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8G Biocube with pics!! Also some questions plz . . .

41K views 111 replies 12 participants last post by  MattD 
#1 ·
Hi!

Well, I just set up my new 8 Gallon Biocube. Here are some pics of it. Nothing too exciting but I want to start recording it from day 1 - setup all the way until when I'm done stocking my tank. Expect many photos from here on. I haven't filled it with water yet, because I still need salt mix.

And we're off:



Just the setup from the outside with flash.



A picture of the stock lighting. 1 18-watt 10000k Daylight, and 1 18-watt True Actinic Blue. It also came with two .75 watt Lunar Blue Moon Glow LEDs. There are also 2 50mm cooling fans in the hood.



The stock filtration system. Here's one of my questions: should I keep the stock media (plenty of bio-balls), or convert the large compartment to a refugium (in which case I'd need to makeshift some sort of lighting)? I think for now I'll need to stick to the bio-balls because I don't see how I could modify the hood to fit a palmlight in it. I'll definitely be stuffing crazy media into the first compartment which is large enough to fit all kinds of stuff in there. I think that in conjunction with the natural filtration my idea will work just fine. Opinions needed though, please. Thanks. edit - actually upon further investigation, I've discovered that the light encompasses even the filtration system! I suppose I will combine the two then. I will put plenty of bioballs and media in the first compartment, and then convert the second compartment into a refugium! Awesome! :D :D :D



Just a shot of the uncleaned tank with the lights on (mighty bright!), and of the pump. The flow rate is 106 gph, will this be enough for my tank, or should I consider purchasing a submersible pump in the future? I dp fear dead spots, particularly in the far right corner.



Just an overall shot of the tank. I'm VERY excited about this and can't wait to begin stocking the live sand and live rock. I'll be posting more pics within the next little while. In the meantime, research, research, and more research will follow.

Also, another focus of this thread is to get feedback on the livestock I plan on putting in the tank. I'm not sure which species of coral to put in here yet, however I have had my eye on Zoanthids, Pulsing Xenia (although my lfs says they spread like wildfire), and the beginner's choice: mushrooms. I'd appreciate any suggestions that are suitable for my tank.

Regarding fish, I've decided to go with an Ocellaris, and a Firefish Goby. My CUC will consist of several snails (species recommendation needed please), and possibly 1 Cleaner Shrimp or a
Blood Shrimp. Again, any suggestions regarding livestock are needed and much appreciated.

Opinions, ideas, and advice are very valuable to me at this time, seeing as I haven't started anything yet. Thanks!!

:D :D :D[/list]
 
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#2 ·
keep temperature at 76-82oF, specific gravity at 1.23-1.26, calcium 420-480 ppm, NO3 0, NO2 0, AMMONIA 0, PO4 less than 0.1 ppm, kh 9-l2 and ph 7.9-8.5 best if at 8.3. Strongly reccomend lysmata amboinensis or also called as cleaner shrimp, six line wrase, clown fish amphiprion ocellaris, fire fish, turbo snails and red legged hermit crabs. you must realize it is a small tank so you need corals that do not grow up much, the mushroom anemones will take o ver your tank in no time, as well as the star polyps. you need some polyps that do not propagate too fast. you could use some tube worms, and small fragments of soft corals first until you can manage the parameters. In a small tank ist is very complicated to keep the right temperature. Use the berlin system method , it works much better than other methods. start slowly and donot desperate. do not forget to cycle your tank first by adding the living sand and the live rock first and make 20 % weekly water changes, use good water quality, reverse osmosis oR di water. I use red sea spro salt, ist is great. good luck and saludos desde mexico.
 
#6 ·
you really have to manage to set up a skimmer, they are one of the main filtration systems ina saltwater reef aquarium besides you living rock and sand. please do forget about any kind of media ins the filter . you can include a mechanical filter with some kind of a pad, but you must wash it daily ( no soap or detergents, only water) BELIEVE ME, IT IS THE ONLY WAY TO GO.
 
