HOB 40 Breeder***Update 5/6.... New Growth Pics!

[Roshan8768]

Hey guys, I've never really posted much before, but this site has been a tremendous source for help and research when I was setting up my tank. I set this tank up in the Summer of 2011, but I have been having trouble with it for a good part of that time. The tank is setup at my parent's house, and I am currently a junior in college. For a variety of reasons I decided to go with a sump-less setup.

Here are the specs:

Equipment:
Aquaclear 110 HOB w/ PicO Surface Skimmer - Fuge w/ Chaeto lit by 18 watt T8 bulb reverse photoperiod Fuge offline 11/14
1 x Koralia 1 offline 4/16

2 x Koralia evolution 850gph off line 4/16

Vortech MP40
Eshopps 100H HOB skimmer

Lighting:

Maxspect Razor 160 watt
w b
7:30 0 0
9:30 0 40

11:30 40 50
6:30 40 50
7:00 0 40
9:30 0 0

Stock list:

Fish:

1 x Tomini Tang
1 x Yellow Tail Damsel

1 x Leopard Wrasse
1 x Royal Gramma

1 x Maroon Clown

Inverts:

1 x Skunk Cleaner Shrimp 3/16

1 x RBTA 3/16

Softies:

Metallic Green Palys
Green Star Polyps
Pulsing Xenia
Kenya Tree
Devils Hand Leather
Anthelia

Palythoa Grandis

 

LPS:

Hammer

Duncan

Maroon and Green Favia

 

 

SPS:

Green Pocillopora

I have a few pictures from when the tanks was setup, and a few from the last year or so. As you can see, I have had algae troubles throughout the course of having this tank setup. Also, most of the corals I have tried have struggled other than a few Mushrooms and GSP.

Here is the start up pic:



About 2 months in:



Played around with the scape a little:



Couple of months ago before the new lights and hungry butterfly destroyed my corals:



On the road to recovery:

http://s1303.photobucket.com/user/Roshan8768/media/temporary_zps7ee88ac8.jpg.html]

December 2014:

 

January 2015

 

 

March 2015

 

Do you guys have any ideas as to what may be the cause of my algae issues? My tests consistently register 0s across the board, which leads me to think it must be a phosphates and organics issue. I did not start out using RO, but have been doing 25% water changes every 2 weeks using RO/DI water for the past 5 months. Please help me out here, I was really hoping to have a nice looking tank at this stage. (Edit-Algae finally gone 10/25/13)

[Roshan8768]

Alright guys so I'm hoping to make this tank look noticeably better by the end of SPRING BREAK!!! Right now I'm thinking do a 4 gallon water change everyday of the week. I also need to stir up the sand bed and blow all the crap out of my rocks. Let me know if you have any ideas to help out with making my algae kick the bucket

[scribbles]

its not really loking that bad, good cleaning and a large 100% waterchange done ove a week should go a long way

[Roshan8768]

Yeah, I've already pulled a lot of algae out, which is why it looks better. I'm trying to get to the source of the problem though, I mean I shouldn't be pulling algae out of my tank every week off of the rock work and sand

[Walker]

Your set-up is pretty close to what I have (35g 36x12.5x18 all HOB), and I know it's possible to have good success as I have a mixed reef with SPS with the same lighting as you (look for Walker's mixed tank in the members' aquariums section).

 

First thing is it may not be a good idea to stir up all of the sandbed especially if you don't have good sand-stirrer CUC - you might just nuke the tank. Nothing good ever happens fast in reefs, so you should be careful of doing a whole bunch of changes over spring break. Honestly your tank doesn't look that bad. What brand tests do you use? What are you testing?

Also, what's your CUC?

[Walker]

A couple of things that I do and think might help:

 

1. Try running a mechanical filter like a sponge or polyfilter. You have to be religious about cleaning it out once a week though. It'll allow you to catch and export a whole lot of large food particles before it breaks down into nitrates. Definitely have this when you blast your rocks and clean it out a few hours later.

 

2. Try using purigen. My hypothesis is that the amount of macro in an AC110 (or AC70, as in mine) is insufficient for nutrient export so I resort to chemical means.

[Roshan8768]

Whats up Walker! Thanks for the heads up.

 

First off, you got a nice set of corals in your tank and the clam is awesome . Once I get my parameters figured out, I'm definitely looking into getting some SPS

 

I've been stirring up the sand bed once a week on every week that I am in town. I also had a Diamond Goby that sifted the sand pretty well for the past year or so, until he decided to jump about 2 weeks ago. I'm thinking it shouldn't be too big of a deal if I continue to stir it as long as I do so with regularity.

