Purple Firefish

Here’s a quick picture of my purple firefish.

Some recent photos

Well hello there. No posts in a while, but tonight as I was syncing my iPhone, I felt inspired to put up two recent photos of my tank.

These were taken with my iPhone 4 under actinic lighting. My tank has been running well. I’m very happy with my set-up and the mods that I’ve done. Tank requires very little maintenance and Ive been getting away with stretching out the water changes to every two weeks or so.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All of my inhabitants seem happy in their little reef cube world. I particularly like my feisty little emerald crab. He definitely wears the pants in the tank.

Cleaner Shrimp and Emerald Crab

Haven’t updated In a while. I’m really happy with the way the tank is coming along. Here’s a quick pic of my cleaner shrimp and emerald crab.

Algae bloom and the first members of the CUC

My tank has been running smoothly. All of the parameters are good, except that the magnesiums was low at 1120. The set up with the timers and the auto top off system are all working well. Here is a FTS showing the algae bloom.

Macroalgae and Diatoms

The live rock is starting to show signs of life and I’m starting the diatom bloom.

Checked water

Checked the water parameters tonight for the cube. All is well. Ammonia and Nitrites are zero. Nitrates are 5 ppm, pH is 7.8.

It seems that the nitrogen cycle is complete. There are some signs of life on my rock. I’ve seen some polyp, some squirt colonies and sone fan worms, as well as some macro algae.

Will wait for a while, adding clean-up crew after the algae/diatom bloom. I’m looking forward to watching life emerge from my rocks. After several weeks, I will add some hardy mushrooms and Zoanthids.

I have the nano-tuners 3.24 lighting upgrade installed, and I’m very happy with it. It was a doable install. More light with this kit, but my temperature in my tank has been cooler than before because this kit comes with upgraded fans.

That’s it for now

Second Chamber Media Basket

Here is a graphic of the inTank Media Basket by Stevie T in the second chamber. The little refugium is very cool!

The back chambers…

Here is a graphic of how I have the back chambers set up

Biocube is back in action!!

Just set up my BioCube 14 this evening

Here are a few pictures:

First, Added the live rock. This was ordered from Premium Aquatics and cured in my basement for a few weeks.

After Adding the sand – a 1/2 inch sandbed, I added the water (SpG 1.025)

A few hours later, the dust has settled

Live Rock curing and Aquascape ideas

My live rock has been curing in my basement for 5 days now. Water parameters indicate active bacteria:

5/17 NH4. 0.25
N02. 0.25
NO3. 20
pH. 7.8
SpG. 1.025
Temp. 78.7

I’ve cut out some grate in the proportions of the BioCube, and was playing with some aquascape ideas.