Ricks' Oceanic 14G Biocube - my first salt water tank

djbacon

djbacon

Member
well, Im off to thailand for a month - when I get back I will definitely need to do some fragging out. Especially the mushrooms too, they grow like gangbusters !!!!

I had to hire the guy from my LFS to do my water changes in my absence. Kinda crazy. And a little scary. Cross your fingers for me !!:bigbounce
 
djbacon

djbacon

Member
Hi everyone, I've been off travelling around Thailand for the last month or so. Did a lot of scuba diving while away - thought id share some pics and video I took of Koh Tao, Similan and Khao Lok while away.

enjoy

similan diving - a set on Flickr

Khao Lok Wreck dive - a set on Flickr

koh tao scuba - a set on Flickr

My tank underwent some changes in my absence. Most notably, the mushrooms have completely overgrown the bottom of the tank, choking out my xenia completely. My clown fish ATE my scooter blenny last night. Caught him in the act. nipped him to death. :( This was very sad. I think the clown fish is going to have to remain solo for awhile, or maybe I will give him to somone with a bigger tank. I am sad about scooter. He was my favorite. Anyway, I fragged out a ton of mushrooms and gave them out to local reefers here. More pics to follow. Enjooy the dive shots !! It was REALLY cool diving through that billion dollar real estate. colonies of LPS and SPS the size of football fields at times.

Awesome !!!
 
leahski

leahski

Member
nice pictures!
i'm immensly jealous. i've never been outside of the keys! :)

sure is nice to see the real reef, isn't it?
 
djbacon

djbacon

Member
Hi everyone, (what's up craig!) Sorry it has been so long since I have posted, as mentioned I was off in Thailand for a month and I developed a bit of an embarrassing hair algae and bryopsis problem while I was away. My firefish goby died and it just got worse.

I tried everything from massive water changes, chemical additives, which I generally dislike, clipping which just seemed to speead it around worse. My phosphates are 0 but the tank does get some sunlight so.....anyway, I finally resorted to a new purchase. I resorted to rather large (for my tank) emerald crab.

His name is Oscar and you can see him below. He is doing great job! In the first week Id say 60% of the algae was gone and now there is only a small corner that he has yet to find to devour. No issues with other tank mates (yet)

Meanwhile, everything is growing like gangbusters. There are a couple shots of my now 4 headed hammer coral as well as a trumpet coral that went from 2 stalks to 6 in the last few months.

Enjoy the pics, Ill get some more full tank shots up once all the algae is gone...almost there :jumprope:

Hi, my name is Oscar

IMG_0166.jpg


I'm a hard worker

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When I'm not working I like to wear this mushroom hat :)

IMG_0171.jpg


This is a bad hammer coral....It killed off Rick's Xenia, but it IS growing!

IMG_0172.jpg


After moving away from the scary Hammer coral, I have split myself 3 times !

IMG_0173.jpg
 
djbacon

djbacon

Member
Brief update!!

the emerald crab is an algae eating machine. I am proud to repoort that I am no once again hair algae and bryopsis FREE!!!

New FT shots to follow - its gotten crazy in there. definitely need a bigger tank
 
SoccerBum474

SoccerBum474

Member
then once it has cleaned your tank of algae, send it to me. emerald crabs are hit a miss i had one that ate like a pig but outgrew my nano due to it knocking alot of corals over, and the last two i've had died quickly; one in about a 2 weeks and the other lasted around 2 months
 
djbacon

djbacon

Member
I guess I got lucky - this guy is super active and runs all over the whole tank. he has managed to find every trouble spot in my tank.!! My favorite tank mate at the moment
 
djbacon

djbacon

Member
Hi everyone, it has been a short eternity since I have updated here but in truth there has been little to write about. My tank is basically full and the only notable changes are the constant pruning of mushrooms, xenia and zoas.

All that said I have prepared a goofy little VIDEO RETROSPECTIVE of the tank over its 16 or so months of life.

I hope you enjoy it !! looking forward to getting a bigger tank soon !

jan 2008 - may 2009 slideshow by djbacon_photo - Photobucket
 
bskinn77

bskinn77

Member
Very cool man I have always been amazed by your tank and actually kinda almost copied your aquascape lol! I like how you commented on your own slideshow :p
 
djbacon

djbacon

Member
Wow,

Been a long time since I posted to this thread, don't underestimate the demands of a new job.

The tank is alive and oddly sorta well and sorta not. I'll post some update pics later. The trumpet and hammers and acans are going absolutely bonkers.

But my zoas are dying off even though I am doing weekly 5 gal water changes. New lights aren't helping....Im not sure what is going on. The mushrooms have taken over the bottom of the tank and I am getting a little bit of a hair algae problem again.

It may be time to take the healthy stuff out of here and scrub the tank. Putting the green, red and blue mushrooms in here was the worst mistake ever. They repro WAY too fast and are smothering some colonies of zoas. I clip them down and they grow right back.

Anybody want some mushrooms?!
 
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