LOT's 29 gallon Biocube HQI mixed reef

[little_ocean_treasures]

My current FTS (front tank shot) as of 4-6-12

 

Hello and welcome to my BC29 HQI metal halide mixed reef page. I've had it up and running now since last June and I thought I should start a page for this tank seeings how it's actually turning out to be a pretty nice tank...after much tweaking and messing with it. ;P I also have a 14 gallon softies tank that has been up and running since last January but progress has been so slow in that tank I haven't had much to update on my page on that one.

 

Anyways, back to this tank.

 

Equipment:

 

29 gallon Biocube HQI

25 pounds live rock and 2" sandbed

2 Aqua-Mags rock mags (regular and jr.)

currently no skimmer (but AquaMaxx is on back order)

MP10es

425 Hydor Koralia Nano

BRS GFO reactor (currently only running 4 tsps GFO)

InTank media basket with filter floss on top and bag of BRS 0.8 ROX carbon in middle

150w Phoenix 14k HQI bulb (on from 12:30pm to 7pm)

403nm ultraviolet Stunner (moonlight when HQI is not on)

8,000K/453nm blue Stunner (sunrise, daylight, and sunset...on from 9:00am to 9:00 pm)

 

Maintenance:

10%+ water changes weekly as well as clean filter floss in old water (Tuesdays)

feed fish rinsed mysis and shrimp brine every other day with a little flake food in between (no skimmer so light feedings)

change filter floss and rinse out filter media weekly (Saturdays)

turkey baste rocks and sand twice weekly (Tuesadys and Saturdays)

change carbon every two weeks

change GFO every month

clean glass as needed...lately with the GFO only about twice a week is needed

 

Fish:

Black Ocellaris Clown

Royal Gramma

Green Chromis

 

Hard Corals:

sps-

Green Slimer

Blue Tip Acro Stag

Blue Tort (currently has STN but I'm remedying it at the moment)

Orange Montipora Cap

 

lps-

Duncan

mint green candy canes

Hot lava chalice

Blasto Wellsi (red and green)

Blasto Merletti

Aussie War Coral

Grape Watermelon Chalice

green Wellsophyllia

metallic green and orange Aussie plate corals

Meteor Shower Cyphastrea

pink Goniopora

 

softies:

Radioactive Dragon Eye Zoas

Valentine's Day Palys

GSP

assorted Zoas

orange Clove polyps

 

Inverts:

blue Crocea clam

Emerald crab (in the back chamber currently for "tasting" my corals)

assorted snails

many many tiny brittle stars

 

7-1-11 (a few weeks after setup)

 

11-10-2011 (not much happening yet)

 

1-22-2012 (moved some things around...progress still slow)

 

2-6-2012 (new rock mag...and algae growth. :{ lol)

 

2-23-2012 (new corals...war coral, orange cap, blue tip Acro, and Blasto Merletti)

 

2-23-2012 (side shot)

 

2-23-2012 (other side shot plus my 14 gallon Biocube in background)

 

2-23-2012 (side shot with my BC 14 in background again...cool pic)

 

3-5-2012 (front tank shot)

 

4-6-2012 (current fts)

 

4-6-2012 (current side shot)



 

4-6-2012 (current side shot...other side w/my BC14 in background again)

 

BTW, yes I'm battling some turf like hair algae but now with less feedings than I was doing, running the GFO, as well as an hour less with the metal halides on it has finally stopped spreading and looks to be receding...FINALLY!! lol That's another reason the skimmer is on the way. I had the Hydor Slim but it didn't work well in my tank AT ALL. So now I'm currently (and have been for months) skimmerless but not for too much longer.

 

And I also am dealing with a very skinny (in my opinion) Green Chromis. He eats like a pig but doesn't ever put on weight which is weird. I have to corner feed him now so the other big mouths don't take food from him cause he's the slowest eater I tell you. I think he has finally started putting on weight but it's slow...and it's time consuming.

 

And other than my Tort having STN most things are doing very well in there thankfully. I've even started dosing ALK a little as well as testing to make sure things are balancing out in there. My Mag and Cal are high due to the water changes but my KH and PH are always a little low so last week I started dosing slowly.

 

And that's my 29 gallon mixed reef!

[HVani]

I love the floating rocks!

 

Beautiful tank.

[little_ocean_treasures]

Thanks! I really like how they look too and when I set up my 125 I want to get a few for in there as well.

[little_ocean_treasures]

Such cool pics...had to share!! These guys a the new kids on the block as of March 24th.

 

 

[little_ocean_treasures]

This tank became overrun by a BAD case of algae and is now under experiment. Which is sad because it was going so nicely before things went sour.

 

Once I got my new 40 breeder running, I took out both fish and corals of the algae filled 29 gallon tank and put them in the new but left this old one up and running as an experiment. I want to see if I can still get rid of the algae by finding it's food source. I know for a fact that it was not the two small fish and a handful of corals that were in there causing the problem so removing them wasn't a big deal in messing up the experiment. And it wasn't the lights, water, overfeeding, overstock (two small fish), or anything like that. I went through and changed everything before giving up.

 

But I did hear that Rock-Mags made by Aqua-Mags has caused algae problems but found no real hard confirmation by anyone on the internet. So I never thought to blame those two man-made rocks in my tank even though the larger one was falling apart pretty bad. It wasn't until speaking to a few of my local club members who had the exact same Rock-Mags and they had problems (with algae or corals dying off) that things started making sense for me in my tank. So now I have the sand (which I had NEVER cleaned) and the Aqua-Mags rocks removed in the this tank and I'm waiting to see if the algae disappears on it's own. I really like this tank and I still have a few corals in it so I'm hoping to get rid of the algae before totally giving up and tearing it down completely.