empresto's 4gal Cube

[empresto]

Well, I'm starting my first saltwater tank and am super excited! I've been keeping freshwater planted tanks for a number of years now and am looking forward to the added challenges that come with a reef tank. About a month ago, my elderly betta finally passed (that's him in my profile picture) and I felt the time was right to turn his 4gal cube into my first saltwater tank. And, since Nano-Reef has been a huge trove of knowledge and inspiration as I planned for setting up my tank, I felt it was only right I track my tank's progress here as well.

 

So, here's what I've got to start with for equipment:

• 10" cube tank ~4 gallons
• 50W Cobalt Neotherm Heater
• DIY canister filter using Hydor Pico-Evo 100, 1/2 gal ball jar, and some fancy plumbing on my part and a small LED plant light for growing macro.
• Lily pipe style inflow and outflow pipes
• Aquamaxx Nemolight 8" Nano

In the tank, I have ~4 lbs of really great, porous, live rock and a little less than half of a 20lb bag of Aragalive. I also have some chaetomorpha I am keeping in the canister filter I built. My theory is that it will only add to stability in nitrogen parameters, much like plants in my freshwater tanks (I would love to hear other's experiences with this).

 

Here is my cloudy new tank shot from Saturday 10/15.

 

And here it is Sunday 10/16 after the dust settled

 

The confusion I have been having is with the cycle. Sunday I 'fed' the tank some mysis shrimp, and expected to see some ammonia in the tank in short order, but still today, Wednesday 10/19, I have yet to detect any ammonia even after feeding the tank a few more mysis shrimp Tuesday. Parameters have been really steady (refractometer and API tests):

• Salinity 1.025(±.0005 with top-offs)
• PH ~8.2
• Ammonia 0
• Ni 0

However, Nitrate started at ~10ppm and rose to 20ppm on Tuesday, and now has fallen back to 10ppm with the tank doing a reverse bubble snow globe routine. Also, I think the diatoms have started... (both rocks were white when I started)

 

Sure is interesting so far. I have really enjoyed getting to see the different hitchhikers that have come along with the live rock and cheato. So far, I have counted an asterina, numerous bristleworms, a chiton, and various copepods and amphipods.

 

I look forward to getting to know more about this hobby and sharing in the nano-reef community!

[asting]

Neat. If you used all live rock you could have not much of a cycle. Odd nitrates went down without some sort of export. Chaeto could have done some of it, but that seems like quite a bit.

[empresto]

Thanks, asting, that makes sense with the live rock. It was very well cured when I bought it. As to the Nitrate mystery, it only get's weirder... Here are the test results for today:

• Salinity 1.025
• PH 8.4
• Ammonia 0
• Nitrite 0
• Nitrate 0

Also, the bubble storm seems to have continued and the 'diatoms', if that is what they are, have spread. Is it possible I am miss identifying some sort of nitrate hungry brown algal bloom as the diatom bloom I expected? The two bristle worms I've seen on my live rock seem to love eating the stuff...

 

The brown growth in the tank has kind of made it look a bit yin and yen with one very white rock and one very brown rock. Kind of neat, but I do hope the brown goes away with time. Probably time for a couple cleanup crew members?

[empresto]

Well, been testing over the last couple days and same results. PH and Salinity steady and nitrogen elements all at 0 even having fed the tank a couple times over the weekend.

 

However, with that all being well and good, now I have found a single polyp of aptasia. Not sure which method I want to go about fixing that, but sounds like a peppermint shrimp is a good start on the natural spectrum.

 

People weren't kidding when they said salt was more addicting than freshwater! So much discovery...

[asting]

Interesting. Diatoms could have soaked up the nitrates. No easy way to export diatoms though, so they're still in the system.

 

Don't throw in a peppermint shrimp. They aren't always reef safe. Try hot water first.

[empresto]

Fair point on the peppermint shrimp. I'll try the hot water.

 

Today I finally have started having detectable ammonia in the tank (but only <0.25 ppm). I guess my tank feeding has finally caught up with the tanks nutrient absorption abilities.

 

Some cool discoveries today. For one, there is some kind of really tiny tube worm that must have some sort of long filament it uses to catch food/prey. It caught a small piece of mysis shrimp and 'reeled' it in from about 2" away! Really cool to watch as it munched on it for about 45mins. Also, there is some kind of tube of sand coming off the underside of one of my pieces of live rock. Two of them. And below each there is a small pile of sand. Haven't seen anything like that talked about online before. I'll have to see if I can get a picture.

 

I'm also thinking about building an ATO with a Raspberry Pi and an optical liquid level sensor I have. My intention is to eventually program a complete aquarium controller using the Pi and Windows 10 IoT, just for fun. We'll see when I get around to that...

[asting]

The tubes sound like featherdusters.

ATO from a raspberry pi sounds cool. I've not found good, cheap sensors other than a temperature probe. If you can find salinity or other probes for cheap let me know.
ATO sounds like a huge pita though. I have used autotopoff.com for the past few tanks I've had. Always great.

[empresto]

I'll have to watch and see if anything pokes out of the tubes.

