First SW ever owned...Build thread

It's been a while! My tank is doing relatively well I suppose. I feel like I have a case of "new tank syndrome" as I have come to read about. I've had some decent algae blooms, and some snail deaths. All the fish have done great in the meantime. Snowflake clown and a gramma as you can see. No ill signs at all. I have a Zoa (not thriving) a Duncan, cyphastrea (both growing well, especially the meteor shower) two Rhodactis shrooms, (not really multiplying as hoped). The newest additions are a flower anemone and a Pom Pom Xenia. For inverts: 6 margarita snails, 1 conch, emerald crab, 4-5 nassarius snails.

My issues are these:

The Duncan has been retracted with these bubbled up tentacles for a while now, coincidentally during the time that it's produced the new head shown in the picture. I'm not sure why she looks like this. Could it be because of growing pains?

The Zoa isn't growing and I've had it for 5 months.

My phosphates are running a muck. As usual, very very low readings when tested for reasons we all know with a tank with algae issues. I've tried Phosphate Rx with some response, but not much. I'm leaching somewhere I think. I also believe that stuff killed my original marg snails and turbos. I have been doing more frequent 4 gallon WCs and just started yesterday running a filter bag of GFO. Cleaned the MJ1200 sponge, that was nasty. We will see if this all helps. I need some suggestions on perhaps the best filtration techniques for a BC 29.

I have seen within the last 4-5 weeks these very strange and consistent vermiculations all over my LR. It looks like worm casings? Does anyone know what the hell they are?! They are easily blown off with a blast, just unsightly and a bit worry-some. First pic.

Thanks for checking it out!

 

Hey Redd,

Glad to see things are still going but sorry to hear about your troubles. I recently went through a 3 month battle with my BC29 so I understand your pain. I once saw this guy from Australia say that if you are having problems in your aquarium you either have too much or not enough of something. That mentality has absolutely saved my tank.

First, I'd ask what your NO3 and PO4 measure at. What you are describing sounds (and looks like in the pictures) as if you are seeing elevated levels of nutrients. I wouldn't say high because it doesn't look like you are "battling algae," but definitely elevated. Some level of phosphate is needed to sustain life but you want to aim to keep PO4 < 0.03ppm in your aquarium. Me personally, I pulled out that sponge in-between chamber 2 and 3. That thing is a nutrient factory. Before doing so, I sucked out all of the detritus in the rear chambers and then added an inTank media basket. I use filter floss on the top shelf and that keeps any debris from entering chamber 2 and 3. It also captures large organics and allows me to export them because I replace the filter floss every week. That sponge the tank comes with is really thick and it's almost impossible to get the center of it clean. When organics get in there they slowly decay releasing nutrients into your system. It sounds like you've seen how gross it can get. One time I pulled mine out and it was covered in sponges (the filter feeding kind, not the cleaning kind).

Are you running a skimmer, carbon, or phosphate reducing media?

 

I think you're in good shape. Keep up with the water changes as you said you have been doing them more frequently. That is the key in my opinion.

 

Thanks Jim, timely reply. The last time I checked the phosphates were at 0.07 and the NO3 were at 0. It's only the salifert test for NO3 so it's not a very small scaled test. The PO4 were tested with the NYOS test, but at the height of a GHA and Dino bloom, so it was in there but obviously sequestered in the algae, so a false negative reading. I actually did pull that sponge between Chamber 2&3 after reading about filtration setups in other cubes. Along those lines, 10 days ago I broke down and purchashed the InTank media rack. I love it. I am running it with Floss => Phosguard => Chemi Pure Blue. I have noticed the amount ofglass cleaning I am doing is decreasing on a day to day basis, but the Dinos, cyano, and GBA are still hanging around; not flourishing, but hanging. I agree, I wouldn't describe it anymore as "battling algae". I also vacc'd out the rear chambers and tried my best to vac the sand bed and blow off the rock. It's tough to get the detritus out during a WC without it settling out again. I do have a skimmer. Hydro slim skim nano in the second chamber after the media rack, at first it was skimming well (yes i have an ATO) but now it's not. I think I need to clean it or I have salt creep/ How do you deep clean your skimmer's motor? weak vinegar solution?
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All in all, I feel like I'm on the positive side of things. My next challenge is I cannot keep, shrimp crabs and most of my margarita snails alive? I am next going to invest in an RO/DI system then an LED light upgrade and am trying to decide between: Steve's, Rapid, TrueLumen or Panorama Pros

