ReefWreak's 29g SPS Biocube Adventure!

[ReefWreak]

Your tank looks amazing!

Thank you very much!

I'm re-dialing in the calcium and alkalinity amounts. Even if your tank is a nano, if you're not using a commercially consistent dosing regimen (b-ionic or other pre-measured in-bottle supplement), I would say get a 3+ gallon container of it at a time. I.e. if you're using BRS 2 part, make a batch 3+ gallons at a time, and refill the jugs as necessary.

I'm struggling because the dosages are different between the two batches I made, and since I'm modifying the quantities and testing a week apart, it takes FOREVER to dial the dosages back in. I'm also wondering if I'm getting precipitation in the back of the tank now because the pump is so clogged with sponges and stuff, the flow looks pretty low back there.

Tank is continuing to look great, and I want to take a video soon with the gopro, but I'm wondering what else I need to do to get dosing back in order. Probably not a bad idea to start with cleaning out the return pump and get the flow up again.

 

[ReefWreak]

Had some time to take a decent quality video. Hopefully it looks good and makes sense for everyone. Feel free to ask questions!

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gZ0LRQid3Oc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[Bliss]

amazing reef thanks

 

[ReefWreak]

amazing reef thanks

Thanks!

Ever have one of those days where your ricordia gets a nice $60 snack? I re-glued a nice piece of Pink Lemonade acro from Cherry Corals, and a snail broke it off. And it landed on the ricordia. At night.

And in the morning, there was no more pink lemonade, only an empty skeleton. Oh well!

Now I have a spot for a new frag

What I was doing was something clever that I've a few other people do, which is to place an acro in the middle of a round montipora capricornis plate coral growth. Kinda neat, looks like it's rising out of the coral. Maybe next acro frag I get I'll do that.

 

[ReefWreak]

Sometimes a 45+ day quarantine won't catch some things. This morning, greeting me on my glass is an asterina. SONOFAB.... there's a second one as I look up to type this.

And a third!

I've never seen them before, they must only come out at night. They must have come in on a coral, of which I inspect intensely before adding to the tank...

At least after going from none to three, and hearing all of the bad things about them, my wife gave me the green light to exterminate them with extreme prejudice.

Wish me luck!

 

[ReefWreak]

All in all, I found 5 of them. They must only come out when it's dark out, and we have a laundry drying rack blocking the window so that's why I never usually see them on the morning.

Now they have another reason to not come out when it's light out. Me. To be fair I hate killing animals needlessly, and I apologized to each one for their sacrifice, but they had to go, I can't deal with any coral smothering by them.

 

[homer1475]

I find 3 or 4 every day in my tank. I now yank them out when I see them.

I never used to take them out, but I noticed I started to lose cor\raline on the rocks I usually see the most of them on(they seem to stick to one side of my rockwork?). I attribute it to them. I read somewhere they like to eat coraline.

Since I started taking them out a couple weeks ago, I have coraline growing on that side of the rockwork again.

 

[ReefWreak]

Actually.... I wouldn't mind if they were eating coralline.... I just worry that they'll take over and start smothering stuff and/or eating things I actually care about. Coralline algae and zoanthids, they would be doing me a favor.

 

[ReefWreak]

I thought this was a great article to share on LEDs, specifically Ecotech Radions, and the colors and growth that a specific importer is getting on newly imported and growing out frags from them. Not sure if the link will be blocked or not, we'll see. If it is blocked, just google ReefWholesale_CoralLab.pdf

It was helpful in that it gives a good perspective on setting up a turnkey lighting setup in your tank (or at least something similar to their breeding setup).

 

[ReefWreak]

We survived the blizzard! >25" of snow. But it sure was comfortable inside, just staring at a warm tropical reef.

We also spent plenty of time outside. The wife and I love the cold and snow. Hiked around Queens seeing how the rest of them dealt with it (not well). Then Sunday there was a lot of sledding in the park near our house, our favorite!

 

[soulpatch]

dont think I ever noticed top back of your tank. Is that a spray bar or is your thermometer in the tank?

 

[ReefWreak]

dont think I ever noticed top back of your tank. Is that a spray bar or is your thermometer in the tank?

