Winkin's 29g BioCube Journal

[Winkin]

The skunk cleaner is probally my favorite addition. After only a few days it loves to come out and jump into my hand and "clean" it. He'll also take food directly from me. He's already gone through a molt and looks very healthy.

 

Marv the YWG set up a little burrow under my front rock that has a little arch to it, which is awsome because you can still see him when he's chilling out.

 

On another note, the yellow tail is going back to the LFS today. It has the green chromis hiding all day and has been too aggressive.

[Deano]

Like you I enjoy the skunk cleaner. They have such a great personality. They can be a bit agressive when feeding. Mine will trample my Zoes while feeding and steal food from the corals and other fish. The YWG is an fine addition to your tank as well. For some reason I have never had any luck with emerald crabs surving in any of my tanks. Yo would think these guys would be tough as nails. I have no idea why they just disaper never to be seen again. Keep the pic's coming.

[thelastmucci]

you both have great tanks and look forward to seeing many more pics.you both have great tanks and look forward to seeing many more pics.

[Winkin]

Well my refractometer came in yesterday and to my surprise my 1.024-1.025 reading on the hydrometer was really 1.029.

 

I ended up taking the yellow tail and neon velvet damsels back yesterday and am glad I did. They were pretty fish but just too aggressive. I had to dismantle my entire tank to net them however! So, I changed the aquascape a little for more coral space down the road. In the process of doing that I found my emrald crab that I haven't seen for 2 days. Man he blends in well, but still alive and kickin'.

 

This weekend I'll be doing my fuge mod and the week after that I should finally be ready for corals!

[Deano]

Well my refractometer came in yesterday and to my surprise my 1.024-1.025 reading on the hydrometer was really 1.029.

 

I ended up taking the yellow tail and neon velvet damsels back yesterday and am glad I did. They were pretty fish but just too aggressive. I had to dismantle my entire tank to net them however! So, I changed the aquascape a little for more coral space down the road. In the process of doing that I found my emrald crab that I haven't seen for 2 days. Man he blends in well, but still alive and kickin'.

 

This weekend I'll be doing my fuge mod and the week after that I should finally be ready for corals!

 

Refractometers are the only way to go those swing arm units are POC. Warning to those using them have it compared to a real refractometer.

 

ended up taking the yellow tail and neon velvet damsels back yesterday and am glad I did. They were pretty fish but just too aggressive. I had to dismantle my entire tank to net them however!

Yep thats the second problem with adding damsels to cycle the tank. Getting them out........ good news is they survide.

[Winkin]

Picture update! Finished all my mods to the tank finally and posting some shots. Here's my final set up.

 

1. 150 watt Sunpod HQI lighting upgrade

2. Chamber 1 heater

3. Moded stock filter for floss

4. Chamber 2 bio balls removed and added a light and cheato

5. Chamber 2 chemi-pure when running carbon

6. Chamber 3 purigen

 

I also promised a pic of the new scape, not very different from the old. Now onto the pics!

 

Here are two shots of the damsels I took back to the LFS.

 

Oz scaveging on my top rock.

 

New snails.

 

FTS of new scape. I'm thinking of adding a tonga branch to the sand later for a zoa garden.

 

Stock filter mod.

 

Chamber 2 mod.

 

Full filtration section shot.

 

Current live stock is as follows:

 

Fish

Yellow watchman gobie

Blue green chromis

 

Inverts

Skunk Cleaner Shrimp

Emrald Crab

 

CUC

4 red tiped hermits

2 zebra hermits

4 astrea snails

3 cerith snails

3 mexican turbo snails

5 narsissus snails

 

Comments are welcome and I hope to add my first corals soon!

[Deano]

Lookin good... Everyone likes those Sunpod but it seem such a waste to buy a AIO tank just to toss the factory top. I have my tank in my office and I wanted the closed top to keep unwanted things and people out. Otherwise I would have built a custom open top tank with Mh lighting, I do like Mh's used them since day one. It seems I just don't get the polyp extenten from PCs I get from Mh.

 

I like the big round piece of LR with the hole in the middle. I also like, what I call the crab look of your auqascaping or u shape. Draws you into the middle of the tank and you a have an open bit of sand bed to put some other things like a Clam or brain coral, even a nice bubble coral would look cool on the sand right in the center.. I have a huge bubble in my 135 that would look good there, sorry you can't have it though, since I lost my huge torch coral the bubble has taken center stage in my 135.