 

Update 12/26/16

It's been a while so a long story short. I got a great deal on a rainbow acan, $25 frag with 9, now 11, heads; It's beautiful, the picture doesn't do it justice. I also added 5 astrea snails, emerald crab, and a red tuxedo urchin. I just added the urchin, and she's doing well, moves around quite a bit, more so than I anticipated. She's only about 1' in diameter. The orange zoas I had are kaput, along with the strawberry conch (really sad about that), moon snail, and various other margaritas. I had a cyano outbreak, really bad. I did lights out, siphoning, uppedthe WCs and nothing like that was helping. I gave in and dosed a 20 gallon dose of Chemi-Clean. IT dropped the freaking bomb on that stuff and the GHA broke down as well. I have heard mixed reviewsd about that product and I have used it in the past with similar results. It really does work, but the Cyano kept coming back. All of my major params read next to zero, so phosphates must be sequestered in the algae. I'm also dosing 15ml daily of each Ca and Alk. I keep the Mg up in the range as well.

I did a much more diligent job of removing the die-off manually as it went, in order to decrease the amount that decomposed. I'm running FF, purigen, and CPE in the InTank rack, so hopefully with those two measures I'll see more sustained success with algae control. I also did like, 3 water changes within 3 days of the Chemi-clean completing its cycle, so that helped, I'm sure.

Also, I just purchased an Aquamaxx FR-s reactor to either supplement or replace the media rack. It's on sale for 1 day and marine depot; $20 off! I had to do it. I can't decide if I want to go with biopellets, GFO/Carbon or just carbon. If I go with biopellets I can still run the CPE in the media rack. But if I go GFO/Carbon, I can replace using CPE altogether and turn the media rack into a fuge, or just run FF and purigen? or replace the media rack altogether, sell it and buy more coral.

I purchased 2 silenx fans to replace the stock buzzsaws. I have yet to make the modification because I have a strange lighting problem and I may need to send the whole hood into them. My 10K light flickers for 2 seconds then goes out. I just replaced both stock PCs 1 month ago with new bulbs, so this shouldn't be happening. I am in contact with Coralife to see if there is warranty on it, but It seems that the bulb's messed up. Anyone ever have this problem? Will running only the actinic bulb for a spell mess my corals up?

Anyways, the xenia has grown, the cyphastrea and duncan are growing well, the RFA came back out of hiding and I think my rhodactis mushroom is finally starting to multiply.

So far so good. The tank picture is whilethe chemi-clean was winding down. There's more of the cyano that has disappeared.

 

Your corals need white lights!! You could purchase 50/50 bulbs for you tank of you would like the blue look... in regards to the flickering light, my biocube didn't stay stock for to long so I have never ran into this issue... I'm sure coralife will take care of you though. Tank looks great by the way


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Thanks for the info, I realize white is essential. I plan on retrofitting to LED once I pay some Christmas debt off. I'm waiting to hear back from them, but I am not sure how long I can wait and have the coral chill until actinics only

 

Your soft coral may be okay, but I'd watch your LPS coral.... your Acans may close up? Or giving the fact that your lighting is a true light that emits UV they may fair fine.... have you tried to change the bulb??


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I have never tried to run just actinic, so I don't have a good answer... But I did try to give my tank a very purple violate look once and all my sps bleached and my lps closed. And that was with very little white.


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That's the thing, I am wondering how long I can go before I need to go get a stand in 10k until Coralife gets back to me with a replacement or some sort of an answer.