Both! No not really. It is a spray bar. It's how the tank was set up since I bought it (used) originally. It's about a foot or so of that green eheim plumbing, with a few holes drilled in it. It's horribly clogged, and filled with algae and filter feeders, but it works. I really need to clean my pump and that return line.... The pump is filled with sponges, and that return is filled with general debris... It's probably pushing 25-50gph through the back section. It's barely fast enough to keep alkalinity from precipitating...

 

[soulpatch]

ugh. Yes time for a deep cleaning mate...

 

[ReefWreak]

I was planning on us both upgrading to the mid/large tank clubs at the same time, so we'd both be moving on and up together. But that didn't happen for me, so I guess I should clean my tank

I hate this bowed front glass, it's such a pain to clean without getting wet.

 

[soulpatch]

I have Cabo sending me his unused overflow so I can tap in the cube for now. I will be switching to a SC aquarium eventually though for the flat glass and since it is plumbed with an overflow to make things easier. But I need to sell some things first.

Perhaps I will list the biocube up on craigslist and see what comes of it. I bet I would get at least 400 for it all on there then I would barely have to pay anything for the new SC setup.

 

[ReefWreak]

I have Cabo sending me his unused overflow so I can tap in the cube for now. I will be switching to a SC aquarium eventually though for the flat glass and since it is plumbed with an overflow to make things easier. But I need to sell some things first.

Perhaps I will list the biocube up on craigslist and see what comes of it. I bet I would get at least 400 for it all on there then I would barely have to pay anything for the new SC setup.

Yeah I would definitely go that route, and not re-plumb the biocube in. I would probably keep mine to use as a QT long term (if I have room), but I wouldn't plumb it in. Just take 10g out of the cube and replace it with 10g out of big display tank (drop in the bucket, literally and figuratively), easy peasy.

 

[soulpatch]

Yeah I will list it this weekend and see if I get any bites. I figure $400 or so for the setup with the LEDs, skimmer, sand, rock, and such is more then worth it. Then I will have most of the 575 needed for the sc 45 gallon tank and stand...

I like the plumbed in route as it is less I have to worry about like in our PM earlier this week. For the cube now I can use the HOB overflow from Cabo to get things running without going through a ton of pain with the tank.

 

[ReefWreak]

I've only seen one asterina since the last purge, so that's good. I'm sure more exist. At least they haven't exploded in population at any point.

Everything has been going pretty well. Last night I spent a lot of time reading threads on Lime colored LEDs,and there were some interesting threads like this one on optimizing LED coloration for our tanks. When Jedimasterben and Sherminator chime in on a LED thread, I listen.

So I spent about 30 minutes last night swapping out two of the LEDs, the only Green LED in my setup, and swapped it out for a Lime, and then I also figured I was at it anyway, so I swapped out a Cool White for a Cyan. I bought Lime and Cyan when I bought the whole full spectrum RapidLED retrofit kit, and just haven't really had the time (or desire, honestly) to mess with the spectrum, since I've already been getting such great growth and colors out of my setup, but I figured since I had them, and it sounded interesting, I'd go for it.

I was going to swap out the fans too, since I bought potentially quieter fans on ebay that were the same size, but no-brand, however when I just plugged them in and compared them, they didn't seem much quieter. The noise from the stock fans could be due to vibration, which I wouldn't hear the way they're set up now, however I didn't want to go through the work of replacing the fans to only end up with ones just as loud, so I left it for now.

I do love tweaking things tough! I don't notice much change in coloration at this point, but it'll be interesting to see over time if it makes a difference. I may play with brightness as well to see how that impacts the coloration of the tank (and ultimately the corals). Always playing and tweaking with something!

 

[soulpatch]

Blah blah blah. If you want to tweak things or put stuff together jump on a train down to my neck of the woods and I will put you to work.

Interested to see how the new lighting works out for you. I need you to get some good colors and such on some of your pieces so I can get frags sooner or later.


As an aside you planning on doing reefapalooza again this year? I think it is end of June again.

 

[ReefWreak]

While the growth hasn't been good on the SSC, man the colors have really started popping on it. Too small to frag at this point (though I have raised frags from a single polyp or two when I had a big tank with space and good frag space).

If RAP is in NYC/NJ again, I'm there. I'm not going to San Diego, which I think is/was MACNA?