ReefWreak's 29g SPS Biocube Adventure!

[soulpatch]

I need to do another round of bubble algae cleanout with a large water change myself. I didnt think of using a sock into a bucket and pouring it back in as I was scared about the spores getting dumped right back into the tank. So I am curious if they stay away or if you see more coming back.

Doing that would save me easily $15 in salt alone from not having to do a large 50+ gallon water change.

Did you have the guy check your salinity as well? Wondering if your refractometer is just going bad. You are losing salt with what you are taking out so it has to drop over time.

 

[ReefWreak]

I'm sure they'll come back over time. He said basically that once introduced, they almost always do. The trick really becomes having something biologically that can take care of them (emerald crabs, fishes, etc.).

Since the whole idea that biological removal of bubble algae involves breaking and/or smashing the bubble anyway 100% of the time, I've given up on the theory of "not breaking the spores". I've also given up on starving them out too, since I tried that, and everything else starved out except the bubble algae. He thinks it's phosphate related, even with my levels being around 0.018ppm.

I did have him check my salinity. He agreed with me that it's probably a function of high-volume 2 part dosing, but thought that we would have it corrected ASAP. He did double-check with his own refractometer, and got the same reading I did. Oh well. I'll just keep chipping away at it.

He also did complete tests with his own kits. Said alk was high-to-good, calcium was good, but magnesium was super high. I found the last one particularly funny, considering I have never added the Magnesium packet as part of the 2-part solution when I was dosing the BRS 2-part. Maybe with ESV you don't need magnesium? But he said it was very very high.

 

[ReefWreak]

If I'm posting pictures in other threads, I might as well post them here too lol.

Most recent shot, June 16th, right after having the tank cleaned professionally. The corals are still recovering since this shot, but some of the corals have colored up tremendously.

 

[Fish4life28]

Impressive sps colonies. Well done. Forgive me and I'm sure I've read before but what lights do you run over that bad boy?

 

[ReefWreak]

Thanks!

READ THE THREAD!

(just kidding)

TL : DR

I'm using a custom combination of LEDs in a RapidLED solderless retrofit kit. I've been running them at really high power, but have since cleaning up my tank lowered the LED output and have actually seen improvement in coral coloration.

 

[Fish4life28]

I've gone through it before just couldn't remember along the way if there was any changes:fun2:
Fighting bubble algae, skimmer change from tunze 9001.... haha see I have looked.

 

[ReefWreak]

All good, I probably couldn't find the details in this thread even if I wanted to... It's tough to sort through all the info.

If I can help along your journey (though it looks like you're well on your way!), don't hesitate to ask!

 

[Fish4life28]

Thanks kindly for the offer. I won't hesitate. Actually enjoying this small tank. Loved my old 120 but finding the smaller tank actually easier and much more simplified.

 

[ReefWreak]

The bubble algea saga continues. I did it myself this time. What a pain. I also cut off more birdsnest than most people are able to grow out of it.

 

[ReefWreak]

Thought I'd take a quick video and share progress. Some ups, some downs. Some things are growing in ways I haven't even noticed, such as the A. Formosa at the top growing into it's neighbor and slowly taking it over. Cool to see.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8pypzHzDA6A" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[Jadams]

Can you post a link to YouTube for the video? I just see a black box lol

 

[Jadams]

Nevermind! Got it from quoting your post lol

Beautiful Tank! Excellent job :thumbsup:

 

[ReefWreak]

Thanks!

Here is the link, in case anyone else gets weird results from the embedded video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pypzHzDA6A&lc=z12wifhomx3xutugs04cgzmb0kvddt1hulg0k

 

[Kolkri]

I had bubble algae at one time. Emerald crab got it all in a couple days. Tank looks very full. Great work.

 

[ReefWreak]

I had bubble algae at one time. Emerald crab got it all in a couple days. Tank looks very full. Great work.

Thanks! There's about 3-4 emerald crabs in there. I added 4 about 2 months ago, I've seen 2 dead, and added 2 this past weekend (any time my neighbor runs to the LFS, I have him grab me more of them). They don't do well in the tank though, despite the fact that I'm feeding much more often now than I used to (every other day feeding a good size chunk of mysis).

The tank is too full. This is one reason that nanos are difficult, they're a pain to maintain the corals at reasonable size. In the front, I had to trim down this big Ponape Birdsnest coral I have, because bubble algae was growing in the skeleton and killing the coral, growing up and around it. I went in with coral trimmers and ripped a ton of it up. I think once the algae gets inside the skeleton, there's almost no going back. It made me wish I had a parrotfish to do this work for me

 

[Kolkri]

oh wow. Maybe time for a start over? Kind of glad mine are growing painfully slow.
Good luck,

 

[ReefWreak]

Starting over wouldn't be the end of the world, but honestly, I like my corals, I really want to keep them growing, and just give them more room (and more stable parameters that a larger tank affords).

My biggest frustration is that I can't take care of a number of issues I'm having due to a small tank. I'd love to take care of bubble algae biologically, stability with a calcium reactor setup, and corals growing into each other with more room. I guess maybe in a perfect world... (with a bigger tank).

I should trim everything down and start with smaller pieces again... But big pieces look so impressive, and fragging is tough when you have room for a frag rack. I don't even have room for that (my current frag rack barely gets any light because of the narrow shafts from LEDs).

I should just start selling frags again.

 

[LuizW13]

The SPS looks nice in that video!

 

[soulpatch]

Still have a lot of those issues with a larger tank Reef. It is just a lot more $ to get there. I have SPS growing into one another and such as I note in my build thread. I am giving away frags that woudl easily be $50-100 just to get them out of my tank since I dont want multiples of some of my SPS in there but for some of my pieces to grow into large colonies and others to just be fill pieces.

Though biologically I have mroe wiggle room which is nice and will be better when the copperband starts to eat my aiptasia and I no longer need to use kalk paste to kill them

 

[ReefWreak]

A little oversaturated, but not crazy oversaturated. Using the hacked Google Camera app apk that they've liberated from the Pixel and made available to the S8 and other phones I missed my google camera app!

It's amazing how much corals brighten up if you just feed the tank now and then. I've even started directly feeding LPS, and they're reacting amazingly and quickly. They look much healthier than ever before.

I also ordered a digital refractometer since everyone got me all self-conscious about the normal one not being accurate even with calibration and temperature adjustment, so it should be on the way soon (Thanks Foster Smith, for giving a $30 gift card with the purchase of a $60 generic flea and tick medicine for the dogs!).