12" Cube Build

[reefer1024]

It's finally here. I just got my new 12" starfire cube. I'm setting it up right now. Everything form my old 2.5 gallon will be moving over.

The Specs:

Tank: Custom 12" starfire cube. 1/2" bottom glass 1/4" sides
Light: Aqua Medic 150 watt w/ Iwasaki 50,000k bulb
Filter: Aquaclear 50 w/ carbon, Purigen and Poly filter
Flow: Tunze nano 6025
Cooling: a whole bunch of fans

The Plan:
Although a lot of zoas and some ricordia will be moving over the main focus of this tank is going to be SPS. I hope to find large bright pink birdsnest for the focal point along with some bright green and blue SPS around it to add contrast. The tank is going to be bare bottom with different encrusting corals such as chalice and montipora covering the bottom glass. Also my 5 tiny gobies will be moving in too. They include 2 Trimma Canas, 2 unidentified Trimma species and a tiny unidentified Eviota.

If all goes well I will post some pics tonight. Here is a picture of the 2.5 gallon to hold you over.
http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa280/reefer1024/DSC00681.jpg

[Moonstream]

I LOVE that 2.5, its so cool! what is maintnence like in it? water changes? dosing? light? types of corals? cant wait to see the cube. are the gobies the only fish you plan to put in it?

[reefer1024]

Thanks for the compliment moonstream. The gobies are the only fish I plan to put in it. Sadly 1 of my gobies was killed in a rock slide as I was transferring the corals. I'm really bummed out. Another goby is MIA, but I think it made the journey to the other tank inside a piece of rock and is just hiding.

RIP Stripy McSnagglefin:sad1:


Here are the stats on my 2.5 gallon.

Filtration: aqua clear 20, carbon, purigen and polyfilter.
Flow: Tunze mini 106 GPH. 206 GPH including AC 20
Light: coralife mini 2x9 watt pc
Maintenance: 30% water change about twice a week. Change filter media every 3 weeks.

You can find out a little more about my 2.5 in this thread
http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1196646

I will be posting pictures shortly.

[reefer1024]

Heres the first pics. Its not much to look at yet. I have not arranged the rocks how I want them. I just laid everything on the bottom so they can acclimate to the increased light and flow. I did my best to shield the yumas. I was amazed how many rocks came out of my 2.5. I had trouble fitting everything into an aquarium with twice the footprint. I'll give the fish and corals a few days to settle in before I start moving everything around.

http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa280/reefer1024/DSC00798.jpg
http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa280/reefer1024/DSC00800.jpg
http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa280/reefer1024/DSC00802.jpg

[reefer1024]

Although nobody has responded yet I'm sure many of you have had sleepless nights worrying about the missing goby. You can all rest easy now he has been found. Looks like he switched tanks inside of the rock with the orange monti cap on it. He is a tricky little critter.

[buttons buster]

Glad that your goby made it

[reefer1024]

^ me too.

Stay tuned. On Monday I will arrange the rocks. If it turns out half as nice as it looks in my head we will all be in for a treat.:D

[Jean-yus]

wow, looks really promising !!!

You going BB with this one ? 2.5 to 7.5 is quite the upgrade, those other gobies might go missing after all :D

[reefer1024]

7.5 gallons! I'm in the big time now.:rollface:

[buttons buster]

Any updated pics?

[reefer1024]

Time for an update.
I got the rocks arranged mostly where I want them. I still need to do a little fine tuning, but at least its not as ugly as before. The fish are still a little scared in their new home and don't come out as much as they used to. I think the extra flow plays a role in this.

I am still acclimating everything to the light. Right now I am keeping the halide on for 2 hours (increase about 15 min each day) the rest of the time I use the PC from my 2.5.

I got 2 new fish (Trimma rubromaculatus). I had not planned on it but when I went to the store to get some frags I saw these little guys and had to get them. I could not get a good pic of them(or my tank) so I found this picture on the internet.
http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa280/reefer1024/goby2.jpg

I also got a little carried away in the $10 frag section. I got 2 millepora, 4 acros, 1 monti digita and 1 encrusting monti. Also I picked up a frag of what looks like a Superman Monti for only $30. I'm not sure if it is the real deal or not but I like the way it looks so I'm happy.
http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa280/reefer1024/DSC00812.jpg

Here is the only FTS that is even slightly viewable. None of the pics I took with the metal halide came out. Everything was washed out and looked orange for some reason. I took this picture with my 18 watt PC from the 2.5.
http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa280/reefer1024/DSC00814.jpg
I hope you like it. Any suggestions or criticism are welcome.

