Haggisman14's Oceanic Biocube 29

[Haggisman14]

Weekend Update:

So I"ve learned/realized a few different things here. Once, my tank runs pretty smoothly for the most part, however, I MUST do my 5 gallon water change every other week. This past w/c I waited 3 weeks, and I believe it was just one week too long. I have a small tank, and aside from dosing RS ABC Foundation + on the first full week after my water change, I do not does anything else. I'm pretty sure my tank is using up the elements too quickly that by week 3 my corals are really hungry for their elements. Within a few hours of doing my water change, all my corals plumped up considerably and remained really happy. Long story short, water change every 14 days...period!

I also did a full breakdown of my Aquamax skimmer to give it a good cleaning. Bad news was that I snapped off the little venturi inlet pipe. Good news was that it was a clean break! Broke out my handy superglue gel, made a solid ring around the break. and reset the broken pipe. Let it side for about 12 hours before putting everything back together, and it's like nothing happened at all (word to the wise....DON'T PULL HARD ON THE WHITE VENTURI PIECE...IT WILL BREAK!

Skimmer is back to working at 100% again (skimmer gets sun throughout the day, and was clogging up with some algae buildup.

Other than that all corals are currently doing well. My forest fire digi is continuing to encrust daily, and my WWC Tri-Color "looks" to be getting ready to sent out some new branches.

Kessil 160 is now up to about 90-95% intensity, and all corals are happy and loving life. My cherry garcia chalice is also looking like it's starting to grow more flesh again (hoping the trend continues).

Pics tomorrow! Thanks for reading!

 

[Haggisman14]

First a few comparison shots:

Hawkins Echinata from CC $20 live sale. Showing some thickening up, as well as new growth. Holding it's color really well, and looks to be encursting a bit on to it's plug. (new pic on left)

WWW Tri-Color - Continuing to encrust on the rockwork, and is actually showing signs of upward bumps...hopefully a new branch will pop up soon!

JFox Bipolar Favites - Not really sure what the heck happened with this one (New pic on the right). So it lost the large green circles throughout the body, but seemed to gain more green striations throughout. Not sure if it just has to get fully acclimated to my lighting (I know WWC uses Radions). It has encrusted more onto the plug than from when I first got it...and it did totally brown out for about a month, so I know we're on the road to recovery!

FF Digi - So from what I can tell, the base color which used to be much darker blue has paled out quite a bit, but it's encrusting really well...it's grown up and over the glue and seems to be encrusting quite rapidly...and those polyps are always out!

 

[Haggisman14]

And now some random pics from last night. Enjoy everyone!

 

[NY_Caveman]

All great pictures, but this shot of the Banggai is fantastic!

 

[Chrisfish]

Thanks for the update, corals look great

 

[Haggisman14]

Thanks guys! My Banggai is a funny one...it always like to photobomb my pics...it's just hard NOT to take some pictures of him.

Getting the new iPhone this week...new camera is supposed to be even better than the current X that I'm shooting on...curious to see how the comparisons go.

 

[NY_Caveman]

Thanks guys! My Banggai is a funny one...it always like to photobomb my pics...it's just hard NOT to take some pictures of him.

If you have not entered this months contest, I would submit that one perhaps.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/s...test-anything-goes.455790/page-6#post-5165084

 

[Haggisman14]

Happy 1 year b-day to my tank! It's officially 1 year since I put water in it, and I'm very happy with how things are going. A little sad I lost almost all of my @Battlecorals SPS, but happy that everything else is doing really well!

Here's a FTS Attinic Shot!

 

[Haggisman14]

A few new pics. Got the new iPhone XS Max, and I must say the camera is GREAT! Took some new comparison shots, and some general shots (new pictures are on the left) too. My FF digi, and WWC Tri-Color are continuing to encrust daily. My Orange Ricordia from the CC Live sale has already developed a new mouth, and my acans are fat and happy! Only coral that's REALLY taken on a different feel completely is my JFox Bipolar favites....not sure if that's the whole meaning behind the name that it could look one way or the other, but it has completely lost the "eyes" that it had when I originally got it.

All pictures are shot under ~14k spectrum.

Thanks for looking!

 

[Haggisman14]

No new pictures right now, but just wanted to report in that my "Funny D" Zoa's I got a few months back are doing really well! It started out as a 2 polyp frag, which quickly turned into 4, and now there are two more baby heads sprouting out. Very happy with these hardy guys!

That's all for now

 

[Haggisman14]

Still going along nicely. No new corals, just maintaining. FF Digi and WWC Tri-Color are continuing to encrust really well. Hawkins Ecinata looks to be making small increases in growth (no encrusting yet), and my JFox Bi-Polar favites it's gaining in it's cool looking green streaks.

Here's a cool color tweaked "actinic" shot, and some other FTS just for good measure!

Enjoy!

