First Salt Tank (established, purchased secondhand)

[DontBeKoi]

I would bring the brain coral back to your LFS or donate it to someone who's got a stable tank. It's better to give the colony a chance of survival in another system rather than have it die. Or you could ask your LFS to hold the coral for a couple of weeks until your water stabilises, some stores are nice enough to do it.

 

Thanks, I'll try with one of the two stores I visit. The first one told me to just toss it. :/

[DontBeKoi]

Parameters are better, thinking about trying one new invert tomorrow. Salinity and PH remain high...
Brain coral looks the same, button corals seem to be making new polyps possibly. Grandis corals weren't happy with the change and developed white stress marks, but none died. Clown fish barely eating, going to find a new LFS home for him.

Looking into possibly modding the hood to accept the current led system. Thoughts?

Sal 1.026

PH 8.6ish

Ammonia 0

Nitrite 0

Nitrate 10

Calcium 400

Phos 0.5

[Pinner Reef]

Yep, looks like things are back under control! Congrats!

 

Treat yourself to a nice soft coral or two and maybe bump up the CUC if necessary.

 

Just no more fishes till a solid month has gone by.

 

Good work your patience has payed off well.

[CronicReefer]

Parameters are better, thinking about trying one new invert tomorrow. Salinity and PH remain high...

Brain coral looks the same, button corals seem to be making new polyps possibly. Grandis corals weren't happy with the change and developed white stress marks, but none died. Clown fish barely eating, going to find a new LFS home for him.

 

Looking into possibly modding the hood to accept the current led system. Thoughts?

 

Sal 1.026

PH 8.6ish

Ammonia 0

Nitrite 0

Nitrate 10

Calcium 400

Phos 0.5

 

The only thing I would suggest is to add a phosphate absorption media. You want to be <0.05. Your pH is probably high due to low CO2 levels in your aquarium which is not a bad thing and your salinity at 1.026 is not a problem either. LED lighting is nice for the energy savings and you can create your own personal lighting spectrum to bring out the colors in the coral. Many people are switching back to T5 or T5/LED hybrid systems but I think this is more based on personal preference/beliefs rather than any evidence that shows better growth under T5 vs LED.

[DontBeKoi]

One of the turbos fell over while we were sleeping and closed the hatch. He hasn't come out for two days and smells a little so I put him in the garden. Nice deep maroon coralline is growing though and no fish or corals were lost.

Added a small CUC today and they're hard at work. Just four snails and six hermits. Planning on getting a coral or two this weekend. Reserved a purple and yellow flavia and going to pick out a mushroom or two. Trying hard not to buy the giant neon yellow bubble... skimmer shipping to replace the busted biocube one is Aquatic Life 115 mini skimmer.

I'm looking at ways to mod the hood to add a current LED system. Open to ideas though, but I can't loose the hood (cat).

"Phosphate absorption media" such as...?

[CronicReefer]

You could use GFO based phosphate absorber (Phosban) or an aluminum oxide based absorber (Phosgaurd). If you have high phosphate levels the media will deplete within a week so be prepared to change it out often until your levels are <0.05.

[DontBeKoi]

The second chamber has an old fiber pad the owner cut to size. I haven't removed it yet (there are new ones I could swap out) because I was afraid of the bacteria loss during the move. But it is really dirty. Go ahead and change out? Is that the source of my high phos?

I found this media basket set up. It looks pretty nice to me as I already use Chem Blue. I think I could add phosban to it...

http://shop.mediabaskets.com/Coralife-Biocube-29-Media-Basket-CL29MR.htm?categoryId=-1


PH 8.2 (I was reading it a bit high in the last post)
Nitrite 0

Nitrate 10-20

Ammonia .25
Phos 0.5? 1.0? Very hard to read.

[Pinner Reef]

Yes you will want to swap out the pad. It isn't doing any good at the moment and will soon start to be an issue. Those In-tank baskets have had excellent reviews across the forum however I believe you will still want a filter bag for your phosban.

[CronicReefer]

Your bacteria resides mostly in the sand and live rock so changing the filter pad will have a very minimal effect.

[DontBeKoi]

Hm... I've been putting the frozen shrimp into a small container with some hot tap water to break up the cube, then pouring into a net and rinsing it through with tapwater before sticking it in the tank. Is that going to effect the phosphates just being in the shrimp/net that little bit?

