ReefADoRe’s Biocube 16g - A very hard journey

[Ratvan]

Do the instructions state to do a large water change after? Looks a bit like the old Wolfman. I can only imagine that turning to sludge similar to how caulerpa goes sexual

[Tired]

I've actually been reading up on how to kill algae with flux (I've got bryopsis, which can't particularly be managed in the standard aquarium in any way other than to kill it), and GHA is expected to take a long time to die from it. 21 days or more, from what I saw. I'd turkey baster any dying stuff out, if you can, but your CUC should have a ball with it.

[Txplicit]

It looks like the dosing may be helping a bit.  My suggestion to you since I have dealt with every algae know to our hobby now, finish the dosing regiment, go dark for 3 days at least while you dose. Nothing in your tank requires light yet.  Don't water change too much because you can be setting up for potential problems with dinos once gha is dead and water is too pristine.  I am dealing with this now... or at least it looks like it.  

 

I told you my problems and solution was gfo reactor in back aio chamber.  I hung a breeding tank that has a pump attached, put chaeto and seachem matrix in it with led grow light. That's where I put the copepods and doses phytoplankton from algae barn.  The water from fuge trickles back down into chamber 3 and back into dt from return pump. My algae has subsided A LOT.  Water parameters are stable and I started putting in corals including a monti spa for water parameter trials.

 

Hope this helps.  

[Txplicit]

Oh regards to biodiversity, the refugium takes care of that with pods and macro and phyto.  That's why I emphasize it.  The gfo helps limit phos spikes preventing blooms. Refugium maintains the balance.

[ReefAdoRe]

So.... the bluefluxRX was an epic fail. GHA grew so I took out the rock. Scrubbed again. Scrubbed the tank. Bought two nice pieces of love rock to add biodiversity.  I’ve added phosphate sponge inside a filter bag. And added a bunch of filter floss. We will see! 

[ReefAdoRe]

On 10/27/2019 at 3:40 PM, Txplicit said:

It looks like the dosing may be helping a bit.  My suggestion to you since I have dealt with every algae know to our hobby now, finish the dosing regiment, go dark for 3 days at least while you dose. Nothing in your tank requires light yet.  Don't water change too much because you can be setting up for potential problems with dinos once gha is dead and water is too pristine.  I am dealing with this now... or at least it looks like it.  

 

I told you my problems and solution was gfo reactor in back aio chamber.  I hung a breeding tank that has a pump attached, put chaeto and seachem matrix in it with led grow light. That's where I put the copepods and doses phytoplankton from algae barn.  The water from fuge trickles back down into chamber 3 and back into dt from return pump. My algae has subsided A LOT.  Water parameters are stable and I started putting in corals including a monti spa for water parameter trials.

 

Hope this helps.  

Your tank looks amazing! 

[Tired]

I would stop scrubbing your rock, you're killing all kinds of things with that. Make sure you have enough snails, let the algae grow, and relax. Hair algae isn't toxic. It'll show back up- let it. Focus on biodiversity and cleanup crew, pull the algae off a bit with tweezers if you want, maybe add some macroalgae, and it'll fade in time. 

[ReefAdoRe]

Added chemipure elite blue to the filtration chamber as well.  I didn’t have anything in the filtration chamber before. I was only using live rock and cleaning as prevention. Tank is looking beautiful. 
My LFS gave me advice to rid the tank of as much of the GHA as I could, scrub the rock, and continue removing manually while the filtration and the new live rock start to do their jobs on the tank. 
To add more diversity, I also added 10lbs of live reef sand - I will post pic once it clears. 

[ReefAdoRe]

On 11/1/2019 at 6:24 PM, Tired said:

I would stop scrubbing your rock, you're killing all kinds of things with that. Make sure you have enough snails, let the algae grow, and relax. Hair algae isn't toxic. It'll show back up- let it. Focus on biodiversity and cleanup crew, pull the algae off a bit with tweezers if you want, maybe add some macroalgae, and it'll fade in time. 

I am hoping with addition of the two live rocks and the live sand, I have added enough biodiversity at this time. 😊  thank you for all of your help and time! 

[Txplicit]

2 hours ago, ReefAdoRe said:

I am hoping with addition of the two live rocks and the live sand, I have added enough biodiversity at this time. 😊  thank you for all of your help and time! 

I would stop scrubbing.  It is a short term fix.  I fixed my gha problem and tank parameters were immaculate.  Now, I have dinoflagellates.  I have a biocube 29.  The amount of room we have is limited due to no sump and aio.  I am now fighting dinos (which is much harder and resilient than gha) and putting in more pods, more nitrifying bacteria, and dumping in phyto and coralline algae to out compete the dinos for nutrient and real estate.  

 

My real life experience advise is to up your biodiversity.  They will out compete and balance your tank parameters better than scrubbing. I know you hate scrubbing and the maintenance.  I know I did. 😆

 

That little hob fuge did wonders for me, but my tank is lifeless so you may have an issue there.

[ReefAdoRe]

42 minutes ago, Txplicit said:

I would stop scrubbing.  It is a short term fix.  I fixed my gha problem and tank parameters were immaculate.  Now, I have dinoflagellates.  I have a biocube 29.  The amount of room we have is limited due to no sump and aio.  I am now fighting dinos (which is much harder and resilient than gha) and putting in more pods, more nitrifying bacteria, and dumping in phyto and coralline algae to out compete the dinos for nutrient and real estate.  

