Butchy21's WaterBox 35.2 AIO

[ramona]

Beautiful! What inverts and fish do you have?

[Butchy21]

On 11/25/2022 at 5:44 AM, ramona said:

Beautiful! What inverts and fish do you have?

Thanks! I’ve had two clownfish for about 5-6 years and I have a coral banded shrimp and an emerald crab. Actually just added a flame hawkfish today - have always wanted one! 

[Butchy21]

Seemed to have behaved during Black Friday so I figured I could treat myself with a trip to the reef store. Added a flame hawkfish, orange echinata and a good sized red lobo. Love lobos and been wanting a red one forever. 
 

Can’t wait to see where the flame chooses at it’s favorite perch spot. 

[Butchy21]

Got myself a little birthday coral… could not pass up the colors on this brain! 
 

A few other pics captured with an orange camera lens as well. 

[Coltsreefin]

Do you have any pics of your refugium setup in the rear chambers? I have the same tank and am looking to add a ball of chaeto as well!

[Butchy21]

On 3/7/2023 at 4:34 PM, Coltsreefin said:

Do you have any pics of your refugium setup in the rear chambers? I have the same tank and am looking to add a ball of chaeto as well!

So I have a submersible refugium light that works - had to get a piece of black acrylic and cut it to fit in the back to keep the light from bleeding into the display. Chaeto grows like crazy. 

[Butchy21]

Been having some frustrating issues with my water chemistry lately which has brought a large outbreak of cyano and diatoms.

 

With setting up the Waterbox tank over a year ago I added a few extra pieces of equipment to help with nutrient removal since I wanted to try and perform less water changes on the tank routinely.  This has over time stripped out all of the nitrate from the tank - leading to a lot of nuissance microorganisms.  I was measuring 0.02 phosphate and 0 nitrate on my hanna checkers.  I pulled out the chemi pure elite and purigen bags from one of my back chambers.  I also dialed back the lights on the refugium (housing Chaeto) heavily to limit nutrient removal and started to feed slightly higher for my 3 fish.

 

It took a full 6 weeks to finally get detectable nitrate (0.1) - cyano has cleared out but now there are large amounts of diatoms on the sandbed that keep coming back.  Planning to keep nutrient removal down for several more weeks, limiting water changes to 4 gallons every few weeks instead of the normal 8 gallons.  If nitrate/phosphate balance is not achieved then I am considering dosing Neophos/NeoNitro to rebalance levels. 

 

This is a battle... but happy that all corals are healthy, actively growing and have nice color still.  I add Red Sea AB+ coral supplements about 2x a week - have never noticed reduced coloration of corals but it may have effects on boosting growth. 

[Coltsreefin]

On 3/21/2023 at 7:35 PM, Butchy21 said:

So I have a submersible refugium light that works - had to get a piece of black acrylic and cut it to fit in the back to keep the light from bleeding into the display. Chaeto grows like crazy. 

Funny thing that I just saw this today, but I already ended up going the same route with the tunze submersible light. Surprisingly the chaeto actually tumbles pretty well in there! I also need to get the sheet I was surprised when I first turned it on and could see it right through the glass, I have it facing towards the back of the AIO chamber now and it doesn’t bleed too bad. 

[ramona]

How do you like your Sicce silent 1.5 return pump? I have same tank and pump and mine is slightly noisy that kinda bothers me. I thought they are supposed to be silent!

[DNR88]

4 hours ago, ramona said:

How do you like your Sicce silent 1.5 return pump? I have same tank and pump and mine is slightly noisy that kinda bothers me. I thought they are supposed to be silent!

Try turning the pump over while it's still running. There's probably air in the pump what causes the noise. 

[Butchy21]

On 4/8/2023 at 7:15 PM, Coltsreefin said:

Funny thing that I just saw this today, but I already ended up going the same route with the tunze submersible light. Surprisingly the chaeto actually tumbles pretty well in there! I also need to get the sheet I was surprised when I first turned it on and could see it right through the glass, I have it facing towards the back of the AIO chamber now and it doesn’t bleed too bad. 

Ah glad to hear!  

 

My Chaeto grows super fast... but it has never tumbled.  I should have plenty of water movement through the back chambers, using a Sicce 1.5 so I'm not sure.... 

[Butchy21]

On 4/10/2023 at 9:58 AM, ramona said:

How do you like your Sicce silent 1.5 return pump? I have same tank and pump and mine is slightly noisy that kinda bothers me. I thought they are supposed to be silent!

Maybe try as @DNR88 mentioned.

 

My Sicce pump is completely quiet in the back chamber.

[Butchy21]

Wow it has been a long time since providing any updates on the tank.

 

Bought a house and of course the tank was an after-thought for far too long.

 

Was battling a constant battle with nuisance cyanobacteria, diatoms and bryopsis.  As soon as I would clean the tank and rip out the bryopsis.. within two weeks the sand bed would be a mess, there were cyano all over the rocks and the bryopsis was taking over all of my coral plugs.  Took many readings for nitrites and phosphates and continually was detecting good levels of phosphates but zero nitrites.  Tried dosing both NO2 and PO4... still couldn't get over the hump with the water imbalance.

 

Ended up smashing the tank with fluconazole and I pulled out all of my chaeto from the refugium that I had been running for years.  Not sure what turned the tide - but the tank settled back into a great zone for the past 3-4 months.  Minimal alage growth and no sight of bryopsis!

 

Now it's been awesome watching all of the corals grow it - this tank is LOADED with colorful goodness.

 

 

[Airedale.Reef]

Wow! Glad to hear that the tank has settled in, and you are seeing positive results. Stunning colors indeed! Well done.