 

[Haggisman14]

Little Weekend update. Wife had a ladies night out last night, so once the kiddos were asleep, I did my weekend water change, cleaned my jaebo pp-4, and did a little aquascaping. I had a metallic red wwc zoa frag that has not been doing well (I think it's been getting too much directly light from my kessil) so i removed him and put him to a slightly less direct lighting area of the tank. I completely removed my BC SWK Invalida, as part of the coral had this nasty black almost fungus look to it, and the rest was goign through RTN. When I took it out of the tank, it stunk too...so I feel I made a good decision. I also moved my little acan garden rock a bit that it's turned and brought more towards the front of my tank. I can see all the acans better now, and as of this morning they're all extremely plump and happy.

Everything else is going well. Will post some new pics up on Monday when I get back to work.

Happy Reefing everyone!

 

[Haggisman14]

Lighting Schedule Update

I've also made a change in my lighting schedule which I believe has helped the cyano to go down to a very small amount in my tank. New lighting schedule:

12:00pm: Lights on - 95% intensity, 40% color (towards blues)
6:00pm: 95% intensity, $55% color (towards white)
11:00pm: Lights off

As mentioned, I don't have a controller on my light, so before I go to work in the AM, I make sure the spectrum is correct, and then as soon as I get home, I change the spectrum. Repeat the next morning. Down the road I still want to get either a Hydra 52, or the new Kessil 360x for this tank with control-ability for an actual light schedule. But this works for now!

All corals seem happy, and i've seen a significant change in the amount of cyano over the last 2 weeks of this schedule, and corals are still getting a solid 5 hours of whites for growth.

Thanks for looking!

 

[Haggisman14]

Hey everyone, so it's been about a month, and I"ve noticed some changes from my lighting schedule. I think between the height of my light, and the intensity I was putting out, it made my corals not so happy. Zoa's seemed to be more closed than open, and my garf bonsai started bleeching. I've also switched up the blue/white scheme:

12:00pm: Lights on - 75% intensity, 55% color
6:00pm: 75% intensity, 40% color (towards blue)
11:00pm: Lights off

I'm hoping the slight change will make things bounce back. Made the change yesterday, and will let it ride now. All my acan's have been growing really well will the flesh extending, and new heads forming. My two hammers haven't really done all that much recently growth wise, but they seem to be happy. My lone chalie that almost melted away to nothing has started to grow new flesh, and seems to be doing well too.

No pictures at this time, will be doing a water change this weekend, and will try to snap some pics either tonight or tomorrow.

Thanks for looking!

 

[Haggisman14]

Did my weekly water change, and also added a Pajama Cardinal fish. The 6-line was a little bit of a PITA to him when he first went in, but since Saturday he's been leaving him alone. Changed out my normal 5 gallons, cleaned my return nozels, and redirected flow a little bit to work on a few dead spots I had. So far corals seem to be happy, and zoa's are opening a bit more now that I"ve dialed back the intensity a bit.

Here are a few pics:

 

[Oneforone]

What levels have your nitrates been sitting at? I have the 32g biocube and have been having a tough time getting my nitrates under control. I have an overflow box and an icecap sump with a decent sized skimmer. My back chambers are clean, I added maxspect marine blocks in the middle chamber roughly 2 months ago, my sump is clean. I change my filter socks every 2-3 days. I’m at a loss, usually my nitrates sit around 40-50. I just got back from vacation and they are roughly 70’s. Making 15 gallons water to knock them down some currently.
Sorry for the long post, wondering if you’ve had any issues with nitrates as well

 

[Haggisman14]

Honestly, I"d be lying. All my corals seem to be happy with the exception of a few SPS that have passed on to greener pastures. Last time I checked everything was ballpark where it should be, but couldn't give you actual parameters. I just know I keep my temp at 78-80, and PPT at 35. Using Red Sea black bucket salt, and do 5 gallon water changes every other week, and add 2mg of ABC+ Foundation the opposite week of my water changes.

 

[Haggisman14]

Just booked a trip to Disney for my family after Christmas..you know what that means...Daddy gets to visit @WWC!

It's a win win...get to see my kids faces light up! And then get to pick out some goodies in person for the tank!

 

[Haggisman14]

One other little change I made which was by accident but I'm going to see how this goes. Typically I"ve been ONLY putting my skimmer on at night. Yesterday, I forgot to turn it off in the morning, but when I got home, all my corals seemed to be a bit happier. Not sure if it was due to the extra oxygenation or what, but I'm going to let this ride for a couple more days like this and see if I see any difference.

Thanks for looking, and good luck to everyone with their Black Friday shopping, etc. Hope y'all get some good deals!

 

[Haggisman14]

Good morning everyone, No real updates at this point. Updated light schedule seems to be working well, and the new skimmer on 24/7 seems to have everyone in the tank happy. Only time i've been shutting it down is when I feed the tank at night, and if I feed the tank reef chili/reef roids combo at night, I'll leave the skimmer off over night, but then turn it back on the next morning.

Below is a cool pick I took the other night of one of my little hermits just hanging out on one of my acans (under all blues)

In other AWESOME NEWS, I was the winner of a contest @Battlecorals had over Thanksgiving weekend. I have no idea what my prize is, but I'm super excited for it. When I got my last corals from Adam, my tank wasn't settled in enough, and all the corals from my 8 pack died with the exception of my FF Digi, and Garf Bonsai, so I"m stoked to say the least! Pictures will be plenty as soon as that all happens!

As always, thanks for looking!