First Tank - 25g Waterbox Peninsula

[officialreefbros]

I experienced something similar. Mine was caused from removing the fish and quarantining them for 90 days when I was given a “quarantined” fish that had ick from my LFS.

In that time period I wasn’t adding anything to create the ammonia the bacteria feed on and thus my bacteria biome depleted.

When reintroducing my fish and adding coral this cycle began. First diatoms, then hair algae then dinos. I did the raise nutrients and let other things out compete, and then I now I’ve been battling cyano for some time.

I’m about to try this plan after I looked into the whole biome cycle theory. It seems like it will aid the long term success of the tank without constant maintenance and battling.

Firstly I knocked out the lights, this helped a lot as these nuisance bacteria and algae’s are photosynthetic. The next steps I have planned, are to and ocean direct sand over my sand bed all around the tank, and add copepods.

I plan on keeping the lights out for quite some time so as to not allow something else to take over while the bacteria and pods start to do their work.

I read through your start to now, and I pretty much have had the same path since reintroducing everything back to the tank. I’m convinced it’s to do with the biome in our tanks. Definitely look into it and let me know what you think.

Yeah! Somewhere along the line we caused the nitrogen/phosphate to get out of balance I'm planning to keep both nutrients high until I get a balance elevated levels and will slowly water change it out while adding in more clean-up crew to tackle algae growth. I'd much rather have green than brown lol. You can always give chemeclean or high flow a shot. It may help prevent the Cyano. Do you have it everywhere or a few spots?

 

[z4chburris]

Yeah! Somewhere along the line we caused the nitrogen/phosphate to get out of balance I'm planning to keep both nutrients high until I get a balance elevated levels and will slowly water change it out while adding in more clean-up crew to tackle algae growth. I'd much rather have green than brown lol. You can always give chemeclean or high flow a shot. It may help prevent the Cyano. Do you have it everywhere or a few spots?

I have/had cyano everywhere. It's almost gone now, I have sludge I need to siphon out of the tank which I plan on doing my next water change later this week.

Have you checked out the BRS series? This is what I'm using for my plan of attack lol:

 

[officialreefbros]

I have/had cyano everywhere. It's almost gone now, I have sludge I need to siphon out of the tank which I plan on doing my next water change later this week.

Have you checked out the BRS series? This is what I'm using for my plan of attack lol:

Haha sure have! Glad to hear it's working for you!

 

[officialreefbros]

Alright we are back baby! Now that I'm not constantly traveling for work it's time to embark on my reef rehab.

Since my last update I had a huge battle with hair algae. It completely took over when I was away. I manually removed it several times including taking all my rock out and scrubbing it with a brush w/ peroxide. I got my nutrients in check and through I was winning until my next trip.

Again I came back to a chia pet of a reef tank. So I tried a cycle of reef Flux and that did nothing at all! I just kept at it with the manual removal. Digging deep deep into the forum I saw some people have success with bluelife Flux rx. I said why not and doubtfully tried it out as it's the same fluconazole as reef Flux.

Boom! To my surprise my hair algae slowly disappeared!!! (Before and after pictures/videos) Was also super excited to see my toadstool hosting my clowns!!

This brings us to where we are today. The plan:

Overhaul my rock scape: I love the look of what I built but it's not very coral friendly and I want to make more of a foreground. I'm going to start by breaking off the base rock and the point and slowly remove/break some parts and add in addition parts.

Livestock: I only have my 2 clownfish in here, Joey and Chloé. I haven't finalized my fish plan yet, but thinking of adding a court jester goby next. Other stocking ideas are: clown goby, fire fish, pink streaked wrasse, yellow striped goby, golden assessor.

Coral: majority of my coral have been living on frag racks. It's time to get them glue onto the rock and settle into final homes. I want to racks out asap, no matter what I do they always jump out looking like a big eye sore.


More updates and videos coming soon!

