Bringing the reef into the classroom... 16g BioCube (now a Nuvo 40)

[reefiniteasy]

Does the skimmer have a chamber or does it hang in the display...and pics pease

The skimmer hangs on the back of the aquarium. So far it’s working great. Fixed the bubbles and hopefully the salt creep by used a sponge wrapped around the sides of the output. This way the water exits normally but the insane bubbles can’t rise to the surface and pop because they get caught in the sponge.
The silencer is super shorty. The design of the skimmer has the silencer on the inside of the body and I think this creates an echo. I connected an external silencer I made and the skimmer becomes dead silent. I might stick with that.

I think the skimmer overall might be overkill and maybe I should have gone with the Aquamaxx Bullet-1 HOB.

 

[reefiniteasy]

The skimmer is now silent. I ordered a spare yellow airline from Marine Depot and attached it to the the other little tube on the silencer. It is now completely silent. I’m also going to add the Hydros skimmer sensor below the input opening so if the Venturi elbow clogs from salt creep like people say it does and the water level rises in the skimmer body, the skimmer will shut down.

Corals are doing great. Dealing with some algae on the Fuzzy Yellow. I thought at first it might be the start of Dinos but every afternoon/evening the crabs are eating it.

Here are some pictures.

 

[reefiniteasy]

The tank is doing great. Made a few changes. I put the used Octopulse pump I picked up at the top of the tank blowing across my Acros and the gyre is now vertical in the back. The Octopulse runs a sine wave pattern and the OctoPulse runs a sine wave for 5 minutes at the top of every hour during daytime hours. I realized the gyre is just too strong for my bubble coral and she is the most important. However the gyre is perfect for flushing the back of the rockwork, but only during the day. At night the clowns sleep in the back.

I had to replace my Pinpoint pH probe on my Hydros. After 10 months it strayed and wouldn’t calibrate. I ordered a new one from American Marine ordered on a Friday night, they shipped Saturday morning, which was amazing, and it got here today. Installed it and it matches my Hanna pH checker perfectly. No calibration needed.

I installed the Hydros skimmer sensor in the Aquamaxx HOB 1.5 skimmer body. The skimmer is good but it has one major design flaw. The input pipe is not sealed to the body. If the silencer fills with salt creep or the Venturi elbow clogs, the water level with rose on the body. If it reaches the point where the pipe enters, it’ll drain the tank, up until you notice of course. Instead of putting the sensor in the cup, I put it in the body below the inlet. Now, if the water rises, the sensor triggers and shuts down the skimmer. Tested and it’s flawless.

Unfortunately I used my last sense port on my Hydros collective. Looks like I have an excuse to buy another hydros component.

I started gluing corals to my rock work, moving them off the sand. I’m lining my Zoas along the right side of the tank on the sand. I put my gorgeous Easter egg chalice in a great spot. Also put my Jack-O-Lantern on a small ledge. Took the Pink Lemonade frag off the rack and glued it up too for optimum light and flow. Polyps are out again. Accidentally broke off the nice chunk of new growth on my Bill Murray. Made a new frag and glued it as high as I could. It’s already coloring up and the gorgeous neon green polyps are waving in the flow.

My Blue Leptastrea closed up 4 days ago and was only briefly out in the edges today. I’ve had this happen with my Duncan before. We’ll see what happens.

I upped my lights again. I bumped each channel by 1 percentage point. (I did this after the Leptastrea stopped opening.) working my way up to 300 PAR up top. Don’t want much more than that. I’m currently watching a great video presentation from Dana Riddle about photosynthesis and how it depends on the light, alkalinity and flow. I now fully understand that too much PAR can be detrimental to growth. Very very fascinating. Everyone on this forum should watch the video if they truly want to understand what is best for their corals and how to get the most from them in terms of growth.

