ReefWreak's 29g SPS Biocube Adventure!

[ReefWreak]

I should also probably look at retrofitting some UV-resistant acrylic into my current splash guard, since it is starting to yellow around the UV lights, probably reducing their effectiveness.

Might have to see if I can do some soldering work in exchange for some acrylic from LQT. I bet it costs a bundle to order sheets of acrylic because of the shipping and if there are minimum quantities...

 

[ReefWreak]

Anyone want a frag of Tyree Red Dragon (below the recovering frag of Pink Lemonade)

 

[DylansGolden]

Could you post a few photos how you've got your chiller hooked up? I'm currently doing a build myself on a 29G biocube and not sure exactly how I want to go about connecting my Chiller.

Did you "T" off your return or ran its own pump?

 

[ReefWreak]

As is with my usual laziness, I never hooked up the chiller. If/when I do need to set it up, the plan was to have it go in and out the stock cutouts in the back of the hood.

I have the original stock hard shaped plastic that came with the chiller, and would have them on a separate loop powered by a maxijet 900.

Hope that helps. The chiller is largely just for emergency if the ac goes out in the apartment.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

 

[Hentz]

Your tank is seriously packed lol. You NEED the upgrade! 100 Gallon Tank, it'll be packed to the brim just like this one ��

 

[ReefWreak]

Yea, I'm not moving any time soon, so I should probably do more fragging.

Hentz I just left LV. Thought about dropping you a line for a drink, but between bringing the baby along and the sandstorm (and random acts of violence outside my hotel) I kept my head down. You're probably a busy guy too. Maybe next year when I'm in town.

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[Hentz]

Yea, I'm not moving any time soon, so I should probably do more fragging.

Hentz I just left LV. Thought about dropping you a line for a drink, but between bringing the baby along and the sandstorm (and random acts of violence outside my hotel) I kept my head down. You're probably a busy guy too. Maybe next year when I'm in town.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

Ah man! I wish I would've known. Where did you stay?
Yes the wind was pretty insane. I felt terrible as my poor horses were getting blasted. Can't believe how powerful the wind was, don't experience that crazy of wind often here. I'm busy but can always make time for a fellow reefer!

Next time you're in town, stop by my work at Public House inside the Venetian. 250+ Beers, 300+ Wines, and a huge selection of spirits with some pretty damn good food!

 

[ReefWreak]

Stayed at the cosmopolitan. The wind was no biggie for someone from south FL and NYC. We've been having winds like that all winter and spring. It was funny talking to the Uber driver to the airport, how shaken she was by the winds, but I've been experiencing craziness like that for a long time.

I'll drop you a line next year when I'm in town. I have to catch up on your (and all my other RC buddies' threads. Been a busy few months with the baby. Just Glad my tank is mostly self sufficient.

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[Rakie]

Everytime you pop in wreak I wonder if the update will be "Tank ran out of water, didn't notice"

 

[ReefWreak]

Heh, nah, water I would notice. Thank goodness I invested in an ATO, otherwise I probably would run out of water and run a pump or two dry...

I did actually run out of two part 2 weeks ago, right before this work conference out of town for a week. Oops! Good thing I keep a pair of ESV 2 part containers on hand in case it happens. I also wrote the date on them, and it looks like I'm getting a solid 6 months out of each batch of ESV 2 part. One of the reasons I switched to ESV was that it's around double the concentration of the cheaper BRS stuff, which is about half price. So at the end of the day, they're about the same price, it just feels like you're getting more with BRS because it's double the volume.

What I really like with the ESV double concentration is that the pumps only have to run half as much, and I only have to change them out half as often (though my calcium/alkalinity demands have been increasing with the astronomical growth I've seen, and as such I've had to increase the dosing, so I can't say I have 3 months on BRS gallons and 6 months on ESV, since though that's true, it may be partly due to usage as well as increasing demands).

Tank almost crashed from running low on alkalinity/calcium though. I lost most of my Oregon Tort piece, which hasn't grown much since I got it anyway. It looks like most of the other SPS are doing fine, maybe just a little lighter in color.

I'll upload some pics in a bit.

 

[soulpatch]

Uh oh. Perhaps I need to bring you another tort frag in June. LOL

 

[ReefWreak]

While greatly appreciated, nah. I'll nurse this one back to health, or give up until I can provide a more stable (and spacious) environment. The juice ain't worth the squeeze on this guy right now.

I actually haven't seen the tank with the lights on yet, so hopefully it's the only one to be unhappy at this point.

Good news is I get to order new RO/DI filters (and probably a new membrane), as well as more ESV and other goodies. I know I just missed all of the MD sales and bonus point earning stuff, but oh well. I get to justify the new RO stuff by using it for baby formula making I just have to clean the housings out thoroughly with vinegar since the setup is kinda old and grimey looking (I bought it second hand 2 years ago, and haven't changed the filters yet, and it looked kinda grimey back then too).

 

[soulpatch]

Meh I bought the water for the formula as it was just easier to deal with...

 

[ReefWreak]

But we have and produce our own state of the art water filtration already! Our water is probably better! And it helps justify the cost of getting replacement membranes and the existence/space taken up from the RO system!

I bought a bunch of drinking water storage containers last time I was out in suburbia in the car, and have been using them as ATO top-off containers, but now I can keep them as formula water storage as well. Score!

 

[Babydaull]

what is your fish live stock list?

