New additions, will birdsnest color up?? - UNS 30C 7G cube journal

[pikachux3]

Starting up a 7 gcube. Glued some rocks yesterday and this is where I'm currently at.

• AC70 refugium mod
• Float switch ATO relay (should have covered the magnet with black acrylic too 😂)
• Aqualift for rodi top off
• UNS 7g cube
• ABI 12watt tuna blue par38 bulb

After cycling and stuff. I'd like to stock some easy corals. Some on my mind are

• GSP
• Zoas
• Mushrooms

Does anyone have any recommendations? I don't really like xenia or kenya.

Also any tips on coral placements?

Some more pics

 

[pikachux3]

Day 1 - Water is in

 

[EyeReef]

Man it’s hard aquascaping a tank with this dimension but I gotta say, you did such a good job. I see that your background is in planted tanks so I can see where your skills came from!

 

[pikachux3]

Man it’s hard aquascaping a tank with this dimension but I gotta say, you did such a good job. I see that your background is in planted tanks so I can see where your skills came from!

Thanks, I appreciate it 😀. Definitely got some inspiration from googling cube reefs and tried to emulate something I saw hah.

 

[pikachux3]

ATO appears to be working

 

[Ohiostreetz]

Literally thought this was a planted tank build until i read the stock list and was like damn. Good job on the aquascape

 

[pikachux3]

ABI 12w tuna blue par38 bulb came in today. Sort of popular on the nano-reef forums so wanted to try out this $25 light. Can't wait to see stuff under it. It's pretty blue.. like the name suggests hah.

Comparison to a random eBay par30 bulb I got 4-5 years ago

 

[djrice69]

Woah that rock is neat

 

[pikachux3]

Day 10 - Seeing diatoms on rocks and a little bit on sand. Took some shots on my camera and tried a little bit of lightroom editing. Also seeing some small pink dimples on a piece of rock. Possible coralline algae growth (seeded my hob filter with some pink rubble rock from LFS)? Could've also been there before and didn't notice it. The rock originally had some pink speckles but was out of the water for a couple days.

 

[pikachux3]

looking for some GSP for the front left rock if anyone in OC is cutting back theirs 👀👀

 

[pikachux3]

Day 13

Added a sexy shrimp which accidentally got sucked into the HOB filter... and survived somehow. Added some more filter padding in the overflow box to prevent this. Added some zoas, GSP, and a galaxea

Super gluing the GSP pieces on the rock

A couple zoas started opening up before lights out

 

[pikachux3]

Day 14

😍 GSP is alive and well

 

[pikachux3]

Day 15

Found a seller on Craigslist for frog spawn and only asked for 1 head but he gave me another one for free. Made my day.

Sexy shrimp chilling under frog spawn.. or thinking it's a snack? Stay tuned.

Made a branch with some super glue and trying to see if the lepto will encrust over it.

Shout-out to @Drodz85 for supplying me with free chaeto and @ddelmonaco for zoa and free GSP! I have a steady pod population 😎

On another note, I have no idea what I'm gonna do for the right rock structure. Wanted to do a zoa garden on both bases, but afraid of it being too permanent or one zoa overtakes the rock and grows too much

 

[pikachux3]

day 23 update

seeing new growth on branching gsp and GSP. Definitely weeds but my favorite part of the tank atm

Tank mostly has green stuff right now, would love my reef to be super colorful but it's hard to pick corals.

Excited for the frog spawn in the back to grow to fill up the backspace.

Anyone have any coral suggestions to color up my nano reef?? 😬
Blue -
Red -
Pink -
Yellow -
Orange -

 

[big_rich]

I like the aquascape be careful with the placement of the gsp it will start to take over your aquascape.

 

[BST310]

Pink Nepthea would be a great addition, there’s a member selling some now who I bought from in the past super healthy.

Mushrooms! To get away from the greens and get some of the colors you’re looking for but, keep all the ease of your system. Reef Lounge USA has a pretty good selection priced well as well as Harry’s Marine Life.

 

[pikachux3]

I like the aquascape be careful with the placement of the gsp it will start to take over your aquascape.

Thank you! The GSP is on it's on rock right now so it's isolated from the rock pillars.

Pink Nepthea would be a great addition, there’s a member selling some now who I bought from in the past super healthy.

Mushrooms! To get away from the greens and get some of the colors you’re looking for but, keep all the ease of your system. Reef Lounge USA has a pretty good selection priced well as well as Harry’s Marine Life.

Was it weelo111? I'm not super crazy about kenya trees but this looks interesting variant. I'll give it shot.

A variety of mushrooms would be great. I guess I'm afraid of commitment if the mushroom does really well on the main rocks. I can put a bunch spread out around the sand

 

[BST310]

Thank you! The GSP is on it's on rock right now so it's isolated from the rock pillars.



Was it weelo111? I'm not super crazy about kenya trees but this looks interesting variant. I'll give it shot.

A variety of mushrooms would be great. I guess I'm afraid of commitment if the mushroom does really well on the main rocks. I can put a bunch spread out around the sand

Yes it was @weelo111 super healthy frags! The pink nep is a stunner too.

 

[pikachux3]

So I think 2 polyps on the right got partially bleached by a hot spot from my light. Raised the light up and polyps were white in the center for week+.

Then started added brightwell amino acid, and the colors came back within a day. Pretty neat.

Also there's something living in the center the frag plug. It's very tiny but it might be an aiptasia or praying it's an fan worm.

 

[pikachux3]

DAY 33 UPDATES

Dropped by Harry's marine life (shout out to @BST310 ). They had an awesome selection of $12 frags. Picked up 3 mushrooms and a clown. 1 of frags was free for new customers.

Was debating whether to get a clown or not since my tank is pretty small.

Saw Igreens fish guide on nano-reef and decided to go for it. When it gets bigger I'll probably have a bigger tank by then or give it away.

the clown was a bit tattered by other fish nipping it but it was the most vibrant one I saw. Started taking a bit of flake on day 1 and ate like a pig the next day.

also got an aiptasia in the middle of my zoa colony.. what should I do? Was thinking I have to frag the whole thing to get rid of it which sucks.

does someone have nudiabranches in OC that would house my zoa frag and kill the aiptasia? That would be cool. Maybe this is why my rastas aren't fully extending their skirts??

Lmk what you think