 

As for probes, I've seen some PH probes on Amazon for $30-40, and some other probes various places that are a bit more expensive for other parameters. Nothing under $125 for salinity that I have seen that seems legit. Saw an interesting article on building your own spectrometer with a Pi, and I think if that could get decent resolution one could probably figure out the spectrum of various elements in the water. But that would probably require me to dig out my physics textbooks...

 

Thanks for the lead on autotopoff.com! I'll definitely be considering that; great prices!

[asting]

I just saw a feather duster out of its tube blowing around my tank. probably hitched on a frag. Wondering if yours jumped ship.

 

Interesting.

Yeah it would be nice to have a pi controller, but if it just does temperature and top off I'd rather not mess around with it. Spectrometer would be pretty cool.

[asting]

I'd be interested to see if http://www.ebay.com/itm/24W-Aquarium-Electronic-Salinity-Ph-Value-On-Line-Meter-Monitor-2-probe-/222261791150?hash=item33bfd5c9ae:g:r2AAAOSw3ihXTUVF

Something like this could be integrated.

[empresto]

Well, its been a few days, and still steady water chemistry. No detectable nitrogen compounds. I've fed the tank again as well. Great growth from the chaeto. Turns out the sand tubes are some kind of spaghetti worm.

 

Algae is starting to show up around the tank a bit. Perhaps next weekend I'll be able to get to my LFS and get my cleanup crew started. I'm thinking an astrea snail, a nassarius snail, and maybe a small hermit crab, but I'm not sure on the hermit yet.

[empresto]

Still no change in water chemistry, except for a slight decrease in Ca, even with what I would consider a heavy feeding of the tank. Having had it running for almost 3 weeks, would it be time for the first water change since there are no detectable nitrogen compounds, or would it be better to dose for the Ca? I am seeing some coraline algae growth.

 

I have successfully created an ATO from a Raspberry Pi with Windows 10 IoT, a relay, and an optical liquid level sensor. I haven't installed it yet because I don't have a reliable clip to hold the level sensor, but I've got some time in my shop this weekend, so maybe I'll figure something out for that. I'll post more on that soon. I intend to add other sensors for better tank monitoring and eventually program in auto water changes and dosing. Asting, that salinity tester you showed from Ebay looked like it had potential. Depending on what kind of datasheet one could find on it, you could even cut the cable and just wire it into a breadboard and then to a Pi. Lots of options, I think.

 

Still finding interesting things in the tank. My asterina star split into two. I also found another one on my live rock. So Cool!

[asting]

Glad to hear it's going well.
Do you have no nitrates registering too?

Yeah I was wondering the same thing about cutting the sensor off.

[empresto]

That's correct. Nothing nitrogen related registers. Last test results

• Temp = 76F
• Salinity = 1.024
• PH = 8.4
• Ammonia = 0 ppm
• Nitrite = 0 ppm
• Nitrate = 0 ppm
• Phosphate = <.25 ppm (probably what is sustaining the marginally existent algae population)
• Ca = 380 ppm

All tests are years away from the expiration date and they do register appropriately in some test solutions I have set up. Seems like every time I feed the tank (I do this about every other day; roughly 10 ml of frozen food and the water it comes with, which seems to be really high in nitrogen compounds) there is no change to nitrogen compounds in the tank, but the cheato grows proportionally. I'm curious to know if cheato is as effective as freshwater plants for taking up free ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate directly from the water column. If that's true, then the numbers I'm getting make sense with the quantity of cheato to volume of tank, at least in my experience with freshwater aquaria.

[asting]

I can't comment on specifically how much it is exporting, but chaeto is used to export nitrates. Could make your cycle look slightly odd, but if ammonia is being processed into nitrite then disappearing your cycle is done.

[empresto]

Well, it's been a really busy couple months. December was nuts at work and then I was out of the country for 3 weeks in January. Needless to say this was not the best situation for the tank.

 

In mid November I added a peppermint shrimp (he's been great at aptasia removal and cleans up the rest of the tank quite well), two blue legged hermits, two trochus snails (they, I'm pretty sure, were killed by the hermits who were trying on shells and didn't like the ones I provided), and a nasarious snail (they are so cool! like little burrowing elephants). The tank was doing so well that in December I added 3 corals (GSP, an unknown favia, and a blue montipora) and a citron goby. They were doing so well through the end of December and the favia had fantastic polyp extension.

 

Then in January I left for a 3 week trip to Germany and left the tank in the capable hands of a fellow reefer. He, however, was only able to stop in twice a week, but I assumed that would be fine. Sadly, the time away did not go well. I had started dosing kalkwasser in the ATO and the evaporation rate must have changed some while I was gone. When I got back, the kH and Ca where normal (8dKh and 420 ppm respectively) but the ph had risen to 8.8. Also, the citron goby had decided the montipora was tasty since the tank wasn't being fed as much as he was used to. I'm not sure if the GSP melted because of some issue in the tank or if it was eaten by the peppermint shrimp, but there was quite a bit of red cyano algae when I got back. Phosphates may have been higher due to no water changes for the 3 weeks, but nitrogen compounds were still 0. Maybe the phosphates damaged the corals?