 

 

How do you like the LED? Been wanting to order one of those to put across the front of my tank for some extra blue light inside the display. I know you are using this for a refugium light but do you think you would notice any extra ambient blue light in the main tank with the Sunpod running or would the Sunpod completely wash it out?

[divecj5]

Just wanted to welcome you to the BC Crew as well. I haven't been on the forums in a while so I thought I would catch up on all of the new BC tanks. Looks like yours in coming along nicely and looks like it is all coming together for you.

 

Glad to see that you ended up getting rid of the damsels as like you said, they usually just end up getting overly aggressive thus limiting you to more docile inhabitants.

 

I really like the filter mod that you did in Chamber 2. I run a skimmer in my second chamber so it's not plausible for me but I think it will help to keep your tank nice and clean. Just make sure to keep up with changing the filter floss as it will quickly get pretty nasty. I know in my tank it needs to be changed at least weekly....probably more but I'm a little lazy with it.

 

Enjoy yourself and I look forward to when you start trying some corals. Just remember to take it slow adding corals and have fun!!!

[thelastmucci]

I have a question as it relates to filtering. Hopefully no one will bust me too much about this but I'd figure I'd ask it here b/c winkin has a setup that I will eventually hope to have. As far as purigen or chemi-pur goes do you have to put these in those micron bags or do you just put the media in the filter chamber. Also how exactly does filter floss work. Actually I should say how do you use it. I know what it does but does it just come in a package and you wrap it around your filter pad. The reason I'm asking all these questions is b/c I plan on getting a 39 gallon CAD, and wanted to put filter floss, chemi-pur, purigen and also the CAD filter pad in various chambers along with LR and LS. Is there such a thing as over filtration?

[Deano]

I have a question as it relates to filtering. Hopefully no one will bust me too much about this but I'd figure I'd ask it here b/c winkin has a setup that I will eventually hope to have. As far as purigen or chemi-pur goes do you have to put these in those micron bags or do you just put the media in the filter chamber. Also how exactly does filter floss work. Actually I should say how do you use it. I know what it does but does it just come in a package and you wrap it around your filter pad. The reason I'm asking all these questions is b/c I plan on getting a 39 gallon CAD, and wanted to put filter floss, chemi-pur, purigen and also the CAD filter pad in various chambers along with LR and LS. Is there such a thing as over filtration?

 

 

I have used Chemi-pur in the past and it comes in its own filter bag not sure about purigen never used it but you would need to put it into a filter bag if it doesn't. Most people just rinse the bags and set them in the 1 or 2 chamber as a passive chemical filtration. Ideally and to get the most bang for your buck you need to put these in the system where the water is forced through them. This is why I use a canister filter on my BC29. As for filter floss it is use a machanical filtration to remove small bits of Detrius from the system and again is best to be placed where water is forced to pass through it, but it will work in a passive mod as well just not as efficient.

 

As far as over filtration there is probley no such thing as over filtration but IMO the more filtration you add the more labor to maintain the tank you add. No insult intended just an old saying "Keep it simple stupid" K.I.S.S . Start with some mechanical fitration followed by chemical fitration, via carbon, chemo-pur ect ect and that should be all you need to do. As fare as a refugium setup is concerned this adds the benifit of natural filtration such as macro algeas or DSB to absorb exsess nitrates and give a safe place for pods and other critters to live with out preditation.

[Winkin]

The chemi-pur cames in a nylon bag. I have this laying on the flase floor in chamber 2 so water has to pass through it. I have cheato and the LED on top just because I really didn't want it in my main display. I have plenty of LR so I removed the bio-balls before they became a dirty nitrate trap. Likewise I kept all LR and LS out of the back chambers. As for purigen, it's tiny white beads. The smaller pack comes in its own nylon bag but the bigger packs only have the media and no bag. The purigen is so small that if it is in a location where there is lots of water agitation I find it comes out and blows around your tank. I still have a lot of "junk" on my LR so I run lots of floss and change it every few days. It also quickly turns brown with all the diatoms.Deano, the 15 bar LED puts out a surprising amount of light. Given the Sunpod's moonlights are only on the sides I think a blue LED bar would still lighten up the center section. There was a smaller 4 LED bar that might be a better choice. Only bad thing is the white power cord. If your trying to add blue light with the MH on, forget it. Buy a 20k bulb instead.I do agree that it's a shame I, and others, gutted so much of the BC29 so its almost more custom then an all in one. However, IMO the stock set up is more for a FOWLR tank. Furthermore I got my Sunpod for the same price as the 4.36 upgrade so I went that route.

