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Coral Vue Hydros

Thank you and a question


Muddydan

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First thank you all very much, I've recently done a tone of reading and realized j started out doing pretty much everything wrong. I have a stock Biocube 14 my brother in-law set up for my kids for Christams and tbh I wasn't very excited. He cycled it and set it up with live rock, hermits, and snails. Several weeks later we got our ocillaris pair and I was on my own. I added a flameback after listening to my LFS who said it was fine. Next came a red bubble tip which settled in nicely in a crack between my two live rocks at would open but didn't have a ton of room and was constant irritated by the hermits. The flameback didn't last too long as sadly I think I crushed the poor guy with an inadvertent rock shift while adding trumpet coral from my brother in-laws tank. I tried to replace it with a black mouth bicolor damsel after being told it's fine by my LFS employee and had to remove it within a week as it was terrorizing my clowns. To this point I had done zero research and I'm sure it's obvious. My brother in law advised me soft corals if I wanted more color was not a terrible way to go and hammers and frogspawn are relatively easy to care for. Then I started reading and this site has been especially helpful. No new additions since I started reading. When I shifted rocks I rotated the one the anenome was on to let it get more light and its stayed put. The color is starting to come back with more light. I'm feeding it directly now frozen shrimp and the occasional small chopped piece of squid. Not sure what to make of the frozen silvers as some love them some have had bad experiences. The red trumpet coral are beautiful. I'm getting weekly water checks and doing 5 gal water changes weekly. Everything seems much happier now and I'm still undecided on what I want on my wish list. My question is my hammer for the last 2 weeks has stayed tightly compared within the hard structure and will come close to upending up but not quite.

Light- stock fluorescent 7a-8p full intensity with dusk LEDs 30 mins either side and moon LEDs overnight.

pH 8.3

Calcium 415

Alkalinity 8

Magnesium 1110

Nitrates 1

Any ideas on what I'm doing wrong for my tiny hammer?

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Your lighting is very inadequate for a nem most lps corals. Your tank is too young for a nem. Also You are maxed out in terms of bio load with two clowns. Give the hammer time for now but its hard to say with no pictures

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Thanks. There is a lot of indirect ambient lighting due to the tank placement. I've read mixed opinions on metal halides. What would you recommend for lighting? photos pending when I can get to my laptop

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Finally got the photos to work. The BTA is looking better with the darker coloration starting to come back over the last 2 week. The lighting is Coralife 10k 24wtt double bulb in 1 bank with an arctic blue 24w in the other and dual blue LEDs for night.

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Metal Halides are kind of dead in the Reefing world.....well there are old school people who will probably ridule me for saying that but I am just saying...

 

LED or T5 is the way to go. Since it is a biocube there are tons of aftermarket led upgrade you can do. From RapidLED to Dave with Nanobox Retrofit mounts. also if you look at your trumpet coral it wants to be fed. Those are tentacles expanding out and you can actually feed very small chopped up pieces as well. Your BTA is definitely bleached but it is holding its bubble form and if you say color is returning then that is good. Just keep up on water parms for sure.

 

 

These are if you want to keep the hood

 

http://www.rapidled.com/biocube-14-1/

 

http://nanoboxreef.com/shop.html

 

If you ditch the hood then you are open to many options i.e AI prime or hydra, Kessil, Nano Box Mini or Duo, Radion as well


I am not sure on your hammer. It looks like its dying. Good chance it might not recover but you never now. If parms are good then I would say definitly increase lighting other than that it is a wait and see game.

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I've been doing a portion of a cube of mysis shrimp once a week, should I wait for the next time when the trumpets tentacle are out or go ahead and mince a squid fragment and target feed? I'm worried about overfeeding the system, there is a bit of green algea barely kept in check by a half dozen snails (4 of them turbos). As I understand it excess feeding increases nitrogen which cascades down to increased algea growth.

 

Most importantly thank you very much. I appreciate it.

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You can spot feed and turn your pump off when you do. As for feeding I feed probably twice a week. Your tank is still newer so some algae is expected. Let the CUC do their thang. As for equipment in insuring your health of corals and nems I definitely would upgrade lighting soon.

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Honestly, power compacts that come with Biocubes should be fine for most LPS and softies. They're stronger than a lot of people give them credit for. I ran the biocube stock lights in my 29 for 6-8 months before I upgraded to LEDs and had good results with all sorts of LPS and even some SPS that don't require lots of light like monti caps and such.

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Simulated Fish

Honestly, power compacts that come with Biocubes should be fine for most LPS and softies. They're stronger than a lot of people give them credit for. I ran the biocube stock lights in my 29 for 6-8 months before I upgraded to LEDs and had good results with all sorts of LPS and even some SPS that don't require lots of light like monti caps and such.

