Zer0's JBJ RL-10 AIO Cube

[Zer0]

I guess maybe I overfed WAY too much? Showing .25ppm of nitrites, which definitely shouldn’t be happening... Nothing died, and I’m pretty sure my sandbed isn’t old enough to have caused a problem if it got stirred up - which I didn’t even do. 
 

I did a ~40% water change, will check levels again in the morning... 

[Micro-Reefs Aquariums]

1 hour ago, Zer0 said:

I guess maybe I overfed WAY too much? Showing .25ppm of nitrites, which definitely shouldn’t be happening... Nothing died, and I’m pretty sure my sandbed isn’t old enough to have caused a problem if it got stirred up - which I didn’t even do. 
 

I did a ~40% water change, will check levels again in the morning... 

How old is your tank, when did you start it?  Curious to see if mine is following yours?  I have reverse hours in my refugium and man, the cheato is going crazy good!  I feed very little frozen brine what 6 tiny fish can gobble up, I literally shave off a little from one cube and feed that every other day, takes 1 week to feed 1 cube, I am doing that to keep my fish at bay and I think I found a good balance, so I am adding the glass skimmer.  Will see where that places me on the nitrate and phosphates.

 

[Tony Bologna]

Every aquarium I've  ever set up goes through an ugly phase. I'm  not a chemist or anything but nitrate and phosphate spikes seem inevitable. It will pass.

[Micro-Reefs Aquariums]

My Cheato cleared out all of my nitrates and phosphates.  My testers could not detect nothing in low range.

 

That is how cheato can become too efficient.

 

Now that I found a baseline, I pulled out the Cheato and trimmed it back to its original size.

 

And I now know how much to feed my 6 tiny fish in my 12 gallon system.

 

You can see from the photo, I cut out a cup full of cheato.  And you can see that it was barely starting to die from zero nutrients left and the led still blasting it.

Edited March 29, 2021 by Micro-Reefs Aquariums

[Zer0]

 

 

 

So things are still chugging along. I recently had a pod explosion, they've really taken over the glass so
much so that when you look at the tank from far away you can see them all as tiny dots. Not sure what
to think about that. I've seen Noodle picking at the glass a lot more frequently, so maybe he's eating them.
Either that or he's just eating the film algae.

 

I lost a peppermint shrimp last night, but I'm not entirely sure why. It was a young one, small, so I don't
think it would have died of old age. I found his body stuck in one of the two water level holes in the false wall.
All of the other inverts and Noodle seem to be fine, but I'm still curious as to what may have caused that
shrimp to perish.

 

I also bought new salt and I won't be using this Oceanic salt anymore. I don't have any concrete proof, but
I think it might be expired, or just not viable anymore. I've noticed that my coral, at least some of them,
have started looking more irritated even though all of my water parameters seem to be in the acceptable ranges -
all except my Calcium. I have a Salifert test kit for Calcium and I did it twice yesterday, once in the morning
and once at night, and I followed the directions to the T each time, and the tests came back as 500ppm. The
test water just never changed from pink to blue, even after I ran out of reagent in the 1mL syringe. I don't know
if having a sky high Calcium could be causing issues, but I can't imagine it's good overall to have Calcium
that may be even higher than 500, since the test only goes up to 500ppm.

 

Another bummer is that a few of my SPS pieces are on their way out, I'm pretty sure. The blue stylo is losing
tissue every day and is almost completely bleached. I'm going to try and frag the good parts and see if I
can save some part of it. Both of my green montipora digitata frags, which had been doing really well for the past
few weeks since I got them, both sloughed a ton of tissue the day before yesterday. One of them has started
bleaching, but I think the other one could make a comeback maybe, as although it turned brown, it has decided
to extend its polyps today. Maybe there is hope for it. Unsure at this point.

 

All of the soft coral and LPS look great. My blasto looks amazing, and I love watching it eat. I feed it
every day since it eats what Noodle does. I think it's currently my favorite coral.

An additional problem I'm having, is that these stupid baby nassarius snails keep getting stuck in the
holes in the false wall, causing the water level in the back chambers to go all out of whack. They happen
to be just the perfect size to get stuck and act as a cork. I have to pull them out every time they get stuck
otherwise they can't get themselves out.

 

New salt will be here on Monday, I'll do a 5G water change that day and see what happens. I went with IO Reef Crystals.
It's cheap, I can get it in bulk, and a lot of people swear by it, so I'll give it a go.

[Tony Bologna]

Sorry to hear about your sps. I'm  glad everything else is doing well. I hope the new salt does the trick. 

[Zer0]

3 hours ago, Tony Bologna said:

Sorry to hear about your sps. I'm  glad everything else is doing well. I hope the new salt does the trick. 

Yeah it’s a bummer, I really liked that blue stylo. I hope the new salt does the trick as well. 

[Micro-Reefs Aquariums]

22 hours ago, Zer0 said:

 

 

 

So things are still chugging along. I recently had a pod explosion, they've really taken over the glass so
much so that when you look at the tank from far away you can see them all as tiny dots. Not sure what
to think about that. I've seen Noodle picking at the glass a lot more frequently, so maybe he's eating them.
Either that or he's just eating the film algae.

