to algae growth. Either way I can’t wait to see what’s next for you..

Definitely plan on going slow. Luckily, clownfish are my faves so I’ll be happy right from the get go.
Did you end up leaving your lights off the entire cycle?

 

[Reef_Tank_Fan_SC]

Definitely plan on going slow. Luckily, clownfish are my faves so I’ll be happy right from the get go.
Did you end up leaving your lights off the entire cycle?

They are some of my favorites also, I love the little wiggle.. lol. Yes, I left my tank completely dark for right at 5 weeks. I put the fish in the weekend of the 5th week

 

[Crofty]

Looks like you have a great Biocube setup!

Just FYI, I've had no problems growing SPS under the stock hood lights (monti, stylos, seriatopora). Not sure why its such a common perception that SPS is off limits.
Maybe the older Biocubes had weaker lighting?

 

[abryant]

Welcome to the Biocube gang. As much biodiversity you can dump in there the better. I ended up making a lot of mods to my cube if you want to check them out. Have fun.

Hey just seeing this but what are some of your mods just curious

 

[MariahP]

Looks like you have a great Biocube setup!

Just FYI, I've had no problems growing SPS under the stock hood lights (monti, stylos, seriatopora). Not sure why its such a common perception that SPS is off limits.
Maybe the older Biocubes had weaker lighting?

Thank you! And that’s so good to know. I’ve got an adventurous cat so would really rather not take the hood off for better lights. I piled the rock pretty high so I may try some, but that’s pretty far down the road.

 

[MariahP]

They are some of my favorites also, I love the little wiggle.. lol. Yes, I left my tank completely dark for right at 5 weeks. I put the fish in the weekend of the 5th week

Follow up question! I’ve been running the cube without any filtration in it - just some media for bacteria to grow on. When did you add in chemical filtration and filter floss?

 

[MariahP]

We arrrrre almost cycled! Thanks to the live rock from the lfs, algaebarns pns substrate sauce, and turbostart 900. I dosed ammonia on day one (nitro cycle from algae barn) and made myself nervous because the api test came back verrrrry dark for ammonia, despite following directions on dosing. Today ammonia is back down to zero. Hooray lil bacteria!

Found some fun hitchhikers on my live rock and one bad one.
Fun ones: amphipods, tiny lil feather duster guys, collonista snails, one small bristle worm.
Not fun one: a single aptasia polyp. Gotta figure out what to do with him next….

 

[MECOMI]

We arrrrre almost cycled! Thanks to the live rock from the lfs, algaebarns pns substrate sauce, and turbostart 900. I dosed ammonia on day one (nitro cycle from algae barn) and made myself nervous because the api test came back verrrrry dark for ammonia, despite following directions on dosing. Today ammonia is back down to zero. Hooray lil bacteria!

Found some fun hitchhikers on my live rock and one bad one.
Fun ones: amphipods, tiny lil feather duster guys, collonista snails, one small bristle worm.
Not fun one: a single aptasia polyp. Gotta figure out what to do with him next….

Sounds like the bacteria is showing the ammonia who's boss!!

Since there is nothing in the tank but rock the easiest way to take care of the aiptasia is super glue. If the rock can be taken out this would be even easier. When i find ones on my frag plugs i will usually just super glue over them before putting them in the tank.

Happy to hear the cycle is going well!

B-Kind,

 

[MariahP]

We have fish! The cycle happened relatively quickly since I used turbo start and PNS substrate sauce, plus the live rock and live sand. Everything’s holding out very stable now, even with the addition of my two new fish.

One clown is a tangerine clown with a bit of a minbar that my gf picked out and the other is a gladiator clown. I honestly didn’t intend on getting anything other than normal clowns, but went to the LFS and fell in love with these two.

I also snagged a peppermint shrimp who immediately took care of my single aptasia polyp and a couple different kinds of snails because…wait for it…we are entering the ugly phaaaaaaase. I’ve been keeping my lights off for the most part, but the diatoms have appeared. The snails I snagged today are already going to work on it though, so hooray!

One question though - I’m having a LOT of condensation on the lid, which in and of itself is fine…but when I go to open the lid to do anything in the back chambers it all spills backwards and out a couple of holes by the hinges in the back. Anyone in the biocube world have any suggestions for that?

 

[Crofty]

For the water condensation. Try opening the lid part way and 'shake' it a little up and down to get the water to run down before opening all the way. This works for me, but sometimes I still get a few drips down the back if I'm in a hurry.

 

[kevgib67]

I’m going on 17 months with my Biocube 32, yours is coming along nicely. Following.

 

[Marksmen_09]

We have water!!

After much hand wringing about what kind of rock to put in there, I finally found an amazing LFS near me that had cycled rock that wasn’t covered in aptasia or other nasty critters. (Shout out to Reef eScape in VA!) Managed to snag a bunch of arching rock so there are lots of little fishy pass throughs. Took some pics of several different angles of the tank.

I also used fritz turbo start and algaebarns substrate sauce. I know that’s a bit much, but I just want to have all my bases covered. Am I only supposed to dose those once?

Next project for the day is cord management and getting the water levels higher in the back of the cube so I don’t hear the waterfall noise!

Is the the Reef escape in Fairfax?

 

[MariahP]

Is the the Reef escape in Fairfax?

Sure is!!

 

[MariahP]

Still dealing with the ugly phase, but things are chugging along. Slowly turning into green algae so I’m headed to the fish store tomorrow to pick up some more snails. I started off slow with the snails because I didn’t want anybody to starve, but now I’m realizing I definitely have enough.

I dosed once with pods from Algaebarn but I think my fat lil clownfish got most of them. I’ve ordered some more and also some cheato to start up my Intank fuge basket.

I also upgraded my testing equipment and have a couple Hanna controllers now. Parameters continue to look good. Ammonia continues to hold at 0 and my nitrates are around 13.

Would like to start with some easy soft corals soon - maybe a leather - but gonna hold out a bit longer for the algae to calm down.

 

[Marksmen_09]

Still dealing with the ugly phase, but things are chugging along. Slowly turning into green algae so I’m headed to the fish store tomorrow to pick up some more snails. I started off slow with the snails because I didn’t want anybody to starve, but now I’m realizing I definitely have enough.

I dosed once with pods from Algaebarn but I think my fat lil clownfish got most of them. I’ve ordered some more and also some cheato to start up my Intank fuge basket.

I also upgraded my testing equipment and have a couple Hanna controllers now. Parameters continue to look good. Ammonia continues to hold at 0 and my nitrates are around 13.

Would like to start with some easy soft corals soon - maybe a leather - but gonna hold out a bit longer for the algae to calm down.

Looking good, had a second cycle hit me, noticed alittle algae started to form today

 

[MariahP]

Looking good, had a second cycle hit me, noticed alittle algae started to form today

Oh man - I’m sorry to hear that. Hopefully it doesn’t last too long.

 

[Marksmen_09]

Oh man - I’m sorry to hear that. Hopefully it doesn’t last too long.

It's on the decline now, with the tests I suspect it'll be done in a day or two, luckily my clowns chugged through it. Also how is the intank basket working for you, thinking of adding that to mine later