Kasey's Kube

[kaserpick]

Thanks Perry! I still can't get the colors to look right in the pics; the Mille still looks more like the very first pic I posted of it, not so yellow. I'm just trying to keep things nice and stable for now. I think the heat pack in the shipping box was a bit too much for the corals; the tort was right next to it.

 

[kaserpick]

Updated FTS:

I moved the corals up onto the rockwork. I'm a little worried about the change in lighting intensity. Because of this, I changed the fixture to run just the blue LED's at 40%. I'm thinking I'll slowly increase the intensity of the blue's until they're at 70% and then starting ramping up the rest of the LED's to 50%.

I have some new additions that should arrive around Wednesday or Thursday. They're not fish, corals or any other type of invert. But, I think they'll make for very interesting additions to the tank.

 

[sahin]

Looking sweeet my friend! :thumbsup:

I've got specs of coralline algae appearing all over my key largo marco rocks. Apart from that no other algae etc

How about your rocks?

 

[plyle02]

Kasey,
I like the placement and the lighting really makes the tank pop...
Those corals are sweet!!! Keep it up, btw, are you still using IO salt? I cannot wait to see your tank as it matures, the minimal live rock is a great choice you won't regret, lots of room for future growth

 

[UofTOrange]

I really like the aquascape. Nice work! Wish I had more time when I put my tank together. I like my rock but would have gone a lot different

 

[Andrew]

Very nice build! I just read through this and I like how you kept it simple and didn't try to go overboard with anything. I'm tagging along on this tread to see how it looks in a couple months

 

[kaserpick]

Thank you for the words of encouragement, everyone!

Sahin, I'm glad you have coralline growing, and it makes me a bit jealous. So, in answer to your question, I still have no coralline, except for what's on the mariculture base. That particular algae has seemed to allude me in most of my tanks. Maybe I'm still adding the corals too soon? As far as other algae is concerned, the sand gets brown spots after about a week, but vacuuming during WC's takes care of that.

Thanks Perry! I'm hoping to get two more pieces with the Blueberry tort from Copps. That'll be it for corals. Yes, I'm still using IO salt. I do mix it the night before and test the Alk, pH, and Salinity and make small adjustments before I use it.

Thanks Andrew! Yes, I'm trying not go crazy with too many corals and tech things. I want it to be simple and mature into a chunk of reef, not a mini reef.

Thanks again, everyone!

 

[kaserpick]

Thank you for the words of encouragement, everyone!

Sahin, I'm glad you have coralline growing, and it makes me a bit jealous. So, in answer to your question, I still have no coralline, except for what's on the mariculture base. That particular algae has seemed to allude me in most of my tanks. Maybe I'm still adding the corals too soon? As far as other algae is concerned, the sand gets brown spots after about a week, but vacuuming during WC's takes care of that.

Thanks Perry! I'm hoping to get two more pieces with the Blueberry tort from Copps. That'll be it for corals. Yes, I'm still using IO salt. I do mix it the night before and test the Alk, pH, and Salinity and make small adjustments before I use it.

Thanks Andrew! Yes, I'm trying not go crazy with too many corals and tech things. I want it to be simple and mature into a chunk of reef, not a mini reef.

Thanks again, everyone!

 

[KafudaFish]

Looking really great there and should be what you wanted in a year.






FYI: our cave idea has been done by a Korean.

 

[kaserpick]

That figures! Still would be a fun tank!

Sorry about the DP everyone.

 

[kaserpick]

Well, I face a dilemma concerning flow in the tank. At this point, I have my MP20 positioned on the bottom of the tank, behind the rock work. While I enjoy the aesthetics of the location, the functionality is not optimal. I can't get the flow that I would like to see in the tank. Every time I turn it to around 75%, it starts to pick up the sand and throwing it on top of the corals. The other problem with the position is that it forces me to keep the base of the rockwork toward the front.

So, my solution was simple; I bought a Tunze 6045 Nanostream as well as a 6095 propeller housing for the extra wide outlet. I will remove the MP20 and keep the Tunze on the back wall. It takes a little away from the aesthetics, but it also opens up my options with the rockwork base positioning. I'm looking forward to the extra flow and the new possibilities.

On another note, the corals seem very happy and the Big 3 parameters are rock steady.

 

[kaserpick]

that's a really nice tank you have keep it up

Thank you, I will try!

 

[plyle02]

Kasey,
Awesome to hear about the progression, I have always been a huge fan of Tunze, they are solid PH's... Good to see locked in params, what are your desired levels? I have switched back to TMPR salts, they dial into the params I want the tank, so a bit steeper of a salt choice, but no fuss locking in params, just as simple as a water change...lol...
Looking forward to this beauty coming alive!

 

[kaserpick]

Thanks Perry! I've only owned the old 6055's in the past, and I was very pleased.

