Sadies Biocube 16

[kimdawg]

I like to start with little frags.  Everything in my contest pico started as a 1-3 polyp frag.  They are cheaper and so much fun to watch grow.

[sadie]

I have dinos.  Noticed it yesterday. Been doing a ton of reading and this is my plan:

*added pods (actually did that a day before the breakout)

* turn off lights for 3-5 days.  I read some ppl had no luck with this, but some did.  last night I blew off all the dinos from sand and coral.  This morning I saw none until the lights went on so I think it will work for me.

* and sadly going to make my tank ugly again by over feeding (I just got it unugly from the last time I was overfeeding!!😡)

* I am looking into a uv sterilizer, not sure if I want to do it or not.  If my local Petco carries them, I might just go get one and hook it up.

 

 

 

[sadie]

DAY 2 of DINOS:

* the pods I added were mostly tisbe pods, which is good.

* after reading clown79 post about dinos I decided to cut my daylight back instead of a blackout.  I shortened it by 2 hours on both on and off.

Things are actually looking pretty good.  It is clearing up.  I have had high KH lately (10-11) and Amphrites said high KH helped her against dinos.  I made a pod hotel today and will put it in my rock pile and hopefully they find it. 

 

I am a quilter, so I just took my cutting mat, ruler and rotary cutter and cut 6 pieces 3x4.  I know the ziptie is overkill, but it's all I had.

 

Here is a FTS and a close up of my toadstool.  You might be able to see a snail I lost in the background.  And in all of this my zoas are FINALLY starting to open.  😜  Those crazy zoas.

 

[sadie]

PUTTING POD HOTEL IN TANK WAS TERRIBLE!!!!  They are the most BUOYANT thing on the planet!!  You need like 5 arms to put that thing in there!  I was trying to put it behind and under a little piece of LR, I knocked my main top rock, which fell on the sand bed (poor candy cane) it missed the zoas and acan (though I don't think they were happy),  everyone looks fine, but WOW!  That thing kept floating up!  I had to have my friend help me.  It was crazy.  I don't think I am going to keep it here, eventually I think I will move it to the back chamber (with the false floor).

 

 

[sadie]

on a side note, Godzilla is hanging out on my new island.  I now call it Monster Island.  😜  I can't believe the magnet held!

[sadie]

Day 3 actually maybe 4 and I'm wondering if this is not dinos as it is almost all gone.  Tanks is looking great, coral are happy (except candy cane.  Not sure it will make it 😪)

 

 

[sadie]

Been using the cup to feed my acan, there was a breech!!  My snail came up from below!!  I kicked him out and another popped up!😜

 

[sadie]

Just figured out my refractometer is junk!  I ordered a new one, it will be here Mon.  This could be why my candycane didn't make it, also why my zoas dont want to open fully.  I bought a hydrometer because I had a feeling the refractometer wasn't right, my salinity was waaay high!😬

 

I can't believe I only lost my candy cane.  Grateful, but surprised.

[sadie]

I added about 1/2 gal of FW to my tank each day.  I had a prob with high KH, and now that I have the salinity to around 1.025, my KH is at 9.7, imagine that.  Wish I had figured this out sooner.

 

I think I finally have everything where it should be.

 

I now understand why they call this a journey.  Wow, it's been crazy.  I feel like I've been trying to figure something out for like 3 yrs!  Some of my coral (yellow polyps, mushroom and pallys) aren't too happy.  They were the more recently added though.  I think the others just got use to the high salinity and KH.

[billygoat]

On 10/25/2019 at 7:05 AM, sadie said:

Been using the cup to feed my acan, there was a breech!!  My snail came up from below!!  I kicked him out and another popped up!😜

Love those sneaky nassarius snails! If there is something to eat, they will find a way to get to it. I guess that's what makes them such effective cleaners.

 

17 minutes ago, sadie said:

 

I now understand why they call this a journey.  Wow, it's been crazy.  I feel like I've been trying to figure something out for like 3 yrs!  Some of my coral (yellow polyps, mushroom and pallys) aren't too happy.  They were the more recently added though.  I think the others just got use to the high salinity and KH.

That's amazing to hear about your refractometer! I kind of wonder about mine as well, since it's very old (20+ years; it was a hand-me-down from my mother from her days as an aquarist). Seems to calibrate fine though, so hopefully I am okay.

 

And yeah, it sure is one heck of a journey. Sometimes when it comes to reefing I feel like the more I learn, the more I realize how little I know. But it's great to hear that you're having a good time and learning along the way. And I like your little tank a lot! The BioCube is a great AIO with a lot of very devoted followers here, so I think you've made a good choice with that one. I'll be following along! 😁

[sadie]

UPDATE:

 

After adding the second batch of pods and rotifers my water got a little cloudy, then I had algae grow in pretty quick.  I tweezed it off my acans, wasn't able to get it all so I don't think they are too happy.

 

I pulled my rock out last night while doing a WC and scrubbed the rock.  One of my main rocks had this beautiful blue/purple coraline growing all over the bottom so when I put it back in my tank, I flipped it over,

 

Since getting the new refractometer my KH is stable at 9.9.  FINALLY!!  Some of my coral are still mad (zoas and a little purple mushroom), but things have not been stable since adding them.  Now that things are stable, I'm hoping to see a happier tank. 

