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Cultivated Reef

Grant’s Waterbox 20


NanoGrant

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Current FTS - 19/03/23

CECE82A8-92B5-475D-8691-D3833BD49C2E.thumb.jpeg.2f9ec8e8860926b8f32b3f8295e9b416.jpeg


10/04/22

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14/02/22

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Lighting

AI Prime 16HD - hybrid of saxby and BRS settings. 
Unbranded LED clip on grow light for refugium - removed December 2022
 

Flow

AI Nero 3 

Jebao DC-1200 return 

Jebao SLW-10

 

Filtration

3D printed filter floss cup

Purigen - removed April 2022

Maxspect bio-spheres on 3D printed rack

Refugium in chamber 2 - reverse lit from main tank - offline December 2022

Tunze 9001 protein skimmer - added December 2022

 

Other Equipment

Auto aqua smart ATO - failed August 2022

Tunze nano scraper

D-D Salt - Switched March 2022

Red Sea blue bucket salt


Dosing

2ml Tropic Marin All For Reef daily - switched January 2023

6ml Reef Zlements Z-in-One daily

 

Stock - Fish

2 Ocellaris Clownfish

1 Firefish

1 Scooter Dragonet - deceased August 2022

 

Inverts

2 Sexy Shrimp

Pom Pom Crab

Halloween hermit crab

Electric Blue hermit crab - deceased 

Bubbletip anemone

Astraea snail

Black foot trochus snails

Tuxedo Urchin - added June 2022

2 green stripe hermit crabs - added October 2022


Coral

Orange plating Montipora

Purple plating Montipora

Pumpkin Pie encrusting Montipora

Duncan

Branching Torch - overgrown by Montipora

Green candy cane - Killed by BTA

Favia

Micro lord

Green hairy mushroom

Teal Mushrooms

Toadstool

Zoanthids

Gorgonian

 

Macroalgae

Gracilaria mammillaris 

 ————————————————————

 

Hello Everyone,

 

I picked up this Waterbox Cube 20 in January 2021, returning to the hobby after a 5 year break. I managed to convince my partner it would be “educational” for the kiddos. 😏

 

It arrived directly from Waterbox in February and I got cracking on with setting it up. I used dry rock as I didn’t want to risk introducing any pests - aiptasia really spoiled my previous experiences!

 

After lots of deliberation, this was my final aquascape:

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The Prime 16HD was delayed so of course I wasn’t going to wait for it to arrive so reused an old Asta 20 I had lying around as a stop gap. I also initially ran a jebao SLW-10 powerhead but caved in and upgraded to the Nero 3, which blows the SLW-10 out of the water, excuse the pun….the control and adjustability are great. The jebao was put to use as my salt mix pump though so not all bad. 

 

Fast forward a bit and of course the uglies kicked in full swing.

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(The warpaint goby in this picture developed white spot and sadly didn’t pull through)

 

Battled cyano and dinos initially which gave way to hair algae but regular manual removal and keeping parameters in check helped to shift the ugly phase after around 7 months in September ‘21.

 

Since then the tank has been running smoothly and to be honest I don’t need to do much with it. All For Reef has been miracle stuff for me and a 500ml bottle has lasted ages as I only use 2ml a day to keep alk at 8DKH. I know Calc and Mag will be spot on too when Alk tests at 8. I have a 10 litre top off reservoir which will last a couple of weeks on average so I’m quite happy that for the majority of the time I can sit back and enjoy the tank. 
 

Thankfully the educational aspect did come to fruition and the kids love it, I think my 3 year old is a fish whisperer as she seems to be able to make the firefish come out from it’s bolt hole on demand! 

Next up is looking at culturing copepods and I’ve set up a little 12 litre tank for that experiment so fingers crossed! And of course, I have my eye on an upgrade! The Marine X range from Waterbox looks good. 

 

Anyhoo, here are some obligatory stock shots:

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This little critter is hands down my favourite in the tank. Super interesting to watch it wave the anemones around hunting for food.
 

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If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading!

 

G

 

 

 

  • Like 11
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Christopher Marks

It's really looking wonderful just one year in, nice work! Very clean looking.

 

I like your aquascape in particular, the two columns divided. The plating montipora are my favorite part though 🙂 

  • Agree 1
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20 hours ago, Christopher Marks said:

It's really looking wonderful just one year in, nice work! Very clean looking.

 

I like your aquascape in particular, the two columns divided. The plating montipora are my favorite part though 🙂 

Thanks for the kind words! I need to frag the orange plate soon as it’s smothering some zoas and fast approaching the base of the torch. Shouldn’t complain though, growth is always good. 

 

16 hours ago, ninjamyst said:

Lovely tank!!  That yellow submarine favia looks amazing.  Did you grow it from a small frag?

