My BioCube 29 Journal

[BaritoneJP]

How much temps did you loose by switching to the ai prime? I'm having trouble with my tank getting to hot so I put a fan on it and it gets about a gallon of Evap a day

I kept my tank at 80° F (with standard Biocube lights and lid). I took the lid off when I got the AI prime and noticed that my heater had to work more to keep 80. After reading about reef tank temps, I have turn my heater down and now I'm maintaining 77° F (sometimes 76). I had almost no evaporation with the Biocube lid installed (well, it condensed on the lid and ran back into the tank) ... but after I took the lid off and mounted the AI Prime, I'm at a half gallon every day (granted, it is summer and the AC is on). There is an AC vent near (relatively) my tank and that could be helping with the temp.

 

[zoasaholic]

Thank you for your comment ... My zoas aren't doing that good, we'll some are and some are not. Some are growing like wild and some will not open while some are withering. I have an AI prime that I'm running at 70% max mostly in the 14 to 20k range over an 8 hour period. (With a small bit of moon at the start and end)


Thank you for your reply ... I do a weekly water change of 20% with instant ocean reef crystals mixed at 1.026 and is aerated overnight. (At same temp as tank +/- 2 degrees)

Don"t feel bad sometime corals dies for no reason. Been there.local fish store or venders here,their corals dies all the time,but you dont see it.They just replaced with different one.
If you have done 20% wc with good rodi,live it alone.
Keep it simple

 

[BaritoneJP]

If you have done 20% wc with good rodi,live it alone. Keep it simple

I have, my RODI test clean and at zero TDS (and my API kit test zero for the three).

I've have just started testing Alk with a Salifert kit ... 9.3 my deal is not really understanding the direction to go from this point.

Thank you for your encouragement.

 

[BaritoneJP]

Wanted to give an update on my tank. To give a short answer, I still enjoy my tank. While I did get discouraged, then encouraged, the 'new' has worn off. But, I still sit in front of the tank in the middle of the night with a small flash light seeing what happens in the dark. I've heard the first year is the hardest.

I saw a list of questions on another topic that I thought was a neat list of questions; so I would like to answer them about my tank. ..... here it goes:

• What type of test kits are you using?
  • API master saltwater kit (No, I do not like the Nitrate test.)
  • Salifert KH/Alkalinity Test Kit
• What is your water change schedule like?
  • 20% every week (5 gallons)
• What type of lighting are you using?
  • AI Prime led
• What are you using the create flow in your tank?
  • Biocube return flow
  • Hydor Koralia Nano
• What size tank? Sump/Refugium?
  • Tank size (biocube) 29 gallon (I'm guessing about 25 after displacement of rock and sand)
  • What's a sump?
  • What's a refugium?
• Skimmer?
  • None
• Do you dose anything?
  • No
• How much are you feeding? (How many times a week and what?)
  • Three times a week; pellets
  • Twice a week; frozen
• What is your livestock in the tank currently?
  • 5 fish (clown, dwarf angel fish, goby, blenny, basslet)
  • 1 shrimp
  • 5 hermit crabs
  • 1 Emerald crab
  • clean up crew of 25 to 30 members of various snails
  • About 15 corals (mostly LPS)

My wish if I had a knowledgeable friend in the saltwater tank business? Given the info above, what would be the best "next step".

My tank on aquaticlog web site:

 

[BaritoneJP]

It has been a while, so here is another update.

I've added a skimmer since my last update. Nitrates have dropped some but not to zero.

Pictures:

 

[BaritoneJP]

For the sake of this journal, I'm recording that I lost a battle with ich. No more fish; got all of them.

Used the following: MetroFlex in food, blended 1 measure with about 1 tablespoon of frozen food paste. Minimized loss of med during feeding using Focus. Enhance palatability by using with GarlicGuard. Made a batch of food and the food was refrozen.

Temp of the tank was slowly raised to 80 F (based upon reading this speeds up the cycle of ich)
Salinity was decreased slowly to 1.020 SG (hindsight, should've gone to 1.017 SG)

Fish all continued to eat for several weeks, visible indications seemed to reduce in appearance, fish did NOT exhibit any breathing issues, then in a short period of about one week (total of four fish) died. Royal Gramma died first, followed by a bi-colored blenny, then four days later male clown died followed by the female two days later.

What changed prior to flashing fish behavior:

• Two corals were added, sourced from a local privately owned reef tank. Coral was dipped based upon reading several threads here on R2R; taking into consideration the potency of dip and amount of time.
• Clown was added from a LRS who doesn't have anytype of reputation of "bad" tanks.

(Yes, I know about a hospital tank. Yes, I know about quarantine. No, I do not have either. I only have one tank. Was I surprised that I gambled and lost? No, I'm not surprised. Will you tell me "I told you so"? Yes you more than likely will. Please, resist the urge.)

 

[ksfulk]

For what its worth - we've all been there. Is it comforting when you lost it all, no, but dont let it kill your passion for the hobby. At a year in, I was killing corals left and right in my biocube. You seem to have a handle on what is working in your tank based on your FTS. With a tank thats devoid of fish, you can look to fine tune or change up anything that you didnt like before, and look at livestock that you would like going forward.

I will say that raising temperature and lower specific gravity (unless done to the proper SG) is pretty ineffective at doing much for Cryptocaron (ich). That said, without much of a bioload now, if you wait the recommended amount of time, 76 days, you should be ich free in your tank and the nitrates you have been battling should also decrease.

Here's a shot of my tank from back when I took off the canopy and went to LED. Boy, I cooked the beejesus out of most corals, since I didnt understand how powerful the light was compared to my old ones! Notice that its all softies and a few LPS. I had a hard time keeping SPS in this tank as well - mostly because I refused to dose or keep up with water changes!

Dont see this as a set back, just an opportunity to delve into some other aspect of the hobby!

 

[BaritoneJP]

Dont see this as a set back, just an opportunity to delve into some other aspect of the hobby!

Thank you While I was disappointed (in myself) when this happened and felt 'set back', I have already been thinking ahead - and of changes. I have set a future date of 80 days out in my calendar and will be thinking of what (if any) livestock the future holds. I do have a few SPS, and I've had them for a while - for most of the time I've had my tank - but I do not dose. While they are not growing like crazy, they do have good color. I do water changes ever week. Either 5 gal or 3 gal depending on the time I have; 28 gal water volume, so that is around 20%.

Thanks again for your reply

 

[BaritoneJP]

My tank is a year old.

I wish I could say that I've had a great time. Overall, the experience has been great. But I can't say that everyday of this tank so far was wonderful. Don't worry, I'm not cashing in my sand dollars.

 

[BaritoneJP]

Top down view

 

[revhtree]

Nice job!

 

[BaritoneJP]

It's been over a year since my ich-catastrophe. The tank has been sans fish. For the sake of documentation, adding today, two clown fish.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Looks great! Following!!

 

[Chrisfish]

It's been over a year since my ich-catastrophe. The tank has been sans fish. For the sake of documentation, adding today, two clown fish.

Nice addition tank looks really nice.

 

[BaritoneJP]

Jornal entry:
Started the following on 09/08/2017:

• Polyplab's
  • Reef-Roids
  • "One"