New here - 29 gallon Biocube

[llebcire]

It’s been a weeks since my last water change and I covered the algae and aiptasia with a kalkwasser paste last Wednesday - getting ready to do it again today.

 

-Eric 

 

 

 

 

[llebcire]

Pics from this morning.

 

Probably a water change tomorrow then some more kalkwasser. Gaining and only a few spots left but this will be a forever battle.

 

-Eric 

 

 

[llebcire]

Been a while since I’ve posted.

 

Tank is just over 1 year old and nothing has changed recently. Still fighting my bubble algae battle 😞.

 

Last Tuesday I dosed my first round of Vibrant. Doing a water change today and dosing again - I noticed that within a few days the bubbles turned pale - this is what would happen 24 - 48 hours after using kalkwasser - but it would always come back within a few weeks.  
 

I should have enough for 12 weeks - dosing 1ml/gallon/week so 20ml weekly.

 

-Eric 

 

Pics from just now -

 

 

[llebcire]

Today I'll apply my third dose of Vibrant.

 

Bubble algae continues to diminish and slowly disappear. Last week I did have a few green bubbles scattered around and this week they're all pale/translucent or open.

 

Pics from today below - as well as my next project Aiptasia!

 

-Eric

 

 

[llebcire]

Today will be my 5th dose of Vibrant and I need a water change prior.

 

I'm seeing my SPS lose color over the last week - initially I thought it was due to the Vibrant but for some reason I totally missed the fact that I might have die off from the algae which would fuel diatoms/aiptasia and negatively impact SPS.

 

Will be doing a 10g change today which should be roughly 50% volume in a 29g.

 

-Eric

 

 

[llebcire]

SPS is dead, red hair algae, diatoms and aiptasia.

 

Leads me to believe a significant increase in nutrients from bubble algae die off created the nuisance, impacted the SPS and is feeding the aiptasia.  Another water change today, will start addressing aiptasia by injecting with lemon juice, and will perform frequent small changes to get tank back on track.  I setup my RO/DI as a local store doubled their RO from $0.50 to $1.00/gallon which doesn't make it cost effective - and I have a 16g LED Biocube that was given to me so I'll need more water.

 

Take away?  Vibrant does work on bubble algae.  However, use caution as it can overload nutrients which may kill SPS.

 

-Eric

 

 

[llebcire]

Looks like I’m back to new tank syndrome.

 

-Eric

 

 

[llebcire]

Threw in the proverbial towel and tore the tank down.

 

This tank never really took off after nearly 2 years.  I re-used rock from my old 120g that likely had nuisance algae sitting dormant along with whatever I picked up using some rock that came with the tank.  After dosing Vibrant to get rid of bubble algae and discovering an Aiptasia eating filefish that eradicated all the Aiptasia I thought I had turned a corner.  2 weeks ago I lost all my SPS (montipora, spongodes, encrusting SPS) over the course of 48 hours with no apparent reason (all tests fine) which was the final straw.

 

And - when discussing the issue with my wife she volunteered we should look for a larger tank as she enjoyed my 120g (was heavily stocked) so I found a 92g corner Oceanic reef ready that I'll build.  I saved the remaining coral from this tank (removed frags and freshwater dipped), setup a small 14g LED Biocube with an unused piece of Marco, and will build the new tank.  I took all of my rock (including other leftover rock) and bleached it for a week (10:1) then soaked in fresh water for a week and now it's drying.

 

I kept the coral frags from this tank and the fish - everything else will be from tanks that were never in the Biocube and the previous rock/sand will be bleached.

 

-Eric