[Moonstream]

great goby! I just got one a few days ago for my first fish. very cute but doesnt move much. I do have a question. how do you make sure every trimma gets enough food? I am having trouble, the trimma will eat anything, but it wont eat it unless its within an inch of its rock.so those are Trimma rubromaculatus?
also, love the tank! the aquascape looks amazing.

[reefer1024]

Moonstream. Yes the trimma pictured is Trimma Rubromaculatus. You can also see him peaking his head out on the right hand side of the full tank shot.

Feeding trimmas can be difficult at fist but they are actually very smart when you consider the size of their brain. Given time they will learn and can even be trained to take food of a stick. They will also become more bold with time, but they really don't like to move very far from their spot. They will soon learn to recognize when you are going to feed them.

Here is how I trained mine to eat off a stick. It was completely by accident but it turns out to work very well. I should start of by saying that you need to feed them substantial meaty foods or they will soon start to look skinny. Cyclopeeze and flakes will not do it, but they make good treats and it is good to vary the diet. I like to feed mine shrimp (scallops work good too) that I get from the grocery store. I freeze it and use a sharp knife to shave off a really thin layer of meat. then I use the knife to cut the shaving into little tiny squares. Touching raw shrimp is icky so I would use a wooden Shish kabob skewer to pick up the tiny shrimp pieces one at a time and drop them in the tank. It didn't take long for the fish to learn every time they saw me with the skewer that they were going to be fed and you could tell they would get exited and move to the front of the tank. One time a piece of shrimp stuck to the end of the skewer. As I was shaking it around trying to get it off a fish swam up and ate it right of the end. From that point on all the fish would eat food right of the stick.

I also found that when I had only 1 fish in the tank before they learned to eat of a stick that a lot of food would be missed. Adding more fish made sure that no food went to waste. The competition seems to make them pursue the food more vigorously. Maybe the are just more confident with more small fish around.

Hope that helps. Good luck

[Moonstream]

thanks a ton. I have Cyclopeeze, mysis, and brine (will only feed as treats), as well as flakes. would that diet (fed with mostly mysis) be okay? will also get the shrimp.

[reefer1024]

I'm no fish nutrition expert but I think so. From what I hear brine have little nutritional value so I would not feed them very often if at all. Focus on the shrimp and the mysis. Pick up a scallop at the grocery store too. You can get 1 shrimp and 1 scallop for about a dollar and feed your trimma for a year.:rollface:

[louist]

Nice work! Gosh you stocked it to the brim rather quick! :D The gobies are very cool btw, we don't get nearly as many in Australia.

Do keep an eye on those zoanthids, they can start to overrun the SPS rather quickly.

Lastly, starting thinking about the growth forms of those SPS and glue them down so they can be on their way to their mature "shapes". SPS look the best when they've been in the same spot for a while and have shaped themselves according to their neighbors, flow patterns, lighting and rockscape.

[reefer1024]

Louis, I am running outa room. Time to upgrade again:rollface:

Im a little concerned about the zoas also. I did my best to put them on the bottom and leave some space between them and the main rock pile. This should buy me a little time.

I will give my new SPS frags some time to adjust then I am going to snap them off the plugs and glue them to the rocks. With a little luck I can grow some new frags with what is left on the plugs and sell them to get rich$$$$

Thanks for the advice

[Jean-yus]

Looking good.

Get a clam !!!

And I think a tang will fit in this one !!! *hides*

:D

[reefer1024]

^thats just cruel. I'm waiting till I upgrade to a 15" cube so I can get a school of tangs.:cool:

[reefer1024]

Update:
Everything is going good. I did 3.5 hours with the halide on today and nothing melted.

I am having a slight problem with hair algae growing on the bottom glass. Its weird its only growing on the bottom glass not the rocks and only in the corner that gets the most flow. I guess the increased light and flow have created the perfect environment for it to grow. I never had any in my 2.5 pico. I am going to temporarily add some cheato to the display. I am also thinking of adding a snail. I don't have any clean up crew right now.

Everything looks just like it did in the last pic. I am getting really good PE from my SPS so I guess thats a good sign.