11yr old 29G BioCube has seen it all (ReVamp)

[andrewjardin]

Hello all, I have had my 29G Oceanic BioCube since 2009 and let me tell you.. it has seen a lot throughout my time learning how to take care of a saltwater aquarium and to be honest.. I HAVEN'T DONE A GREAT JOB! I can admit that this tank needs some serious attention that I just have not been giving it for a long time.  I started it in high school, and it has been with me through college and several moves.  I am lazy when it comes to water changes and testing my parameters, and was lucky enough to keep a pretty nice tank for most of the years... 

 

These past couple of weeks my Duncan corals which had been perfectly healthy for months just started to detach from their skeletons..  I started coming online to read forums again and thought.. why haven't I been taking care of my tank and keeping up to date with what's going on?? I felt horrible that I couldn't even keep a Duncan alive anymore.  So I decided that I AM DONE LEAVING THINGS TO CHANCE!  I decided that I want to buckle down, learn way more about water chemistry, keep a schedule of my maintenance routines and get this tank into the best shape possible!  I owe it to the critters whom have lived in this tank and put up with my bologna for too long.

 

I wanted to start this thread so that I can get the advice I need, hopefully show some rewarding progress and maybe inspire someone else who feels overwhelmed and lazy, when it comes to the water testing and maintenance that these aquariums need to thrive, that they can get into it as well! 🙂

 

 

SO my current setup:

29G ( 109.77 L)

24 X 22.2 X 20.5

Lighting: Compact Fluorescent + Moonlight  LED's (stock lighting)

Filtration: 2 stage filtration (Stock filtration, filter pad + bio balls)

Not sure how many lbs of LR + 2" of sand/crushed coral

 

Livestock:

Pair of ocellaris clowns (one is same age as tank, the other replaced her partner this year)

Skunk cleaner shrimp x1

Nassarius snails x4

 

GSP coral

2 heads of Duncans (which are currently very unhappy)

 

Recent params:

Temp: 26C (78.8F)

PH: 8.0

Ammonia: 0.15

Nitrite: 0

Nitrate: 20

SG: 1.024

(Doing a retest tonight)

 

I don't currently have the equipment to test other params but they are on their way in the mail.

I plan to do a DIY filter in the back and finally get rid of the 11yr old stock filtration system!

 

I have done an 80% water change a week and a half ago (Hadn't been done in probably 7 months)

Did another 25% change this morning.. corals are looking happier already.. but I am worried the Duncans will not recover.  I am also dealing with red slime algae and green hair algae, but have managed to get rid of most of it during the two water changes.

 

SORRY FOR THE LONG READ, AND TIA FOR ANY ADVICE 😁

 

Prepare your eyes for these photos.. I am embarrassed for what my tank has become 🙈

 

Oldest photo of tank

Second oldest photo of tank

Third oldest photo of tank

 

And then everything went downhill as I began to neglect it more as I got busy with school and work

Current photos

Anyone know what this macro algae is?

There are several of these (Jewel Anemones??) in my tank.. are they an issue?

 

[andrewjardin]

Updated Params:

Temp: 26C (78.8F)

PH: 8.5

Ammonia: (I am guessing 1.5 because I can't tell very well using the colour chart) looks to be between the first two colours?

Nitrite: 0

Nitrate: 20

SG: 1.024

 

kh: 240 (The highest range the API test offers... Salifert tests coming in mail soon)

 

What do you think this Ammonia is reading?

 

 

[WV Reefer]

17 minutes ago, andrewjardin said:

Hello all, I have had my 29G Oceanic BioCube since 2009 and let me tell you.. it has seen a lot throughout my time learning how to take care of a saltwater aquarium and to be honest.. I HAVEN'T DONE A GREAT JOB! I can admit that this tank needs some serious attention that I just have not been giving it for a long time.  I started it in high school, and it has been with me through college and several moves.  I am lazy when it comes to water changes and testing my parameters, and was lucky enough to keep a pretty nice tank for most of the years... 

