Winkin's 29g BioCube Journal

[Winkin]

Well, I made it back from vacation and everything lived but the cyano is still as voracious as ever. I cleaned out a bunch of it today and will be doing a large water change tomorrow as it's been almost 2 weeks now since the last.

 

I'm really at a loss for why the cyano is taking over. It seems that in the low and medium flow areas of the sand is where is grows. If I adjust the flow too much I create dunes and it just shifts the growth patterns. I keep getting 0 nitrates and phosphates when I test too.

 

My top off/water change water supply is nutrient free and I'm definately not overfeeding now. Does anyone have any ideas? I moved half of my cheato to the main display as I think my light may be too weak in chamber 2. It's enough to keep it green but it hasn't grown any in the past 4 weeks that I've had it. I'm wondering if its really not doing anything so I really don't have any means of nutrient export other then waterchanges. I'm also seeing small patches of green hair algea, but the CUC mostly keeps up with it The nuciance algea is really making my tank look bad and I don't want to add any new corals till I have it under control.

 

I'd appreciate any tips from those that have defeated major cyano problems in the past. Also, my MH bulb is only 6 weeks old so I don't think it's a color spetrum problem and the tank doesn't recieve direct sunlight from a window in the room.

[Winkin]

I'm about to get the zoanuts treatment, please standby...

 

Shipment comes in tomorrow so maybe by this weekend I'll be able to post some new pics.

[Winkin]

Well, ya'll probally thought this thread was dead and it largly is. Unfortunately I have been working so much that my tank has been on hold. However, my wife is really getting into the hobby and taking over.

 

First the bad news. I've had a couple of mysterious deaths. The fox coral got crushed by a rock when moving things around and only partially expanded after that. A few weeks later it wouldn't expand at all and I finally gave up and removed it. I also got a ORA false perc. It was happy perky and eating for 3 days and then found dead in the sand when I got up. I assume it had something from the fish store as nothing else had any problems. Also, a yuma I got shipped to me arrived in poor shape with a loose mouth. It never recovered and was soon removed.

 

Combined with the deaths I've had a cyano problem in my sand bed for probally 8 weeks now. I water change, test source water, lightly feed, use chemi pure elite, siphon, everything I can think of. But all I seem to do is stall the growth. Water parameters are all 0s for the ammonia, ites and ates, 400ish calcium and 9/10 dkh. Phosphates are undetectable too so I'm really lost. I think it may be a disolved organics issue so I'm getting an average skimmer to see what it pulls out.

 

The submersible LED in the fuge never worked, the chaeto never grew at all. For now I have a soap dish in the main display and am getting good growth about 2x the size in 4 weeks.

 

With all the problems and growing pains aside the tank is seeing exciting growth. At around the 3 month mark I got pink coraline growth on the back wall and rocks. Also a lot of the sponges on the rocks are comming to life. Pods are a plenty, bristle worms come out at times and all of the corals are growing and coloring nicely. New additions include: more colors to the zoa garden, pink striped mushroom, red bumpy mushroom, snow white yuma, yellow polyps, orange gorgonia, neon bubble coral, green and yellow birdnest and a green poly leather. I have my centerpiece coral comming in this week, a scolymia with purples, reds and wintergreens. I can't wait! Now that your all excited, stay tuned for a picture upload that will show 2+ months of changes.

[Winkin]

Pics as promised. Enjoy!

 

If you look back you can see how much this guy has grown. 1 head is now 2.

 

My first SPS, neon green poly bridsnest.

 

I'm in love with yumas, here are my first two.. snow white and green burst.

 

My ever growing zoa garden.

 

Neon bubble coral.

 

New Scolymia as of yesterday.

 

Top down view.

 

And last but not least, the latest FTS with cyano gone.

[Winkin]

So, it's been a year and a half since my last update. Not sure why it's been so long; partially because of work demands and for a time I lost interest in the hobby. There's almost too much to say on what has happened with the tank: some critters/corals have come and gone, others are still kickin' from the initial set up, and I've found some real prized gems.