 

I'd like to second this. My frogspawn exploded with growth in my biocube 8g under stock bulbs that were in a box for over five years(OME sealed box)

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So it isn't a bad thing to upgrade the lights but may not be as immediate a need as I thought. Biggest thing right now is patience and see if tank maturity, water stability, regular water changes, and regular feeds works?

 

Lastly this is probably common sense but we have a well and filtration/water softening system due to the high load of tannens and iron in our well water. Because of this I've only been adding/exchanging water we get from the LFS. I'm pretty sure using this water to mix my own is a pretty terrible idea, correct?

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using your water from your house? If you get an RODI filter, yes, you can use your water. If not, I wouldn't. you can use steam distilled that you can get at a grocery store (I used that until I got my RODI system and mixed my own salt water).


and yes, for sure - LPS definitely need food to thrive in my experience.

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Metal Halides are kind of dead in the Reefing world.....well there are old school people who will probably ridule me for saying that but I am just saying...

 

LED or T5 is the way to go. Since it is a biocube there are tons of aftermarket led upgrade you can do. From RapidLED to Dave with Nanobox Retrofit mounts. also if you look at your trumpet coral it wants to be fed. Those are tentacles expanding out and you can actually feed very small chopped up pieces as well. Your BTA is definitely bleached but it is holding its bubble form and if you say color is returning then that is good. Just keep up on water parms for sure.

 

 

These are if you want to keep the hood

 

http://www.rapidled.com/biocube-14-1/

 

http://nanoboxreef.com/shop.html

 

If you ditch the hood then you are open to many options i.e AI prime or hydra, Kessil, Nano Box Mini or Duo, Radion as well

I am not sure on your hammer. It looks like its dying. Good chance it might not recover but you never now. If parms are good then I would say definitly increase lighting other than that it is a wait and see game.

 

Dead unless you want to really grow sticks :D. Still can't beat MH for stick growth and coloration.

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Metal Halides are kind of dead in the Reefing world.....well there are old school people who will probably ridule me for saying that but I am just saying...

 

 

Not sure I would go this far... Halides are still very much a relevant way to light a reef tank - it just depends on the situation. Agreed that for nano reefs MH doesn't make sense because they're too hot and they're large as well. But if you have a much larger tank - maybe like 30"+ deep then you can put a few halides up with good reflectors and be in business.

 

Anyways - I would tend to agree with what's been said about stocking. I would stick with the pair of clownfish for now. 2 reasons. First is aggression - as you've discovered marine fish can be very aggressive and the more fish you cram into a tank the more exacerbated the problem becomes. Second having fewer fish allows you to maintain a lower bio-load (the amount of waste being consistently generated in your tank) which helps keep nuisance algae from taking over and generally makes things easier from a maintenance perspective (fewer things to think about).

 

The stock lighting should be fine for most corals. Soft corals and some LPS don't need particularly strong lights and these at least are reef capable. Make sure you replace the bulbs about once per year though as they can fall out of spectrum which can encourage the growth of nuisance algae.

 

Other things to consider are flow and coral placement. It's usually advised to add an extra powerhead, such as a Hydor Koralia (etc.) to these all-in-one systems. It's also not uncommon to upgrade the internal pump for a more powerful one. Flow is very important in reef tanks as it helps keep detritus from settling and corals need it as well. The key is to have the right amount of flow reaching each coral using a combination of pump size and placement as well as working with the rock decor.

 

For feeding - try to feed more than once per day and try to feed a varied diet. Feed only as much as the fish can consume in a short amount of time, like a minute or so. Overfeeding can cause excess nutrients also as you correctly mention. Be careful to avoid underfeeding though. This isn't healthy for the fish and can ultimately cause stress, loss of coloration, disease, and death. Sometimes people feed way too little because their tank has a lot of nuisance algae. Typically though the nuisance algae isn't cause by feeding but rather by overstocking or using a nutrient rich water source.

 

So finally I would agree that you probably should avoid your well water as it's common for well water to have a lot of nutrients and minerals in it. If you find it a pain to haul buckets from the LFS though investing in your own reverse osmosis filter is a great idea. Maybe hint to your brother in law to get you one for your birthday hehe... Or just get one because if there's one thing that I've consistently experienced in this hobby is that your tank is only as good as the water you put in it. Obviously your results will be different than mine - I'm just speaking generally.

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Not sure I would go this far... Halides are still very much an ideal way to light a reef tank - it just depends on the situation. Agreed that for nano reefs MH doesn't make sense because they're too hot and they're large as well. But if you have a much larger tank - maybe like 30"+ deep then you can put a few halides up with good reflectors and be in business.

