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New BioCube 14 Reef...stalled?


ConnorKessler

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ConnorKessler

Hey all!

 

It's been a solid 6 months or so since I last posted here when I started my first nano reef in my 14 gallon biocube.

 

Things took off pretty smoothly. I had a successful cycle and my clean up crew seems to be doing well, minus the death of a single astrea snail. I have a coral banded shrimp as well and he is doing great and has grown quite a bit. He lost a claw in his last molt though, I hear this is common and it will eventually come back so I'm not worried. He is still doing well regardless.

 

The reason I am posting this new thread is to seek some advice on why my tank progress seems to have...well, completely stalled.

 

It's been 7 months since setting up the tank and I have yet to add any fish and have only added a few corals since things didn't seem quite right. Let me explain...

 

1) Coraline algae is basically non-existent. 7 months after the introduction of healthy live rock (and a few pieces of Petco aragocrete live rock that I got for free (yes free, so I figured why not)) there's still barely any noticeable trace of coraline algae. What is there is very small and very scattered. I cannot for the life of my figure out why this is. All my water parameters are good and I even started doing small doses of Instant Ocean Reef Accelerator, which helps out the corals as well as promotes coraline algae growth. Still, nothing.

 

2) Other forms of algae have been sparse nearly the entirety of the 7 months, which I guess is good. However, these last few weeks brown hair algae has exploded. My snails have 2 inch growths waving off their shells. I keep up with water changes and my RO/DI system is good. I don't have fish yet so I don't know where the nutrients are coming from. I figure it might be light, but that leads to the next thing.

 

3) The tank is constantly battling high temps. My room is the hottest place in the house and a mega expensive chiller is out of the question. As a desperate attempt to let off heat, I have decided to go hoodless and purchased a Kessil a150w SkyBlue LED fixture to light the tank. So far things have been significantly better, just need to be even more diligent with top offs.

 

4) Coral growth has been severely stunted. I have had 1x Kenya tree, some GSP, a mushroom frag, a small frag of xenia, as well as a 4 headed frag of candy apple zoas. The GSP and the Kenya Tree have been doing very, very well. Sadly, the Kenya Tree and the Xenia got wiped out 100% by a problem with renewed purigen. My guess is my Prime bath didn't successfully neutralize the bleach. I immediately pulled the purigen, did water changes, etc but it wasnt enough to save the two corals. Everything else took a noticeable hit but has bounced back. However, in 7 months the zoas have grown only 1 new head and the mushroom is now only 3 mushrooms and they are very small. I had upgraded LED lighting from ecoxotic, but I guess it wasn't enough? I'm hoping the Kessil does much better work.

 

So as you can see, my tank has remained basically stagnant and I've been too anxious to progress with fish. If anyone has advice for me on how to kick start getting a good reef going it would be greatly appreciated. It's a bit disheartening to see some beginners with 4 month reefs that look marvelous while mine is 7 months and I'm still pretty much looking at a pile of rock with some algae and minimal coal growth.

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ConnorKessler

Picture?

Can't get a picture up right now, sorry. Phone cam is bugged to hell so I'm getting it replaced soon. I don't own any other way to take a picture. Trust me when I say there really isn't anything worth looking at :(

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ConnorKessler

Do you have a test kit? What does your light schedule look like?

I have a saltwater test kit and just used up my reef test kit a couple days ago. I'm ordering more in the mail.

 

Ammonia: 0

 

Nitrate: 0

 

Nitrite: 0

 

pH: ~8.2

 

Alk: ~7

 

Mag: ~1250

 

Salinity: 1.024

 

 

I run my lights fiull from 10am-9pm. I do not have a timer yet so I do so manually. Sometimes it's a little more or a little less depending on when I wake up or go to bed, but never more than 10 hours of full lighting.

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12_egg_Omelette

I don't see algae as bad, it's something like 80% of the biomass in the ocean/reefs. From the sounds of it I think you're keeping your water to clean, your system sounds like it's better suited for SPS then LPS and zoas, which typically like dirtier water. This is one of the difficulties that comes form running a mixed reef.

 

Do you feed your corals, how often and how much? I target feed my LPS cyclopeeze, hit my SPS with oyster feast, and broadcast aqua vitro fuel. So my feeding schedule looks like this.

 

1. Cyclopeeze

2. Fuel

3. Oyster Feast

4. Fuel

5. blend of food from a local reefer.

6. Fuel

7. Add more pods

 

This sounds like a lot, but it's really not because I don't feed heavy, I feed frequently I also don't skim and rely on water changes about 3 Liters every other day to keep things pretty good. I change my filter floss every day have some chaeto and also run 2 small packages of chemi pure blue.

