From a 29G BioCube to a 45G Cobalt CVUE-45 - My Story

ReefersDelite · Jul 18, 2018

Well my addiction all started when my dad would go and harvest his own fish for our FOWLR in the mid 80's. That addiction carried with me up to when I got my first aquarium. It was a 25G FOWLR and I babied it for 4 years and then decided to upgrade to a 45 Bowfront that was not reef ready (PIC1 - very early stages and PIC 2 is about 6 months after) so i added an overflow box to go to the sump and added a DIY fuge and ran a 400W MH light. That thing could grow anything i wanted. I moved shortly after and got out of the hobby for about 6 years. I then decided i wanted back in...for Christmas, my parents purchased a 29G Biocube for me and I jam packed that thing with 2 AI Primes, nano skimmer, ATO and a GFO/Carbon Reactor and a media basket. Doseing as needed manually with Oceans Blend 1-2. (PIC 4-6)
Things were growing and thriving so well for 3 years!!
Then I walked into my LFS and there she was...My LFS had just received the new Cobalt C-VUE45 AIO (Remainder of pics). That was a Friday. By Sunday, I was filling her up with water and sand. I added a few pieces of Live Rock to get it going. I moved everything over 2 weeks later from the Biocube except the media basket and decided to get an auto-doser. Well that made me lazy and I have now paid the price of being lazy in this hobby because my doser was not working right and was dumping ALK into my tank and i wasn't testing. ALK got to 14.3 and my SPS were browning and I have now lost over 15 frags because of it. Now I test at the first sight of an issue. I'm still recuperating from the loss and stress of the other corals but i think I'm over the hump. Fingers crossed I don't loose anymore but the colors are coming back. Thats my story of how

ReefersDelite · Jul 18, 2018

System parameters as of now:

Display tank: 45 Gallon AIO - 25 X 22 X 19
Glass or Acrylic: Glass .04 Starphire on all 3 viewing panels
Stand: OEM - Cobalt
Protein skimmer: e-shopps nano
Carbon/phosphate filtration: BRS Reactor with ROX carbon and PH remover mix
Water circulation: 1 Sicce Extreme 800-3000 and IceCap 3k Gyre
Lighting: 2 AI Prime HD
Calcium/alkalinity/magnesium dosing: 1 Doser - Jaebo 4 head - Oceans Blend 1&2
Auto top-off: Smart ATO - Nano
Heating/cooling: Cobalt 150K

To be added:

A quality sump
Aquarium controller
T5 Hybrid fixture with Ecotech Radions and floating canopy
Tunze Osmolator

NY_Caveman · Jul 18, 2018

Looks and sounds great! Thanks for sharing. Sorry to hear about the Alkalinity troubles. Like you I have been keeping aquariums a long time. I simply do not feel ready to trust automation in my system yet.

I looked at the Cobalt C-Vue tanks. What did you think of the tank itself? I researched and saw some that had the glass panes siliconed off slightly. Did you see anything questionable like that on yours?

NY_Caveman · Jul 18, 2018

By the way, the last two photos, the anemone and the undata, are beautiful specimens.

Danny_M5 · Jul 18, 2018

looks very good

ReefersDelite · Jul 18, 2018

NY_Caveman said:
Looks and sounds great! Thanks for sharing. Sorry to hear about the Alkalinity troubles. Like you I have been keeping aquariums a long time. I simply do not feel ready to trust automation in my system yet.

I looked at the Cobalt C-Vue tanks. What did you think of the tank itself? I researched and saw some that had the glass panes siliconed off slightly. Did you see anything questionable like that on yours?

I am very pleased with the tank itself. The clarity is amazing and it’s nice that I can drill the bottom and back panes if I need to. The tank came with 2 MJ1200s for returns and those can pump some water. I had to turn them down some but over all I’m happy. The doser was faulty from the get go and Jaebo replaced it no issue. I’m gonna give it another try but manual dosing may be happening.

ReefersDelite · Jul 18, 2018

NY_Caveman said:
By the way, the last two photos, the anemone and the undata, are beautiful specimens.

Thank you. The undata is a Jedi mindtrick monti. I love it. The PE is great

SPR1968 · Jul 19, 2018

ReefersDelite said:
Well my addiction all started when my dad would go and harvest his own fish for our FOWLR in the mid 80's. That addiction carried with me up to when I got my first aquarium. It was a 25G FOWLR and I babied it for 4 years and then decided to upgrade to a 45 Bowfront that was not reef ready (PIC1 - very early stages and PIC 2 is about 6 months after) so i added an overflow box to go to the sump and added a DIY fuge and ran a 400W MH light. That thing could grow anything i wanted. I moved shortly after and got out of the hobby for about 6 years. I then decided i wanted back in...for Christmas, my parents purchased a 29G Biocube for me and I jam packed that thing with 2 AI Primes, nano skimmer, ATO and a GFO/Carbon Reactor and a media basket. Doseing as needed manually with Oceans Blend 1-2. (PIC 4-6)
Things were growing and thriving so well for 3 years!!
Then I walked into my LFS and there she was...My LFS had just received the new Cobalt C-VUE45 AIO (Remainder of pics). That was a Friday. By Sunday, I was filling her up with water and sand. I added a few pieces of Live Rock to get it going. I moved everything over 2 weeks later from the Biocube except the media basket and decided to get an auto-doser. Well that made me lazy and I have now paid the price of being lazy in this hobby because my doser was not working right and was dumping ALK into my tank and i wasn't testing. ALK got to 14.3 and my SPS were browning and I have now lost over 15 frags because of it. Now I test at the first sight of an issue. I'm still recuperating from the loss and stress of the other corals but i think I'm over the hump. Fingers crossed I don't loose anymore but the colors are coming back. Thats my story of how

That’s a great looking tank with all of those coral colours going on, very nice!

ReefersDelite · Jul 19, 2018

SPR1968 said:
That’s a great looking tank with all of those coral colours going on, very nice!

Thank you. As you know it’s always a work in progress. Lol

ReefersDelite · Jul 19, 2018

I stopped all dosing because as I read more on R2R about 2 part dosing, I’ve been doing it all wrong I think. I’ve been using more calcium than alk so to keep my calc at 420ish I’ve been dosing more of part 1. I’m just not understanding how I can keep my levels at ideal range if I dose equal amounts so I’ve stopped all auto dosing and I’m doing a water change on Saturday and testing my levels. Leaving it alone for 1 week and see what the levels are at on that date. I’ll update more later so maybe some one can explain how I need to dose after a week of nothing.

ReefersDelite · Jul 24, 2018

Things seem to be getting better but my alk is still at 8.9 after a 10% WC. I’d like to bring it down some more so still no dosing and test again in a week. Calc is 430

ReefersDelite · Jul 28, 2018

Got a few new pieces. Some type of monti a Burning ember chalice and a JF spit fire. I also got 2 scrambled egg zoas just not open yet.

ReefersDelite · Aug 2, 2018

So far so good on my levels and some SPS that turned brown now have some small sots of green coming back. Hopefully the issue is gone but in this hobby, you never know what to expect.
Reef On!!!