Sadies Biocube 16

[sadie]

dang it, I put my spare heater in my new beta tank.  I actually thought I could take out my MT heater and heat it, but my tank is cooling down faster then the water is heating up.  😆  Oh well.  I'll have to put the water back into my gallon jugs and heat the way I use to.

[sadie]

I got  my TDS test thing today...Do I test my tank water or my RO water before mixing the salt in?

 

When I put it in my tank, it flashed oor which after calling the company means it's out of range.  She said it's not meant for salt water.

 

When I test my RO water it came out to 13.

 

Does this tell me anything I need to know- good or bad?

[banasophia]

29 minutes ago, sadie said:

I got  my TDS test thing today...Do I test my tank water or my RO water before mixing the salt in?

 

When I put it in my tank, it flashed oor which after calling the company means it's out of range.  She said it's not meant for salt water.

 

When I test my RO water it came out to 13.

 

Does this tell me anything I need to know- good or bad?

Yes, the TDS meter is for testing the purity of your freshwater before you mix the salt in. Ideally you want it to be 0. I would still recommend switching to distilled... regular RO is generally not recommended for a saltwater tank and I think the cost difference between RO and distilled is not too much. 

[banasophia]

3 hours ago, sadie said:

dang it, I put my spare heater in my new beta tank.  I actually thought I could take out my MT heater and heat it, but my tank is cooling down faster then the water is heating up.  😆  Oh well.  I'll have to put the water back into my gallon jugs and heat the way I use to.

Hmmm... I think leaving out the heater but using your new mixing bucket and pump would probably be better than going back to your old mixing method... as long as your 2 gallons is room temperature it would probably be okay... I didn’t heat my water change water up in the beginning. 
 

Maybe others will chime in on this though. 

[sadie]

2 hours ago, banasophia said:

Hmmm... I think leaving out the heater but using your new mixing bucket and pump would probably be better than going back to your old mixing method... as long as your 2 gallons is room temperature it would probably be okay... I didn’t heat my water change water up in the beginning. 
 

Maybe others will chime in on this though. 

I did just take out the heater and left it mixing for a while.  I actually liked mixing in the one bucket,  I only had to test for salinity once.  But I do have to heat the water. I keep the water downstairs and room temp is about 60, upstairs it's 70.  I will just pick up another heater.  I don't like not having a spare for whatever reason.  

 

I am going to switch to distilled, I have about 8 gallons of RO I need to use up.  Maybe I will do 50/50 until all the RO is gone.

 

thanks again for all your help.  

[sadie]

Woo Hoo!!  I just got my test results back from ICP.  I had my tank water tested and the RO water tested I use for WC.

 

I don't really know what I'm looking for.  I just realized that when you click a square (like chlorine) it will show you side by side your tank and the fiji ocean so you can compare it. 

 

My chlorine is 19029.42 ppm the fiji ocean is 18641.65 ppm.  My RO water is 0, so where does the chlorine come from?

My sulfur is also high 924.53 ppm the fiji ocean is 858.81 ppm not sure if it's too high.

My phosphorous is .02 ppm fiji ocean is .09 ppm

My calcium is 458.49

My Mag is 1248.1

My sodium is 10230.25

My salinity is 32 PPT

My strontium 8.98 the fiji ocean is 7.63

My silicon is .14 the fiji ocean is .17

 

Is there anything here that stands out to anyone?

 

 

[Xanthine]

23 minutes ago, sadie said:

where does the chlorine come from?

From your salt. 🙂

Sodium (Na) + Chlorine (Cl) = Sodium Chloride / NaCl. 

Also chlorine the element is part of other salt compounds like magnesium chloride, potassium chloride ,etc. 

ICP testing breaks those compounds down to show element component results.

 

Nothing jumps out at me as extreme from those numbers. I'm assuming copper/zinc other metals were zero too?

(I went through the same thing recently with my cube, hoping ICP would provide a smoking gun for my issues. It didn't but it at least helps rule out some aspects.)

[banasophia]

2 hours ago, sadie said:

Woo Hoo!!  I just got my test results back from ICP.  I had my tank water tested and the RO water tested I use for WC.

 

I don't really know what I'm looking for.  I just realized that when you click a square (like chlorine) it will show you side by side your tank and the fiji ocean so you can compare it. 

 

My chlorine is 19029.42 ppm the fiji ocean is 18641.65 ppm.  My RO water is 0, so where does the chlorine come from?

My sulfur is also high 924.53 ppm the fiji ocean is 858.81 ppm not sure if it's too high.

My phosphorous is .02 ppm fiji ocean is .09 ppm

My calcium is 458.49

My Mag is 1248.1

My sodium is 10230.25

My salinity is 32 PPT

My strontium 8.98 the fiji ocean is 7.63

My silicon is .14 the fiji ocean is .17

 

Is there anything here that stands out to anyone?

 

 

Nice!! The salinity is a tiny bit low at 32 = 1.0241, but that is certainly within the acceptable range for a reef tank. Not sure about the other numbers... do the results have alerts that show which things are outside the normal range? 

[sadie]

1 hour ago, banasophia said:

Nice!! The salinity is a tiny bit low at 32 = 1.0241, but that is certainly within the acceptable range for a reef tank. Not sure about the other numbers... do the results have alerts that show which things are outside the normal range? 