 

I think I really started to lose interest when I had persistent cyano for about 6 months. Then it was green hair algae, which I'm still battling. I'm not really sure why I've had such algae problems in my 29g cube. I purchased a RO/DI unit and have changed the filters once so far in the 14 months that I've had it. My lighting cycle is 9 hrs/day, I swapped to a 14K bulb to slow down coral and algae growth, purchased numerous blue legged hermits and even tried a sae hare and blue tuxedo urchin at various points. So, the GHA is still around but not as it's been. Water changes, tweezers and hermits seem to be the only reliable way of removing the stuff. I'm guess it is largely from my set up having no refugium. I'm slowly planning my next tank, likely something in the 70-90 gallon range as my corals are starting to get pretty big for the 29g bio cube. This new set up will have a refugium so I hope the algae problems are not prolific with it too. But that's late next year at the earliest.

 

I also had another tragedy using some red slime killer medication. I didn't fully read the label and didn't have an air stone going into my tank while it was treating. The dissolved oxygen levels got really low killing a beautifully full neon green birdsnest and a few other corals. Suffice to say, I haven't done that again.

 

But enough of the woes, here is my current tank stock.

 

Fish: yellow watchmen gobie, black and white ocellaris clownfish.

Inverts: hermits of various kinds (8), snails of various kinds (6), red and white coco worm.

Clams: blue maxima, gold maxima.

Soft Corals: green and purple yuma, snow white yuma, zoas (green, purple, lunar eclipse, eye of Jupiter, pink, peach), pumping xenia, cabbage leather, orange ric, florida rics (peach/orange, geen and blue), green polyp toadstool leather.

LPS: green branching frogspawn, blue octospawn, neon bubble, orange fungia, yellow sun, peach and green favites, red and purple micromusa, scolymia, galaxia, fox (ridge), acan lord.

SPS: red montipora capricornus, blue and green tort acro, neon green birds nest, yellow acro, purple polyp monti, green and pink acro.

Sponges: orange tree sponge.

 

So where am I going from here? SPS and LPS love my tank, so I'll continue to selectively invest in those corals. I'm looking for blue snowflake polyps, torch coral, maze brain, echinophyllia, chalice and perhaps something like ducans to fill in the bare spots of rock. I'll continue to work on ridding myself of GHA and I'm contemplating a fuge mod for the tank that's not an eye sore. I'd also like to get some more gobies. My tank has always been fish light and what I've tried hasn't lasted long except for gobies. So with that, enjoy some pics!!

 

 

Dec 2009 - Merry Christmaas FTS

[Winkin]

So I may be moving for my job in the near future. The relocation would be ~2000 miles away. I'm thinking I may not be able to move my aquarium that far short of buying a second set up and then air shipping the livestock to the new location. Anyone have any suggestions?

[Lalani]

Coming along nicely! Great ric garden.

Yeah, that's a long way to move.. I'd probably just sell everything and start fresh in the new location.

[Winkin]

Ya. I've done a lot of reading and it seems best that I just sell the livestock and start again when and where I can. It's such a sad thought, I really love the corals as I have been so selective in purchasing them and only buying what I like. That said, if anyone is in the Houston Texas area I'll be looking to sell the livestock Feb so send a PM. I'll post more info on on what's up for grabs when it closer and a for sure thing.

[Kittysnax]

Ya. I've done a lot of reading and it seems best that I just sell the livestock and start again when and where I can. It's such a sad thought, I really love the corals as I have been so selective in purchasing them and only buying what I like. That said, if anyone is in the Houston Texas area I'll be looking to sell the livestock Feb so send a PM. I'll post more info on on what's up for grabs when it closer and a for sure thing.

 

Let me know if you wanna part out the light strip! Thats the exact one I have been lookin fer! ;3 Or if you wanna sell the thing as a whole I might be able to swng that! (Im in Baytown) B-E-A-utiful setup!

[Winkin]

So it looks like the move is a go, so the livestock and rockwork will be up for grabs. I'm working on inventory and pricing now and will likily post something in the for sale forum soon. I don't want to mess with shipping, so the livestock will be for pick up only. I also want to keep all the hardware as I'll set up the cube again in the future.

 

It's a sad thing. *sniff*

[Scott Howard]

Nice Rock work

[Winkin]

My tank inventory and prices are posted in the classified section. Let me know if your interested in any of my corals!