 

These past couple of weeks my Duncan corals which had been perfectly healthy for months just started to detach from their skeletons..  I started coming online to read forums again and thought.. why haven't I been taking care of my tank and keeping up to date with what's going on?? I felt horrible that I couldn't even keep a Duncan alive anymore.  So I decided that I AM DONE LEAVING THINGS TO CHANCE!  I decided that I want to buckle down, learn way more about water chemistry, keep a schedule of my maintenance routines and get this tank into the best shape possible!  I owe it to the critters whom have lived in this tank and put up with my bologna for too long.

 

I wanted to start this thread so that I can get the advice I need, hopefully show some rewarding progress and maybe inspire someone else who feels overwhelmed and lazy, when it comes to the water testing and maintenance that these aquariums need to thrive, that they can get into it as well! 🙂

 

 

SO my current setup:

29G ( 109.77 L)

24 X 22.2 X 20.5

Lighting: Compact Fluorescent + Moonlight  LED's (stock lighting)

Filtration: 2 stage filtration (Stock filtration, filter pad + bio balls)

Not sure how many lbs of LR + 2" of sand/crushed coral

 

Livestock:

Pair of ocellaris clowns (one is same age as tank, the other replaced her partner this year)

Skunk cleaner shrimp x1

Nassarius snails x4

 

GSP coral

2 heads of Duncans (which are currently very unhappy)

 

Recent params:

Temp: 26C (78.8F)

PH: 8.0

Ammonia: 0.15

Nitrite: 0

Nitrate: 20

SG: 1.024

(Doing a retest tonight)

 

I don't currently have the equipment to test other params but they are on their way in the mail.

I plan to do a DIY filter in the back and finally get rid of the 11yr old stock filtration system!

 

I have done an 80% water change a week and a half ago (Hadn't been done in probably 7 months)

Did another 25% change this morning.. corals are looking happier already.. but I am worried the Duncans will not recover.  I am also dealing with red slime algae and green hair algae, but have managed to get rid of most of it during the two water changes.

 

SORRY FOR THE LONG READ, AND TIA FOR ANY ADVICE 😁

 

Prepare your eyes for these photos.. I am embarrassed for what my tank has become 🙈

 

Oldest photo of tank

Second oldest photo of tank

Third oldest photo of tank

 

And then everything went downhill as I began to neglect it more as I got busy with school and work

Current photos

Anyone know what this macro algae is?

There are several of these (Jewel Anemones??) in my tank.. are they an issue?

 

I’ve seen worse. 🤷🏻‍♀️ 
 

seriously though it doesn’t look that bad. Nothing some extra maintenance wouldn’t solve.  

[andrewjardin]

Just now, WV Reefer said:

I’ve seen worse. 🤷🏻‍♀️ 
 

seriously though it doesn’t look that bad. Nothing some extra maintenance wouldn’t solve.  

Well thanks, I guess I have just been feeling pretty hopeless about it so I'm going to change that attitude and see what I can accomplish!  Couldn't do it without all of the inspiration on these forums!

[WV Reefer]

Just now, andrewjardin said:

Well thanks, I guess I have just been feeling pretty hopeless about it so I'm going to change that attitude and see what I can accomplish!  Couldn't do it without all of the inspiration on these forums!

I’d do a deep clean of the back followed by water change to get rid of any nasties that were released and to get that ammonia to zero. How are your clean up crew numbers? 

[andrewjardin]

39 minutes ago, WV Reefer said:

I’d do a deep clean of the back followed by water change to get rid of any nasties that were released and to get that ammonia to zero. How are your clean up crew numbers? 

Agreed, waiting on salt to come in the mail as I ran out today and I have to get out to the store soon to buy some razor blades to clean the glass and back wall, I also want to buy some tubing for siphoning while I clean, as mine was lost in my recent move somehow 🤨 

 

CUC is very lacking atm..

4x Nassarius

1x Skunk cleaner shrimp

Tons of those tiny brittle stars in the rock work 

Tons of Asternia stars (they reproduce like crazy!)

 

LFS is not currently open, however there is a location about an hour away doing curbside pickup 

[andrewjardin]

I received my salt and other purchases in the mail today! Woohoo!  For any other Canadians, there is an amazing site you can order from (reef supplies .ca) it's got a lot of options and much cheaper than purchasing from amazon!  Shipped to my house in 2 days!

 

These pieces for my DIY media basket had to be purchased at my local hardware store (Plexiglass is so expensive!!)