They don't really show alerts that I could see, just the comparison to the fiji ocean.  I listed anything that was either higher or lower.  

 

I keep my salinity at 1.025.  BUT, that being said I am the one that calibrates it and reads it, so that could be human error. 😉

[sadie]

I noticed last week my lights looked like they were flickering, but I thought it was the water movement making it look like that.  I lifted the hood the other day and they are def flickering.  I called the company and they said there was something wrong.  In the process of getting it fixed. 

 

Maybe this is why my coral are not doing so great?  Maybe the lights haven't been working right for the last few months.

[sadie]

The company is sending me a new hood.  I have to say that was the best and quickest customer service I ever dealt with.

I really hope it helps my coral.

[banasophia]

1 hour ago, sadie said:

The company is sending me a new hood.  I have to say that was the best and quickest customer service I ever dealt with.

I really hope it helps my coral.

Oh wow... yeah maybe that will help. 

[sadie]

2 hours ago, banasophia said:

Oh wow... yeah maybe that will help. 

I hope so because I can't find another reason.  

[sadie]

OH MY GOODNESS WHAT A DIFFERENCE!!!!!  I can't believe how bright the new hood is!! 

 

It took me so long to unhook my chiller and get all my plugs out through the hood, that my coral are so mad right now, but I'm hoping tomorrow (or even later today) they will be loving this new light!!

 

I'm not sure it was in time to say my wowie mushroom or my daisy polyps, but everything else should be fine.

[banasophia]

Very nice! Eager to hear how the corals respond!! 

[banasophia]

1 hour ago, sadie said:

OH MY GOODNESS WHAT A DIFFERENCE!!!!!  I can't believe how bright the new hood is!! 

 

It took me so long to unhook my chiller and get all my plugs out through the hood, that my coral are so mad right now, but I'm hoping tomorrow (or even later today) they will be loving this new light!!

 

I'm not sure it was in time to say my wowie mushroom or my daisy polyps, but everything else should be fine.

I actually used the serrated blade on my leatherman to cut notches in the lid when I got my replacement a few months back, to make it easier to get the chiller and plugs in and out... it’s such a pain feeding everything through those small openings! 

[sadie]

49 minutes ago, banasophia said:

it’s such a pain feeding everything through those small openings! 

yes it was!  I was glad I did it though.  My husband cleaned out all the hoses and blew out my chiller fan.  It all needed a good cleaning.  My RFA are already open more then they have been and I swear their color looks better too.  My GSP have been coming out a bit.  A few here and there and right now there are so many out.  More then i have seen in a few months.

 

It would be sooo good if this is what was making everything shrink.

[banasophia]

3 hours ago, sadie said:

yes it was!  I was glad I did it though.  My husband cleaned out all the hoses and blew out my chiller fan.  It all needed a good cleaning.  My RFA are already open more then they have been and I swear their color looks better too.  My GSP have been coming out a bit.  A few here and there and right now there are so many out.  More then i have seen in a few months.

 

It would be sooo good if this is what was making everything shrink.

Omg yes I should do that with my chillers before I burn them out! 

[sadie]

After exchanging the hoods, there is a HUGE difference in lighting.  I can't believe how bad they got.  It must have happened sooooo slowly so I didn't notice.  Every now and then I would look at my tank and think it didn't look right (the lighting), but thought it was just me.

 

I feel like running out and buying a bunch of coral now, but I am going to wait and make sure these guys recover.  Then I will know for sure it was the bad hood.

 

Updated pictures:

 

 

[sadie]

I'm curious to see if you can see the difference in lighting in the pictures, so I want to see them side by side.  A FTS from 12.13.20 and the one I just posted:

 

[sadie]

I just noticed how much coraline I lost on the back wall!🥵

[banasophia]

11 minutes ago, sadie said:

I just noticed how much coraline I lost on the back wall!🥵

I’m sure it will grow back 

[Saltysheep]

7 hours ago, sadie said:

I'm curious to see if you can see the difference in lighting in the pictures, so I want to see them side by side.  A FTS from 12.13.20 and the one I just posted:

 

Definitely noticeable 

[Micro-Reefs Aquariums]

On 6/20/2018 at 1:39 PM, sadie said:

I did some research and I guess this tank is made of acrylic (even though the web site I bought it from says glass)  I guess you can't use the scrubby magfloats or it will scratch it up.  Someone said they used the magic eraser and several ppl tried it and loved it.  So I took a piece a bit bigger then my mag float, cut out a hole and stuffed the scrubby thing in there and it works great!  Can't go as fast, and not sure how it will do on stubborn algae but it cleaned it nice.  

 

Best news since me coming back from my hyper sleep!

 

[sadie]

Best news since me coming back from my hyper sleep!

 

But then I found out it IS glass and the nano mags work fine the way they are.  😁

 

I too was out of the loop for a while.  I started a 12 gal Aquapod in 2000.  It got old so I got a JBJ Nano cube.  I always had a tank, but when life bot crazy the tank got neglected (nothing died, just looked ugly) I just maintained for years, not adding anything.  Then around 2015 I decided I wanted to get back into it and get my tank beautiful again.  I couldn't believe how much things changed.  I think I am FINALLY on the track now!

 

Welcome back.