 

I test using the Salifert brand tests. I check ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, pH, calcium, and alkalinity... all of which consistently read in the appropriate ranges. I have tested for phosphates in the past using a friend's kit, and got a reading close to 0 (presumably because the algae was using all of what was in the water to fuel its explosive growth ) I'm thinking that most of my issues are stemming from not starting with RODI. Hopefully, I can start nipping more of this nuisance algae at the root of the problem instead of after it pops up.

 

I'll try running Purigen, and I'm definitely throwing some polyfilter in the AC110 this week.

[Roshan8768]

Alright... so I just did my first water change of the week, took a couple of pictures of some of the corals afterwards.

 

Xenia:

 

 

Leather:

 

 

Not really sure what this one is, hitchhiked in on a zoa frag (the zoas all melted away), and it has grown a little bit since, maybe about the size of a dime now. Any IDs?

 

 

Here it is next to the Xenia for size perspective:

 

[Roshan8768]

No guesses? Surely someone can at least point me in the right direction, I'm thinking that its some kind of LPS?

[Walker]

Looking at how the tentacles look I don't think it's a coral - maybe an anemone? Doesn't quite look like a majano though. Does it have a stalk or some sort of skeleton?

[Roshan8768]

I'm fairly certain that it has a plate like skeleton underneath the "disk" portion. No real stalk to speak of, although its hard to tell because of how small it is and where its located on the rock.

[Roshan8768]

Bump... if I don't get more traffic through here I guess I can start a thread in the ID subforum

[Chadf]

Looks like a mini frogspawn or torch to me.

[Roshan8768]

Maybe... but I've had it for a year now, I think if it where either if those two things it would have grown more. Also, it should probably look more like the norm by now.

Anyways, new pics with just Actinics... need to find some ATI bulbs to replace the ones I have right now, starting to fade out a little bit.



And a video, if I can get it to embed correctly:

http://i1303.photobucket.com/albums/ag151/Roshan8768/VIDEO0016_zps28f77184.mp4'>

[Chrissy]

It looks like a baby plate coral. Here's a picture of one that I had...

 

http://www.nano-reef.com/gallery/image/28486-mama-and-baby/'>

[Roshan8768]

Hey that's probably the closest picture I've seen that matches up with what I have! The tentacles have white tips on mine, but the whole thing is just way to small to tell right now. Guess I'll have to wait and see

[Roshan8768]

Grabbed some chromis at the store today, will post pictures tomorrow...

[HVani]

Yup I would say baby plate. I use to have one that looked just like that

[Roshan8768]

Unfortunately, the Chromis have been dropping like flies. Down to 3 from the original 8

[jlbzixxer]

any idea why your chromis are dying?

[Roshan8768]

Not particularly, they looked good at the store and they were all pretty solid for the first 72 hours. They all ate well, no real aggression to speak of... they were fairly small though, the largest was maybe an inch.

[jlbzixxer]

have you check your parameters

just to make sure there are no spikes becuase of the added bio load

[Roshan8768]

Yeah I have, still have zeros across the board. I can usually tell if my parameters are off because my LTA acts up... I have no idea could be anything really

[jlbzixxer]

yea could be a billion different things

hope the rest make it

[Electrobes]

Chromis have a bad habit of doing that when purchased in groups. You hear all sorts of things as to why, but you aren't alone.. often it's them picking each other off. In a 40Br, that's still a lot of fish (IMO, of course). Considering you're dealing with an algae problem, adding that my bio to a tank would only add to the filtration stress to your tank.

 

You said you didn't start out with RODI? What did you start with.. what TDS reading did that water have? Maybe your rocks took in a lot of whatever that initial water was, and is now re-expressing it in the form of algae.

 

Depending on how shallow your sand bed is, I usually don't recommend stirring it, unless you've been doing it since day one. You may knock loose things that you shouldn't.. though I am guessing with your diamond goby, it didn't matter. That's another fish I don't really recommend in a tank like ours.

 

As for the algae issue (Going back to it I should say) it's something you'll have to deal with slowly. At this rate, let the algae continue to grow and you continue to pull it out (Exporting it out of the tank). What you need to control are algae causing agents going into the tank, prolonging the algae problem. Foods, especially to feed eight chromis, definitely doesn't help.

 

If you're doing that many water changes, are you making sure it's completely ready for the tank? Are you heating it to the right temp, and letting it mix over night? A lot of stress to the tank can be reduce if you follow simple steps like that to help it out.

 

That's all I got right now.

 

PS - I also think you have a baby torch or frogspawn, I have lots of them in my tank after the darn coral spawned on me over a year ago.. and they are all over the map in terms of location and size.