Haggisman14's Oceanic Biocube 29

[Haggisman14]

Hello everyone! Had a fun weekend with the tank.

AI Nero 5!
Received my Nero 5 this past Wednesday from @Triquatics , but wasn't able to do the install until this weekend. Yesterday was the day! Took out my old Jaebo PP-4, and installed the Nero 5. Let me say, this thing really is amazing! The broad flow really is so much better, especially in my tank with my return pump dumping into the tank through my dual RFG nozzles. The app function is nice and easy, I know have on full random during the day from 7am-11pm (lights out), and then a constant stead flow of about 5% to give the reef a bit of a break. I can tell a big difference already in my main hammer and its back and forth flow...seems much more natural now than it did with the Jaebo.

Magnet is EXTREMELY strong! My old Jaebo you could grab the outside magnet, and move it whenever you wanted to. Not with this guy. It's on there and it's NOT moving! I do understand I have a smaller tank, and that being said skinner glass than some of the bigger tanks, but this is a no joke magnet. The slight angle of adjustment is nice, but nothing extreme. You could't put this in say the top of your tank, and angle it down and towards the center, it's just for a little of a difference compared to just straight on. For my applications, I did straight ahead.

Profile of the pump is great. This is less projection than my old Jaebo,diameter is a bit larger, but honestly that doesn't bother me at all!

Flow: It's great! If you turn this sucker all the way up (especially on my little cube), it creates absolutely INSANE flow. I've got my random mode varying from 9%-38% I believe. Anymore than that and it starts kicking up the sand.

Once again, this is something i really really wanted to add to my cube, as through my reading and experimentation, sometimes better flow is even better than upgrading you lights. I'm excited to see the progress in my tank now!

Other Updates:

I also got myself a harlequin shimp to work on combating the large number of coral eating asterina stars I have in my tank. I know some people say this don't eat corals, but the ones that I have definitely do! I have first hand witnessed them going to town on both my funny d's and my radioactive dragon eyes, and other no names in my tank. When I did my water change I siphone out propbably close to 50 of them, and then of course at night I see even more of them out and about. Nice thing is, almost immediately after putting him in the tank, he started sniffing out the starfish!

I don't know if anyone else has ever witnessed this, but since starfish don't have brains...it's AMAZING what I saw happen, not more than 15 minutes after I finished doing everything in the tank, I came back in the fish room to notice that my tanks glass was COVERED in asterinas. In the past, I've seen at most 10 stars on the glass at once, I walked into the room, and there had to easily be 40-50 stars all over the glass, it's like they could somehow sense that their apex predator was now in their tank! Pretty wild!

My wife is in LOVE with the harlequin. I must say, hands down the most beautiful shrimp i've ever owned for a tank!

In coral news, My one "moons of uranus" WWC favia that has had beautifully ballooned heads for the longest time is not splittting heads, both of them have formed new mouths which is really cool. My big hammer's second original head just split (two mouths on that too). My FF digi is still encrusting, and is looking like it's starting to get some of the actual green color back now. My WWC Tri-color is continuing to encurst, but it is also starting to shoot out some numbs, and other than that all is good.

This spring I definitely am looking to add some more SPS to the tank. Not sure if I"ll be doing another BattleBox, or possibly some corals from Joe Knows Reefs (might be going to the Charleston show). Either way, I'm very happy with the tank and it's progress.

Once again, I'd like to give a big shoutout to @Triquatics , I really appreciate the powerhead, and was honored to be the lucky winner! Great job shipping/packing. I"ll definitely be trying you out on my next order!

Next upgrade....Kessil 360x

 

[Haggisman14]

One thing I did not mention, this thing is pretty much SILENT! My small jaebo, I had it on random mode, and you could always hear the hum going up and down...it was a constant drone in the room. This guy, you don't hear a thing!

 

[Haggisman14]

Little update. Tank is doing well, still loving the new Nero 5, and the different modes/schedule I have going on right now.

I think that i'm going to start doing weekly 5 gallon water changes. As my tank is maturing, it seems like on that second week after the water change, i'm getting a bit of an algae bloom on the sand and rock work.

Might be participating in the Joe Knows Reef live sale next week, otherwise i'll probably be holding off on any new frags until March/April. I really want to get some more SPS and give them a second go around now. Plus a few new lords and maybe a another hammer or too

Aww heck...I just need a nice $500 stipend to some of my favorite vendors...yeah that'd be nice!

