Paul's 29 Gallon Biocube build

pdt7361 · Mar 6, 2016

My LEDs have been great so far. I was able to buy them fairly cheaply off of Amazon and I use the Current USA Ramp Timer Pro to control auto on/off and ramping. If you want to keep LPS and sofries only...then it's a great upgrade. If you have any plans for SPS, you should look into something more intense like an AI Prime.

Sheeler2013 · Mar 6, 2016

pdt7361 said:
My LEDs have been great so far. I was able to buy them fairly cheaply off of Amazon and I use the Current USA Ramp Timer Pro to control auto on/off and ramping. If you want to keep LPS and sofries only...then it's a great upgrade. If you have any plans for SPS, you should look into something more intense like an AI Prime.

alright thanks for the help i don't really know if i will have any in this tank or anytime soon because of how new to the hobby i am

Bunnee911 · Mar 6, 2016

Which ato are you going to use? I have had the Tunze Nano for 2 months. Only concern is the float will come loose from the magnet. I am thinking super glue.

pdt7361 · Mar 6, 2016

I don't plan on using one at all for now. With the LEDs in place and the hood on, I get very little evaporation. Plus with where I currently have this tank, I have very little room for adding anything else. We are potentially planning for a vacation next year - if that pans out, then I'll look into buy my ATO. The Tunze Osmolator Nano 3152 is what I've been looking at.

pdt7361 · Mar 8, 2016

Here in an updated tank shot and some pics of my zoa growth. If you look on page 1 of this tread, you'll find a similar pic but there are only 2 polyps of these zoas (I don't know their names) but now there are 8 total. The growth on these and many of my other small colonies of zoas over the last month has been amazing. I also put on a pic of my Dendros just because I think they are beautiful to look at

pdt7361 · Mar 10, 2016

Over the last few days I decided that I wanted to slightly change my corals. At first I thought that I didn't like where my hammer coral was but I eventually decided that I just didn't like it. I have 2 duncans, a frogspawn, a xenia, and a nice big flowerpot...so I have lots of coral movement in the tank. My hammer was also kind of ugly

Took the hammer into the lfs today and traded it for a nice green pin cushion leather. I also bought a couple more nice zoa frags while I was there. Once I got those home and acclimated I found someone new in the tank...or at least new to me. I had a feeling that I had some small bristle stars in my rock, but today I found that I have more than a small one. Crawling around on the sand is this big beautiful banded serpent star...just wandering around like he's always been there. I assume someone disturbed his hiding place (like my goby) but he stayed out for a few hours and then disappeared back into the rocks.
Tomorrow I'll work on catching a pic of the star and put some new coral pics up. I also need to do a water change...tested water tonight and nitrates are up a little so I'll be cleaning tomorrow.

Calcium - 400
PH - 8.0
Nitrate - 20ppm
Nitrite, Ammonia, Phosphate - 0
Magnesium - 1230
KH - 143.2ppm

Flameback Pair · Mar 10, 2016

Is that a goniopora in the middle of the sand? How long have you had it and is it an easy keeper or hard to keep?

pdt7361 · Mar 11, 2016

It is. So far it has been easy but I've read plenty of stories that they can be difficult. I feed the tank pretty heavy, add phyto and zoo once or twice a week, spot feed all corals once a week, and dose as needed.
Placement of these is also really important. They need a good flow but not directly on their base...it should be just above them so they can reach up into it. The only thing I wish I would have done differently was to get a yellow or red one.

Salty1962 · Mar 11, 2016

Nice upgrade. Tank looks great.

pdt7361 · Mar 11, 2016

Thank you Salty1962

Flameback Pair · Mar 11, 2016

What coral food do you spot feed and what zooplankton do you dose?

pdt7361 · Mar 11, 2016

I spot feed a mix of Coral Frenzy, Reef Roids, and Goniopower. The zooplankton I use is from Seachem and my phyto is from a local seller.

ou12004 · Mar 11, 2016

Are those Duncan heads as big as they look? My Duncan's are about an inch and a half those looker way bigger.

pdt7361 · Mar 11, 2016

Which duncans? I have 2 different types in there. The tank ones on the right have 4 heads and each is about 1 inch. The green ones more toward the left side have 5 heads ranging from .5 to 1.5 inches.

Marktheshark83 · Mar 12, 2016

Looking sharp. Keep it up

pdt7361 · Mar 12, 2016

I've had a few people asking me about my opinion of the AquaticLife 115 skimmer. Out of the box it does okay, but there are 2 important upgrades that need to be done. First the airline needs to be changed out so that it extends up to the top of the cup - this prevents water from entering the port on top of the skimmer. Secondly a regulator should be added to the end of the line to control how much air the skimmer is getting - gives you better control over fine tuning it. These small changes will only cost you a few dollars and really improve the functionality of the skimmer. I've also modified mine to use a magnet to attach to the tank, but that isn't necessarily a required upgrade.
Here is a pic of the skimmate - I get one of these cups full about every 3 days. It is pulling so much nasty, smelly crap out of my water that I couldn't be happier with it's performance.