Egg crate = $17.99

Plexiglass = $70.00 for a full sheet the size of the egg crate, so I bought this last scrap in the store for $25.00

 

This was my online order, let's just say it was expensive, but I saved money by avoiding amazon!

I had heard that the salifert phosphate test is no bueno, so I bought the hanna checker instead

 

Also, I just discovered that apparently Chemi-pure blue is essentially equal to running Purigen + Chemo-pure elite, so... now I have extra 😂

 

I am going to attempt to test my water tonight to see where everything is currently at and get a cleaning done.  Busy weekend ahead so won't be around to do too much else until next week.

[Aqua Splendor]

Are you from Montréal?
You bought the right tool, careful to not overfeed with Reef Roids, take your time with that otherwise you will build up phosphate.
I personnaly don't like Purigen in saltwater (I llove it in freshwater)

[andrewjardin]

7 minutes ago, Aqua Splendor said:

Are you from Montréal?
You bought the right tool, careful to not overfeed with Reef Roids, take your time with that otherwise you will build up phosphate.
I personnaly don't like Purigen in saltwater (I llove it in freshwater)

Sadly no, mais j'adore Montréal! I live in Ontario, about an hour southwest of Toronto

Thanks for the advice, I have never used reef roids before, but have heard how greatly they can benefit the corals (which I hope to have plenty of in the future, I am a huge fan of zoas!

 

Why don't you like Purigen in SW?

[Aqua Splendor]

I never felt it was really effective compare to freshwater for some reason, I don't know why.

Also the fact that you clean with Bleach water is a risk even if you follow the insctruction, it turn out, it's not worth it, better to throw away, wich defeat the purpose of it.

[andrewjardin]

Just finished doing water tests with all the new equipment

 

Temp: 26C

pH: 8.5

Ammonia: <0.15

Nitrite: 0

Nitrate: 40

Phosphorus: 0.2ppm

SG: 1.024

KH/Alk: 18.6dKH

Ca: 600

Mg: 1350

 

I ordered the Hanna Phosphate checker, but received the Phosphorus ULR?? Is this still measuring Phosphates?

And why the heck are my dKH and Ca so high? ... I do use tap water and live in an area with notoriously hard water, is that most likely the issue here?

 

[mipster]

Yay Canadian Reefers! Hour SW of Toronto, I'm guessing guelph, kitchener/waterloo area? I'm in Toronto myself. I recommend joining the GTA reefers and Ontario Reef Keepers facebook groups. Really active local community often selling used equipment and trading corals and livestock. It's been a huge help to me along with the members here.

2 hours ago, andrewjardin said:

Is this still measuring Phosphates?

 

Yes, you're good, it's the ultra low range phosphate checker which is what you want!

 

Be careful with the tap water. It was an issue for me my first attempt at reefing 6 years ago that went horrendously wrong. Depending on the state of your water, it can cause a whole lot of things to go out of whack. Investing in an RODI unit was a priority for me. Other people use distilled water which also works. 

 

I would also try retesting your alk and calcium. User error could also play a part. I had to practice a few times before I got consistent in how I was doing the tests, especially the Alk since you have to do it drop and very slow drop. 

 

I know you can turn this into an amazing reef!!

[Nano sapiens]

2 hours ago, andrewjardin said:

Just finished doing water tests with all the new equipment

 

Temp: 26C

pH: 8.5

Ammonia: <0.15

Nitrite: 0

Nitrate: 40

Phosphorus: 0.2ppm

SG: 1.024

KH/Alk: 18.6dKH

Ca: 600

Mg: 1350

 

I ordered the Hanna Phosphate checker, but received the Phosphorus ULR?? Is this still measuring Phosphates?

And why the heck are my dKH and Ca so high? ... I do use tap water and live in an area with notoriously hard water, is that most likely the issue here?

Just needs some 'elbow grease' :)  

 

Ammonia may/may not be present.  API kits are notorious for showing ammonia, when it's not really there.  An 11 year old tank of this size with just two Clownfish shouldn't be showing any ammonia unless well overfed.

 

Since you have little in the tank that would consume alkalinity and calcium, and you have really hard water, your readings would be expected to be perhaps a bit high after the large water changes.  But I don't think that 600 ppm calcium is possible without precipitation, so I'd suggest taking a water sample to your LFS for confirmation of both Alk and Cal.