Lastly, I’m supposed to pick up a frag of Ice Blue Candy Canes on Sunday from a R2R user. I can’t wait. Then I just need some Bi-color candy canes and I’ll be all set. Also plumbed my RODI waste line to the garage sink in the garage. No more rusting clamp holding it to the wash tub. Drilled a 3/4” hole and used a 1/4” push-connect bulkhead. Nice and clean. Now I’m hard plumbing a pump to the bottom of my 32 gallon Brute reservoir. I’m using an IceCap Evo 2000 pump. It’ll be attached to 3/4” pvc to the top of the Brute and then out the side through a uniseal. Then I can just open a valve, flip a switch and fill my salt mixing bucket or whatever else I need. I’m tired of reaching down into the water to attach a hose

 

[terraincognita]

I love how this thread started in the school as a project and now your home is riddled with tanks.

good old saltwater hobby.

breaking into homes since 1932

 

[reefiniteasy]

I love how this thread started in the school as a project and now your home is riddled with tanks.

good old saltwater hobby.

breaking into homes since 1932

Yeah, we had 6 habitats in my science classroom. 65 gallon Cichlid, 40 gallon Tropical, 20 gallon Crayfish, 100 gallon Turtle pond, betta, and BioCube. When Covid first hit I had to empty out my classroom over that spring break. I sold it all except for the saltwater. Then I transferred to another school in my district. This campus isn’t open on weekends, so no more class tanks.

 

[reefiniteasy]

Things are going great with the tank. Corals are happy. Added a CO2 scrubber to the tank. So far it is keeping my pH at roughly 8.05ish over night and upwards of 8.2 during the day. Right now it’s scrubbing the air in the house. If the media doesn’t last as long as I’d like, I’ll make it recirculating off the skimmer cup. I used 3/8” silicone tubing to connect the IceCap scrubber to my Aquamaxx HOB 1.5. To connect the different size hoses I used a push-connect reducer, 3/8” to 1/4”. So far I am very pleased with the results. However, I need to set up automatic dosers. When I dose manually I’m getting an even larger spike in pH because it’s already elevated higher due to the scrubber.

I also added an Octo Port from Matt at OctoAquatics. I now have a feeding door in my IM screen top.

I also got a whole bunch of goodies.

 

[reefiniteasy]

Almost 2 months since I've posted. The tank has been through a bit. I had Covid and was unable to care for the tank for a few days. Not sure exactly what happened, but I did lose a few corals. Lost my The Thing Anacropora, Green Slimer, some Candy Canes, amongst a few others. Overall the tank is doing well. The scrubber is working great, keeping pH well above 8 at night. I am getting 3 weeks on scrubber media. Working to make it recirculating to increase that to 4 or 5 weeks.

Recently started dosing Aquaforest Amino, Build, Energy, and Vitality. Starting slow with twice a week of each. AV on Monday and Thursday and BE on Tuesday and Friday. After a couple of weeks I'll get to dosing every other night and take a break on Sundays. I'm excited to see what a difference it makes. The regimen came highly recommended.

 

[reefiniteasy]

It’s been a little bit since the last update. Things have changed a lot. I’ve lost almost all of my sps corals. Still have thriving purple stylo and a pink lemonade Acro, although I’m moving that frag to a friend. I think the tank move finally caught up with me. That and I also feed a lot so PO4 and NO3 are higher than they have ever been, .03 and 16.8 respectively. I used to keep near zero of both and I think that’s why my sps thrived in the BioCube for so long.

I recently picked up the new Hanna Nitrate HR checker. It is amazing. I love the Salifert test kit but I no longer have to ask my wife to check the colors for me. I also purchased two frag racks from Ocean Box Designs. They are amazing. I love the IceCap frag rack I had but the silicone “wings” that lock the frags in place were a pain in the butt. I’ve been dosing Aquaforest ABEV for a couple months now. I have seen a visible difference in coral color, especially my Zoas.

I added my very first Rainbow Bubble Tip Anemone. I bought it from a gentleman in my community that I found on the Facebook marketplace. A large RBTA was $75. Top Shelf sells their large for $300 in store and mine is almost 3 times the size. I think I got a great deal. The anemone was attached to a large rock, about the size of a softball. I used a screw driver and chiseled it down to just a tiny piece of rock that the foot was attached to. I put it on the top of my rockscape and within two hours he walked off the rubble he was on and found a spot he’s been in ever since. Of course he parked himself just above the Bubble. They already fought once. The Bubble coral turned an anemone tentacle black and it was gone in 30 minutes. I had to detach the sweeper. The anemone held its ground and hasn’t moved. I plan to add a Black Widow Anemone this week. I believe I may be turning into an addict.