[CronicReefer]

Phosphates come from multiple sources in the aquarium, sometimes even your live rock. Phosphate absorbing media is almost necessary for many aquariums. Rinsing the food will help keep oils that break down into waste from getting into the tank.

[DontBeKoi]

All making sense now. Found this accidentally. Identical to the media that came with the tank, that I used to replace the one that was so grey and nasty. Put in a new one yesterday as you guys suggested. No wonder the Phos was terribad.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PYXQ50M?psc=1

[markalot]

All making sense now. Found this accidentally. Identical to the media that came with the tank, that I used to replace the one that was so grey and nasty. Put in a new one yesterday as you guys suggested. No wonder the Phos was terribad.

 

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PYXQ50M?psc=1

 

Not very cost effective and I'm not sure how well it works, but better than nothing.

[DriftingNemo]

When I first setup my old 15 gallon tank, I only had twin Eheim internal filters. The tank had 40ppm nitrate and 2ppm phosphate. When I upgraded to a canister filter, within a month my Nitrates were undetectable and my phosphate was less than 0.25ppm. Keep in mind I was using treated tap water... I don't know how good the filtration on a BioCube is, but if I was to have a BioCube I would probably use a canister filter as well as the BioCubes built in filtration. I'm not saying that you should do this, but that's what I would probably do if I had a BioCube. A lot of people are against canisters in the saltwater community, but I am yet to find flaws in this kind of filtration myself.

[DontBeKoi]

Not very cost effective and I'm not sure how well it works, but better than nothing.

Well I have pure blue and looking at getting media baskets for the future.

[DontBeKoi]

Still having high salinity, hope that isn't going to effect anything. I picked up a few small frags on sale for black friday, and gave all the fish to the LFS as I can't get the clown to feed and the damselfish is a jerk. Had to remove almost all the liverock just to get him out. Leaving the net in the tank overnight still didn't fool that sucker, he was not having it.

 

So I think some of the new coral has aptasia. Heard of lemon juice treatments, going to look that up more and get rid of them. Parameters are looking good mostly, and I suspect with the fish gone the bioload will mean even less nitrites/nitrates to deal with.

 

I'm currently doing a lot of research on refugiums, as I still would love to have a mandarin. If not one that's connected to the system then a small tank inside the base and a way to move the pods into the main tank.

[markalot]

Let the aptasia be for now. In incorrect application of anything that's supposed to kill them will end up adding more of them. I learned this the hard way with my other tanks. I've left a few alone in my 150 and they have not spread ... yet. I scraped a bunhc of algae in my 29 and hit a few aptasia and I edned up with a hundred of them. Berghia nudibranch (expensive natural treatment) are having a good time.

 

I don't understand the high salinity problem. Take out a few cups of saltwater and replace it with freshwater (distilled or RO/DI).

[DontBeKoi]

I don't understand the high salinity problem. Take out a few cups of saltwater and replace it with freshwater (distilled or RO/DI).

 

I don't either. I've been doing that a little here and there, and it always remains high. *shrug*

 

 

Update on the tank. The splash guard over the lighting housing was clouded and installing lighting into it was impossible without going rimless. Being Oceanic brand, finding a replacement part was also impossible. So today a new Coralife 29 cube with custom LED installed lights (LFS mod) is set up in the same place. The old tank had scratches on the glass anyhow. Thus the mini-cycle begins anew. But the lighting looks great and the corals already responding well.

 

Added some LR pieces into the middle slot to make a refugium. Going to try to breed pods back there when everything calms down.

[Pinner Reef]

Wait, you got a whole new tank?

[DontBeKoi]

Yep.

They couldn't install LEDS in the old one and offered me a deal to get a new one with the custom installation in the hood. Kept the stand and LR from the old one. Doing okay with readings, the mini-cycle hasn't been that bad. Small water changes when nitrates get to 20, reading 0 on nitrites. Still battling phosphates and looking into something other than chemi pure blue.

[DontBeKoi]

Changed the LR design, had one of the big rocks cut into two and added small pieces. Before and after shown below. Got two baby black clownfish that are hard to see.

[Pinner Reef]

Very kewl! Nice new scape as well. Just give her a week to settle in