redwarrior
Member
Ok, so my old thread had the wrong title (I now have a 14g, not a 12g) AND got buried, so I decided to start a new thread. Happily, I have more pictures, so there should be more to see and less to read this time around!
I started just over a month ago with a 14g biocube for work. I removed the bioballs and the sponge by the intake pump and upgraded the intake pump to a maxijet 1200. I added chaeto to the middle chamber to create a mini-refugium and so far I've kept the stock filter, replacing them regularly. I have purigen in place of the sponge. Those are my mods so far!
Picture of the tank:
For substrate, I originally went with 10lbs of aragalive black tahitian sand, which is really black and white. I ended up removing about half this sand and mixing the remaining half with wild live sand from the Gulf of Mexico, where my rock is also aquacultured from.
Picture of tank with 1/2 of rock first added:
The place I ordered from ships 1/2 of the rock along with the sand. You cycle your tank with that until the ammonia levels stay below 1.0ppm and then they ship you the other half of your rock plus a CUC. You do water changes to keep your ammonia below 1.0ppm to keep your CUC alive while your cycle completes. They're also known to toss in extras with your CUC such as sea sponges, fish, or anemones.
Picture of tank 2 days after adding part 1 of the rock:
I had several hitch-hikers in my first batch of rock including nassarius snails, atlantic cup corals, and even a keyhole limpet. All made it through my first cycle despite a nasty ammonia spike. About a week later, it was time for the second part.
Picture of bags from part 2 floating:
This was only one batch of the critter bags I needed to float acclimate after adding my rock! My tank couldn't hold them all at once, so I would put one batch in for 2 hours, adding 1/4 cup of tank water to each bag every 15 minutes and then adding them to the tank before starting another batch. I was up until 1AM that night!
Unfortunately, several of my new critters didn't survive my second cycle, probably partially due to my own inexperienced handling as well as the size of my tank as well as the cycle itself. I lost 2 sponges, 1 slipper lobster, 1 condylactus anemone, and 1 sea cucumber. Everything else has survived so far and I've begun spot feeding, watching my ammonia levels.
Picture of tank the day after filling:
Most recent Full Tank Shot:
one of the positives about going with wild live rock is that you get a great amount of biodiversity and you find something new all the time. One of the drawbacks is that what you find isn't always exactly what you want. I've had to adjust my plans for this tank as I've fallen in love with many of it's more aggressive inhabitants. Here are a few of my tank's inhabitants that I was able to get a picture of.
Picture of my beautiful rock flower anemone:
I swore I wouldn't even try to do anemones in this tank, but when this one came along with my cleanup crew, I decided to give it a try. She stays put in one corner of the tank and loves being fed small pieces of shrimp.
Decorator Crab:
I think he likes this orange tree sponge because it is easier for him to hide! He also likes to climb to the top of the rocks and play "King of the Hill."
Giant Feather Duster:
So pretty!
So far, here is the list of my tank's inhabitants, that I've seen:
2 red mithrax crabs
1 red porcelin crab
an army of hermit crabs
1 flame scallop
1 mantis shrimp (that I'm trying to remove)
1 rock flower anemone
3 nassarius snails
2 astra snails
1 sea cucumber
1 orange tree sponge
1 serpent starfish
1 peppermint shrimp
4 cup corals
1 curvy orange sponge
I started just over a month ago with a 14g biocube for work. I removed the bioballs and the sponge by the intake pump and upgraded the intake pump to a maxijet 1200. I added chaeto to the middle chamber to create a mini-refugium and so far I've kept the stock filter, replacing them regularly. I have purigen in place of the sponge. Those are my mods so far!
Picture of the tank:
For substrate, I originally went with 10lbs of aragalive black tahitian sand, which is really black and white. I ended up removing about half this sand and mixing the remaining half with wild live sand from the Gulf of Mexico, where my rock is also aquacultured from.
Picture of tank with 1/2 of rock first added:
The place I ordered from ships 1/2 of the rock along with the sand. You cycle your tank with that until the ammonia levels stay below 1.0ppm and then they ship you the other half of your rock plus a CUC. You do water changes to keep your ammonia below 1.0ppm to keep your CUC alive while your cycle completes. They're also known to toss in extras with your CUC such as sea sponges, fish, or anemones.
Picture of tank 2 days after adding part 1 of the rock:
I had several hitch-hikers in my first batch of rock including nassarius snails, atlantic cup corals, and even a keyhole limpet. All made it through my first cycle despite a nasty ammonia spike. About a week later, it was time for the second part.
Picture of bags from part 2 floating:
This was only one batch of the critter bags I needed to float acclimate after adding my rock! My tank couldn't hold them all at once, so I would put one batch in for 2 hours, adding 1/4 cup of tank water to each bag every 15 minutes and then adding them to the tank before starting another batch. I was up until 1AM that night!
Unfortunately, several of my new critters didn't survive my second cycle, probably partially due to my own inexperienced handling as well as the size of my tank as well as the cycle itself. I lost 2 sponges, 1 slipper lobster, 1 condylactus anemone, and 1 sea cucumber. Everything else has survived so far and I've begun spot feeding, watching my ammonia levels.
Picture of tank the day after filling:
Most recent Full Tank Shot:
one of the positives about going with wild live rock is that you get a great amount of biodiversity and you find something new all the time. One of the drawbacks is that what you find isn't always exactly what you want. I've had to adjust my plans for this tank as I've fallen in love with many of it's more aggressive inhabitants. Here are a few of my tank's inhabitants that I was able to get a picture of.
Picture of my beautiful rock flower anemone:
I swore I wouldn't even try to do anemones in this tank, but when this one came along with my cleanup crew, I decided to give it a try. She stays put in one corner of the tank and loves being fed small pieces of shrimp.
Decorator Crab:
I think he likes this orange tree sponge because it is easier for him to hide! He also likes to climb to the top of the rocks and play "King of the Hill."
Giant Feather Duster:
So pretty!
So far, here is the list of my tank's inhabitants, that I've seen:
2 red mithrax crabs
1 red porcelin crab
an army of hermit crabs
1 flame scallop
1 mantis shrimp (that I'm trying to remove)
1 rock flower anemone
3 nassarius snails
2 astra snails
1 sea cucumber
1 orange tree sponge
1 serpent starfish
1 peppermint shrimp
4 cup corals
1 curvy orange sponge
