First Tank Ever - BioCube 32 Newbie Build

[Unskilled Reefer]

Needed to pick up RODI water and ended up coming home with these little acans. I think I understand what reefers mean when they say water can get expensive, haha!

 

[Unskilled Reefer]

Noticed my Duncan looks to be splitting to its 3rd head. The tiny spot to the left of the first split is new today. He must be one happy coral!

 

[Unskilled Reefer]

Picked up some Zoanthids today! The Dragon Eye is my personal favorite. The kind of boring one was only $5 and it has some decent color ones on the backside

 

[Unskilled Reefer]

Took a better picture of the Acans.

 

[Unskilled Reefer]

My Zebra Rock Flower was just asking to be photographed today, lol. So peaceful looking!

 

[Unskilled Reefer]

Super excited!!! Found my first very small signs of coralline!

 

[NY_Caveman]

What is the green stuff? Not coralline?

 

[AltitudeAquarium]

What is the green stuff? Not coralline?

It is an algae that results as the new tank is developing. Here is a picture of my 1 month old tank. You can see we are in the same club. Now is the time to watch your tank's parameters.

 

[Unskilled Reefer]

I apologize for the bad picture but I just noticed it and snapped a pic.

I think my acan is growing a new mouth? The bottom edge of the middle acan.

 

[Unskilled Reefer]

What is the green stuff? Not coralline?

The green is algae. I was talking about the small purple speck.

 

[Unskilled Reefer]

It is an algae that results as the new tank is developing. Here is a picture of my 1 month old tank. You can see we are in the same club. Now is the time to watch your tank's parameters.

Tank looks good! I have been checking my parameters daily. So far so good. Dosing a bit of magnesium and calcium and stronium currently to keep up with growth. The coral has been sucking down the calcium the past week.

 

[NY_Caveman]

The green is algae. I was talking about the small purple speck.

I saw some purple. Could not tell from the picture what the green was. Obviously, there is green coralline and often the purple starts as green. From my tank as an example

 

[Unskilled Reefer]

I also picked up a iodine and iodide test kit and some aqua vitro vibrance but tonight will be the first time I check those parameters.

I am spot feeding corals my acans, trumpet and duncan mysis twice a week.

I am currently trying to maintain 8-9 alk, 1400 mag, 410 calcium, 9 Sr, 5 NO3 and .02 PO4. I also am running very high flow at 77-78 degrees.

 

[Unskilled Reefer]

I saw some purple. Could not tell from the picture what the green was. Obviously, there is green coralline and often the purple starts as green. From my tank as an example

Makes sense

 

[Unskilled Reefer]

Picked up a bubble tip anemone last night hoping my clowns might host on it. My cleaner shrimp has other ideas in mind for claiming it...

 

[Unskilled Reefer]

I apologize for the bad picture but I just noticed it and snapped a pic.

I think my acan is growing a new mouth? The bottom edge of the middle acan.

My same acan is growing another new mouth. That’s two new ones growing right next to each other. It is growing like crazy!

 

[Unskilled Reefer]

A few of my snails had a cracked shells when I got them. They are starting to regrow the damaged part.

 

[Unskilled Reefer]

My acans seem to be changing color. I think for the better. Hopefully they stay this way. This picture has no filters.

 

[Unskilled Reefer]

I will be posting some updates on the tank soon. I have just been a little bit busy with my new tank build.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/the-unskilled-reef-build.542442/

 

[Unskilled Reefer]

I was looking into lighting options for my cube and started looking at the retrofit options because I wanted to keep the hood. The cost was high and I really wanted more customization mans easier control.

I stumbled upon a post of a Biocube hood modification with a AI Prime HD mounted in it. I liked this option so I decided to dive in a little further to this option. Price was much less, quality and power were still there and I got the control I wanted via the mobile app.

After some testing and planning I found out that with the AI Prime in the hood it was too close to the water which hurt the spread coverage and created a pretty bad spotlight effect.

I ended up just mounting mine on top of the hood which mostly eliminated the spotlight effect and also relieved and worry about water, salt buildup or overheating issues.

The hood was easy to remove. It just had three plastic pins that pulled apart on the hinges.

10 screws had to be removed from the plastic shield guard. Really not much in there. A small controller board and small fan.

I used a hole saw bit to create the light opening.

To mount the light I just used 3 simple Velcro ovals.

Nice and clean looking.

The Velcro easily holds the light on the lid when opening.