 

I lost a peppermint shrimp last night, but I'm not entirely sure why. It was a young one, small, so I don't
think it would have died of old age. I found his body stuck in one of the two water level holes in the false wall.
All of the other inverts and Noodle seem to be fine, but I'm still curious as to what may have caused that
shrimp to perish.

 

I also bought new salt and I won't be using this Oceanic salt anymore. I don't have any concrete proof, but
I think it might be expired, or just not viable anymore. I've noticed that my coral, at least some of them,
have started looking more irritated even though all of my water parameters seem to be in the acceptable ranges -
all except my Calcium. I have a Salifert test kit for Calcium and I did it twice yesterday, once in the morning
and once at night, and I followed the directions to the T each time, and the tests came back as 500ppm. The
test water just never changed from pink to blue, even after I ran out of reagent in the 1mL syringe. I don't know
if having a sky high Calcium could be causing issues, but I can't imagine it's good overall to have Calcium
that may be even higher than 500, since the test only goes up to 500ppm.

 

Another bummer is that a few of my SPS pieces are on their way out, I'm pretty sure. The blue stylo is losing
tissue every day and is almost completely bleached. I'm going to try and frag the good parts and see if I
can save some part of it. Both of my green montipora digitata frags, which had been doing really well for the past
few weeks since I got them, both sloughed a ton of tissue the day before yesterday. One of them has started
bleaching, but I think the other one could make a comeback maybe, as although it turned brown, it has decided
to extend its polyps today. Maybe there is hope for it. Unsure at this point.

 

All of the soft coral and LPS look great. My blasto looks amazing, and I love watching it eat. I feed it
every day since it eats what Noodle does. I think it's currently my favorite coral.

An additional problem I'm having, is that these stupid baby nassarius snails keep getting stuck in the
holes in the false wall, causing the water level in the back chambers to go all out of whack. They happen
to be just the perfect size to get stuck and act as a cork. I have to pull them out every time they get stuck
otherwise they can't get themselves out.

 

New salt will be here on Monday, I'll do a 5G water change that day and see what happens. I went with IO Reef Crystals.
It's cheap, I can get it in bulk, and a lot of people swear by it, so I'll give it a go.

Hey twin,

 

My calcium was 512ppm, I also thought as you that is bad, but after some post on other sites I learned that the expensive sea water I was buying has super high levels of calcium in it, so you don't have to dose.

 

Regarding your corals, can't really say why the fall back but corals are always the first to go when anything in tank is not to their liking and the whole thing goes.

 

My system which is almost identical to yours is 2 months old and I have not introduced any corals at all.  Been working on dialing in my refugium and skimmer.  Prior to my refugium, my tank had high levels of nitrates and phosphates, but then I pulled back on feeding the fish and the cheato stripped out all my nitrates and phosphates, that even with Hanna ULR tests could not pick it up.

 

My fish and tank are super healthy, the coraline is growing on my rocks, and I have zero pest algae or even zero diatoms, only on the acrylic does it grow where my magic eraser removes it LOL.

 

This month at the end, I will start to purchase my 1st SPS corals.  I am only going for the hardest most delicate ones to grow in my tiny 12.5 gallon system.  Wish me luck.

 

MG

[Zer0]

So my green montipora digitata frags never recovered, they just sloughed until they were
completely bleached. They weren't expensive but I do feel bad about killing them. I'm confident
that what caused it was a bacterial bloom caused by a spike in phosphates, which was due to me
greatly overfeeding Reef Roids. My phosphates went from undetectable on my Hanna checker to
.22 overnight. Everything was pissed, but after a couple large water changes, things started looking better,
except for the green montis.

 

As of right now, everything is actually looking pretty great in the tank. I have pods that cover the glass
overnight after scraping the algae off. I'm seeing coralline growth on the rocks popping up everywhere as well
as on the Nero and my return nozzle. The rocks are starting to color up as well. Everything has been growing at
a nice speed, all of my zoas have sprouted new polyps, my bubblegum monti has begun enctrusting on to the rock
at its base, which is a welcomed surprise. My aquacultured red goni so far looks great every day, I think it
likes its current spot - moderate lighting and flow that varies between low and moderate. When I was mounting
it to the rock it released a single polyp probably from being irritated, however, that little polyp found a
spot in the rockwork and latched on to it and has started growing another polyp next to it lol. That was also
another welcomed surprise. I'm looking forward to seeing how it grows and progresses, hopefully it continues to
do so.

 

I'm also currently trying to bring an sps piece back from the brink. It started bleaching during that bacterial
bloom, but it stopped after the water changes. So I removed it from the rockwork, mounted it to a plug and
placed it in a spot that should give it optimal light and flow. I've been taking pictures of it every day
to compare any further bleaching/tissue loss, and so far it looks like it has stopped. I'm hoping it can pull
through, but if it does start to get worse, I'll wind up fragging off bits and pieces in an effort to save it.