Yeah I picked it up as a small 1 inch frag and it has filled out quite nicely. Here it is a year ago, vermetid snails and all!

 

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  • Like 3
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1 hour ago, ninjamyst said:

How did you get rid of the vemetaid snails???

It was a combination of crushing the tube at the base or superglue over the whole tube. Thankfully I realised what they were before they could spread too far. 

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On 2/16/2022 at 3:59 PM, NanoGrant said:

It was a combination of crushing the tube at the base or superglue over the whole tube. Thankfully I realised what they were before they could spread too far. 

 

I think I have one, I didn't know what it was... image.png.a1157b01e5905db5c274be6269b4c2a7.png

  • Like 1
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Certainly looks like one!

 

They only really cause issues if the feeder filaments irritate corals but the problem is they spread like wildfire so it’s basically inevitable that they will at some point. 

  • Agree 2
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I think that may be what I have, I just asked if it was good or bad.  They are growing on a piece of acrylic in my tank.  I will remove them and solve the problem if it is vemetid snails.

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Got fed up of the clownfish nipping at my hand during water changes so I decided to order a new siphon which arrived today. 
 

Think I overestimated the size! Thankfully it splits in half. 
 

My wife said I was compensating for something but no idea what she means….. 

 

Anyway, looking forward to finishing water changes un-nipped and in record time with this beast. 
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  • Haha 6
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More new toys today.

 

First up was a feeding portal for the mesh top to save lifting it on and off every time. 
 

Then a frozen defroster insert for it to avoid having to defrost in a separate container and then pouring in. Works really well!
 

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  • Like 2
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2 hours ago, ninjamyst said:

Does that feeding thing work for any existing mesh cover???

It does indeed!

 

It’s from D-D and is part of their Jumpguard range but the two halves just clip together through the mesh, then you trim the mesh inside the circle. Took all of 30 seconds to fit. And it was super cheap. 

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Currently having a cyano outbreak across my sandbed which is pretty annoying. Hopefully it will burn itself out and I think it may have been caused by my nutrient levels changing after swapping the lighting on my refugium. 
 

Nitrates are testing at 0.2 and Phos at 0.03, both on salifert kits. I’ve upped feeding a little to try and raise nitrates so time will tell if the tank stabilises again. In the meantime, I’ll siphon it out at each water change. 
 

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Also picked up some frags which got delivered last week and they have been settling in well.


Kaleidoscope bullseye mushroom:

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Purple bullseye mushroom:

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zoas:

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Good old GSP:

A49ED0FE-5226-479D-820B-143B1CE2DEEE.thumb.jpeg.3a567cb6da779ccddaf61ece70125332.jpeg
 

Seriatopora, which has started losing some tissue which is either due to the stress of shipping or my sexy shrimp which went straight for it once it was in. Hoping it picks back up as it’s a nice piece. All my other SPS are doing great so don’t think it’s to do with my parameters. 

50249CA0-F216-4ACB-A228-6DDC3FF8E192.thumb.jpeg.9ada96bb61cd52f9fa6f75faeca88f7d.jpeg


 

 

  • Like 3
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Hi @NanoGrant,

first very nice tank you have there! As for the Cyanos, what Alk level do you have?

 

I had some Cyano plagues in my tank and each time I could trace it back to be too lazy with tracking the the alk (KH) level.

The following story I found might be from the myth realm, but it helped me to understand what's going on when getting a cynao plague.

 

Cyano are bacteria they require surfaces to settle down. Now imagine the surfaces are deckchairs on your favourite beach or pool spot.

Though cyanos in common are very important to produce oxygene in the seas, you will see that it is a question of balancing it all, which makes the difference.

Then we have the Nitrobacter type, they love sunbathing and they are the ones that usually occupy most of your deckchairs.

And then we have another player, this is a special blend bacteria mix they don't get well with cyanos but are friends to the nitrocater type.

 

Now observe what is happening: the deckchairs are covered with nitrobacter, they enjoy their beer (let's assume this is the ALK Level (KH)), say hello to passing by cyanos and everything is peaceful, happy. Now the beer is empty and the nitrobacter stand up seeking a bar to get more beer. Cyanos says great and occupy the deckchairs immediatley. Unfortunately they can feed on light, and get powerful when the can rest on deckchairs, to they start to reproduce themselves. Now you discovered that your ALK level in the tank is too low, so you spend the bacters some more beer by filling up. The Nitrobacter returns, but all deckchairs are occupied. Bad huh? When the cyanos have reproduced too much, you will have no chance, you may remove them pysically, but you will never get them all. But if you managed to reduce them enough, your cavalry, the special blend bacteria, gets their chance. Add them to the tank in the morning, they get much more powerfull on light. So they go to the deckchair and just say „hit the road“ to the cynaos. And they settle down. Now the nitrobacter are passing by and offer to share their beer in turn to share the deckchair and there we have the desired balance again.