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ConnorKessler

I suppose you are probably right. I love softies and the frogspawns and such of the other varieties. What do you recommend I change in order to make what I have thrive? I'm guessing your feeding schedule is what you suggest.

 

I currently do not feed my corals anything other than a scheduled dose of reef accelerator. I've been too paranoid about polluting the water when there's so few corals and they're all so tiny. Maybe I'm crazy. I guess I just didn't want to go over kill.

 

But yeah, keep in mind I plan on having mostly softies and the occasional LPS.

 

Thanks for your input, by the way!

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12_egg_Omelette

No problem, a lot of people looking for vibrant color in their SPS use the zeovit product line to keep an ultra low nutrient system. But they still feed. I would get some food, if you really don't want to feed to many different foods I would look at Rod's food for coral. I've attached a link at the end. But if you have critters like hermits or porcelin crabs, I highly suggest something in addition to rods food. I think you'll be fine. My first suggest would be to start adding food into your tank, if that isn't enough look at removing some of that chemical filtration and maybe go to a nano bag of chemipure if you really want something in there.

 

http://www.rodsfood.com/coral.html

 

Think of it like bodybuilding, to get big you need to eat big. Same goes with corals.

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ConnorKessler

No problem, a lot of people looking for vibrant color in their SPS use the zeovit product line to keep an ultra low nutrient system. But they still feed. I would get some food, if you really don't want to feed to many different foods I would look at Rod's food for coral. I've attached a link at the end. But if you have critters like hermits or porcelin crabs, I highly suggest something in addition to rods food. I think you'll be fine. My first suggest would be to start adding food into your tank, if that isn't enough look at removing some of that chemical filtration and maybe go to a nano bag of chemipure if you really want something in there.

 

http://www.rodsfood.com/coral.html

 

Think of it like bodybuilding, to get big you need to eat big. Same goes with corals.

Thank you! That makes a lot off sense. I'm not sure why my mind never put those thoughts together. I took a look at your link. It says not to use if you have fish. If I plan on using fish in the future, what do I do then?

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1) Coraline algae is basically non-existent. 7 months after the introduction of healthy live rock (and a few pieces of Petco aragocrete live rock that I got for free (yes free, so I figured why not)) there's still barely any noticeable trace of coraline algae. What is there is very small and very scattered. I cannot for the life of my figure out why this is. All my water parameters are good and I even started doing small doses of Instant Ocean Reef Accelerator, which helps out the corals as well as promotes coraline algae growth. Still, nothing.

Did you start with some live rock that has coraline on it? You can scrape some off and just let it free float around the tank and it will help seed the rest.

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ConnorKessler

Sorry for being MIA, it's been a busy week.

 

Yes, a couple pieces came with coraline on them in a few patches. The patches grew ever so slightly and then stopped and turned white-ish for quite a while. The Reef Accelerator has been helping to restore color, however spread is very minimal. I will try scraping as you suggested and see how it goes.

 

As for other updates things are getting a bit better.

 

I did 2 large water changes within the last 2 weeks and the algae seems to have gone down significantly. I also manually pulled off a lot of algae with my hands, but even so, things seem a bit clearer. I just can't figure out why the algae came so full-force so quickly when everything is as it should be. I'm just glad it is getting better.

 

The corals seem to be doing better under the Kessil as well. The GSP seems more comfortable coming out and looks fuller when it does. The zoas (which still have not produced any new heads) at least seem nice and open and healthy. The 1 and only new head it produced in the last 3 months is growing which is nice to see. My mushrooms are looking healthier as well. I now have 3 muchrooms, all of which seem to be growing in size and trying to split further. Coloration is a tad weird since 1 seems very dark red while the original 2 seem light purple. To be honest I'm not sure what kind of mushrooms they are. They don't look like most mushrooms I have seen before. I will post a picture now that I have my new phone. I have to find a way to keep the file size down, though.

 

I'm actually so happy with the stability of the tank, if not minor progress, I am thinking of going to my LFS on monday and adding my first fish along with a few more corals to replace the ones that died in the accident I mentioned in the OP. There I can pick up the needed supplements and food for the fish as well as the corals.

 

Again, I will try and get a picture up ASAP with the lack of algae and the new Kessil 10k Sky Blue. (The gooseneck mounting bracket never came in the packaging so while I wait for my replacement in the mail it is currently hanging)

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ConnorKessler

Here's the pictures I promised I would post.

 

It's nothing super marvelous like many of the reefs on here, but after all the crap I had to deal with to get it to this point I am happy that things are looking better.

 

Like I said, I plan on adding my first fish on Monday along with a few more corals.