My alveopora, which was one of the first coral in this tank, has started expanding its flesh over the
dead skeleton that I assume was a result of the fragging process, as well as the rock that I mounted its
skeleton to.

 

The blastos have sprouted 3 new heads already, and I'm very fond of this coral. I feed it mysis every day and
it is absolutely fascinating to watch it eat. I'll probably make a video of it soon.

I also have a video of some bizzare tunicate or sponge that seems to be doing fairly well in the tank. I
made a video of it, but it's a bit blurry because it's in a particularly difficult spot to focus on. I've
noticed that this tank has a lot of spots that cause weird distortions to the eye. I'm assuming it's
because of the small size/dimensions of the glass panels, but taking photos/videos from any angle other than
straight on causes distortion/warping that the camera mirror does not like at all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the SPS I'm currently trying to rehabilitate:

 

And here is a video of the weird sponge/tunicate thing(sorry for the background noise):

 

Anyway, that's all for now. Thanks for viewing!

 

[Zer0]

I really love Noodle.

 

This hobby has always been about coral to me, but for some reason, this Blenny and its personality has perhaps swayed me. I can't imagine this tank without Noodle.

 

What does that say about me?

[Zer0]

Quick small update:

 

I have an order from Indo-Pacific Sea Farms today, will try to get pictures of everything.

 

Also, on Monday I did my first small 2G water change with the new salt, IO Reef Crystals. Everything looks great still, so I'll be sticking with that salt and just continue my 2G bi-weekly water change regimen.

[Aquadreamz]

Do you have a fit problem with your lid?  My glass kid doesn’t fit.

[Zer0]

2 hours ago, Aquadreamz said:

Do you have a fit problem with your lid?  My glass kid doesn’t fit.

Yeah it fits just fine for me, though it’s not a perfect square, so there’s only one direction it can fit in. 

[tassos]

Nice photos. I’m not surprised your blenny is growing on you!

[Zer0]

I've been pretty busy this past month so I've kind of left the tank on autopilot, didn't add any new coral, just kind of tweaking the chaeto lighting schedule so that my nitrates and phosphates aren't 0. I also finally got rid of the peppermint shrimp that had grown a taste for my red goniopora. I also got rid of one of my blue legged hermit crabs because it grew into a monster and started bulldozing everything and just basically caused havoc. Everything really looks great though, which is nice, and the bubblegum montipora has started to really take off in growth.

 

I do have a small cyano problem unfortunately, it hasn't really taken over all of the rocks yet, but it has spread a bit. I just siphon it out during water changes. I think it was brought on by my 0 nitrates and phosphates, which is why I'm trying to test new lighting schedules for the chaeto in the back chamber. Anyways, I'll just dump some photos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The photos aren't really in any particular order other than the date they were taken. I'll try and get a decent FTS shot after water change on Sunday. Thanks for looking!

 

 

 

[Zer0]

I also forgot to mention that I’ve been keeping a particularly large Majano anemone alive in a plastic container. It’s about the size of a nickel(USD) now, and it’s been in this jar for about a month. It gets a 100% water change once a week during the water change for the tank. Seems like the light spill from the Prime is keeping it happy. It moves around the plug stem from time to time, but mostly stays put. I’ll be keeping it for as long as it stays alive. A bit of an experiment I guess.

[Tautoo]

Great photos!  Do you have a recent full tank shot by chance? Would love to see it.

[Zer0]

Yeah I took some today, just gotta go through them and pick out the good ones lol

[Zer0]

I wasn’t happy with any of the photos I took, I’m pretty terrible at taking full tank shots. It’s not great either, but the best one I could get was with my phone, so it will have to do for now. 
 

 

[Micro-Reefs Aquariums]

14 hours ago, Zer0 said:

I wasn’t happy with any of the photos I took, I’m pretty terrible at taking full tank shots. It’s not great either, but the best one I could get was with my phone, so it will have to do for now. 
 

 

I really am a bigger fan of the Full Tank shot, after seeing your wonderful macro pics.  Your aquascaping is really nice, centered in and away from all the sides.  I would love to have that actual size for my SPS that I am growing out.  I think key is getting it centered clearly away from the sides so one can always have super clear walls to sparkle the ocean blue hue you we have with LED's and then you have some nice areas all over that nice sand bed to place singular colonies such as GSP that would give out the metallic green and keep them at bay since they will not attach across to sand.  BTW this tank is going to look gorgeous in one year as she grows up!

[Tautoo]

Beautiful tank, I love it!

[Zer0]

Thanks guys, I must admit I am pretty happy with how things are turning out. Came across a couple hiccups so far, but nothing too bad. I’m still trying to take a good FTS with my dslr, but I’ll post it once I get one lol. 
 

Also, I went to the lfs today and picked up some stuff. I got another trochus snail, a scarlet reef hermit crab, a cleaner shrimp, 2 different gonioporas, and a neat zoa frag that is white. I’ll try and get some photos of everything tomorrow.

[Zer0]

[Zer0]

[J>T]

Looks great. Nice clean Look.