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Waterbox Cubed (365 day challenge)


McCune

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July FTS 

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I have not added much in the way of corals lately. Only new corals are the orange lobo, teal blastro and a small piece of the obligatory kryptonite candy canes.

 

My St Thomas shroom has been pissed off lately. Somehow my large under waterworld Cookie Monster chalice flipped onto the St Thomas. Luckily it neither coral was killed. The St Thomas actually split from the incident and I traded the split for a large green carpet nem for my anemone tank.

Here are a few corals I snapped pics of4B19AB22-2057-433F-867C-31C16C00ED92.thumb.jpeg.ef2ddbb15bab1fe15eff2ca15c10af08.jpeg1071C7D2-5213-4D05-9E99-E5644DEA85D4.thumb.jpeg.1ebfb5854755349a9b81ea05bd5cb915.jpeg8DD11775-8A50-4CC9-BF81-F1205299FC37.thumb.jpeg.f7ed90db4d1fc3a88c8023925dc60d83.jpeg110A8188-E8D8-4EBE-A018-C8EB13B9A0C4.thumb.jpeg.61fc4fe16209566f9e00849865e255a8.jpeg75B93CC8-5294-466F-B0A7-D618DEEFC8F3.thumb.jpeg.60ea7da5a952bcbb034c32e3e8787c4b.jpeg7D203324-035C-43E7-9791-C3065286BDC9.thumb.jpeg.7e7f2a87d3bdad1d2aa649c37ed87b4d.jpeg95A5EACE-1DF7-4C50-BBA7-4A9844C3ED97.thumb.jpeg.78fa87d7fbd09db08f2a0e959a507fc0.jpeg

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I have to say that tank has been going pretty well so far. I have been doing weekly 5 gallon water changed with Tropic Marin Pro salt.  I have not does the tank with anything other then Vibrant which has helped with an small algae issue I had pooping up. Tank has been getting slow growth and some of the corals are just coloring up while others are still a little dull. I will start testing the water more often to see if I need to start dosing Tropic Marin all for reef. I used it once before on another tank and had amazing results with it.

I am just going to keep plugging along with the tank, I don’t know if I will be adding much more coral to this tank I might just place what I have and let it grow in.

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I think your tank has a nice assortment of coral and letting it grow in is a good plan. Most likely at some point when at the LFS you will see something that pops and add it. I think too often we all want the full tank look and put more coral in than needed then they fight.

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9 hours ago, debbeach13 said:

I think your tank has a nice assortment of coral and letting it grow in is a good plan. Most likely at some point when at the LFS you will see something that pops and add it. I think too often we all want the full tank look and put more coral in than needed then they fight.


This tank ended up with all the corals I had in my larger 36x18x18 because for some reason that went through a phase when I tried to implement a kalk stirrer with Kalk dosing. I took everything out and filled the Waterbox. I think I will actually mount some of the corals as nothing in there is mounted and may take some pieces out to open up space.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

I went down to Cape Cod for a week with my family. We had a great vacation and was a nice change of pace. 

 

While unloading the truck I realized that during the heat wave we had a breaker tripped on the second floor which shut off that ac. Apparently on that same circuit is also the WiFi router in the house. That went off which meant that my apex was basically useless. I went into the garage and flipped the breaker back on. Almost immediately my phone began going nuts with apex notifications for high temps. 
 

I logged into my apex fusion and realized what happened during my week away. The tank was 85 degrees for three days and 84 for another two. The day I returned the tank was still at 82 plus. I began grabbing fans and anything else I could use to help get tank temperatures down. 

 

My Cadlights 50 long looked terrible the tank was covered in red slime algae and the glass was almost blocked from view. As I looked into that tank I noticed only one fish swimming around.
Not good.

All of the maxi mini nems and rock flowers looked fine along with the large lime green carpet anemone.

Unfortunately I lost my royal gramma I’ve had for about four years. I also lost a long nose hawk and my juvenile emperor angel. No signs of any of the fish in the tank, but the skimmer was packed with black skimmate that was borderline unbearable when I emptied the cup.

 

Now onto the Waterbox cube. The cube was not looking good at all. All the corals looked dull and not in great shape. I did a few 5 gallons water changes during the week to try to bounce back, honestly it hasn’t shown any difference.
 

So far the death toll 

Joker torch

3 headed frogspawn

acan mini colony 

orange hammer
teal and orange shroom 

lost several heads of kryptonite candy cane

Bloodshot zoas 


corals that have receded or bleached 

bubble gum monster Chalice

cookie monster chalice 

Acanthophyllia

red monti 

 

The tank looks like crap right now. Honestly coming back to see my tanks in that state was so disheartening. I have had things like this happened before and I know it is part of the hobby, but 

 

IT SUCKS!!!

 

we will see what happens I don’t have a good feeling about some of the corals. I will continue to monitor and see if I can get them back on track. 
 

