Biocube Revival

[Track Rat]

For the past year my Biocube has layed dormant with no maintenance other than topping it off with water. Long story short I was losing a battle with Cyanobacteria and hair algea and in the end they won and I stopped caring about the tank. Well for whatever reason I feel compelled to bring this tank back from the dead. As it sits right now there is about 18lbs of LR, a few struggling rics, a large torch coral, and a single astrea snail.

I still need to deal with, jacked up water parameters, I'll post them when I get off work, hair algae is still there and red bubble algae is all over the place.

Tank has the first false chamber removed with a heater in it, rubble in the second chamber and an upgraded pump with the factory sponge in the third. I've had the day light bulb off for months for months because the fan was insanely loud. I have a digital aquatics reef keeper lite that controls the lights and monitors/controls the temperature.

As you can see I have a lot to deal with. First action items are to get the water quality back on track with 20% water changes twice a week. Scrubbing the rocks and tank to rid it of as much algae as possible. And replace both bulbs with new ones. I will also be changing the rockscaping since i'm tired of the way it looks right now.

Here are the current water parameters and some pictures.

Temp. 78
Specific Gravity 1.024
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 20
PH 7.9
Phosphates 0.1
Alkalinity 2.9
Calcium 200
Magnesium 1110

The numbers and pictures speak for themselves...

 

[BAGGERZ13]

wow.....Thats a horrible site to see (no offense) I hope you can bring it back to life... I am too new here to really have anything to say to maybe help you but hope all goes well from here.

 

[Track Rat]

So I went to work on the tank this morning and made some good progress. I did a 3.5 gallon water change and stirred up more ditritus than I care to admit. I removed and attempted to repair the noisy fan but found out the hard way that they are not servicable. Took out some of the hair algae and red bubble algae by hand. I pulled out all the rocks and spot cleaned problem area with hydrogen peroxide. So all in all a good start. There is a rock that I had put a single ricordia on years ago and I discovered that it has since split into 10!

Now for a question. I need to replace both PC bulbs, a moonlight, and a fan. Would this be a good time to go with a rapidled setup? I don't know much about them but it seems like a lot of people are going that route and have had good success.

 

[Track Rat]

Just did another 3 gallon water change. Looks like I'll be doing them every one or two days until the detritis is gone. After the second change it is looking a little better, but it will take many more before it is back to normal. I also adjusted my photo period to 8 hours of actinics and 4 hours of daylight.

I also added a Korallia nao to help keep the water moving.

 

[saf1]

Several options for led's but they cost a bit. So consider the fight ahead of you first and then maybe go from there. I have two cubes here (my son and I both have 29's from Oceanic) with LED's.

1. Rapid LED kit in his. I use Steve's. Both work very well and run about the same amount of money 250 U.S. or so. We both went the route of dimmable drivers or power source. Mine is on a controller (reef angel) while his isn't and just uses timers.

2. Steve's kit is a "LOT" more blue or accentic I guess compared to Rapid's. Both, I believe, allow you to change the color / LED's up a bit to get a color more to your like. As I mentioned dimmable then it sort of is a moot point and we just adjust PWM signals or in his case potentiometers and dials color that way.

Both kits look and work very well and there isn't anything we can't keep that is related to coral. The only thing if truth be told that would limit us is water quality as there is "MORE" than enough light in either of the tanks. LED's also, when dimmable, allow better flexability (I think) when introducing new corals from the LFS to home since you can actually dial down the light intensity.

Either kits, if you go slow in gutting the hoods, allow the use of moonlights. Just remember, this hobby takes time and you don't really have a lot of water volume to work with. So a single mistake could cause you to pull out your hair

 

[Track Rat]

I've been working on the tank, doing water changes and some rearranging. Overall it's looking much better and the water quality has improved. Below are the current water parameters.

Temp. 80
Specific Gravity 1.025
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 10
PH 7.8
Phosphates 0.03
Alkalinity 6.9
Calcium 370
Magnesium 1030

I still have work to do, but things are going well.

 

[Cloudburst2000]

That is a darn big hammer coral. When you have all your tank parameters under control, I would frag it up and keep a chunk with five to six heads for myself. The sell of the frags could help pay for the new light setup.

 

[brianspider]

Looks like you've put in some nice work on the tank. Regarding lighting, do you want to keep the hood, take it off, or no preference?

 

[Track Rat]

My Alkalinity and PH are still too low. What is a good way to increase them?

 

[brianspider]

My Alkalinity and PH are still too low. What is a good way to increase them?

How much/often are your water changes? I would try more of those with good reef salt before anything else.

 

[Track Rat]

Update: I just purchased a new red sea max 130d. What I've decided to do is turn the biocube into a frag tank. I not sure if I'm going to keep the hood or use something else, I need to do more research on frag tanks before I make a decision.

To answer the question above I do 15% water changes weekly. I spoke with BRS about my ph and alkalinity and they said it's on the low side but there is nothing wrong with their levels.

 

[Track Rat]

Things are going well for the tank. Water is better and corals especially the rics are doing a lot better. The only thing I'm really battling right now is that red bubble algae that you can see in the first picture. Can anyone ID it for me and give me some recomendations for removal?

I'll get an updated photo posted in the next couple of days.

 

[BAGGERZ13]

Any updates on the RSM build?

 

[Track Rat]

Any updates on the RSM build?

I started a thread on it here and reefsanctuary. I decided to only update the one on reefsanctuary since they have a section dedicated for RSM systems.

You can follow it here http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/red-sea-max-owners-club/82362-cavemans-rsm-130d-journal.html.