ReefWreak's 29g SPS Biocube Adventure!

[soulpatch]

my clowns are model citizens and leave me alone no matter what I am doing in the tank. The one will almost let me cradle it in my hand as he surfs in the water.

[ReefWreak]

Interesting thread on flasher/fairy wrasses and firefish living in harmony.

The commonality, which I know to be true in general, for success with the mix, is that the firefish be established first. I'll hold off on the helfrichi for now.

I may pull the male mccosker when doing the tank transfer QTing of the two other wrases to make sure they're all reintroduced together. We'll see how it goes.

[ReefWreak]

Ooops, just ordered some KNO3 (Potassium nitrate) for FW planted aquariums to increase my nitrates and potassium levels (1:2 K:NO3).

Maybe I should start by removing the macroalgae from the fuge first though...

[soulpatch]

careful with that. I use it in my planted tanks and it can crash if not measured properly.

[ReefWreak]

Yeah, if/when I start dosing, it'll be small small small. I found a helpful calculator here and emailed it to myself with potential dosage amounts. Everything good happens slowly, so add or remove things slowly.

I think I'll go with siphoning out my refugium algae first and leaving the fuge light off for a while and seeing how that goes. I probably feed pretty lightly for this size tank, bioload, and skimmer (about a light pinch or two per day), so I'm probably not adding much nitrates, but nanos are just so finnicky you have to be so careful.

Thanks for the heads up though

[soulpatch]

ha I overfeed to keep some nitrates in my system for my corals. I add in no pox daily but at a light level. If and when I start to pick up dinos I increase my nopox dose to combat it.

This weekend I will discontinue my GFO as the tank is stable enough algae wise for me. I never like things completly gone as that is a sign something else is probably amiss...

[ReefWreak]

Yea, I'm starting to feel like my tank is in the groove...

I'm not sure how I got so lucky having a good solid start on my tank, never having much algae issues, and getting very good color with pretty decent growth on SPS, but I'll take it.

I think the real keys to getting started on the right foot in this hobby is aggressive skimming, light feeding, and plenty of liverock all from the getgo. I guess people overfeed in the beginning?

I remember when I started my 24g, I used to thaw a frozen mysis block and feed half at a time and freeze the other half, and I still got nuisance algae. But I also didn't have a skimmer, all I did were water changes. I also did heavy nutrient export with copious xenia growth, and I had one small rock that had GHA on it that absolutely wouldn't go away, but there wasn't any algae anywhere else in the tank. I guess I ironed out a lot of problems early back then, and I think equipment has come a long way since then as well.

[ReefWreak]

I guess I didn't share these before, but this was my old 24g nanocube. Remember, it originally came with 13 fishes, including a yellow tang. I have the craigslist posting picture somewhere on my desktop at home.

This tank was in the groove, and was doing well for a few years in my dorm room:


But I think I got overzealous. I think that it was when I upgraded to that effing halide, the bulb was too yellow, and nothing but algae grew, and grew like crazy. Ended up selling it for a pittance to just get it out of the way so I could focus on my 120g. Gotta start somewhere. This was my humble pie.

[soulpatch]

I overfeed and as such need to dose some nopox or I run into trouble. Though overfeeding also allows me to not have to spot feed all my acan heads as well which is cumbersome.

[soulpatch]

that old tank would have been perfect candidate for peroxide... lol.

[ReefWreak]

Yeah, to my knowledge peroxide dosing wasn't a thing in 2007-2008? I had skimmer (AquaC Remora Pro HOB), GFO, and frequently water changes, and constant pruning. It outcompeted the xenia for nutrients, starved everything else out, and I really fed the bare amount I could to keep the clown healthy and happy (though he was a jerk, and that's why he was in the time out cube instead of the 120g reef).

I definitely understand the noobrage of being beaten out of the hobby by GHA/bryopsis. It's nice that there are a lot more options now.

Hopefully people will see though that the same person can learn lessons the hard way (though damnit, I didn't know what else I could do! except now I know peroxide and a new bulb) and still become a better (successful) reefer in the long run.

[soulpatch]

Hell I cant even count the thousands I have sunk into my planted tanks over the years with a couple failures costing easily 500+ to get going again with my 125 gallon. All learning experiences and now have a self sustaining tank that I merely need to prune and feed the fish. Water changes are almost optional at this point save for the minerals they replace as the plants handle all of the waste and nitrates...

[ReefWreak]

Sorry, I need to go to my happy place after seeing those last few pictures. Sorry for the interruption. I have nicer pics, but I'm hesitant to share them on the web without watermarking them first.


Diving in Eilat, Israel, on the Red Sea

[ReefWreak]

Originally Posted by soulpatch

Hell I cant even count the thousands I have sunk into my planted tanks over the years with a couple failures costing easily 500+ to get going again with my 125 gallon. All learning experiences and now have a self sustaining tank that I merely need to prune and feed the fish. Water changes are almost optional at this point save for the minerals they replace as the plants handle all of the waste and nitrates...