 

Any suggestions on what my first fish should be? (I want a clown, but that will be my second and possibly last fish at another time)

 

I am replacing the Xenia and the Kenya Tree. Are there any other corals that you think would be easy for a beginner and do well under a Kessil a150w Sky Blue LED?

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Your tank is young. Mine seemed to stall at one point then the algae just went crazy but oddly enough about that same time the corals really started to grow too.

Have you added your CUC yet? For your first fish go with something that is not mean. Cause if you put something like a clown fish in for the first fish anything you add later could be bullied.

I like my gobies. I have a yellow line goby and just added a Crown Jester Goby for my algae problem. When my tank settles more (only 10 months old) I hope to add something blue like a Yellow tail Damsel.

Good luck with your set up.

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ConnorKessler

Your tank is young. Mine seemed to stall at one point then the algae just went crazy but oddly enough about that same time the corals really started to grow too.

Have you added your CUC yet? For your first fish go with something that is not mean. Cause if you put something like a clown fish in for the first fish anything you add later could be bullied.

I like my gobies. I have a yellow line goby and just added a Crown Jester Goby for my algae problem. When my tank settles more (only 10 months old) I hope to add something blue like a Yellow tail Damsel.

Good luck with your set up.

 

Yes, I added my CUC after about a month. I added 4 astrea snails, and some red and blue legged hermits. I also added 3 bumblebee snails later on. I lost 1 atrea snail and 1 bumblebee over the last few months. Not sure why, but the rest seem to be doing well. In fact, one of the hermits took the empty astrea shell as a new home. It was really cool to watch! I don't think my CUC is up to the task with its current size though. Atrea snails are cheap and effective so I may invest in about 4 or 5 more.

 

I agree about the fish. That's why I said I would add the clown later on so it wouldn't bully new fish. I was looking at Gobies as well. Especially the purple firefish or the regular firefish. The yellow tail damsel is super appealing as well. I love the colors and they are quite affordable at my LFS.

 

Would it be too much to have a firefish, YTD, and a small oscellaris clown? I wouldn't dare add more than 3 fish. I'm just trying to find the best way to economically build the tank to the best situation possible.

Also, does anyone know what type of mushrooms those are? Sorry for the poor quality photos. I had to lower the quality to make the file size appropriate for posting.

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Some say you can have four fish but I plan to stick with three. With all my rock it just seems to small for 4.

Sorry no clue what the mushroom is called. I don't even know mine. I have some that are hairy/bumpy and some that are not. I have some that look like the same color but when I ordered them they had different names. lol I just like them.

I may need to trim my finger leather soon. And one of my mushrooms that has a green rim is getting huge not sure how I am going to deal with that my other corals need room too. lol May also trim on my clove polyps they are getting all over the place.

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ConnorKessler

Some say you can have four fish but I plan to stick with three. With all my rock it just seems to small for 4.

Sorry no clue what the mushroom is called. I don't even know mine. I have some that are hairy/bumpy and some that are not. I have some that look like the same color but when I ordered them they had different names. lol I just like them.

I may need to trim my finger leather soon. And one of my mushrooms that has a green rim is getting huge not sure how I am going to deal with that my other corals need room too. lol May also trim on my clove polyps they are getting all over the place.

Sounds like your system is really healthy! Good on you!

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ConnorKessler

Not really. I have GHA everywhere. lol I have link to my tank thread in sig.

Just checked it out. Besides the rampant GHA, your corals seem to be looking good! At least compared to the size of mine, haha.

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I ddon't don't read back through the whole thread but are you dosing anything besides the Accelerator? Weekly water changes? What salt? My calcium was on the low side using only instant ocean during water changes. You don't have a high demand for the calcium right now but if I remember coreecrly IO is around 350 when mixed so you'd need to add something to get it up above 400. My tank is 3 months old and I am having coralline pop up pretty regular now.

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ConnorKessler

I ddon't don't read back through the whole thread but are you dosing anything besides the Accelerator? Weekly water changes? What salt? My calcium was on the low side using only instant ocean during water changes. You don't have a high demand for the calcium right now but if I remember corectly IO is around 350 when mixed so you'd need to add something to get it up above 400. My tank is 3 months old and I am having coralline pop up pretty regular now.

 

I am not currently dosing anything other than the accelerator. I do about a 10-15% water change every weekend. The salt I currently have is Omega Sea Premium Reef Salt. I also need to go out and purchase a new reef test kit since mine has pretty much ran out of testers.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Did I read correctly that you have 150 watts of LEDs on a 14 gallon tank (or do you mean the LED equivalent of 150 watts?)

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Did I read correctly that you have 150 watts of LEDs on a 14 gallon tank (or do you mean the LED equivalent of 150 watts?)

Equivalent. Approximately 30 watts of LEDs

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