#7 ·
Well, Here's a small update. Picked up Live aragonite tonight. Just finished setting everything up. Here are some more pics:

Here's the tank, still cloudy as all hell:



Here's a shot of some free live rock that came with the sand! It was just in the bag, found it while flattening the sandbed. Not really bona fide LR but still, a cool little decoration till I pickup LR:



Is this froth normal? I'm assuming it is, and also figure it will disappear in time:





Probably going to try and pick up some live rock within the next few days. Gonna be really cool, can't wait!
 
#9 ·
I'm not getting a skimmer. Water changes will do just fine if I stay on top of them.

Well I've stocked my tank with rock! Here are some pics of the pieces. I purchased 7 lbs worth, I'll need to go back and get another couple of pounds when the bank account permits. :D



A shot of the whole tank.



The right side of the tank. Just to give a look at the large stalk overseeing the tank. There are strange red growths on these pieces, looks like they'll turn into some kind of coral eventually.



The other rock on the left side of the tank. Also has generous amounts of the red growth. They get larger almost daily.



It would appear that a hitchhiker was in my rocks! The center, you can see the tentacles and a bit of the body tucked in between the crevasse (sorry, bad shot I suppose). This is definitely a brittle starfish, I saw him crawling around when I first put the rocks in shortly after the cloudiness disappeared. Cute little guy, wouldn't mind him surviving the cycle. Think I'll be doing some soft cycling after all.



One last look at the tank in its entirety. I put these rocks in a few days ago, and the ones in the rear are beginning to really take on the mauve color that the others were rich with. There is some diatomic algae appearing on a few rocks, I think I'm doing alright so far. These rocks really are amazing, everyday I see new things! Last night I spotted this small stalk with strange extensions waving in the current. When I placed my hand on the desk, the extensions sucked inward, almost like I startled it!

Also, on the front most rock, there are two large white growths. You can see it in the above shot to the far bottom right. They are clear in complexion and appear bubbly. At night their bases seem to lengthen and I can SWEAR the tips are glowing or are illuminated slightly green (I have the blue moon-light LEDS).

Comments? Suggestions?
 
#11 ·
Thanks!

Two days ago I stocked my second chamber with live rock. The conversion to a fuge has gone well so far, and I've made sure that the pieces are relatively large, 2" - 4" in size to be as efficient as possible (I've read that smaller pieces of rubble actually are detrimental to the system. eg. nitrate factories etc..)

Here's an update on my system. I added another 4 lbs of live rock. 3 to the tank, and roughly 1 lbs to the refugium.



I think it looks great, and I've seen a couple of new hitchhikers . . . particularly some pods, another starfish, a long centipede-ish invertebrate and various growths on the rock.
 
#13 ·
Well I've decided on Zoas, mushrooms and I would absolutely love some pulsing xenia.

What is GSP? I'm very unfamiliar with the abbreviations used in marine keeping. I've only recently discovered what the heck RBTAs were after hearing EVERYONE refer to them as that. :lol:

Some suggestions for of coral species are very much appreciated and wanted.

Also, I was wondering if you could shed some light on my question regarding my refugium (stated in my previous post). Thanks a lot! :D :D

edit - I just picked up a master test kit for reef tanks, but for some reason it doesn't contain a reagent for Ammonia, only the end result, Nitrate. The levels are at a solid 20 ppm. What do I do without an ammonia kit? Do I just monitor the nitrate levels? How will I ever know when the tank is done cycling without being able to read ammonia levels?
 
#16 ·
Okay going to pick an ammonia kit up tomorrow night probably. . . I did a small water change yesterday to try and quell the algae outbreaks - it seemed to help, and the water is much, much cleaner indeed. The nitrates are still at 20 ppm so I'm guessing in the last couple of days it rose and my water change brought them back down to 20 ppm.

I'm assuming I'm in either the middle of, or nearing the end of my cycle since nitrates are present and the diatoms are appearing generously quite rapidly. I'm also seeing some kind of a pink/reddish algae on the back of my tank wall. What is this?
 