I will post a monthly FTS

 

 

 

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How I’m feeling right about now 

 

Also lost my pair of blue azures dart frogs from the heat. 

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23 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

How the temperature now?

Temp has been fine since I got home.

it was one of those things that you never expect to happen. A breaker tripped which shut off the WiFi which rendered the 2 apex units useless. 
Then the neighbor who was watching the dog shut the basement door and the basement more or less turned into a sauna.

 

Tank jumped to 84 in one day then stayed at or just over 85 for three plus days then dropped back to 84.

 

It completely sucks and I lost a lot of coral from this tank, thankfully all these fish made it. Fish in my Cadlights 50 long did not fare so well lost 3 fish in there buty carpet nem and all the maxi mini and rock flowers in that tank look perfect still.

 

On a spectate note I have been thinking about doing an upgrade and had been tossing money aside for a while. I decided to scrap that idea for the time and redo my basement over.

BUT I have a reef buddy who needed some quick cash this week and offered up some of his most prizes corals to me, which he is holding until my tanks are good again.

i don’t think any of those corals will be landing in the cube but I will be getting some nice LPS from him.

 

I also decided and convince my wife since I’m not buying a big tank right now that I should setup a tank on the main living floor.

That will be a Mr Aqua 30 gallon 24x24x12 low iron tank. I will start a thread for that tank once it gets started. It will be a lot of building and customizing. 

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Unfortunately the hits keep coming 

green with yellow tip indo torch died

Green and teal favia

a few heads of frogspawn 

and my aussie gold looks crappy

I don't know what is going on doing water changes temps are stable and parameters are in line 

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Tank is looking a little better.
I have been doing a weekly 5 gallon water change with Tropic Marin pro. 

I have been doing a feeding each Friday for the coral. I am using Red Sea AB+ and coralmax food. I’m hoping to just keep things stable, slow and steady wins the race .

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Ugh... I totally feel you... my central air failed and I am still feeling the effects... I was warned by another reefer that corals that look okay may go downhill weeks later as a sort of delayed reaction (they had the same thing happen to their tank before). My tank feels sad right now. I need to get some pics of it and try and recover.

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7 hours ago, Tamberav said:

Ugh... I totally feel you... my central air failed and I am still feeling the effects... I was warned by another reefer that corals that look okay may go downhill weeks later as a sort of delayed reaction (they had the same thing happen to their tank before). My tank feels sad right now. I need to get some pics of it and try and recover.

Every time something happens to one of my tanks it is so disheartening. It just drains you. It also really helps when I loose corals and then next time I want to buy something and my wife says, "so it will just die again." When the tank is looking good and everything is going well she is much more supportive of the cost and upkeep.

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1 hour ago, McCune said:

Every time something happens to one of my tanks it is so disheartening. It just drains you. It also really helps when I loose corals and then next time I want to buy something and my wife says, "so it will just die again." When the tank is looking good and everything is going well she is much more supportive of the cost and upkeep.

My husband used to call me the a "fish killer" if a fish died for any reason, even when a fish arrived DOA in the mail. 😭 He quit picking on me at some point about it though. I guess I don't order much online anymore. He doesn't bully me about coral though. I think he might actually secretly feel bad when a fish dies. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Unfortunately the Aussie gold bit the dust as well. Aggravated with the tank right now. I am thinking about possibly moving this tank to my office in the school I work at. I had one last year and had to bring it home when Covid hit. If I do that this tank will become zoas mushrooms rock flower nems and maxi mini nems as the care level and forgiving care requirements 

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September FTS

looks a little sad these days 

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some of the corals are looking bette then they have the last month or so. The blastos are popping heads out like crazy and look nice and plump.

my zoas have started to get bigger again since I dropped the light intensity 

the chunk of red cap looked dead a few months back but the color is really popping and brightening up the tank

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  • 4 weeks later...

So much like the rest of 2020 the fall has been a dumpster fire for me and my family.E0F1124B-D67A-4949-8EF5-680DBB0D3D94.thumb.jpeg.792b8bea183469aab7344a9958949d69.jpeg
 

A little over two weeks ago during a wind storm I won the lottery. A neighbors tree crushed my Toyota Tundra= totaled 

my wife’s MDX= totaled 

and did a lot for damage to my house. 
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so needless to say the tanks have not received any TLC as I try to work through this insurance nightmare. Trying to fight to get actual real values for the cars. Trying to buy a car or especially a truck right now is difficult from the shut downs this year.

i still need to have my house fixed as well but everyone is all booked up.

 

2020 blows and I can’t wait for it to end.

 

 

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I do have to say things have taken an unexpected and upgraded turn. Accidentally found this beauty when we went to pick up my wife’s new car. It followed me home.

2020 Tundra 1794 TRD off road 

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  • 3 weeks later...

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