FTS and a pic of that blue/purple coraline (taken under white light)

 

[sadie]

I FINALLY have coraline algae growing on my back wall! I thought I had it a bit ago, but they were those little spirorbis worms, which I've never had growing on my back wall.  They usually grow in my back chambers, but oh well.  I def. have some purple coraline on my back wall.

[sadie]

My giant snail, Godzilla, died today.  😢 He'd been in the same spot for 2 days which was kinda weird, but he seemed fine.  I found him kinda belly up the next day and flipped him over, he moved a bit, but then no activity.  He was so awesome, I'm gonna miss him.  Tank looks so empty without him.

[sadie]

It's been only a week since Godzilla died and I can't believe the algae growing in my tank.  😲 He must have been eating like 90% of it.  It is too risky to do an online order (snow storms and delays etc.)  so I went to LFS and got a good collection.  I got 2 turbos (kinda small), 3 astraea, 3 bumble bee, 3 small nassarius and they had a nice looking pulsing zinia so I got that.  The snails went right to work cleaning and my zinia opened up right away!

 

my white toad stool is finally growing too. 

 

 

[sadie]

Noticed this morning one of my acans is splitting.  I thought it was, but wasn't sure, but now you can def. see it is.  All my snails from LFS lived and my pulsing xenia is going great.

[sadie]

I bought 2 zebra turbos and couldn't find them anywhere, thought maybe they died, but didn't see their shells either.  So I figured they were hiding in the rock somewhere.  I pulled out my media tower to clean it and heard a scraping noise, it was one of my turbos.  I felt so bad, it got real hard to pull it out or put it back, so I had to just pull it out. I looked over his shell and it didn't look cracked or anything, but I did have a long scratch mark down my tower.  It ended up dying.☹️ I feel so bad.  The other turbo was in a back chamber too.  I put him in the front where I need him.

 

On a good note, my zoas are finally opening.  I had to dip them again in peroxide, along with another zoa, my acan and a mushroom.  My zoas opened up right after, my acans and mushroom are still mad at me. 

[sadie]

I've been having trouble with algae for a bit.  I went back on my journal here and looked in my tank log and found the trouble started when I changed my lights back in Oct.  It wasn't too bad until I lost my giant turbo snail last month.  Since then it has really gotten out of control.  I have to take all my rocks out and scrub them weekly.  I had a sinus infection last week was only able to do a WC and WOW did the algae get crazy!!  I scrubbed everything today, scrapping the top layer of the sand and I'm switching my lights back to the schedule I had in Oct, before I changed it.

 

Hopefully that works.  I will also pick up more snails.  My zoas are doing so great, I'm afraid when I switch it back they will hate me.😨  we'll see.  I also l LOVE my pulsing xenia.  5 minutes back in my tank and all happy!

[billygoat]

Just wanted to chime in and say great job keeping up with the journal, and I'm glad to see it ended up being useful as you were able to look back and check out what you did in the past to gain some insight into what's going on in the present. That's exactly what keeping a journal is all about, and I'm always glad to see it in action. 🤗

 

I recently had a similar algae episode due to a mistake with lighting. It's amazing how quickly they can take over when you crank up that light! Here's hoping everything is back to normal soon. 🤞

[sadie]

On 1/13/2020 at 10:06 PM, billygoat said:

Just wanted to chime in and say great job keeping up with the journal, and I'm glad to see it ended up being useful as you were able to look back and check out what you did in the past to gain some insight into what's going on in the present. That's exactly what keeping a journal is all about, and I'm always glad to see it in action. 🤗

 

I recently had a similar algae episode due to a mistake with lighting. It's amazing how quickly they can take over when you crank up that light! Here's hoping everything is back to normal soon. 🤞

Thanks.  When I see people debating on starting their own journal, I'm like-DO IT!  It really is a helpful tool.

[sadie]

Haven't posted a FTS, so I figured I would and give an update.  The algae has slowed down a bit, I put my lights back to what they were in Oct.  I did it slowly, changing it by an hour or so every now and then.  I also started doing WC every 4 days instead of every 10.  I lost my acan, 😪 I had him in the sand and just couldn't keep the algae off.  I did a 2nd peroxide dip for the full 2 min (last time I chickened out and just did 1 min).  I also tried tweezing the algae off, but it kept coming back.   Everything else is doing great.   My back wall is getting coraline all over it.

 

 

[sadie]

added a 3 head frogspawn and a GSP yesterday.  Dipped both.  The GSP just came as a mat, so I dried it off and glued it to a piece of tonga branch,  It's really mad at me, so might take a bit for it to open.  The frogspawn opened a little right away. Pictures are a little blurry.

[sadie]

this might be a better picture.  I used a tripod. 😉

[sadie]

Just noticed this new little colony that popped off my pulsing zinia. I LOVE this thing.  I could never keep zinia in any of my other tanks, it always shrunk and disappeared.  This one is doing so good. 

 

I just ordered 2 RFA, and a couple coral. Should be here Tue.  

[sadie]

the picture came out bad, but up in the top left behind the mother colony you can see the little white blob, that's the new colony. Not sure if my LFS is accepting trades right now, but I might call and see.

 

[banasophia]

13 minutes ago, sadie said:

Just noticed this new little colony that popped off my pulsing zinia. I LOVE this thing.  I could never keep zinia in any of my other tanks, it always shrunk and disappeared.  This one is doing so good. 

 

I just ordered 2 RFA, and a couple coral. Should be here Tue.  

 
Beautiful. I really love Xenia too!