Yea, that's always a good place to be. That's where I try to be with my aquariums. The less you have to fuss with tanks, the better.

One of the best acronyms that I have picked up in the hobby:
SPS - Stability Promotes Success

[sahin]

Very nice little nano tank! Colours in the SPS are really nice too Can you tell me which brand of two part you are dosing? I see Acropower in one of the photos; how often do you dose that? How do you rate acropower for SPS colour? Do you dose any other supplements?

[ReefWreak]

Originally Posted by sahin

Very nice little nano tank! Colours in the SPS are really nice too

Thanks sahin! I've been a big fan of your build and SPS experience, and see your posting all the time in the SPS forum, so that means a lot!

Originally Posted by sahin

Can you tell me which brand of two part you are dosing?

Sure! I've started using the generic 2 part from Bulk Reef Supply, dosed with their dosers (1.1mL/min). I'm at I believe 8 minutes Alk/day, and 10 min CA/day, and I have it split it into two doses, each delivered 12 hours apart, with the CA and Alk offset by an hour of each other. They kick on at 12/1AM and 12/1PM and are controlled by my ReefKeeper Lite. The ALK/CA are whatever the standard BRS proportioning is, and are dosed from those gallon containers you see below the tank in the stand.

Originally Posted by sahin

I see Acropower in one of the photos; how often do you dose that? How do you rate acropower for SPS colour? Do you dose any other supplements?

I just picked it up 3-4 weeks ago, maybe I put a capful in every week, if that. I haven't really focused on dosing with it. I hope to start doing once a week, and leaving the skimmer off for the duration of the day that I dose it on, so it has time to circulate and distribute before being skimmed out.

Honestly, I haven't seen any impact from Acropower yet. I bought it and used it because of the generally positive response in the SPS forum on it, and the frequent citing of the benefits of amino acid dosing on SPS that has historically been mentioned (I remember with my old tank I tried amino acids a few times, also never saw a difference, but never was scientific about it, and had success before dosing).

No other supplements. I have a big batch of GFO/Zeolites from Drs. Foster Smith that I used when setting up the tank and haven't touched since.

My Secret!
Stability Promotes Success, Stability Promotes Success, Stability Promotes Success

No big secret, but honestly when I switched from the underpowered (for SPS) Panorama Pro LED modules to the bigger LEDs, and started consistent dosing at the same time, I immediately saw the colors start to take off. Honestly, the growth was almost okay before, but I'm seeing more growth now as well. I'm very happy with the colors, and think I made the right choice on lights (appropriate budget choice, DIY custom solderless kit, swapped out some CW LEDs for NW, and at some point I'll swap the green for a Lime LED which I have floating around).

I still feel like I could be getting more growth, but I know if my tank survives a year or two, then I'll look back and because everything will be growing into each other and the poor fish will have to be careful not to be stabbed by sharp acropora everywhere.

I think I'm on the road to success though. I've got everything relatively stabilized and consistent, I bought the backup battery for the vortech and test it regularly, and have a chiller that I can set up in case my AC goes out (again).

[ReefWreak]

Small update. Waterchange day!

This is what came out when I siphoned out the back chambers. I scraped the walls to get all of the algae out, and I will not be running the light back there for the next few weeks to see if I can get the nitrates to come up slightly to fuel acropora growth and coloration (though the colors are very good right now; It's just an experiment):



General situation: Not much changed. Skimmer fills up every 2-4 days with pretty decent dark skimmate. I'm now going to add Acropower every week, just a capful, and let it run without a skimmer for a few hours afterwards.

When I tested the water yesterday my alk came down to around 6.7, so I manually dosed a calculated 1dkh using brightwell alkalinity 2 part (just the alk part), and I bumped the 2 part dose for alkalinity up higher. I'm wondering whether the coralline algae in my tank is really impacting my calcium and alkalinity uptake. I need to get a razor to clean the inside glass, as coralline is forming pretty heavily around the edges of the tank despite cleaning the glass every two or so days.

For reference, my 2 part dosing is using BRS in their standard preparation method, and I'm currently at 8mL x 2 per day (16mL total), dosed at 1am and 1PM. Calcium I left alone at 7mL x 2 at 12 AM and 12 PM daily. The mL are assumed to be 1mL = 1minute of the doser on. I know it's technically 1.1, but I'm just going to call it 1:1.

I still want to add the two female McCosker wrasses if they ever come in from the LFS. I stopped in 2 weekends ago (a month after ordering them) and they said they didn't have record of the order, so I wrote down my order and double checked via phone last week, and they hadn't placed the order but would shortly. I'm still not adding any fishes yet in anticipation of that happening, but honestly, if they didn't end up ordering the fishes, I would be fine, probably better off.

