Welcome to biotic-reef! Seasalt dreams

Welcome to my blog On this page, I will be documenting everything I do from beginning to end in this fascinating hobby.

January 08, 2007 by Adam

I recently purchased an Oceanic Bio-Cube 14 gallon. Specs are in the tank specs section. After waiting almost 2 weeks to get a decent stand, I finally got the water in it. Put it in yesterday. I decided to just mix it up in the tank as it was a pain to go up and down the stairs with a container. The salt levels were a bit high in the beginning, but I replace some water until it was at the proper levels. Today, I just picked up 14.28 lbs of live rock, and just put it in a few mins ago. It looks pretty good. I will now wait 2 weeks before I get my water tested, and hopefully start adding to this tank. pics can be found on my 14 gallon page.

January 09, 2007 by Adam

Just added a heater and set to 79F. Also added one timer for the day light for now. Will go to home depot this week and see if I can find a single timer for both Flourescent lights. I plan to leave the LED lights on 24/7 and will light the tank at night when the others are off.

January 12, 2007 by Adam

Added some more crushed coral today as I didnt think I had enough, and I also re-scaped my rocks so they are taller up the back now and not touching the sides of the tank. The smell is pretty much gone off the rock, so I think they are almost cured. I will test my water this weekend. I picked up a test kit this week also.

January 13, 2007 by Adam

I tested my water today, its amonia and nitrite levels are both at 0. The ph levels are a wee bit low, so I plan to pick up a ph8.2 sometime this week to boost it. I think this tank is almost ready for its first real life. My live rock has changed quite a bit since I added it one week ago, which suprised me as I didnt think I would see anything so soon. I did my first water change today as well. Also picked up a second timer for my other light. As I think my rock is pretty much cured by now, I will start my light cycles tomorrow. I started work on my cichlid tank today. I picked up a rough 30 gallon tank for it, but the price I paid for it with stand was not too bad. I scraped all the caulking out of it today and will recaulk it hopefully this week sometime.

January 16, 2007 by Adam

Today I added 14 blue hermits and 2 Astrae snails. I will continue monitoring my amonia and nitrites and hopefully in a few weeks can add a fish or 2

January 18, 2007 by Adam

Had major power outage today and lost 1 hermit, possibly 2 more that I have not found yet. The other 11 and snails are doing just fine .... so far.

January 20, 2007 by Adam

Saw some baby snails on the glass this morning, have no clue where they came from. Added some pulsing Xenia and Zoas today.

January 21, 2007 by Adam

The Xenia's are not doing well. I added a maxi-jet 600 today to try and help out my sick Xenias, I hope they come around. I also got a nice power back up today as well.

January 27, 2007 by Adam

I picked up 2 maxijet 1200s and a 600, and a power bar that will alternate them back and forth to vary the flow. I will be picking up a filter later today. These are all for my 30g and an extra powerhead for the 30g coral tank I have in the basement. I also picked up a 10g and a 15g because I got them along with a 30g tall off a local used site for a good price. Now I figure if I need any quarantine tanks or fuge, I am all set ... I still have to get good lighting for it though.

February 04, 2007 by Adam

I decided to sell the 30 gallon I had in the basement as I needed more cash for the new 30 gallon. I can always pick up another later when I need it. I am starting the design on the stand this weekend and will post pics when I get the wood. I also ordered the light today. I picked up a second Hydrometer today as I didnt like my first one. When I checked my water the readings between the 2 were way off. This could be the reason my first Xenia's did not survive. My second ones are doing very well, after I upped my salinity. I think its still low, but will have to get it tested with a digital meter at the LFS as I dont know which Hydrometer is accurate. I will look into getting a different type soon. Saw some on ebay today.

February 04, 2007 by Adam

Well is much later in the day now and I went and got a Phosphate test kit and checked my water to see if it might be the reason my zoas and polyps are not opening. My Phosphates seem ok. I picked up some wood today to start building my stand.

February 10, 2007 by Adam

Today I picked up the light for my 30G. It is an Orbit 2X65W PC fixture with built in cooling fan. It has one daylight, and one actinic. I also picked up a brain coral, candy cane coral, and 5 more snails while I was there. I picked up some of the trim pieces for my stand which I plan to start the build of this week. Keep watching for pics!

February 17, 2007 by Adam

I have almost got my stand complete, new pics have been posted in the stand construction page. Also, I have noticed alot of new life in my tank as of late, so I started a new page (Alien Inhabitants) with pics and descriptions of what I find.

February 22, 2007 by Adam

Well my stand is now complete as you can see if you go to the stand page. I still have to post a pic with the tanks on it, I will do that soon. This past weekend I picked up a refractometer, which I have not tried yet, a 12G nano tank, which will go to my best friend, and 2 clowns (roughly 3yrs old), a watchman Goby and a Pistol Shrimp. These 4 inhabitants of this tank will be moving into my 30gallon which I hope to start cycling this weekend. It turns out one of these new clowns is a carpet surfer, so I will have to find a canopy for this tank.