 

My real life experience advise is to up your biodiversity.  They will out compete and balance your tank parameters better than scrubbing. I know you hate scrubbing and the maintenance.  I know I did. 😆

 

That little hob fuge did wonders for me, but my tank is lifeless so you may have an issue there.

I’m def going to try this out and couple with the order from algae barn. I just don’t know how I would setup yet because I don’t haven refugium. Thanks for continuing to follow. 
 

im also going to stop scrubbing 🥴 it’s a pain in the u know what. Just wanted to remove one last time before adding the new rock and live sand. 

[ReefAdoRe]

On 10/27/2019 at 3:40 PM, Txplicit said:

water from fuge trickles back down into chamber 3 and back into dt from return pump

How exactly is this setup? I just ordered. 

[Wonderboy]

You can setup the chambers however you prefer - opt for a large open space for algae and a barrier (baffle and then rubble) that keeps the algae away from the output. It also requires an additional piece of equipment - it's designed for use with an air pump, however I use these for several freshwater 'fuges with small sumbersible water pumps instead (less noise). If using a pump, you would need something with less than 50 GPH so water can flow through the chambers correctly. Also I suggest a seperate, small light over this, on a timer, for running opposite hours of your DT light (will help keep pH stable).

[Wonderboy]

Light option

 

Pump option

[Wonderboy]

Hang on it's a hang on - is there a place to hang that thing on the back of your biocube?

[ReefAdoRe]

15 minutes ago, Wonderboy said:

Hang on it's a hang on - is there a place to hang that thing on the back of your biocube?

Yes right on back I can set it up. Thank you SO much!!!

[Txplicit]

6 hours ago, ReefAdoRe said:

How exactly is this setup? I just ordered. 

I pm'd you.  I can snap a picture for you when I get home and show you.

[Txplicit]

Again, I went lidless so you may have re-evaluate how it will work with your set up.  I wrapped the grow led light around the whole thing epoxying it to the fuge.  

I placed seachem matrix at the bottom to house nitrifying bacteria and pods.  Dropped a golf ball sized clump of chaeto, introduced pods to the fuge and dose phyto both from algaebarn.com.

 

It helps tremendously.

 

Good luck and let me know if you have other questions.

[ReefAdoRe]

Oh wow, that is a great setup! I don’t have the cover off of my Biocube though. I may have to slice a bit of it. 

5 hours ago, Txplicit said:

Good luck and let me know if you have other questions.

Thank you so much for your help again! I think this will really help out!

 

5 hours ago, Txplicit said:

placed seachem matrix at the bottom to house nitrifying bacteria and pods

Cannot wait to try this. 
 

do you clean this the same way you would clean the tank?

[Txplicit]

19 hours ago, ReefAdoRe said:

Oh wow, that is a great setup! I don’t have the cover off of my Biocube though. I may have to slice a bit of it. 

Thank you so much for your help again! I think this will really help out!

 

Cannot wait to try this. 
 

do you clean this the same way you would clean the tank?

You really don't have to clean with tank. It is housing beneficial bacteria and pods so you don't want to clean too often anyways.  I just prune the chaeto back, wipe the walls if algae sets in heavily and change maybe 10%.  Because that water is coming from the tank, as long as you do wc in dt, you will have newer supply of water circulate in.

 

I actually hope the water going in is dirty as can be so the pods, phyto, and chaeto have nutrients. Lol

[ReefAdoRe]

6 hours ago, Txplicit said:

actually hope the water going in is dirty as can be so the pods, phyto, and chaeto have nutrients

Actually never thought of this being important. I always thought I should have low low nutrients. I put the order in for the breeder. Now I’m going to order the refugian starter pack from algae barn. 

[Tired]

You don't want super low nutrients. That's the old wisdom, and it's not much good. It starves out things that you do want to grow, and allows pest algae (which can grow even when starved) to take over. You want reasonably low- lower than people generally keep freshwater planted tanks, but still with visible nitrates and phosphates. That lets your corals and everything feed, and lets you grow a nice diversity of algaes and pods so that any pest algae that shows up (because it's inevitable) is outcompeted. You don't want a super sterile tank, you want bacteria and little critters and nutrients and all that good stuff. That's what life grows on.

[ReefAdoRe]

As promised: tank with new sand bed and live rock. I will be taking photos of when I set up the refugium as well. 

[Txplicit]

You will probably o through a mini cycle due to new sand and rocks.  Just take it slow and turn lights off if you have to.  You have no corals yet so it should be easier to manage.  If you do experience a mini cycle, just shut of lights and let it cycle.  Test test and when nitrates are close to zero, test again for phosphates.

[Txplicit]

8 hours ago, Tired said:

You don't want super low nutrients. That's the old wisdom, and it's not much good. It starves out things that you do want to grow, and allows pest algae (which can grow even when starved) to take over. You want reasonably low- lower than people generally keep freshwater planted tanks, but still with visible nitrates and phosphates. That lets your corals and everything feed, and lets you grow a nice diversity of algaes and pods so that any pest algae that shows up (because it's inevitable) is outcompeted. You don't want a super sterile tank, you want bacteria and little critters and nutrients and all that good stuff. That's what life grows on.

+1 to this because you end up with dinoflagellates, and they are MUCH harder to deal with than gha.  This is why I have to black out my tank last night, dinos showed up.