My desired levels are as follows: Ca @ 450 ppm, Mg @ 1500 ppm, and KH @ 8.5. Right now I'm using IO salt and adjusting Mg and Ca accordingly before WC's. Besides that I'm using 1 tsp of Calcium Hydroxide for every 1 gallon of RO/DI top-off water. At my current consumption rate, this seems to be the sweet spot. I do add Calcium Chloride to keep 450. My main concern in this system is trying to keep KH, salinity, and pH stable. So far so good.

Thanks again!

 

[kaserpick]

I have some disturbing news; somehow, against all odds, Dino's have made their way back into my tank. It's a very small amount, but it's there. The system was started with new everything. In response, I'm going to continue my usual schedule. My carbon and RowaPhos are due to be changed; so, I'll change that today. In my past fight with Dino's, I read that it was believed that they feed off of Silicate. RowaPhos, like other GFO's, absorbs Silcate as well as Phosphate.

On a more humorous note, I bought 3 different types of macro algae (Dragon's Breath, Ochtodes, and Gracilaria) from an RC member. Upon arrival, I added them and watched them slowly die, over the next few days. I think my high Mg levels killed them off. It seems I can't successfully keep algae.

...but I can keep Dino's. Maybe they've always been there, but the RowaPhos kept them away. We'll soon find out. Wish me luck everyone; I don't want to lose anything this time around.

I'm also happy to add that the Tunze 6045 is amazing! Small powerhead with tremendous flow. I'm very pleased.

 

[plyle02]

Kasey,
Stay the course, I in the past would have a knee jerk reaction, search for ways to erradicate pest algaes, and try them all, basically freaking my tank out Just keep the water changes and the others you mentioned, and you should be OK. What is your TDS reading of water making it into the tank? Silicates can definitely cause dinos, I just hope I neve have to deal with bubble and cyano, they killed my spirit...lol

 

[kaserpick]

Dino's killed my spirit for a bit, too. :lmao:

Thanks for the encouragement, Perry; I really do appreciate that. :thumbsup: When I first saw them, I had that sinking feeling in my stomach. I thought, "Crap, not again!" My TDS meter reads 0.02 after the RO and 0.00 after the DI. Of course, I suppose there could be <0.005 dissolved solids in the water; the filters are still reasonably new. If there is that trace amount, the RowaPhos should take care of it. One big concern I do have is whether or not there are trace amounts of silicate in IO salt. I don't want to change anything, so the salt will stay the same. I have been thinking about tossing in a very small bag of RowaPhos into my new saltwater for WC's before I let it mix overnight.

Freaking my tank out, that's exactly what I did last time I had these. I searched the web for all kinds of treatments, cures, and tactics. The tank went through several 100% WC's, rounds of Hydrogen Peroxide, rounds of Algae X, constant basting, and several rounds of "lights out" periods. In the end, I didn't pay attention to my parameters, and instead, I constantly freaked out the animals. Constant change without stability = SPS death.

Yes, instead of freaking out, I'm just going to continue keeping the tank stable. I have noticed that the Ca and KH have been waning slowly. In response to this, I'll probably increase to 1.5 tsp of Calcium Hydroxide per gallon for my Kalkwasser solution. This should also gently encourage higher pH. I usually try to shoot for 8.3-8.4. But, I typically don't achieve that until I can use supersaturated solution for top-off.

This is a long post p), but lastly, when I repositioned the rockwork, the pink tabling acro finally started receiving full light (the full 30% white and 60% blue that is). The poor thing started to lighten up rapidly. So I dropped the white and blue to 15% and 35% and shortened the photoperiod to 7 hours. After only a few days, the acro looks happier. Stupid LED's are bright!

 

[sahin]

Hang in there with the Dinos. I am sorry that you've got them again. But dont let it dishearten you.

I got Cyanno many weeks back in my tank and I started to act like previously - jumping into fight the Cyanno mode...thinking of resorting to Chemiclean etc...

But, I thought I'd fight it differently this time. I will take my time. I dosed Prodibio Bacteria and Coral Snow and within 3 week it went away.

One thing you can do is shut off your flow for like 10 minutes and squirt Hydrogen Peroxide with a small syrine over the Dino. It will kill them for sure. And then dose some bacteria in your tank to maybe boost the bacteria population or bacteria diversity.

Good luck with it and this time just try and take it easy and do all the usual stuff to keep the water parameter as good as possible.

 

[kaserpick]

Exactly! I'm going to take my sweet time with this, too. Last time was just a chemical train wreck, on top of other things. Thanks, Sahin! I'm glad to hear that you whipped the Cyano. :thumbsup:

 

[kaserpick]

So, the Dino's are only in some of the shaded places in the rocks. I thought that was odd. I might try to use some Hydrogen Peroxide on those spots tomorrow in a very small amount.