 

[CapitalCityAquatics]

Alright we are back baby! Now that I'm not constantly traveling for work it's time to embark on my reef rehab.

Since my last update I had a huge battle with hair algae. It completely took over when I was away. I manually removed it several times including taking all my rock out and scrubbing it with a brush w/ peroxide. I got my nutrients in check and through I was winning until my next trip.

Again I came back to a chia pet of a reef tank. So I tried a cycle of reef Flux and that did nothing at all! I just kept at it with the manual removal. Digging deep deep into the forum I saw some people have success with bluelife Flux rx. I said why not and doubtfully tried it out as it's the same fluconazole as reef Flux.

Boom! To my surprise my hair algae slowly disappeared!!! (Before and after pictures/videos) Was also super excited to see my toadstool hosting my clowns!!

This brings us to where we are today. The plan:

Overhaul my rock scape: I love the look of what I built but it's not very coral friendly and I want to make more of a foreground. I'm going to start by breaking off the base rock and the point and slowly remove/break some parts and add in addition parts.

Livestock: I only have my 2 clownfish in here, Joey and Chloé. I haven't finalized my fish plan yet, but thinking of adding a court jester goby next. Other stocking ideas are: clown goby, fire fish, pink streaked wrasse, yellow striped goby, golden assessor.

Coral: majority of my coral have been living on frag racks. It's time to get them glue onto the rock and settle into final homes. I want to racks out asap, no matter what I do they always jump out looking like a big eye sore.


More updates and videos coming soon!

I have a client with a MAJOR hair algae issue, 400 gallon, large tank. We filly just had to remove all the rocks and scrub the algae off along with a blackout...

 

[officialreefbros]

I have a client with a MAJOR hair algae issue, 400 gallon, large tank. We filly just had to remove all the rocks and scrub the algae off along with a blackout...

Did that fully get rid of it?? Mine stayed away for a few weeks and then came back with revenge until I did the Flux.

 

[CapitalCityAquatics]

Did that fully get rid of it?? Mine stayed away for a few weeks and then came back with revenge until I did the Flux.

I'm not sure yet, but I am going to get ahead of the phosphates by using some Red Sea NO3O4-X, Nitrate and Phosphate Reducer, with the algae scrubber on most on the time (for now) and adding Marine Algaecide weekly.

 

[CapitalCityAquatics]

Did that fully get rid of it?? Mine stayed away for a few weeks and then came back with revenge until I did the Flux.

I may have to try that Reef Flux, is this it:

https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/reef-flux-fluconazole-treatment-reefhd.html

 

[officialreefbros]

I may have to try that Reef Flux, is this it:

https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/reef-flux-fluconazole-treatment-reefhd.html

That's the one that didn't do much for me. It killed the bryopsis but the hair algae just grew more in its place. The bluelife fluxRX specifically worked for me. No clue why but it killed my hair and bubble algae (I kept it in for a lot longer than. The 3 weeks they say)

 

[CapitalCityAquatics]

That's the one that didn't do much for me. It killed the bryopsis but the hair algae just grew more in its place. The bluelife fluxRX specifically worked for me. No clue why but it killed my hair and bubble algae (I kept it in for a lot longer than. The 3 weeks they say)

alrighty, I'll take a look. In my experience if they hair algae gets way to out of control, the only real way to get it back is to physically scrub off the algae.

 

[officialreefbros]

Our comeback is in progress! My nitrates are still on the high side, but with carbon dosing have lowly been coming down. Currently they are 25 and my phosphates are 0.05. There are some tiny bits of hair algae here and there and a few bubbles, but hopefully the crab will get them soon.

My torch has started to color back up and extend a little more and my zoa rock is making progress!

(Pictures taken under blues with orange lense)

 

[officialreefbros]

My clowns are clowning around!

 

[officialreefbros]

Been a while since my last update and boy have things changed. Unfortunately lost those two torches I was desperately trying to bring back, but after rolling my sleeves up the tank has been doing well!