 

[ReefWreak]

Flame angel, two clowns, pygmy hawkfish, tailspot blenny. Also have a cleaner shrimp, snails, blue-leg hermits, and asterina stars. And a clam. And lots of corals. Less corals after this past week, but it's all good.

 

[TYC]

Thanks!

3. Light - After all the innovations of LEDs, at the end of the day, if you have enough light, you can get good coloration. Doesn't matter if you have a single 10K metal halide bulb, or have only white and blue LEDs instead of a rainbow of varieties of individual LEDs, you can achieve coloration with any of these solutions, as has been demonstrated by RC TOTM winners over the decades. Some light may be easier or harder to get good coloration, but more often than not, the real issue is with one of the first two mentioned, probably not the lights.

Great thread and amazing tank. More importantly congrats on your recent new addition! Learned about you thru Soulpatch.
Love the look of SPS but not much success with them. Few q's - how many hrs/day do u light the tank?

4. Nutrient levels - In the beginning I advocate shooting for 0 nitrate and 0 phosphate, because most beginners have algae problems; It's part of the learning curve of the hobby. Once your tank is mature and you can keep low-to-no nutrients and have no algae issues, you can start to work on coral coloration. If you have issues with coloration, it can be helpful to add more food into the tank, whether that means coral food, more fishes to poop more and create more ammonia in the water column, or adding raw nutrients directly. But while doing any of this, you must keep an eye on your nutrient levels and algae growth, because if either of those spike, you're back to square one.

what is/should be expected length of "beginning" period of shooting for 0 nitrates & phosphate?

Also, r u attending this year's RaP?...there's a thread discussing this http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2634390&page=2

 

[ReefWreak]

Thanks! It's nice having some encouragement, I've been dealing with some not-so-great tank times right now.

Soulpatch is a good guy, he knows what's up. A few of us nano veterans have gone to do great things in our tanks. Some of us are still stuck in nanoville.

My tank is lit usually 11am to 11pm or so, with 30 minutes of sunrise and 30 minutes of sunset at the end, so about 11 hours of full brightness.

Water quality is most important, water parameter consistency is important, flow is important, lighting matters, lighting quality matters, but those are listed in most to least priority. As long as you have decent lights, you should be okay for a long time.

I would shoot for 0 nitrates/0 phosphates for a year, maybe more. I wouldn't try raising nitrates/phosphates to encourage coloration until after a few years of reefing, when you know you're ready, because you're out of other things to change.

I'm stuck right now with the ultimate noobie problem of "I'm registering 0 nitrates and ~0 phosphates but yet I'm still having algae issues". I've had a bubble algae problem for a while, but it got really bad with this recent decline, so I've finally given in to my green shelled friends, who promise to take care of it, but I still don't trust them.

Look at those beady eyes and fuzzy legs. I just don't trust em! Call me a speciesiest against crabs. Oh my god, I didn't realize that there was actually an academic published paper on emerald crabs eating nuisance bubble algae! Gotta go find a copy!

I think I'm going to try to get to RaP, I've gone the last two years, and have a lot of reefing friends going.

 

[TYC]

I would shoot for 0 nitrates/0 phosphates for a year, maybe more. I wouldn't try raising nitrates/phosphates to encourage coloration until after a few years of reefing, when you know you're ready, because you're out of other things to change.

Wow, 1 year? Ok, I'll try but 0 nitrate for one yr is gonna be tough...

I'm stuck right now with the ultimate noobie problem of "I'm registering 0 nitrates and ~0 phosphates but yet I'm still having algae issues". I've had a bubble algae problem for a while, but it got really bad with this recent decline, so I've finally given in to my green shelled friends, who promise to take care of it, but I still don't trust them.

what dont u like about emerald crabs?.... I was told they're good for controlling GHA...let me know if they get rid of ur bubble algae, I too have red bubble algae that I can't seem to get rid of. Got so desperate I took out the live rock and blow torched the bubble algae but think I didn't get down all the way to the root so some still survived!!!

 

[ReefWreak]

Wow, 1 year? Ok, I'll try but 0 nitrate for one yr is gonna be tough...

Nah, once you get them down to zero (and the tank is mature) and get in the habit, it won't even be an afterthought. I only VERY rarely check my nitrates, only if there is something wrong with my tank, as there is now. Any time I test it though, even with multiple kits from multiple brands, it's almost always zero (that's part of the frustration of getting algae when they're consistently zero).

Really, the important thing is tank maturity and stability. It's the year of YOU learning not to futz with the tank. Get it set up and stable, get your maintenance routine down, and let it run. Automate as much as you can.

what dont u like about emerald crabs?.... I was told they're good for controlling GHA...let me know if they get rid of ur bubble algae, I too have red bubble algae that I can't seem to get rid of. Got so desperate I took out the live rock and blow torched the bubble algae but think I didn't get down all the way to the root so some still survived!!!

I don't trust any crabs. Not even hermits. I don't remember seeing emerald crabs eat coral, but they are known to eat coral when they're hungry, and they're scavengers, so if they're hungry, they'll eat other things that they shouldn't (clams, corals, other crabs, snails, etc.; homie don't play that game).

Yeah, bubble algae is tough. It's very difficult to remove it once it has taken hold. Hopefully with increasing my vodka/carbon dosing and the emerald crabs I can keep it down. My big tank had it, but my tangs ate it, so I didn't care. In this tank, you can't have tangs (YOU CAN'T!), so the options are much more limited. Just one more reason why a nano tank is harder than a big tank. Add it to the list!