 

Anyways - I would tend to agree with what's been said about stocking. I would stick with the pair of clownfish for now. 2 reasons. First is aggression - as you've discovered marine fish can be very aggressive and the more fish you cram into a tank the more exacerbated the problem becomes. Second having fewer fish allows you to maintain a lower bio-load (the amount of waste being consistently generated in your tank) which helps keep nuisance algae from taking over and generally makes things easier from a maintenance perspective (fewer things to think about).

 

The stock lighting should be fine for most corals. Soft corals and some LPS don't need particularly strong lights and these at least are reef capable. Make sure you replace the bulbs about once per year though as they can fall out of spectrum which can encourage the growth of nuisance algae.

 

Other things to consider are flow and coral placement. It's usually advised to add an extra powerhead, such as a Hydor Koralia (etc.) to these all-in-one systems. It's also not uncommon to upgrade the internal pump for a more powerful one. Flow is very important in reef tanks as it helps keep detritus from settling and corals need it as well. The key is to have the right amount of flow reaching each coral using a combination of pump size and placement as well as working with the rock decor.

 

For feeding - try to feed more than once per day and try to feed a varied diet. Feed only as much as the fish can consume in a short amount of time, like a minute or so. Overfeeding can cause excess nutrients also as you correctly mention. Be careful to avoid underfeeding though. This isn't healthy for the fish and can ultimately cause stress, loss of coloration, disease, and death. Sometimes people feed way too little because their tank has a lot of nuisance algae. Typically though the nuisance algae isn't cause by feeding but rather by overstocking or using a nutrient rich water source.

 

So finally I would agree that you probably should avoid your well water as it's common for well water to have a lot of nutrients and minerals in it. If you find it a pain to haul buckets from the LFS though investing in your own reverse osmosis filter is a great idea. Maybe hint to your brother in law to get you one for your birthday hehe... Or just get one because if there's one thing that I've consistently experienced in this hobby is that your tank is only as good as the water you put in it. Obviously your results will be different than mine - I'm just speaking generally.

 

 

Or if your a rebel you light a 20g with MH :happy:. Great response btw!

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Ndroby suggested relocating my hammer higher in my tank. I've read that you generally don't want to place most corals or anenome too close together so they don't injure each other. The rock without those two is directly under the pump outflow track. Opinions seem to vary but usually I see hammers preceding low to moderate turbulent flow and avoid him th flow because it can injure the soft tissue against the solid structure. Then again if it's already not doing well how much could it hurt? Thoughts?

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Unfortunately nothing has changed with the hammer despite trying closer to the lights and altering flow... Next step is for me to upgrade the lighting to LEDs but that's still a little ways off. I do have a media basket with chemi pure and Purigen on the way to try and help keep the water quality as good as I can along with water changes. My LFS did suggest dosing my tank with Fuel to see if it livens the hammer up any. My odd BTA moved a couple days ago to under an overhang on my live rock out of direct light. It's still puffed up and eating so I guess it's okay.

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Hmmm I am not sure if the "fuel" will do much. Worst case scenario you lose the hammer, let your tank stabilize for awhile and try again.

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Not sure about the fuel either. Getting your parameters where they need to be and stable is important.

 

With my first tank I purchased a coral i thought was fine. I was a newbie and didn't realize the coral was half dead at the store. I realized it was pretty much a skeleton when i got home, very little flesh was left. Within a few mnths I had it plump, full of colour and happy.

Don't give up, the changes you are making are good, the hammer may bounce back.

 

The hammer should have been ok with pc's, i had a frogspawn under pc's for mnths before upgrading.

 

Yrs ago power compacts were the lights in the hobby besides metal halides. If aquarists were able to keep corals then with them-there is no difference now other than better options are available.

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Just an update. Media basket is installed and water check today was nearly perfect. Will continue weekly water changes and eventually work up to LEDs. I think my small hammer didn't make it probably because I had too many water fluctuations when I added him and a precipitous drop is calcium initially. Keeping things stable for a while before I add anything else.

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Good plan. Slow is key and is very rewarding when every time you add something to the tank it starts to thrive. Don't worry much on it. We all lose corals and what not. I have a pretty cool plate coral I got about a week ago and it is looking meh :( but like you said just keep things stable and steady you will be good!

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If you're looking at an LED upgrade. There's a member, Hig789 who is selling a Nanobox small retro with moonlight and Bluefish control for $165 in the classified section. It'd be perfect for your BC14, if you are ready to take that next step in the process!

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