Changes:
- Broke my rock into a new scape
- Remove my sand and added crushed coral
- Removed my Biomedia
- Reduced my water level (aapparently I had it too full and was supposed to be cascading!)
- Swapped over to a tiny skimmer
- Upgraded to an XR15 Blue


New Additions (A lot!)
- "Dragon Soul" torch from a local reefer (Not convinced it is a dragon soul, but it looks super nice!)
- Aquamarine Troch
- Hologram Hammer
- Jawbreaker growing in Jail
- Won a Godzilla
- Koji Nepthia
- OG weeping willow
- Strats and Emperor V2s
- Temp holding a Cotton Candy for the other reef bro. He's cycling his new tank!!! Thread coming soon
- The HAPPEST splatter hammer (It has a smiley face!)

 

[officialreefbros]

I consistently struggled with high nitrates in my tank and ended up diving deep into research about bioballs. I had both the larger ones and the gems in use. I came across a thread suggesting that bioballs might actually contribute to elevated nitrates rather than reducing them. Since I’ve been using Reborn media, I realized the bioballs weren’t offering much benefit anymore. On top of that, I noticed high aluminum levels leaching from them, so it was time to remove them. To my surprise, nitrate levels dropped significantly after taking them out! Now let’s see if they stay that way.

 

[officialreefbros]

Nitrates are still down!

 

[officialreefbros]

Got my first green spots staring on my jawbreaker baby!! It had a rough start and got ripped by a snail early on, but force feeding is making progress

 

[officialreefbros]

It is very non-scientific, but my Nitrates have been very low since the removal of the Bioballs and has been holding steady. Before the removal, I was struggling to get them anywhere below 50! I'm still not sure why my tank consumes a lot of Phosphate as I have been needing to dose it.

 

[officialreefbros]

Making progress! I adjusted my dragon soul torch to be the center focus instead of my toadstool, but have been getting great growth of my LPS. The cotton candy is split into 2 heads and the aquamarine torch is now two distinct heads splitting again!!!

 

[cutter2001]

Hi everyone!

I have been asking a lot of questions here while I have been setting up my first tank and figured I should start a build thread. It may also help me from doing something stupid ;Shamefullyembarrased

For background, my brother has been in the hobby for just under a year and after watching his tank, I knew I wanted my own. Due to the pandemic, I have been able to work from home often. So what's better than setting up a tank on my desk to watch when meetings get boring.

So far I got my tank and equipment. I am using the following:
_____________________________
Peninsula Mini 25
AI Prime HD16
Nero 3
Syncra Pump 1.0
Duetto ATO
Red Sea Coral Pro Salt
Fiji Pink Live Sand
100W Heater AquaEL
Biofilter Media
Kraken Lid
_____________________________

When setting up the tank I spent a lot of time building the rock. To make something of my own, I ordered way too much rock (40lb Marco Rock, 10lb Shelf, and a Medium Foundation). After a BIG struggle of breaking and building rock, I made this!

After getting it all filled up and to the right salinity, I began cycling it. I used Fritz Turbo Start and Nitrocycle from the Algae Barn Tank Cycle kit to do a fishless cycle.

Currently, I am waiting to hear from my local fish store about the clowns I want to get. The current plan to add in over a long period of time is 2 clownfish, HiFin Goby/pistol Shrimp, Peppermint shrimp, nassarius snails, astrea snails, Maybe hermit crabs, maybe a cleaner shrimp, Firefish or Banggai Cardinalfish or Six Line Wrasse or Clown Goby or Royal Gramma, and WAY down the line some sort of Mandarin or possum wrasse.



Let me know what you think and would love any suggestions/advice/tips. I'm super excited to keep learning this hobby and grow my tank!!



Latest FTS (01Dec2024)

Awesome aquascape

 

[officialreefbros]

Awesome aquascape

Thanks! This tank actually got shutdown unfortunately. Couldn't keep it going with movie, but will have bigger and better soon!