Ashevillian's Biocube Update - 1year anniversary

Algae outbreak is dying down after having my DIY overflow clog due to a rotting snail thus producing tons of GHA. Its funny, I have one astrea snail that has it's entire shell covered in 3" long GHA. I have left it alone for humor purposes but not sure why the algae decided to grow from the snails shell...

Just wanted to post a few updated pictures of coral growth under my three Panorama Pro fixtures that I won during the 3reef Ugly Sweater Contest

They are great lights and my tank loves them!

Birthdate: May 2011

Tank Specs:
29g Biocube w 10gal refugium
Reef Keeper Lite
Vortech MP10w
Hydror 320 return pump
Hydror Slim Skim Nano
Hydror Theo 50w heater
3 Panorama Pro's [one 12000k/445nm - one 445nm/magenta - one
445nm]

Actinics on - 930am
Daylights on- 1045am
Daylights off - 815pm
Actinics off- 10pm

My girlfriend or I will feed two small pinches of flakes a day, or sometimes a 1/4 cube of brine. Two or three times a month I target feed with a mix of liquid foods, primarily zooplex and two little fishies phyto.

Supplements are basically half a cap of Essential Elements and a quarter cap of Strontium every two weeks and or with water changes.

I change water about once a month now, when I was a newbie, I was doing WC's weekly, then biweekly. I try to run skimmerless(slim skim nano pulls wet skim and isnt sometimes worth the hassle to keep it running) and do WC once a month now.

Livestock:
Hi Fin Red Banded Goby
Flametail Blenny
Six-line Wrasse
Ocellaris Clownfish

Inverts:
Skunk Cleaner Shrimp
Tiger Cowrie Snail
Tronchus snail
Fighting Conch
8 blue leg hermits
12 cerith snails
6 astrea snails
8 nassi snails


FTS 5-16-2012


FTS Closeup


Stunner Chalice


Hammer coral


Scroll Coral and Flametail aka Goliath


Frogspawn hosting Clown & Sixline sneaking past


Group shot! Everyone say Cheese!!!


Yellow polyps + Hammer coral frag(my first frag ever) + stunner frag(2nd frag ever, this little thing has died and came back three times due to water flow, placement ect... very tough and fast growing chalice)
You can also see where I was having some hair algae problems a few weeks ago.


Safe fuge for pods, my emerald crab, some snails, and for chaeto to grow. I also run active carbon in the back of the biocube, and have that black filter sponge to help bacteria and pods reproduce. My return pump sits in a tupperware container to prevent mud and substrate from damaging motor.


Here is that stupid astrea snail that carries algae around rather than eating it!! It's pretty funny IMO and its so long!


Well thats it! Hope you enjoyed my pictures! It's the best I can do with what I've got! Take care

-Jake

Oh ya and my newest addition is a blue betta that resides in my friend who moved back home across country to wyoming's bamboo bowl.


And while we're at it here are some photos of my FW tank. I need to do a WC badly but they don't mind the dirty water lol. They spawn eggs about once a month and the plants get trimmed back about once a month. I need to upgrade the lighting but it's hard to find a good light for a 35g Hex. I did recently purchase the Oceanic Fuge Light but it died after about a week and I need to do the warranty....Also i don't remember the names of the plants except for amazon sword, java fern, and i think thats it lol

Anyway here are their pictures!!!

 

Any tips to make my sandbed clear up would be nice too

 

Grats on all the growth, i'd say for the sand bed get some Nassarius and Cerith snails to stir it up. But it's probably because of the clogged pump and new lights, so i would just wait a few weeks and it should disapear. That snail with the algae actually makes me want to have algae (just on a snail though.) LOL

 

Its rather annoying my threads get zero recognition when I post. Why keep posting when no one comments, just not worth getting on 3reef and sharing if only one person comments on my tanks birthday! hmmph!

 

Don't lose heart darlin....many many of my post go totally unanswered as well It is what it is. I look at the forums as a place to keep and maintain a diary of my tanks progress. For free! Ask a few questions every now and then and hopefully to help if I can. More often then not it's the *title* of the thread that will catch the eye

Now I got some questions for you How long are you running your lights for? Is your Mp10 an ES? I'm thinking about your cyno issue.

Congratulations on the 1yr mark! It's a great accomplishment for sure. You should be proud
Love the Angles! Really makes me miss my FW Had 7 going before I got into SW keeping.

 

Don't worry, keep posting updates and people will eventually follow. I have a tank thread but there's not a lot of activity.

Congrats on your one year.

 

Congrats on reaching the one year maker, Ashevillian! The tank is looking great! Nice little planted tank too.