February 24, 2007 by Adam

Today I got my live rock for the new tank. I added the water, adjusted its specific gravity level, added the live sand and the live rock, and the tank is now cycling :) ... you can see it in the updated 30 gal pages, or stand pages. I also updated my inhabitants page with goby and pistol shrimp.

March 04, 2007 by Adam

This weekend, I took the livestock from the 12G nano and moved it into the new 30. I know, I didnt cycle it for more than a week, but thats because the LR i got was already cured, and I have been testing my water throughout the week, and its showing 0ppm Amonia, Nitrates, and Nitrites all week, and I have algae growth. Sounds like a cycled tank to me :) No, I dont recommend this and usually tanks should cycle for a month or so, but in some cases, you can skip a few weeks. I got the LR from someone who has lots of experience and knows what he is doing. He has set up a few tanks with this rock in such time. His name is Patrick, you can find him on the OVAS website. He has lots of cool stuff and is very knowledgable. If you are local and want to check out what he has contact me and I can give you his contact info. Also, I removed the inhabitants page of the site and moved all the inhabitants of each tank to each tanks own page. I will be adding a "best shots" photo page soon.

March 18, 2007 by Adam

All has been well in the 30 with its new inhabitants. I have also added alot of new stuff to the tank. I have added a Royal Gramma (can be seen on the 30gal page), 10 more snails, a Scolymia sp., brittle starfish and a hammer coral. Some of the pics of these are also on the new gallery page. My friend now has the 12g nano and its doing very well, she is loving it. She added her first fish to it this weekend as well, a firefish. She is looking forward to many years of watching this lil tank grow I am sure :).

March 21, 2007 by Adam

I have recently updated the nano and 30g page with a recent tankshot of each at the top of the page. I will update this as the tanks change. I have also updated the stand page with shots of the new timer system. Also, sadly, my Royal Gramma passed on this morning @ 8:50. He was sick and not eating for a few days so I removed him and put him in quarantine last night. He made it till the morning. I believe he died of tail rot disease.

March 26, 2007 by Adam

This past weekend I picked up a nice big rock of zoanthids, and a frogspawn. Pics of both can be seen in the 30g gallery, and zoas also in the main gallery. You may have noticed I also redesigned most of the site. All gallery pages are now using thumbnails for quicker loading. You can just click on the one you want to see the full size image for rather than waiting for all the fill size images to load.

April 12, 2007 by Adam

I am going to remove all pics from the 14g and 30g gallery except for full tank shots. The other pics are all in the inhabitants gallery anyways. I have picked up another Royal Gramma, a coco worm, a white seamat, and a nice Leather coral since my last visit here. I also put 2 more cleaner shrimp in the 30 gallon. My starfish continues to heal as I continue to hand feed him. He is moving around alot more these days and has almost 3 of his legs fully grown back now. He lost all but one of his legs due to starvation as my tank was not old enough to have enough stuff for him to eat. They are scavengers, they just find food around the tank. My tank did not have enough as it has only been up for over a month. I have been hand feeding him every other day or so with mysis shrimp.

May 03, 2007 by Adam

Well alot has changed since my last visit. I no longer have the starfish, my pistol shrimp killed him. I think he went nuts or something as he has been attacking everything he can. I will not be moving him into my new tank. This past weekend I got my 75 gallon up and running. The specs can be seen on the "tanks" page. I will be adding a gallery for it soon! Also, I have sold my 14 gallon nano tank, and will be selling my 30 gallon as well. The 75 will be my only tank.

May 07, 2007 by Adam

This past weekend I tore down my 30 gallon and moved all stock into the 75. On Saturday I picked up an extra 50lbs of Live Rock for a total now of 80lbs. I also picked up 20 snails and 20 hermit crabs. I have put everything into this tank now and its running well. The updated pics can be seen in the gallery, 75gal page.

May 26, 2007 by Adam

hmm ... I have been slacking in here, guess this tank is taking all my spare time! :P .. I have had a few bumps since I last wrote, also a couple new additions. 2 weeks or so ago, I got a Pacific Sailfin Tang, pics will be up soon, and today I got a small red zoa frag. I had a very close call on the long weekend past. I had shut down my return pump for 2 days as I was not home to top up the tank. I figured that leaving 3 MJ 1200s running while I was away would be good enough. Well I guess I was wrong, when I got home all my fish were dying, gasping for air at the top of the tank, floating sideways and upside down. Also all of thier color had changed, especially any fish that had black on it, the black was gone. I turned my pump back on as soon as I saw this, and within 30 mins I could see them getting better. By next day they were all back to normal and eating again. Apparently there was not enough oxygen in the tank with 3 Maxi Jet 1200 pumps running. Odd that, still cannot figure that one out. Then this week, my overflow gave out. I knew it would happen sooner or later as it was badly bowed. Apparently acrylic takes on water and expands, something I did not know. It busted at the seams. Today I picked up some 1/4" cast acrylic and I will rebuild it, differently this time. Ah well, guess its one way to learn ;).