 

Use RO or distilled at least for WCs (RO/DI is best)

 

Get your params in order and hold them steady, weekly 10% water changes and a bit of sand vacuuming should get this back in shape.

 

 

 

 

[andrewjardin]

14 minutes ago, mipster said:

Yay Canadian Reefers! Hour SW of Toronto, I'm guessing guelph, kitchener/waterloo area? I'm in Toronto myself. I recommend joining the GTA reefers and Ontario Reef Keepers facebook groups. Really active local community often selling used equipment and trading corals and livestock. It's been a huge help to me along with the members here.

 

Yes, you're good, it's the ultra low range phosphate checker which is what you want!

 

Be careful with the tap water. It was an issue for me my first attempt at reefing 6 years ago that went horrendously wrong. Depending on the state of your water, it can cause a whole lot of things to go out of whack. Investing in an RODI unit was a priority for me. Other people use distilled water which also works. 

 

I would also try retesting your alk and calcium. User error could also play a part. I had to practice a few times before I got consistent in how I was doing the tests, especially the Alk since you have to do it drop and very slow drop. 

 

I know you can turn this into an amazing reef!!

 

Thanks for the recommendation!  I have never even thought about finding local groups, but it has especially been on the back burner because of covid.. 

I did the Al and Ca tests twice because I was so confused by those numbers!  RODI is definitely something I would love to invest in, but I think I will start with using distilled for now!

 

9 minutes ago, Nano sapiens said:

Just needs some 'elbow grease' 🙂

 

Ammonia may/may not be present.  API kits are notorious for showing ammonia, when it's not really there.  An 11 year old tank of this size with just two Clownfish shouldn't be showing any ammonia unless well overfed.

 

Since you have little in the tank that would consume alkalinity and calcium, and you have really hard water, your readings would be expected to be perhaps a bit high after the large water changes.  But I don't think that 600 ppm calcium is possible without precipitation, so I'd suggest taking a water sample to your LFS for confirmation of both Alk and Cal.

 

Use RO or distilled at least for WCs (RO/DI is best)

 

Get your params in order and hold them steady, weekly 10% water changes and a bit of sand vacuuming should get this back in shape.

 

 

 

 

Okay, as soon as I have an LFS open to public I will ask for confirmation of these parameters!  I did test the ammonia this time with the Salifert kit, I was torn between the '0' and '<0.15' because it seemed between the two colour options.. (there is barely a difference, and I'm not great at colour differentiation 😂)

 

I do worry that I overfeed.. maybe that is an issue.. I will start tracking approximately how much I am feeding!

 

As for the sand... I hate looking at it.  I wish I could remove it all and put fine black sand in instead.

[mipster]

1 minute ago, andrewjardin said:

I have never even thought about finding local groups, but it has especially been on the back burner because of covid..

The local groups I'm talking about are just facebook groups, not a club with monthly meetings kind of thing. 100% covid free! Unless you are meeting up but I was able to do a contactless drop off for the things I've gotten from the group, people are getting pretty good at it lol 

[andrewjardin]

1 hour ago, mipster said:

The local groups I'm talking about are just facebook groups, not a club with monthly meetings kind of thing. 100% covid free! Unless you are meeting up but I was able to do a contactless drop off for the things I've gotten from the group, people are getting pretty good at it lol 

That's good to hear! I will have to check them out for sure, wonder if there are some groups closer my way! South of the tri-cities.. Toronto is a bit far for me and the traffic on the 401 stresses me out too much 😱

[mipster]

3 minutes ago, andrewjardin said:

That's good to hear! I will have to check them out for sure, wonder if there are some groups closer my way! South of the tri-cities.. Toronto is a bit far for me and the traffic on the 401 stresses me out too much 😱

I find most of the members in the GTA reefing one are more south west towards Mississauga and Brampton and further. GTA is a very loose term lol 

 

[andrewjardin]

19 minutes ago, mipster said:

I find most of the members in the GTA reefing one are more south west towards Mississauga and Brampton and further. GTA is a very loose term lol 

 

Haha I'm bad for just referring to everything in the GTA as Toronto 😂 I'm just a small town boy at heart!