 

Sadly, the citron goby passed a week after my return. I'm still unsure what happened to him as water parameters were perfect. My current theory is a combination of feeding too much too soon after a time of not eating much combined with him possibly choking on something when I fed him the day before he passed. He was super hungry, and then got a piece of food that had some kind of long thing stuck to it (still not sure what that was and I must have missed it when feeding) and it took him a long time to get that down. He then sat the rest of the day and was dead the next. Quite sad as he was really personable.

 

Now, a week later, the favia is starting to extend it's polyps again and everything seems to be settling back into a good rhythm. We'll see how thing continue. I think I need to add an automated water change feature to the Raspberry Pi for these kinds of trips.

 

My current regular routine is weekly to bi-weekly water changes to keep parameters in check. I've stopped dosing kalkwasser for now.

 

Currently, water parameters are:

• Temp = 78F
• Salinity = 1.025
• PH = 8.3
• Ammonia = 0 ppm
• Nitrite = 0 ppm
• Nitrate = 0 ppm
• Phosphate = 0.05 ppm
• Kh = 7.5 dKh
• Ca = 410 ppm

Algae is retreating. Hopefully we stay moving in a positive direction.

[JMurphy97]

I feel in a 4 gallon system you should do weekly water changes and not bi-weekly.

[empresto]

Sorry, bi-weekly is an ambiguous term. I meant that I change the water once to twice per week.

[dcom]

Looking good.

looking forward for future updates!

[empresto]

Thanks dcom!

[empresto]

Update: Tank is doing really well.  I added a stronger pump this week to my DIY canister filter system; my favia LOVED that!  It has been really puffy with awesome polyp extension and is as colorful as I've ever seen it ever since adding this new pump.

 

On a more interesting note, this crawled out of my live-rock yesterday afternoon...  It is about 3/16"=1/4" in diameter, slightly dome-shaped, and fluoresces dark orange under my moonlights.  It is mobile; doesn't move real fast, but has moved a couple inches today.  Anyone have any idea what that is?  Is it safe for my coral and crustaceans?  Sure is interesting what one finds in a reef tank... :-)

[empresto]

Turns out this was an operculum from a tronchus snail.  It came out with some junk during a water change and after examining it under a microscope, that's definitely what it was.

 

Tank is doing great!  Added a blue-green sympodium colony as well as a yellow-tail blue damsel.  The Damsel is really small, although I'm sure he'll grow some; and before telling me this doesn't fit in my 4 gal display with 1 Gal sump/filter, check out El Fab's Pico Reef: 2007-2010.  Smaller tank and it worked well.  But, if it becomes to big or shows stress, I'll be re-homing the fish.  Sure adds a lot of color and movement to the tank!

 

The favia is doing super well and even has daytime polyp extension sometimes!  What a pretty coral.

 

I should get another tank shot up soon...

[Weetabix7]

I have a 4g Cube and I have a small damsel in it, he's been in there for 8+ months with no issues.

[empresto]

Thanks for the encouragement, Weetabix7!

 

Tank is doing really well!  Corals are growing some and other livestock seems content.  A coworker of mine gave me a torch and a frogspawn a couple weeks ago and they look awesome!  I'll be interested to see how quickly they grow.

 

Thought I'd also give some updated tank shots.

The Tank

 

Favia

 

Sympodium (And Red the yellow-tailed blue damsel)

 

Torch (At least that's what I think it is.  My co-worker believed it to be a frogspawn)

 

Frogspawn

 

All seems to be happy!  Anyone have an idea what the 'fuzzy' stuff is on the live rock?  It likes to grow on the glass too, but comes off really easily.  It's kind of slimy.

 

Current tank stats:

Temp - 78F

SG - 1.026

Ph - 8.4

Kh - 8.5-6.5 dKh (range between water changes)

Ammonia - 0

Nitrite - 0

Nitrate - 0

PO4 - .05 ppm

Ca - 440-410 ppm (range between water changes)

Mg ~ 1400 ppm

[empresto]

It might also be interesting to some that I am still working on an aquarium controller for this tank.  I currently have a working prototype which I created as a Universal Windows Platform app running on a Raspberry Pi 3 with Windows IoT core.  Functionality right now is a bit limited, but I hope to add more in the future.  Here is a picture of the Pi with it's touch screen and the app's screen saver running:

 

The app currently tracks ambient and tank temperatures, as well as operating as the ATO.  All stats are written to an instance of MS SQL Server 2016 Express running on an old laptop of mine.  Stats are also displayed on the status page of the app:

 

My hope is to eventually add a Ph probe and an automatic water change function, and maybe other things.  Another neat thing this does is act as a digital log of the tank.  I programmed a second page to record test results and other activity.  Not all stats fit in the space of the frame, so the view scrolls:

 

So far the app and database writing have been really reliable.  It takes a reading every two seconds, so it's a lot of data, but I've made some SQL queries that make the information usable.  For example, here's some recent activity:

 

This all has made the chore of logging tank stats a whole lot easier.