DC's BioCube 29 Tank Thread

Hello everyone!

I'm excited to finally post my very own tank thread! After lurking/reading for many months, I finally have a tank up and running. This is my first experience setting up a tank but so far it has been a lot of fun and I have had more successes than failures. I have learned that salt water tanks are like tattoos… you can’t have just one. I am already planning to set up a 120 gallon tank once I get through with my 29. Any comments, advice, and/or constructive criticism is welcome. Below are the details of my setup.

Tank:
Coralife BioCube 29
BioCube Stand
20lbs of Sand
18lbs Dry Rock
12lbs Cured Fiji Live Rock from LFS
Cluster of Barnacles

Equipment:
Stock Return Pump
Stock Lights
Cobalt Aquatics Neo-Therm Heater 100W
Hydor Koralia Nano 565 Power Head
Tunze Nano Osmolator 3152 ATO
InTank Media Basket w/ Filter Floss, Purigen and Chemi-Pure Elite
InTank Fuge Basket w/ Chaetomorpha and a DIY Hang on the back fuge light

Fish:
3 x Barnacle Blennies RIP 3/9, 10 & 11/2015
Ocellaris Clownfish RIP 3/31/2015
Picasso Clownfish

Coral:
Purple Tip Frogspawn
Duncan
Yellow Polyps
Brown Star Polyps
Green Star Polyps
Radioactive Dragon Eyes Zoanthid Colony
Purple Passion Zoanthid Colony
Purple Protopalythoa sp.
Orange Zoanthid Colony
Pulsating Xenia
Green Helmet Fungia Plate

Invertebrates:
1 x Emerald Crab
2 x Scarlet Reef Hermit Crab
2 x Dwarf Blue Leg Hermit Crab
1 x Blood Red Fire Shrimp
1 x Scarlet Skunk Cleaner Shrimp
1 x Brittle Starfish
4 x Spiny Star Astraea Snails
3 x Nerite Snails
3 x Cerith Snails
1 x Dwarf Colored Feather Duster
2 x Giant Feather Duster


Day1 1/28/2015


FTS 1/29/2015


FTS 2/4/2015


FTS 2/14/2015


FTS 2/20/2015

 

FTS 2/21/2015


3/15/15


3/22/2015


My First Invertebrates 2 Scarlet Reef Hermit Crabs 2/7/2015


My first Coral Purple tip Frogspawn 2/14/2015

 

My First Fish 3 Barnacle Blennies 2/20/2015 RIP


[video=youtube;1VQ1P_UkFuw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VQ1P_UkFuw[/video]

Giant Feather Duster 2/28/2015


Duncan Coral 3/15/2015


Radioactive Dragon Eyes Zoanthid Colony 3/17/15

 

Looks great DC! I absolutely love the barnacle blennies.

Hope to see you at a meeting...you can pick up a lot coral for your tank for a song.

 

Thank you for the kind words and I'll definitely have to make it out to a meeting

 

I have never seen a barnacle blennie. Is there any aggression between them?


John

 

A little bit from time to time they would argue over the prime barnacle other than that they seemed to get along pretty well

 

Some new addition from the weekend

Green Helmet Fungia Plate 3/28/2015


New Duncan 3/28/2015


Picasso Clownfish 3/28/2015


Ocellaris Clownfish 3/28/2015

 

Looks like my Clownfish is Hosting my new Duncan Coral 3/29/2015

[video]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/k51UUUUAuNuw_HJLisTODJB2ZFcN6cHX7h7c9_xQGQ4=s192-p-no[/video]

 

Thank you,

All but the last four pictures I used my phone a MOTO X the last four i took with a NIKON D60

 

Agree with Shadow, your pictures are really good!

Technically your clownfish aren't hosting they are being hosted. . I know, picky. As cool as it is you will grow to hate it. Mine have taken turns irritating expensive zoas, duncans and most recently my prized goniopora. Fortunately my duncan didn't seem to be affected by it. The zoas did not like it at all. Sometimes the host is damaged or dies because of this instinctual behavior.

I'll try to take a video of what my female ocellaris is doing to my goni.

 

Thank you for the correction I’m a noob and still learning
That’s crazy I had no idea they would just start running amuck in the tank You would think one of the most kept fish in the hobby would be a model citizen and “reef safe” I have a network camera set up and I look in on them from time to time and every time I do he is just rubbing his face and body all over the Duncan The Picasso is just swimming around and could care less about the Duncan
[video=youtube;PUJ2KvSnVBs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUJ2KvSnVBs[/video]

 

Great video! That's exactly what mine do to my goni and duncan. I really think the duncans are pretty unaffected by it but I've heard the goni's sometimes don't tolerate it.

Is that a tube anemone to the left and behind the duncan?

 

Directly to the left is another Duncan and behind that is a feather duster

 

Yeah I see the green skeleton now. It seems to have thinner tentacles than the one the clown is in love with.

 

It's funny how different a Duncan can look when it was in the sand it looked like this


Now that I have it glued to the rock it looks like this

 

When I got home from work today my Ocellaris Clownfish was dead. I don't know what happen when I left for work he looked happy and healthy. The blennies lasted 2 weeks and the clown only lasted 2 days all the parameters look good. I just don't understand why my fish keep dying and all the invertebrates are living and the corals are all healthy looking

 

The barnacle blenny added about 3 weeks after the cycle got them at bluezooaquatics.com The clown fish after 2 months purchase them at Paradise Pets.

PH 8.2
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Specific Gravity 1.025

I'm pretty comfortable with the readings I'm using an API saltwater masters test kit and a Refractometer