I watched a great YouTube video from Bahama Llama Coral on fragging Zoas. So far it’s been a success. I bought a mystery zoa frag from a TSA live sale that had Gatorades, JF Daisy Cutters, and another I haven’t been able to identify yet. I used my scalpel to slice the Zoas apart and then I snapped the plug using my bone cutters. Worked like a charm. I then went frag crazy and cut up some of my other Zoas to share with a couple of friends.

Hanukkah is right around the corner, I believe it starts next Sunday. My wife bought me the new Red Sea ReefDose and some accessories. I’m very excited to get the automatic dosing up and running. Also meeting up with @Vinman hopefully this week to get some new coral.

Almost forgot. My clowns are hosting a zoa colony instead of their beautiful new anemone. Go figure.

Here are the latest photos.

 

[Vinman]

It’s been a little bit since the last update. Things have changed a lot. I’ve lost almost all of my sps corals. Still have thriving purple stylo and a pink lemonade Acro, although I’m moving that frag to a friend. I think the tank move finally caught up with me. That and I also feed a lot so PO4 and NO3 are higher than they have ever been, .03 and 16.8 respectively. I used to keep near zero of both and I think that’s why my sps thrived in the BioCube for so
I recently picked up the new Hanna Nitrate HR checker. It is amazing. I love the Salifert test kit but I no longer have to ask my wife to check the colors for me. I also purchased two frag racks from Ocean Box Designs. They are amazing. I love the IceCap frag rack I had but the silicone “wings” that lock the frags in place were a pain in the butt. I’ve been dosing Aquaforest ABEV for a couple months now. I have seen a visible difference in coral color, especially my Zoas.

I added my very first Rainbow Bubble Tip Anemone. I bought it from a gentleman in my community that I found on the Facebook marketplace. A large RBTA was $75. Top Shelf sells their large for $300 in store and mine is almost 3 times the size. I think I got a great deal. The anemone was attached to a large rock, about the size of a softball. I used a screw driver and chiseled it down to just a tiny piece of rock that the foot was attached to. I put it on the top of my rockscape and within two hours he walked off the rubble he was on and found a spot he’s been in ever since. Of course he parked himself just above the Bubble. They already fought once. The Bubble coral turned an anemone tentacle black and it was gone in 30 minutes. I had to detach the sweeper. The anemone held its ground and hasn’t moved. I plan to add a Black Widow Anemone this week. I believe I may be turning into an addict.

I watched a great YouTube video from Bahama Llama Coral on fragging Zoas. So far it’s been a success. I bought a mystery zoa frag from a TSA live sale that had Gatorades, JF Daisy Cutters, and another I haven’t been able to identify yet. I used my scalpel to slice the Zoas apart and then I snapped the plug using my bone cutters. Worked like a charm. I then went frag crazy and cut up some of my other Zoas to share with a couple of friends.

Hanukkah is right around the corner, I believe it starts next Sunday. My wife bought me the new Red Sea ReefDose and some accessories. I’m very excited to get the automatic dosing up and running. Also meeting up with @Vinman hopefully this week to get some new coral.

Almost forgot. My clowns are hosting a zoa colony instead of their beautiful new anemone. Go figure.

Here are the latest photos.

That BTA is

 

[reefiniteasy]

That BTA is

AWESOME!

 

[reefiniteasy]

Today is a great day. My Carpeneters Flasher Wrasse has been in Copper for 30 days. I’ve had a QT going since Black Friday. Originally the QT had the wrasse, Red Firefish and an Orange Spotted Goby. The firefish jumped twice. I was present at the first suicide attempt and was able to put him back in the tank. He survive only to jump again the next day. Then the Goby, on day 24 of copper developed breathing problems that according to Jay Hemdal was a sign of flukes and even with the freshwater dip nothing improved so the other thought was a bacterial gill infection/disease. Today I will do a large water change to bring down the level of copper and get ready for the first round of prazi.

My DT is doing great. The anemones are thriving. I finally moved all my Zoas up into the small arch so that they hopefully grow into a nice little garden.

