Konkers' 16 Gallon Biocube

[konkers]

Current inhabitants:

• Royal Gramma
• Two Pajama Cardinals
• Algae Blenny
• Cleaner Shrimp
• Trocus Snails
• Nassarius Snails

Current setup and equipment (unabashed gear junky that's been collecting for years):

• 16 Gallon BioCube all-in one
• Neptune Sky light
• 2x VorTech MP10s
• Aquaready HOB-1.5 skimmer
• Tunze Chilling Fan
• ReefBreeders Prism ATO
• JBJ Mini Arctica Chiller 1/15 HP
• Neptune Apex
• Neptune Trident
• Neptune DOS set up for assisted water changes.
• Neptune DOS set up for dosing Kalk and Alk
• EcoFlow River 2 Pro battery backup

 

[konkers]

I'm rebooting my 16 Gallon Biocube that has been fallow for several years. I've got everything cleaned up and re-aquascaped (see above).

A few weeks ago I re-introduced some animals from High Tide:

• 3 Nassarius Snails
• 3 Trochus Snails
• 2 Pajama Cardinals
• 1 Royal Gramma
• 1 Algae Blenny
• 1 Cleaner Shrimp (a personal favorite)

All the animals are doing great but I'm battling hair algae now that there's actually nutrients going into the tank. I’ve been manually removing this in addition to taking the rocks out and scrubbing them down if it gets really bad. I’m looking into adding some more herbivores (a tuxedo urchin and possibly more snails) as well as starting to add corals to move the system towards a coral dominated tank.

With “semi-automated” water changes, I can easily bring two buckets over, press a button and get a gallon of water changed over an hour with zero drip. This makes water changes a breeze and I’ve been able to do a gallon water change every day without it feeling like work. This is the biggest change from previous reef keeping: making water changes dead easy and staying on top of them. I might look into going full auto at some point but that would involve putting holes in walls/floors so I don’t want to approach that lightly.

 

[konkers]

Fish pics:

 

[MichaelB]

Come to the swap and get it filled with some coral.

 

[konkers]

Come to the swap and get it filled with some coral.

I wish I could but we're going to Maker Faire that day! So many things to do!

I'll probably pick some corals up from High Tide in the next week or so. They're just down the street from me so it's super convenient!

 

[tribbitt]

Post pictures! I used to go, but stopped when the pandemic hit, and didn't really start again.

 

[BlueSallymandr]

Wow, your BioCube is totally geared up! Mine is...not, lol. Good luck with getting corals in and running again! What kind of corals are you planning to grow?

 

[MichaelB]

View attachment 60973

Current inhabitants:

• Royal Gramma
• Two Pajama Cardinals
• Algae Blenny
• Cleaner Shrimp
• Trocus Snails
• Nassarius Snails

Current setup and equipment (unabashed gear junky that's been collecting for years):

• 16 Gallon BioCube all-in one
• Neptune Sky light
• 2x VorTech MP10s
• Aquaready HOB-1.5 skimmer
• Tunze Chilling Fan
• ReefBreeders Prism ATO
• JBJ Mini Arctica Chiller 1/15 HP
• Neptune Apex
• Neptune Trident
• Neptune DOS set up for assisted water changes.
• Neptune DOS set up for dosing Kalk and Alk
• EcoFlow River 2 Pro battery backup

Wow 2 mp10s in a 16 gallon lol, point them down and tank could probably hover joking. Awesome gear list.

 

[konkers]

What kind of corals are you planning to grow?

Probably a mix of LPS and SPS. For LPS I like the fleshy encrusting types like micromusa as well as some other encrusting types like cyphastrea (SPS). While I like the movement, I’m going to stay away from anything with too large tentacles/sweepers for space reasons. I’ll probably try a few SPS sticks. I like fuzzy ones like pocillipora but am curious of I could get an acro growing in here.

 

[konkers]

Wow 2 mp10s in a 16 gallon lol, point them down and tank could probably hover joking. Awesome gear list.

I actually just added the second mp10 yesterday. It had been sitting in a box since 2019. I’m running them in anti-synced tidal mode so it’s more about getting varied and turbulent flow than it is adding more flow. Feeding the fish this morning, I definitely noticed the much more turbulent flow!

 

[konkers]

Took some PAR measurements today with an Apogee MQ-200 at 15% and 50% on the SKY set to 10K: