New here - 29 gallon Biocube

[llebcire]

Update from today.

 

-Eric

 

 

[llebcire]

Update at 1 month 11 days.

 

Tank is stable and this Saturday it'll be 2 weeks since my last water change (planning on 5 gallons). I tested parameters last weekend and all is good.

 

Knocked the hair algae down last Wednesday (scrubbed rocks with toothbrush) and some of it is back. Looking at the growth pattern it seems to be primarily 3 rocks and I wonder if these are the ones I recycled from the previous owner so hopefully whatever is fueling it will be depleted soon. Diatoms have virtually disappeared.

 

Corals look healthy and this is the slow part of the process.

 

-Eric

[llebcire]

Water change yesterday (Sunday) after scrubbing algae off rocks and frags.

 

Nothing much has changed and I'm just letting things stabilize and mature before adding more corals and fish.

 

-Eric

 

Before

[llebcire]

After

 

[billygoat]

Looking pretty good to me! Algal growth seems to be progressing as per the usual pattern, and that is always a good sign. Waiting this period out can be a little difficult, especially when you're sitting on a cycled tank and all you want to do is fill it up with livestock, but I think your decision to be patient is a good one. 😊

[llebcire]

8 hours ago, billygoat said:

Looking pretty good to me! Algal growth seems to be progressing as per the usual pattern, and that is always a good sign. Waiting this period out can be a little difficult, especially when you're sitting on a cycled tank and all you want to do is fill it up with livestock, but I think your decision to be patient is a good one. 😊

 

Thank you!

 

I haven't had to wait for years as I seem to always have an established tank (last new setup was 2008) but luckily we have a lot going on right now to keep me sidetracked.

 

I agree the algae growth is a normal part of the cycle, however the algae seems to be concentrated on 2 - 3 rocks (incidentally directly under LEDs) and I don't know if there's excess nutrients in these rocks.  The light is powerful as I have a "Chinese black box LED" from Reef Radiance with 165w of power - quite a bit to be so close to a small tank.  Previously I ran two of these over my 120g RR and the tank measured 48 x 24 x 24 with the lights 12"+ from the surface.  I do have them at the lowest setting and run actinics from 2pm - 10pm and daylight from 4pm - 9pm and the corals seem to love it.

 

-Eric

[llebcire]

Update right at 1 month 3 weeks.

 

Tank is stable and the hair algae really appears to be subsiding - I manually removed last weekend and I'm not seeing regrowth.

 

-Eric

 

 

[llebcire]

While growth shots aren't that special, I did notice some growth over the last 30 days (January 21 through last night) which tells me my tank is healthy. While I do some testing, over the years I've learned to rely on what I see as a gauge for overall tank health.

 

2 of 5 specimens below and first one was a heavily discounted coral as it was distressed when I bought it.

 

-Eric

[TatorTaco]

That's great to see such growth on the frags!  

 

I'm not a detail oriented person, which really hinders my success in the hobby.  Taking pictures of things and then comparing them to a new picture taken 30 days later has been the best method for me to gauge coral health. 

[llebcire]

New addition and a hitchhiker.

 

Yesterday I swapped some old equipment for a Cali Tort frag.  Tank is young (60 days) but it was a great deal and this is supposed to be one of the hardier specimens.

 

While acclimating the coral, I saw a hitchhiker that surprised me and appears to be a stomatella snail.  I started this tank with mostly dry rock (dry for over a year) and a few pieces of existing rock that cam with the tank, however I rinsed that rock and let it sit outside for a few days.  It's possible this snail survived in the existing rock however most likely came in on a frag.  I assume they grow quickly as I examine frags before putting them in the tank (removed a starfish from palys) and this is sizable - I've never freshwater dipped frags.

 

-Eric

 

First pic while acclimating tort:

 

Later it found the new coral:

[llebcire]

No pictures but some unwanted hitch hikers. This morning I saw a small aiptasia on a frag so I pulled the frag and soaked the area with vinegar and baking soda - never done that before (usually kalk paste) so we'll see what happens. Tonight I noticed a small starfish and pulled it out.

 

Unfortunately with both where there's one there's more.

 

-Eric

[llebcire]

Vinegar and baking soda didn't work.

 

First one came back and now I have another on a separate rock so I tried boiling water from a syringe (no needle) and did it in the tank so it probably won't work. Next option will be to dig out my kalk.

 

-Eric

 

[llebcire]

Been a while since I posted.

 

Everything seems stable as the tank matures however I now have some lettuce algae and I'm seeing the start of bubble algae.

 

Plan on a water change today so I can restock with a month or two of RO as I may have an extended break with the family soon and need to limit travel for 30 - 60 days. That will give me time to stay ahead of the algae and figure out how to take those awesome coral pics I see around.  I have a Pixel 3a and Snapseed but can't get the same "pop"!

 

-Eric

 

 

[llebcire]

Had my first fatality 😞

 

Haven't been posting as I've been busy with our "new normal" but 2 weeks ago I picked up a couple more zoas and a frag of digi that didn't make it.  Digi, in my experience, has always been fairly hardy and although this is a newer tank (12/26/2019) it seems to be stable and I have a cali tort which is fine.  You can see it starting to starting to perish in the first photo dated 4/2/2020.

 

I did purchase 25 gallons of 0 TDS RO 2 weeks ago and will do a 5 gallon WC tomorrow after checking params.

 

Sorry for the poor pics - I recently changed from a Google Pixel 3a to an iPhone 11Pro and can't figure out the camera.

 

-Eric

 

 

 

[billygoat]

2 hours ago, llebcire said:

ad my first fatality 😞

 

Haven't been posting as I've been busy with our "new normal" but 2 weeks ago I picked up a couple more zoas and a frag of digi that didn't make it.  Digi, in my experience, has always been fairly hardy and although this is a newer tank (12/26/2019) it seems to be stable and I have a cali tort which is fine.  You can see it starting to starting to perish in the first photo dated 4/2/2020.

Sorry to hear about the Digi. Weird that the Cali tort would be doing fine right next to it, but I guess there are a lot of factors at play that could cause it to decline - many of which, of course, are completely out of your control. Tank looks good overall though! 😁

[llebcire]

1 hour ago, billygoat said:

Sorry to hear about the Digi. Weird that the Cali tort would be doing fine right next to it, but I guess there are a lot of factors at play that could cause it to decline - many of which, of course, are completely out of your control. Tank looks good overall though! 😁

Thanks!

 

It is odd that the acro would be fine the digi would perish - I’ll get another at a later date.

 

-Eric 

[llebcire]

5 month update - bubble algae and aiptasia!

 

Slightly elevated nitrates (<10) and struggling to keep alk above 7 without dosing - Instant Ocean??

 

-Eric

 

 

[llebcire]

Pics from this morning after cleaning and changing 5 gallons last night.

 

I’m planning on changing 5 gal every 2 weeks, dosing to keep alk  up and reducing my feeding significantly and only once a day.

 

-Eric

 

 

[llebcire]

2 months since last post - bubble and lettuce algae are getting worse.

 

Assuming it came in on a frag. Haven’t added anything for several months and I’m wondering if the rock is leeching something to fuel it. I’ve been doing 5 gallon water changes every 2 - 3 weeks with zero TDS RO/DI.  Thinking I’ll move to a 2.5 gallon change weekly - I’ve also got a small diatom outbreak which is strange at 7 months.

 

-Eric 

[llebcire]

New Wills 165w black box LED.

 

My Reef Radiance, also 165w black box, lost blue channel again and I've run these since December 2013.  Made a DIY stand to get the light off the tank - BRS recommends 14" and this ended up being 11.5" - I could raise it another 2" if needed.  I think I was cooking my Zoas as my previous light was on the glass about 2" from the water.

 

-Eric

 

 

[llebcire]

Tank has been up for 9 months and I’m still fighting algae. At this point I feel the rock must be leaching and I have 3 different types of algae. I also have a light outbreak of diatoms.

 

I am using Instant Ocean but my RO/DI tests at 000 (my city water tests at 850), I’ve been changing 5 gallons every 2 - 3 weeks, I only have three fish and feed lightly once a day.

 

Last week I added a small amount of phosban and carbon, and I’ve started nuking the bubble algae with kalkwasser weekly.

 

-Eric 

 

 

[llebcire]

Using kalkwasser to nuke aiptasia and hair algae.

 

I’ve done this for years - I would be careful if you’ve never done this before or you will crash your tank.

 

Pics from this morning and again tonight after it cleared up - I’ll do it again in a few days.

 

-Eric 

 

 

[llebcire]

Tonight after 10 hours.

 

 

[llebcire]

Two days later - the algae turns clear before it disappears.  I’ll dose again next week and realize that die off has the potential to increase nutrients.

 

-Eric 

 

 

[Christopher Marks]

Great progress @llebcire, bubble algae is a serious nuisance to defeat!