June 11, 2007 by Adam

Well today the Tang passed on. He got ich I am guessing from all the stress in the tank. He gave it to all the fish which are now removed from the display tank and in a hospital tank undergoing hyposalinity. I really do hope my darwins survive this! I will be doing things different when my tank is able to support fish again (I will be leaving it fishless for approx 6 weeks for all the ich in the tank to die) I will be quarantining all fish before they enter that tank in the future. As I had to pull the tank apart to catch all the fish, it gave me the opportunity to re-aquascape. It looks even better now :) ... I will post pics soon.

July 09, 2007 by Adam

Its going into the 5th week of the clowns being in hypo and they are doing well. I am starting to put the salinity back up this week from 1.007 to 1.026 very gradually. Once its up I will be in the 6th week and they will be ready to go back home. This past weekend, I moved my sump into the basement directly below my tank. I drilled 2 holes through the floor for plumbing. This gives me more room to set up my auto top-off which is a 10 gallon tank placed directly beside my sump. Its all set up, I just have to hook up the float switch, I will do it this week. Also, now I have much better access to clean the sump & skimmer. I will also be placing a QT tank down there as well. I finally got around to getting my RO/DI unit, no more hauling bottles of water around! This will also save lots of money.

July 23, 2007 by Adam

Topoff switch and tank are now in place and running, as is the RO/DI unit. My clowns are all out of QT. I have decided to give the orange percs to my friend and I added 2 more black ones on the 19th of this month. I now have 4 black clowns in my display tank. They are of 2 different species however. The new ones are A.Polymnus. They are black with a yellow face and fins, as they get older they will turn all black.

July 29, 2007 by Adam

Well this past week has been rather interesting, and frustrating at the same time! I decided to get my clowns an anemone, an LTA to be more exact. I picked it up 4 or so days ago and I still have not been able to get it to settle in the tank. Also, it ate one of the new clowns. I got a new clown today so the other would not be lonely, thanks to Pat at Ottawa Inverts who replaced it for me at no charge! The LTA is still sitting very unsettled in the tank and I am keeping a close eye on it over the next few days.

Aug. 07, 2007 by Adam

Well alot of changes once again. The LTA is gone, he died, I am guessing from all the stress. In the last week I have added at BTA (bubble tip anemone), you can see pics in my gallery, its doing very well. I have also added a Marine Betta. He is a beautiful fish, but so shy. I see him once in a while, but for the most part, he is still hiding in the rocks. He is slowly getting used to us though.

Sept.. 14, 2007 by Adam

The BTA is gone. I sold it because it moved around too much and got caught in the powerhead. If I kept it, it would have killed itself eventually. I have given up on anemones for this tank, they are a royal pain in the ass. Otherwise all is well and happy. I have not posted on my blog in a while as I have been rebuilding my entire gallery, go check it out! Its much better now, with a new layout, ability to leave comments, watch slideshows etc etc. The only new life I have added since last time is a horseshoe crab, very interesting creature. I have his pic in my inhabitants gallery page, but the info is soon to come. I have also set up a new tank for my daughter, its her first very own tank. I picked up a stock 8.8g nano tank from Pat and modified it. You can see all the pics of what I have done to it in my gallery. It now houses Cody and Cosmo (the first 2 fish I ever bought) as they were getting beaten up on pretty bad in the 75g. The new clowns I have added to it became very agressive towards them so I put them in the new tank, they are very happy and peaceful now.

Nov. 03, 2007 by Adam

The tanks are well and happy. Oscar (Betta) has overcome his shyness, and after eating 2 of my cleaner shrimp finally started eating what I feed him. Now he takes food right out of my hand. I am going to be replacing my 30 gallon sump with a 38gallon. The new sump will not have a refugium as they are more trouble then they are worth. The extra hight on the new sump as well as the different baffle layout will allow me to do larger water changes from the sump. I will also beable to better fit my heaters and skimmer as there will be more room.

Dec. 16, 2007 by Adam

A couple more changes since last month ... First, the new addition, a foxface rabbitfish. You can see him in the gallery hanging out with Oscar. They have bonded rather well. The other change ... I finally dumped that Tunze skimmer that never worked and got something that does. I have added a Coralife Venturi 220 skimmer powered by a Quiet One 3000 pump.

Mar. 01, 2008 by Adam

Wow .. it seems I have gotten lazy at updating my blog. Well not a whole lot to tell up till now. I have been battling a nasty cyano possibly mixed with some brown algea for about 2 months now. I have been doing large water changes (last 2 approx. 35 - 40%) and will be doing regular ones more often. Today I changed out all my T5s for new ones as they were over a year old and apparently the spectrum shifts and can cause problems like this at about 14 months. I also changed my actinics to 420s as they have a nicer color and added a Hydor Koralia 3 for more flow on the sandbed. I will be tearing down the 8.8 nano and selling it as I got a great deal on a 24g Aquapod today that I will replace it with. This will be my next new tank build and I will have a gallery for it in the main gallery also.