 

[Vinman]

Today is a great day. My Carpeneters Flasher Wrasse has been in Copper for 30 days. I’ve had a QT going since Black Friday. Originally the QT had the wrasse, Red Firefish and an Orange Spotted Goby. The firefish jumped twice. I was present at the first suicide attempt and was able to put him back in the tank. He survive only to jump again the next day. Then the Goby, on day 24 of copper developed breathing problems that according to Jay Hemdal was a sign of flukes and even with the freshwater dip nothing improved so the other thought was a bacterial gill infection/disease. Today I will do a large water change to bring down the level of copper and get ready for the first round of prazi.

My DT is doing great. The anemones are thriving. I finally moved all my Zoas up into the small arch so that they hopefully grow into a nice little garden.

I can't believe your clowns are all over those anemones . Looking great Alex!!!

 

[reefiniteasy]

The tank is still chugging along. Finished 30 days of copper in the qt tank. Now I’m on day 4 of the first round of prazi. Skittles the Carpenters Flasher Wrasse is doing great. We named him Skittles because of his colors.

picked up some new Zoas the other day from a a local guy who has a small farm in his garage. Picked up Blue Hornets, Rastas, Tazers Cinnamon Grandis paly and I found a single polyp of what looks to be Halley Berry on the Tazer frag. Slowly filling up what will hopefully turn into a nice zoa garden. Still waiting for the Hornets to adjust and open completely

I moved both frogspawns down to the sand and they seem to be happier. Also got early access to a Hydros XP8. Ordered today and it’ll be here on Thursday. More to follow.

 

[RedfishReefer]

I see you’ve changed lights. I bought the a80 for my waterbox 10g cube and noticed you used it on the bio cube for a while and seemed to have decent growth during that time. I’m in a point where I might be able to return it but not sure. My plan will probably be to save for the kessil a160 and then at that point sell my a80 and use that money to buy the controller. Do you think the a80 is good enough for growth or atleast stability for the next month or two in a 10 gallon based off your experience with it? I have a favia, Duncan’s, and a Kenya tree right now. Will probably get more soon but no SPS in the distant horizon until I get a better light.

 

[reefiniteasy]

I see you’ve changed lights. I bought the a80 for my waterbox 10g cube and noticed you used it on the bio cube for a while and seemed to have decent growth during that time. I’m in a point where I might be able to return it but not sure. My plan will probably be to save for the kessil a160 and then at that point sell my a80 and use that money to buy the controller. Do you think the a80 is good enough for growth or atleast stability for the next month or two in a 10 gallon based off your experience with it? I have a favia, Duncan’s, and a Kenya tree right now. Will probably get more soon but no SPS in the distant horizon until I get a better light.

The a80 is an amazing light. It is great for a 10 gallon. What intensity do you have it at? The only reason why I went to an a160 is because I bought it for a WaterBox 20 cube I ended up scrapping. So I decided to put it on the BioCube. And that’s what I do, I sell old equipment to buy new. It’ll be perfect for those corals and more. If you can find a par meter you can see what it’s putting out.

 

[RedfishReefer]

The a80 is an amazing light. It is great for a 10 gallon. What intensity do you have it at? The only reason why I went to an a160 is because I bought it for a WaterBox 20 cube I ended up scrapping. So I decided to put it on the BioCube. And that’s what I do, I sell old equipment to buy new. It’ll be perfect for those corals and more. If you can find a par meter you can see what it’s putting out.

I actually ended up returning it today and bought a red sea reefled 50 that comes in on Saturday. I want to get into SPS and be able to go to a waterbox cube 20 so wanted the more powerful light. My corals looked great under the kessil a80 for the day I had them under it but being able to do SPS without worrying about having enough light is a big bonus.

 

[reefiniteasy]

Got my Hydros XP8 up and running. It’s fantastic and I’m so happy I now have power monitoring. Tomorrow my Carpenters Flasher Wrasse will move into the display tank. It’s been 71 days of QT I observed for a week, ran copper for 30 days and 3 rounds of prazi. I’m very excited I plan to turn around and run the QT again with more fish.