#18 ·
The pinkish algae has not matured anymore yet, it is just stationary.

Okay, here are some more pics. I've taken some shots of my refugium, and a frontal shot showing the maturity of the rock with the hood lights on, and then with them off + flash.

A couple of days after adding my LR:



Tonight, a noticeable difference particularly considering the diatoms. Unfortunately due to the bright lights, the diatoms on the sand barely show, they are a rich brown, however:



With a flash, just to demonstrate the ripe colors:



The refugium, before adding a light.



The sponge is to break the stream, as I've read chaeto prefers low-flow zones. There's about 1.5 lbs worth of LR in the fuge, which in an 8G, can make quite a difference. Forgive the butchered texture, I was scraping at the glass with a small razorblade for hours. The waterline is nearly to the top, I've ignored the water load limit because there are no bio-balls.

I'll post some images of my light mod which I'll hopefully do in the next day or so.
 
#19 ·
i can see brown alga in the back glass, that is not a desirable alga, you have lo limit the nutrients in your tank that is to say ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, silicates and phosphates. use a good salt water mix for yosur water changes. it helps a lot to clean the foam daily with pure water, the beneficial bacteria will be on and in the rocks and in and on the sand so you wont disturb the biological cycle. please do check your calcium, alkalinity or kh and ph and target for the right parameters. everything looks fine. congratulations an d saludos desde MEXICO.
 
#20 ·
Yeah, the diatomic algae will disappear with time though. Once I add my CUC there should be a significant decrease over time.

Thanks for the words of encouragement. I've pruned the chaeto a bit to give it room to grow, etc.. I'll be attaching the light for the fuge in the next couple of days, I'll post pics when the time comes. It's going to be quite simple, since I'll be synchronizing the photoperiods of both the main tank and the fuge, no big casing for the light will be needed to prevent light bleed.
 
#21 ·
Here's an update on the lights. I just finished setting it up, as my original plans didn't work out the way I wanted them to.

Here's are some images. It was a very simple setup, took me about half an hour:

Bought some magnets . . .



Hot glued one to the Biocube's back panel.



Hot Glued the other ones to the lighting fixture (the others were for a different idea, didn't work out too well though, the attachment was too large). The whole idea behind using magnets was for easy removal when I need to do maintenance or what have you. Either way it detaches with a slight tug.



It looks like this with nothing on.



The lighting fixture is 13W, which I harvested from an old hood.



The amount of light it receives.


And, the entire setup from the front-side. The photoperiods are synchronized so the light bleed isn't a problem.


On top of this, I also did a large water change. A big day for may tank indeed. I'll check the nitrate levels soon.[/list]
 
#22 ·
your light fixture is a little bit strange, but if it works what the hey! glad you did a water change, do not forget to read your parameters, the principal ones, like calcium, ph and kh-alkalinity please. they are very neccesary and water changes alone will not keep them in peek order, i really want yoaur tank to thrive and not just to survive, youre doing a great job, but patience is a must. keep me informed, and thanks for sharing the pictures, it gives me a better idea of what is happening. SALUDOS DESDE MEXICO.
 
#23 ·
Divergent thinking at its finest. ;)

Well jesus, I did a 50% water change yesterday and the Nitrate levels are around 10 - 12 ppm. I think I'll wait a little bit longer, do another water change, then when the nitrate levels are less than 5ppm, look at my CUC.

There is a minor outbreak of bubble algae, I've decided on looking into a Green Emerald Crab for control - I read they are fantastic Valonia consumers and are nano reef safe. I'll keep you guys updated.
 
#26 ·
You may attempt to "cook" your rock. It's a period of a few weeks deprived of lights. Most folks will take a new trash can, fill it up about halfway with fresh mixed salt water, place your rock in it making sure it's covered with water, and then leave it covered with the lid for about 3-6 weeks. This has a tendency to kill all algaes (yes sometimes even coraline), however even a small amount of coraline that is still alive will quickly begin taking over once in the main tank again.
 
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