Jestersix

Crabby's Cube

Crabby

Crabby

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I've been meaning to start a thread for my home aquarium - a JBJ 12 gallon DX nano cube that I started in early 2007.

I ran the tank stock for several years. Then I added a korralin 3 pump for circulation. And last week I changed the lights from PC to LED using a kit from RapidLED.

The tank has gone through many iterations and crashes over the years. Here are some photos that show peaks of color, and my recent lighting modification.
 
Here are early pics of the tank after it had been up for about 2 years - before and after addition of a rose anemone.
Sadly, about 9 months after the rose anemone was added it crawled into the korralin pump and got munched. I came home one day and the water was an opalescent pink. Did a rapid water change and the water quality improved. Amazingly the chawed up anemone survived! However, this iteration of the tank met its demise while we were on vacation and house sitter came home one day and found the tank water had turned an opaque black. No idea what happened, and no corals survived.

Attached files
 
I wanted to change something on the tank. Just felt the itch to screw it up. So, I ripped out the lighting and installed LEDs. Here's a photo of the process. All told, took me about 4 hours of work, and I was able to save the existing wiring on the hood.

Next, I want to try growing high light corals in the tank. Frags from my big tank, Crabby's Elite 210, most likely.



Attached files
 
Does the tank look better with LEDs? Maybe. It's way more shimmery, which at first gave me a bit of a headache. But, now I'm liking it a lot. The test will be whether the corals are happier. I'm noticing a lot more algal growth already, suggesting the tank is getting more PAR now than it did before with only 12W of 10K PC lighting. The torch and anemone are looking better, but the trumpet corals are looking worse.

Current inhabitants:
2 fish: one bicolor dottyback, one maroon gold-bar clown.
green bubbletip anemone.
torch, candycane, trumpet, and chalice corals.
abalone (have had for about 1.5 yrs)
black footed trochus
1 peppermint shrimp (had a crew of peps as at one point aiptasia took over this tank and I probably had over 1000 aiptasia in it).
stomatella
small asterina stars
vermetid gastropods (tube snails)
polychaetes and other annelids.
too much live rock.
 
Here's an update on the cube:

There was a heat-spike incident (heater stuck "on") that killed the anemone and abalone. I had removed the corals before that to the large tank at work as they weren't looking well. I thought for sure that the bicolor dottyback also was killed by the heat spike, but remarkably it reappeared after several MONTHS. It was extremely skinny! I figured it was a goner, but it's fattened right up again and looking at it now you'd never know the difference.

Following the heat spike the tank became overgrown with a filamentous caulerpa macroalga. I've added a tuxedo urchin in the hopes the urchin will eat the algae. Certainly the urchin collects the algae on its test, so now I have another small round rock that is covered in algae with the only difference from the rest of the rocks is that that the urchin moves around.

There are also several very large aiptasia that have made a comeback. I'm thinking that it may be time soon to remove the fish, urchin, shrimp and snails and do a re-start on this tank. The idea is to grow corals in it....but the corals don't have a chance with all the algae in there.
 
Well, I've decided to do a 'restart' on this tank. The fish all had parasites (ich or oodinium) that they got from a klein's butterfly that I added to eat the aiptasia, and it did eat 'em. I removed the fish to a hospital tank, which was really a death tank, and now I have no fish. And the aiptaisa returned as soon as the kleins was gone. Between the accumulation of detritus in the sand bed, aiptasia everywhere, hair algae, etc...I finally gave up. I've removed all the sand, all the rock except for one rock that has a rose bubbletip anemone, and all the fish are gone too. What's left is the urchin, 2-3 snails, the hermit crab (electric blue), and a few coral hangers on. I'm bleaching the rock, and then will rinse and acid wash it. Not going to add sand back, but will add a bit more rock to make it look like less of an empty box. Then, I'll try to grow corals. Probably will stick with robust corals like zoanthids. And may keep the anemone and maybe add a pair of clownfish. Or maybe will bring the anemone to the big tank at RTC and not have any fish. Not sure yet - stay tuned...
 
I can donate a pair of David Sheih's clown and a bunch of corals for your tank! You just need to come by when the tank is ready! The kids can have a play date or something ;)


Or better yet convert that tank into a planted tank! I have plants too :bigsmile:
 
You mentioned you might be interested in a smaller corner aquarium. Someone's selling a 36 gallon one with a cracked back wall (untempered and square glass, easy to replace) on craigslist in Oakland for $25.
 
They are ORA Picasso offspring.
Some are looking very cool :)
MBI Journal
http://www.mbisite.org/Forums/tm.aspx?high=&m=80522&mpage=1#81499
 
RESTART!

All sand removed and rinsed - really dirty stuff came out.
All rocks removed, except one that has the rose bubble tip and a few red mushrooms plus 2 types of macro algae (one red, one green). Rocks were soaked in bleach for a few days, rinsed with >10 changes of water, dried, soaked in vinegar for a few days, rinsed with >10 changes of water, power washed, and dried in hot sun for a few days. They were really filthy with detritus, but are clean now. Whole process took over a week.

Added half the rocks back for aquascaping. First pic is in morning sun through the window, and second pic is with lights on. All the critters that are left seem to be healthy (rose bubble tip anemone, several snails, red mushroom coral, macroalgae, 2 peppermint shrimp). My kids have started a savings account for fish.

Attached files
 
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