14 Gallon Bio Cube

[chrissaysyes]

Alright, I broke out the old biocube and cranked it back up. I've been focusing mostly on my 55g reef but I wanted a new night light and my girlfriend has been pushing me to put something in one of the aquariums that she actually enjoys watching. Anyways...

Tank:
Totally stock 14 Gallon Oceanic BioCube. I'm using bio balls but no filter media. I'm going to fill the filter chamber with live rock rubble.

Thus far it's been running for about three days. On the first day I added RO water, my marine salt, some TLC new tank treatment, and about a handful of live sand from my 55g.

Today:
Adjusted the salinity, added LR rubble to the filter chamber.

Future Stock:
I plan on letting this aquarium mature for atleast a month and a half before stocking it with anything. After the cycle completes I plan on adding a 10gallon refugium that is already ready to be installed. The refugium will be used to grow caluerpa and possible chaeto. I will also be attaching a release tube from my brine shrimp hatchery into the refugium. The tank itself will also be the home to caluerpa and eventually several corals. More than likely leathers and whichever zos I'm able to frag from my other reef tank at the time. Last but not least, dwarf seahorses!!! Probably 3 pairs.

Pics to come soon. Plan on adding live sand and rock tomorrow. Possibly tonight.

 

[chrissaysyes]

still havnt had time to take/upload pics, will try tomorrow. I used a lot of water from the reef tank downstairs as well as some bio balls, sand, LR rubble from that tank. Added more substrate as well. A 50/50 mix of crushed coral and live argonite from downstairs. After the dust settled the water tested well so I added a blue damsel for something to watch up until I get the horses. Im going to have to start securing the intakes on the overflows with mesh to keep the horses safe from getting sucked in. Also added a frond of caulerpa to get some macro growing. Probably add some LR structures to the display tomorrow also. I setup an in-tank brine hatchery thats supposed to be designed so that the young brine will exit a special output into the main tank in search of light. It actually works fairly well. Had my first batch hatch tonight and I could see the little guys twitching all about in the main tank. They look like TINY pyramids with two little arms paddling around. Cute buggers. Anyhoo, pics tomorrow.

 

[chrissaysyes]

muahah still havnt taken any pics. Algae is going kinda nuts in there and I have only done one water change. Being hella slack. My damsel is still doing well and new life pops up everyday. I added caulpera prolifera maxima in the early days of the tank and holy crap it's grown fast. Pics tomorrow I promiseeee.

 

[chrissaysyes]

Ok so I'll do pics whenever I darn well feel like it. Adding shrooms tomorrow and possibly some zoas if I feel like fragging.

 

[Redstratplayer1]

Last but not least, dwarf seahorses!!! Probably 3 pairs.

By what i have read dwarfs need a much smaller! tank about 5g is a better size.

www.seahorse.org check out the .org

 

[chrissaysyes]

you have to take breeding into account, not to mention it will be easier to maintain water parameters in a larger tank.

 

[Musho3210]

you have to take feeding into acount, its easier to target feed in a smaller tank .

 

[Matthew5664]

'target feed' ?

Seahorses, the ones I have kept, like nothing better than to rome around hunting for food!

 

[chrissaysyes]

Im not target feeding anything. Live and enriched baby brine all the way along with pod filled chaeto chunks rotated weekly or so from refugiums

 

[chrissaysyes]

added a sick percula and son shrooms. The fish are temporary of course. Pict some day... The tank is really starting to look nice. Even some coraline growth. Wondering if I should add some snails.

 

[chrissaysyes]

pics!

Like I said, the fish are only temporary, they'll be moved downstairs prior to the arrival of the seahorses. Much work is to be done before that though.

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Cool, are you going to be growing a lot of macro algae in here? Also what is that blue fish?

 

[chrissaysyes]

Yeah, hitching posts for the sea horses. I think the ich has just about run it's course on the tank downstairs so it's almost time to move these two fish down there and start preparing for the horses. The blue fish is Chrysiptera parasema.

Added 25x true nassarius
Added Green star polyp frag from downstairs

As soon as I figure out the easier method Im going to frag my zoas from downstairs and add them as well.

 

[chrissaysyes]

nevermind about the ich being clear downstairs. Looks like the clown and damsel will be staying in the seahorse tank a bit longer.

 

[chrissaysyes]

The tank is coming along very nicely. The snails and hermits are keeping the algae under control very well. Also the fish are doing great. I had to remove the star polyps because...well...I didnt like them I'll put up some more pics soon now that the tank is a lot cleaner and the caulerpa has grown a LOT.