 

[reefiniteasy]

I need to post more often, so much has happened. I officially stopped manual dosing. The Red Sea ReefDose 2 is up and running. It doses 1.5ml of ESV 2-part every night at 7pm. I now measure alkalinity with my Hanna checker once or twice a week. The tank now hovers between 8.2-8.3dKH. Skittles the Carpenters Wrasse is now in the display. He is doing great. The clowns accepted him quickly and there was never a hint of violence. He also found a crevice inside a rock that he has turned into his bed. It's quite impressive and took me awhile to find him. I currently have a Royal Gramma in QT. Friday will be day 30 and then I'll do 3 rounds of Prazipro. I had a Tiger Goby for 2 days, but he jumped out of the tank and I stepped on him when I walked into the room. Oh well, what can you do. I ditched the gyre for now and am running to Reef Octopus Octopulse 2 pumps opposite each other in a Sine Wave pattern. The anemones love it, as one ramps up, the other ramps down and the Black Widow sways in the flow. I had to move the frogspawn around. It was too high, I brought it down to the sand and now it is happy and getting big. The pink frogspawn is never happy. I have some beautiful zoas that are growing like crazy but some of them are constantly closed because of the anemone blowing into and on them. I am thinking about getting a nice rock looking frag rack for the zoas to grow on so they have a permanent rock island. I'll have to take a look at Aqua Rocks.

I sent off an ICP. I purchased theReef-Labs ICP at Aquashella. It was supposed to be a BOGO. When you register the kit with the code supplied at the show that mail out the free kit. I wrote to them a week ago asking when I would receive the free kit and have yet to receive a response. The ICP had some questionable results. I will be sending out another very soon, from a different brand to use for comparison.

I also just got my Santa-Monica Filtration Drop 1.2X algae scrubber. I had some trouble picking out a reliable air pump. I decided to go with the Danner Manufacturing Supremer Oxy-Flo AP-8 air pump. It has 4 output that I've combined into one. It also has a dial so I can adjust the airflow. This will allow me to fine tune the bubble for the scrubber.

Oh, and I cannot forget my DI resin eye injury. Scratch is healed but I am dealing with intense dry eye which I think was a result of the meds. It's happened before,

 

[Vinman]

I need to post more often, so much has happened. I officially stopped manual dosing. The Red Sea ReefDose 2 is up and running. It doses 1.5ml of ESV 2-part every night at 7pm. I now measure alkalinity with my Hanna checker once or twice a week. The tank now hovers between 8.2-8.3dKH. Skittles the Carpenters Wrasse is now in the display. He is doing great. The clowns accepted him quickly and there was never a hint of violence. He also found a crevice inside a rock that he has turned into his bed. It's quite impressive and took me awhile to find him. I currently have a Royal Gramma in QT. Friday will be day 30 and then I'll do 3 rounds of Prazipro. I had a Tiger Goby for 2 days, but he jumped out of the tank and I stepped on him when I walked into the room. Oh well, what can you do. I ditched the gyre for now and am running to Reef Octopus Octopulse 2 pumps opposite each other in a Sine Wave pattern. The anemones love it, as one ramps up, the other ramps down and the Black Widow sways in the flow. I had to move the frogspawn around. It was too high, I brought it down to the sand and now it is happy and getting big. The pink frogspawn is never happy. I have some beautiful zoas that are growing like crazy but some of them are constantly closed because of the anemone blowing into and on them. I am thinking about getting a nice rock looking frag rack for the zoas to grow on so they have a permanent rock island. I'll have to take a look at Aqua Rocks.

I sent off an ICP. I purchased theReef-Labs ICP at Aquashella. It was supposed to be a BOGO. When you register the kit with the code supplied at the show that mail out the free kit. I wrote to them a week ago asking when I would receive the free kit and have yet to receive a response. The ICP had some questionable results. I will be sending out another very soon, from a different brand to use for comparison.

I also just got my Santa-Monica Filtration Drop 1.2X algae scrubber. I had some trouble picking out a reliable air pump. I decided to go with the Danner Manufacturing Supremer Oxy-Flo AP-8 air pump. It has 4 output that I've combined into one. It also has a dial so I can adjust the airflow. This will allow me to fine tune the bubble for the scrubber.

Oh, and I cannot forget my DI resin eye injury. Scratch is healed but I am dealing with intense dry eye which I think was a result of the meds. It's happened before,

Wow pretty fancy

 

[reefiniteasy]

Wow pretty fancy

Yeah man! I love the tech.