BrothaWolf's BioCube

[BrothaWolf]

Ive been meaning to do this for a while and with the new tank and equipment trickling in I figured better to do it now. Ive been keeping fish of one type or another for 30 years. I switched to saltwater about 15 years ago but never attempted a reef of any type. After a 5 year hiatus from the hobby due to several moves.... Im back!

I started with a 24 gallon aquapod back in august. 30 lbs of live rock and 20lbs of live sand



I found out later that I was talked out of the BioCube by a LFS employee who wanted it for himself. I had the AP setup for only a few hours when I found out and I was so mad I broke down the tank and returned the AP for a 29 gallon biocube.



See the difference in the lighting? I added another 5lbs of rock and another bag of sand.

[Dragon Wrasse]

Very Cool...I like the cave desighn in your live rock....nice!!!

[BrothaWolf]

The tank cycled QUICKLY. Quicker than any tank Ive ever had probably due to the fact that I used cured live rock. The cycle was done in 2 weeks but I waited another 2 just because I wanted to be sure. At four weeks I added the clean up crew. 10 scarlet hermits (all still alive) Cerith, Nassarius, Nerite and a few margarita snails. One peppermint shrimp. Yes I over did it. i was excited and the more I bought the cheaper they got. At 4 weeks the coraline was growing in already....

FOUR WEEKS



Having the clean up crew in for a week I added a few softies. Some yellow polyps and some zoanthids. After adding the yellow polyps I was MUCH dismayed to find that my pep shrimp was of the evil kind. Ripping into my yellow polys like a kid in a candy store! Scooped him out as soon as I could and traded him at LFS for a skunk cleaner.

FIVE WEEKS

[boozeman]

glad you started this brotha...it will be good reference for the many nano~ers that have come to RS

[BrothaWolf]

Over the next few weeks I added a few shrooms hairy and orange as well as one green. Then came my yellow clown goby and my true percula ... he/she never even left the bag at the LFS when it came in I snatched it up. I know foolish impulse buy but it was simply perfect so I took the chance (he has the BEST colors and markings Ive ever seen) both fish are doing awesome.

[BrothaWolf]

Then the real fun started. So many nice corals out there but not enough light.... I got the mod bug!!!!
Upgraded my lights with the DIY parts kit from nanotuners. I doubled up on my PC's. BioCube comes with 2 36 watt PC's I was able to add 2 more for a total of 144 watts. Nanotuners only supplies a heatshield so I modded my original reflector to work on top of the nanotuners heatshield to put out more light.

As you can see from the above pic the extra lights pushed my moonlights WAY back so that they were almost useless shining down behind my nice aquascape. I really enjoyed looking in the tank with the moonlights not to mention the cool ambiance it added to my livingroom. So my next project was to increase the moonlight. I bought a kit online that had a pod with 2 blue moons and a jack to daisy chain more moons. The way the BioCube hood is setup I was able to cut 2 pieces of plexiglass and make a little housing for them to keep safe from any water or condensation. One pair in each corner.
Not the prettiest job Ive ever done but you cant see em and they are totaly functional.

[Woodstock]

I like the lighting on the 29 oceanic much better! Kudos to you for getting what you really wanted

Super cool aquascaping and nice fish!

[BrothaWolf]

With the new lights in the tank I felt comfortable introducing more coral. In the meantime my zoas and yellow polyps really took off spreading to nearby rock and allowing me to make an attempt at fragging thus allowing them to spread even more. I now have 2 huge colonys (huge for a biocube) of yellow polyps from the one and 3 large colonys of the original zoa's Plus Ive given friends frags also. Over the next few weeks I added some Xenia (4 frags ready for distribution atm more on the way), a blasto, some ricordia, 2 awesome lord acans anthelia, more zoas, frogspawn and a hammer coral. I even added a branch gorgonian.

PROGRESS


Hmmmm nice tank not enough FISH! so I added a purplefire fish!
Here is all there of the fish hangin out together They do that a lot...

[BrothaWolf]

Ok tank is looking good but.... I want more STUFF!!!
How can I add more fish.... SKIMMER After doing a lot of research I went with Sapphire Aquatics. Kyle at sapphire made a skimmer just for the 29 BioCube that requires no mods to the tank other than removing the bioballs. It also allows you to close the hood and adds about 1 gallon of water to the system



Here it is in the tank





Took about a month to clear the microbubbles. I only ran it at night so twice as long as normal but now it skims like a champ.

[BrothaWolf]

Getting jealous of all the beautiful refugiums out there I had to figure out a way to get one on my Cube.
Not finding any threads on this one I took a $90 chance and purchased the small CPR HOB fuge... I knew there would be some cutting of the hood involved which wasnt a problem. I was more worried about fitting the pump and the outlet. Luckily for me it fit PERFECT. Took a hole saw to the hood, a bit of eggcrate to the fuge and a smaller pump to reduce the flow/heat/size and VOILA!!!



Used a little powercompact light, a bit of LR and sand and some chaeto from our friend Doni aka Woodstock! Added another 2.5 gallons to the system.

[BrothaWolf]

Here it is in action....

[BrothaWolf]

Yes that is ANOTHER percula in the fuge. I was holding it for another RS member AWD (who is ascared to post) The perc lived back there for a month or so with no ill effects on my bioload SOOOOO.... when AWD (who is on his way over as I type for help with his lighting upgrade) picked up his clown I added an Orange Back Fairy Wrasse to the Cube. He is an awesome fish Swims all over the tank all the time and gets along great with the others...

[BrothaWolf]

The one add that I havent mentioned and Im almost scared to is a Crocea clam. After all my research I knew it probably wasnt the best idea BUT... A LFS here has had one under stock PC's for 8 months and its doing fine. Ive also read of a lot of people on the nano site doing the same. My LFS also has a big bunch of them under PC's so many so that he gave me a GREAT deal on one. With my upgraded lights and thoughts of metal halides I figured I would give it a try. For the last 2 months he has been doing great and is awaiting placement under the halides in my new 75 gallon tank so without further ado.... meet....

CLAMY!!!!!



I wanted him closer to the lights but was afraid he would fall like Humpty Dumpty so I place a few reef frag discs under him to give him something to sit on.
My last edition is a tiny barber pole goby which is an awesome fish He lives with my fire shrimp if you can believe that but he is very elusive to the camera preferring to lurk in the shadows So you will just have to trust me he is in there and doing well.
Just wanted to add that I messed around with the flow and a number of different pumps but in the end Fish and coral both seemed to prefer the stock pump.

[BrothaWolf]

and finally a full tank shot from last week....



Now my big dilema.... do I move all this to the 75 gallon???? I was gonna move it and use the Cube to cure new rock till the 75 is full and then redo the cube? Help!

[BrothaWolf]

...my sand sifting star fish was pissed cause he didnt get props... so um Big ups to the star fish He is about 2" and cant wait to move to the 75

I also wanted to add that all Ive accomplished over the past 6 months with this tank would NOT have been possible without all the members of RS! Thank you for your smarts, support and most importantly your friendship!!! I wish i could give all the members karma in one shot!

Dave