[andrewjardin]

Woke up this morning to a much clearer tank!  The back wall is difficult to scrape, so I am going to have to work at it over the next few water changes + get an actual CUC going in here.

My Duncan corals are looking better today than they have in a while (which isn't saying much, but I'm still happy about it)

I'm fighting some red slime on my GSP, it seems to have snuffed out some sections of polyps, but there is also new growth extending off the side of the coral.

Also, I couldn't get a picture this morning, but under the blue LED's the little jewel anemone was opened up really big, and had what appeared to be orange tips... very cool little thing!

[mipster]

Already so much better! The magic of the watch change lol Keep it going!

[WV Reefer]

6 minutes ago, andrewjardin said:

Woke up this morning to a much clearer tank!  The back wall is difficult to scrape, so I am going to have to work at it over the next few water changes + get an actual CUC going in here.

My Duncan corals are looking better today than they have in a while (which isn't saying much, but I'm still happy about it)

I'm fighting some red slime on my GSP, it seems to have snuffed out some sections of polyps, but there is also new growth extending off the side of the coral.

Also, I couldn't get a picture this morning, but under the blue LED's the little jewel anemone was opened up really big, and had what appeared to be orange tips... very cool little thing!

Looking better!

[andrewjardin]

So today I tackled the DIY filter media basket!  I was struggling with how to make it, and how many spaces to include for media... 

I ended up cutting the egg crate to fit full width in the back chamber and I removed all of the bio balls.  There are 3 enclosed sections, one open section on the top and above the entire basket when it is in place, I still have the BioCube filter pad to evenly disperse the water across the length and get a relatively even trickle.

 

The pieces after being cut, I then went over the edges to remove the small outcroppings of plastic.

 

The final product.  Can people please let me know what media you would choose to fill these sections with??

 

I found a few baby snails amongst the Bioballs... Trochus babies??  (added to DT)

 

I currently only have added ChemiPure Blue to one section on the rack .. not sure what else to place in there!

[mipster]

In my media rack I have filter floss on the top and then chemipure blue and then the bottom is currently empty, I haven't decided on what to put there yet. I think it'll stay open until I need something for a specific problem or add in something like marine pure media blocks for more biomedia surface area.

[Tamberav]

1 hour ago, andrewjardin said:

So today I tackled the DIY filter media basket!  I was struggling with how to make it, and how many spaces to include for media... 

I ended up cutting the egg crate to fit full width in the back chamber and I removed all of the bio balls.  There are 3 enclosed sections, one open section on the top and above the entire basket when it is in place, I still have the BioCube filter pad to evenly disperse the water across the length and get a relatively even trickle.

 

The pieces after being cut, I then went over the edges to remove the small outcroppings of plastic.

 

The final product.  Can people please let me know what media you would choose to fill these sections with??

 

I found a few baby snails amongst the Bioballs... Trochus babies??  (added to DT)

 

I currently only have added ChemiPure Blue to one section on the rack .. not sure what else to place in there!

Floss on top and the the carbon. I never fill up my media racks. 

 

The ball nems is no problem and a cool hitchiker.

 

The snails are probably adult collonista snails. They way algae and can reproduce.

 

Just water changes with distilled and cleaning the sand bed and so on and the tank will turn around quickly. The Duncan's look savable to me.

 

Also keep in mind you may need a bulb change too. I tend to just do one bulb and wait a few weeks and do the second. This is to not shock the corals.

 

 

[CD_Scapes]

3 hours ago, andrewjardin said:

So today I tackled the DIY filter media basket!  I was struggling with how to make it, and how many spaces to include for media... 

I ended up cutting the egg crate to fit full width in the back chamber and I removed all of the bio balls.  There are 3 enclosed sections, one open section on the top and above the entire basket when it is in place, I still have the BioCube filter pad to evenly disperse the water across the length and get a relatively even trickle.

 

The pieces after being cut, I then went over the edges to remove the small outcroppings of plastic.

 

The final product.  Can people please let me know what media you would choose to fill these sections with??

 

I found a few baby snails amongst the Bioballs... Trochus babies??  (added to DT)

 

I currently only have added ChemiPure Blue to one section on the rack .. not sure what else to place in there!

That macro is Gracilaria hayi by the way