I think if I add any more fishes (which I'm still on the fence about in general), I'll just "adopt" fishes from people who are breaking down tanks and need to get the fishes rehomed. There is a swissguard basslet that someone is getting rid of in Manhattan (and he also has Tunze 9001 or 9002, he isn't sure) so I might check that out. We'll see. No rush, as things are doing very well, and we'll have to see how the current bioload plays out without the algae/refugium in the back.

Nice thing is that most of the corals are happy and colorful. I have the Berlin acro that is actually growing nicely now, but it's the only acro to not color up nicely. Still kinda brown with blue tips. No idea why.

I also moved around today the platygyra piece that I have to see if it will start growing faster in a new location. It looked like some of it's color was fading/receeding, so I'm getting nervous. So is the war coral / favia as well. It's not an LPS thing, since the hammer coral looks great, and might even be growing in some additional heads. Not sure what the deal is, so trying to move them around and see what we can get going.

[soulpatch]

How are things looking with the higher nitrates and such?

[ReefWreak]

One of the important mottos for this hobby is that nothing good happens quickly.

That being said, I think that my largely pale colored ponape birds nest is actually darkening in color, and it seems like I'm continuing to get nice growth in my acros. I think I'm seeing an intensifying of my anchor coral (green appendages with purple tips) and the platygyra that I have looks a bit deeper in color recently, but it may finally just be acclimating to my tank/lights.

Of course who knows, and it's probably placebo effect, but I think there is a slight difference.

I'm definitely seeing more "whisps" in the tank. I think some of these are small strands of cyano that are growing in places and blowing off. I think some of them are from little tube worms that release a long strand to catch plankton. I've only noticed both of these more frequently in the last week or two, so it might be contributing to that, though why, since the fuge wasn't filtering anything, only absorbing dissolved nutrients.

No patches of cyano or dinoflagellates yet to speak of. I still have "dragon's breath" algae in the display of my tank, and it has much more bubbles on it's leaves, so it may be taking up nutrients now, whereas before it's growth was constrained by the faster growing green algae in the back of the tank. I suppose I should either remove or just cut down this red algae to truly let the nutrients stay put.

[soulpatch]

As with anything changes are hard to see. I suggest you look to take pics almost daily for a bit so you can document the changes happening. Same thing that helped me see that my corals really were growing much more then I thought.

I plan on taking pics of my two damaged corals daily starting tomorrow night to see if I can watch the succession of the black bugs and the regrowth of the coral. Maybe do a write up in here on the treatment for nanos as well so we have it on file.

[JakeK]

ReefWreak, thanks for starting this thread. I'll be following for sure. You and soulpatch have already given me so much advice. SPS coral is something I'm holding off on for now. I did order one small frag and it promptly bleached out when I raised it from the sandbed to the rock. I want my tank to mature some more and me to get more experience before I really consider it. You're 120 gallon was incredible!

[jaylensdad06]

very nice job

[ReefWreak]

Thanks for the kind words JakeK and jaylensdad06!

I need to keep updating. I swear I look at my tank daily! I just need to get on the pictures. I spend an embarrassing amount of time continuing to read and research and think about my tank, so at least if I'm helping others it justifies it somewhat (in my head anyway).

If you added an SPS coral and it bleached, just leave it at the bottom of the tank. Let it fully brown out for a few weeks. It may color up down there once it gets more acclimated to your tank. They can only handle a few stressors at a time, so a new tank has many (inhabitants, flow, light, nutrient levels, etc.), so it's easiest to introduce each stressor one at a time until it's established and then you can start playing.

With all of the frags in this tank, I have glued them directly to the rocks after acclimation (drip over an hour or so). I also will dim my lights to ~10% for a week or two and then bring the lights back up slowly (5% per week). It's nice with LEDs (and some T5s) that you can dim like this. Back with MH, I had to have a frag rack that I added them to, which I could lower to the bottom of the tank (it was attached to a magfloat), then I could raise over the course of a week or two to acclimate them to the tank's lighting.

Tons to learn and explore. Never hesitate in asking me any questions!

[ReefWreak]

Updates!

Well, I don't have much to report with the tank. Only changes I've made was taking the refugium off line. I still have macro in my display (Dragon's breath), but I got rid of the refugium in the middle chamber in the back. Still running the skimmer. I am adding Acropower every Friday/Saturday, and leaving the skimmer off for ~12 hours after adding so it gets plenty of circulation. I'm not seeing a difference. We shall see.

Some pics to reward you for my lack of updates:

FTS:



Joe the Coral has Polyp Extension (PE) for dayyyyys:



This "Emerald Sky" has really turned out to be a stunning coral in my display (the pic is a little washed out, sorry. It looks a bit bluer IRL):



Smooth and silky ORA Hawkins A. Echinata:


And the value of macro, because I spent a few days lunch money (a lot of days) on the lens ):



And just because, did I mention PE for days? I meant daaaaayyyyyssss:

[soulpatch]

clean your glass man. LOL