I like the big round piece of LR with the hole in the middle. I also like, what I call the crab look of your auqascaping or u shape. Draws you into the middle of the tank and you a have an open bit of sand bed to put some other things like a Clam or brain coral, even a nice bubble coral would look cool on the sand right in the center.

My wife found that rock and it's her favorite. My thought exactly on the big brain in the sand.

[Deano]

I here you if I found a Sunpod for the price of the 4:36 I would probably have bit on it to.

 

I can't wait until they figure out these LED's and can find a way to get them to put out some effective light without draining your pocket book. I have read a few threads on here of guys messing with them and it sound promissing but that is 1 DIY project I haven't got time for.

 

Mmmmm brain matter on the sand bed....

[Winkin]

So, I got 2 coral frags from my LFS at a steal. The owner was upset when they rang me up.

 

Wammin' Watermelon Zoanthids

 

1 head of branching green frogspawn

 

I'm so excited! Right now the zoas are tied down with some thread, will they attach themselves to the rock in a few days?

[Deano]

Frogspawn is a fantastic coral easy to care for and very good looking. Grows fast to.

 

Zoes should be ok, you can also glue them down with some gel super glue. Try not to get the glue on the polyps just the base.

[Winkin]

So I'm not exactly sure how to spot feed the frogspawn as he's all flowly and its hard to find his mouth. Anyone have a good suggestion on food type and a procedure for feeding frogspawn? Will "reef dust" be enough?

 

I'd post more pictures but my tank is so dirty at the moment. I think I just have massive amounts of diatoms but it's getting ridiculous. I've cut my lighting cycle down to 9 hrs to try and mitigate the growth. I had one snail die on me but think I caught it before it went rancid in the tank. It was a lazy snail that never ate anyways.

 

On a good note my nitrates are finally comming down, < 10ppm and falling.

[Deano]

So I'm not exactly sure how to spot feed the frogspawn as he's all flowly and its hard to find his mouth. Anyone have a good suggestion on food type and a procedure for feeding frogspawn? Will "reef dust" be enough?

 

I'd post more pictures but my tank is so dirty at the moment. I think I just have massive amounts of diatoms but it's getting ridiculous. I've cut my lighting cycle down to 9 hrs to try and mitigate the growth. I had one snail die on me but think I caught it before it went rancid in the tank. It was a lazy snail that never ate anyways.

 

On a good note my nitrates are finally comming down, < 10ppm and falling.

 

 

Hey Winkin you don't need to feed the Frogspawn directly. It will get what it needs from the water and lights. But it will not hurt to feed it. You can try to get it to take mysis shrimp, cycolpeez or some kind of plankton. Not sure what Reef Dust is sounds like some kind of plankton or pytoplankton. just take a turkry baster and lightly squirt the food around the head of the coral. Uaslly the best time to do this is in the morning before the lights come on that is when they are feeding. Just be carefull when you feed like this you can easlly over feed the tank and cause your nitrates to go back up.

 

Also now that you are getting into LPS's I would suggest if you are not already, get a Calcium test kit. It is important that you maintain around 350-400ppm of calcium for hard corals you also might want to get a carbonate hardness/ Alkalinty test kit to make sure you are maintaining about 9 ppm dKH or 3.20 meq/L of Alkalinity. I prefer to keep my calcium around 450ppm and the dKH around 14 to 15. Hardcorals need to have the calcium availiable to grow. The alkalnty helps keep the calcium in suspension. Also Magnesium is important and help the corals take up the calcium. You can get a magnesium test kit as well. Once you get the fill for things and use to looking at the corals you can usally tell if something is off. I hardly test for anything any more just when something seems to be off.

[Winkin]

Thanks Dean.

 

I have Calcium and DKH tests and will look into Magnesium. I was planning on testing things this weekend to see how fast the LPS is pulling nutrients out of the water. I also checked last week and things were good, about 480 Ca and 10 DKH. Depending on the results this weekend I might need a DKH buffer but have heard it could be due to low Mg and a buffer won't help.

 

By reef dust I just mean the detrius/food that is always in the water from the critters. I haven't tried anything special, I just read that feedings can help their growth.

 

I'm feeding the 2 fish every other day now, which I think is why my nitrates are finally getting in check. I really wish I had a cure for these diatoms, the brown dirty look is driving me nuts.