 

This process takes 6-8 weeks and you need to be patient.

1) make sure the alk level is OK and keep it OK

2) physically remove the cyanos  if they already started to build thicker layers.

3) start the bacteria therapy: special blend in the morning, wait two days, add some nitrobacter at night, wait two days, special blend....do this for 2-3 weeks.

 

Take care that your protein absorber is not running for an hour after adding the bacteria, be patient...

 

Keep us informed how the plague is doing between the weeks. Do not hesitate to act. Usually it will take longer to get the balance back if you wait.

 

Good luck!

Stefan 

  • Like 1
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45 minutes ago, bluewhale said:

Hi @NanoGrant,

first very nice tank you have there! As for the Cyanos, what Alk level do you have?

 

I had some Cyano plagues in my tank and each time I could trace it back to be too lazy with tracking the the alk (KH) level.

The following story I found might be from the myth realm, but it helped me to understand what's going on when getting a cynao plague.

 

Cyano are bacteria they require surfaces to settle down. Now imagine the surfaces are deckchairs on your favourite beach or pool spot.

Though cyanos in common are very important to produce oxygene in the seas, you will see that it is a question of balancing it all, which makes the difference.

Then we have the Nitrobacter type, they love sunbathing and they are the ones that usually occupy most of your deckchairs.

And then we have another player, this is a special blend bacteria mix they don't get well with cyanos but are friends to the nitrocater type.

 

No observe what is happening: the deckchairs are covered with nitrobacter, they enjoy their beer (let's assume this is the ALK Level (KH)), say hello to passing by cyanos and everything is peaceful, happy. Now the bear is empty and the nitrobacter stand up seeking a bar to get more beer. Cyanos say great and occupy the deckchairs immediatley. Unfortunately they can feed on light as well, and get powerfull when the can rest on deckchairs, to they start to reproduce themselves. Now you discovered that you ALK level in the tank is too low, so you spend the bacters some more beer by filling up. The Nitrobacter returns, but all deckchairs are occupied. Bad huh? When the cyanos have reproduces to much, you will have now chance, to remove them pysically, but you will never get them all. But if you managed to reduce them enough, your cavalry the special blend bacteria gets their chance. Add them to the tank in the morning, they get much more powerfull on light. So the go to the deckchair and just say hit the road to the cynaos. And they settle down. Now the nitrobacter are passing by and offer to share their beer in turn to share the deckchair and there we have the desired balance again.

 

This process takes 6-8 weeks and you need to be patient.

1) make sure the alk level is OK and keep it OK

2) physically remove the cyanos  if they already started to build thicker layers.

3) start the bacteria therapy: special blend in the morning, wait two days, add some nitrobacter at night, wait two days, special blend....do this for 2-3 weeks.

 

Take care that your protein absorber is not running for an hour after adding the bacteria, be patient...

 

Keep us informed how the plague is doing between the weeks. Do not hesitate to act. Usually it will take longer to get the balance back if you wait.

 

Good luck!

Stefan 

Thanks for this! 
 

Hadn’t considered Alk and cyano to be related before. I’ve just checked and it’s currently 7.7 which is lower than my usual 8-8.5 so there could be something to it. 
 

I’ll increase Alk dosing to boost it back up and see what effect it has. I had been thinking of picking up some microbacter7 too but have always been wary of too many additives, I’m more of a keep it simple person. But it’s worth a shot. 
 

Cheers!

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According to the theory, they are not directly related to, the are photosynthetic. But you need alk as fuel to to the nitrification. If the process of nitrification slows down, your good bacteria are leaving the deckchairs.

 

I totally share your objective against additives. This is a good attitude. The treatment here is with two sorts of bacteria , do not overdose, give them time to build up the population and stop the treatment, if the balance is back. 
 

As spoken, this helped me in my cases. I would be interested if others who have suffered cyano plagues can report on low alk levels at the beginning of it. Did I mention my semi scientific sabi project, yet 😉 have a look at sabi-project.net (only on ipv6 Internet yet, due to low budget start).

 

Have a nice weekend

Stefan

 

  • Like 1
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Hi @NanoGrant,

 

I rechecked with the treatment interval, forget my every 2 days…you go better with:

 

First Day, 8th, 15th, 22th, 29th with special blend.

two days after each dosage of special blend add the Nitrobacters 

 

Ah and to prevent you from severe partnership damage, if the special blend you are using, are the same I have: First opening not in your flat, go into the fresh air as the protection atmosphere smells like hell 🤣

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