[Deano]

Winkin your Calcium and Alk levels are just fine. I don't mind running the Calcium and Alk that high it will really get your coraline algae to kick in. With just one small LPS you are not going to notice a large draw on your Calcium. But once you get 4 or 5 and even some simpler Montipora SPS in there you will definataly notice a change. The magnesium is important to keep your Calcium and alkalinty in balance. If the mag gets low then you find it hard to keep both at the levels your doing right now. So I would say you mag is ok for now. 1500ppm is a good number to shot for on the mag. You really don't need to test for it unless you are having troubles with the calcium and alk balance but it is good to know whats going on with it.

 

Time is about the only cure for the Diatom blues. You can blow it off with a turkey baster. Don't recall what you had for a CUC. Might want to ad a couple Turbo Snails they are good at mowing it down but can get pretty big in a 29gal tank.

 

I understand what you are saying about the dust now. They will not feed on fish waste but they will feed on small plankton that natually occures in a well established system along with absorbing the chemicals in the water that they need to grow IE Calcium.

[Winkin]

So it's been a week weeks since my last update and things are slowly changing.

 

Firstly, parameters are staying solid and the diatoms are finally receeding. I'm also noticing some small patches of pink coraline on some areas of the rocks! I've been diligent with the 10% water changes and everything is happy.

 

Unfortunately I've noticed something is bothering my zoas. I'm not sure if it's a pest or a fungus. Some of the smaller poylps are fuzzy and look dead. As an initial step I've started doing some dips in Lugol's solution and will keep an eye on them. The larger polyps are still fine and fully opening. I now have 2 colonies of zoas, the wammin watermelons and a new colony of lime greens. The green colony are the ones with the sick polyps.

 

Other new additions include a small frag of favites (peach and green), a frag of fox coral (pink, green, white and tan colors), 2 orange richordia polyps (the color on them is simply amazing) and some clove polyps with some colors I've never seen before.

 

Now onto the pics!

 

Favites on the hunt - it loves to eat brine shrimp at sunset.

 

Frogspawn, growing like a weed. This is a top down shot.

 

New clove polyp - the centers are a neon green and the center stems are copper.

 

New rics, I love the glow they have under the moonlights.

 

Fox in her full glory. The right side is splitting into 3 mouths.

 

Up close with zoas.

 

And lastly, the current FTS.

 

I'm now on the lookout for a small yellow fuji leather and either an open or maze brain as a center piece on the sand. In the future I also plan to add a few SPS to the left side of the tank where the large rock forms a ridge. Stay tuned!

[Winkin]

Not a lot to add as I've mainly been fussing with the rock and coral placement. However there are two new additions.

 

I found a yellow sun coral with three heads at a price I couldn't pass up. It's been hard to get a clear shot of it at night but here is the best one so far:

I think it's the branching variety as opposed to the encrusting. However, I think a lot of the flesh has receeded so I'm giving it some needed TLC.

 

The favites is doing amazing. It looks completely different now from the pic above. It has a lot of new flesh coverage now and its color is more pronouced. It is also growing really quickly as I can see new polyps forming and it is starting to spread and round out.

 

I also finally got a small tonga branch to create a zoa garden the lugol's dips helped the zoas a bunch. They are now wide open and the color rings are developing under the metal halides.

 

I've noticed my clove polyps are bleaching a little. The copper is still apparent but the green centers are barely noticeable. I've moved them a few inches lower in the tank to see if that helps at all.

 

I also picked up a beatiful feather duster, yellow and purple. It adds a nice contrast in color and texture.

 

Anyways, I'll be making my rounds to the LFS(s) today, so maybe I'll have more pics next week! Here is the current FTS.

 

[Winkin]

Some more macros for fun.

 

[Deano]

Lookin good. You may alread no this but the suncorals require direct feeding.

[Dooderino]

Sweet start.

[TUDIZZLE]

Nice tank...great start.

 

Sweet pics especially like the FS pic......very nice

[Winkin]

Well, sooner or later I knew I would have to fight my first real battle and that battle is cyano bacteria. It's everywhere on the sand and I'm not exactly sure why it's prolific in my tank. I've reduced the feedings in an effort to reduce excess nutrients awhile ago, I also rearranged the flow and went through a black out period of 3 days. The cyano is gone now but if it comes back then I'll have to dig into it more. I'm questioning the food and wonder if it has phosphate containing preservatives at all. I'm also getting ready to go on vacation, a real nail biter with my new tank!