 

[jk_s124]

Everything is looking great! I was wondering if you have had any problems with sand blowing around with your Nero? Also, does the hammer on the opposite side do well with the increase in flow? I also do a 5 gallon weekly water change and that has seemed to really work well. I do have an algae scrubber in chamber two that grows a good amount of GHA, and run skimmerless.

 

[Haggisman14]

Everything is looking great! I was wondering if you have had any problems with sand blowing around with your Nero? Also, does the hammer on the opposite side do well with the increase in flow? I also do a 5 gallon weekly water change and that has seemed to really work well. I do have an algae scrubber in chamber two that grows a good amount of GHA, and run skimmerless.

As long as I keep the Nero below 50%, there's no sand issues. Here's my current program (only difference is the first pulse mode I now have dialed into about 38%), Corals seem to be happy. My main hammer coral seems to be even bigger than he was in the past, only thing that seems to be acclimating to it is my zoa's.

I'm definitely going to start doing weekly water changes...as it seems to keep everything in check a bit better.

In other news, I just won a Prime HD from Aqua Illumination/Waterbox. They gave one away at the end of one of one of their facebook livestreams last week, and I was just notified of it!

 

[Haggisman14]

Just ordered up my rigid mount arm for my new prime. Mount should be in by Monday, and should have the light by then too.

Been checking out the AB+ program that i'm going to run, with some extended blues at the end of the day for some nighttime viewing.

Really excited for this light. Currently my Kessil is just on/off, so I'm excited to have a ramp up, ramp down, and also some different spectrums. Hoping the UV and Red help with some added growth.

As the reef tank turns!

 

[Haggisman14]

So I got home last night, and my skimmer was on...but silent...I pull the collection cup, and there was hardly ANY flow going on in the tank. I pulled the skimmer completely from the tank, cleaned all the parts, and then put it in a 5 gallon bucket to see if anything was suck in the pump....and nothing. Had it running, with the airline tube open to the air and nothing. Figured i'd leave it in the bucket overnight with a good vinegar soak while running. Woke up this morning, and my bucket is filled with bubbles! I'm keeping it in there today while I'm at work, and will then load it back in the tank tonight.

Really interesting how great a vinegar soak can work on our equipment.

Thanks for looking!

 

[Haggisman14]

So, as we know, things in this hobby can go from great to bad really quick...and that's what happened yesterday. So I had noted yesterday that my skimmer wasn't working at all on Wednesday. My suspicion is that it hasn't really been working well for much longer as I have been noticing some extra algae growth on my rock work.

So after a good cleaning of the skimmer Wednesday night into Thursday, I get home from work to a disaster!! Any of my fleshy corals, hammers, zoas, ricordias, micro lords are all sucked up, ALL 3 of my SPS corals (tri-color, ff digi, and garf bonsai are dead).

All my fish and inverts are 100% okay and swimming around just fine. I test my salinity right away which was on point at 35ppt. The kicker was we had a date night last night, so I got home, saw the tank in shambles, and got dressed and headed out. After we came home, I did an emergency 5 gallon water change (might do another 5 gallon today too), had to full rinse and reassemble my skimmer, and got everything back up and running. I'm hoping when I get home tonight, my tri-color might bull through as the entire skeleton wasn't fully bleeched, but if i'm being honest, i'm pretty sure it's toast.

I'm honestly at a loss. The only thing that has been different in my tank is the skimmer hasn't been working well for probably 2 weeks, and then wasn't working at all for 2 days. I don't have any other mechanical filtration aside from my return pump and Nero 5 for water circulation.

Could an underperforming/nonfunctional skimmer for ~2 weeks cause this to happen?

Picks of the mayhem...

Will try and post an update tonight or on Monday at the latest

 

[Haggisman14]

The only other thing that i'm worried might be causing the issue is my sandbed...I don't vacuum it, and am really considering siphoning out all of the sand in stages over my waterchanges over the next few weeks.

Anyone think that might be the culprit?

 

[Haggisman14]

So Quick update and this is per notes I took on my tank to keep a log:

01-31-19: MINI TANK CRASH - All SPS died, all softies shriveled up. Did emergency 5 gallon water change, also gave skimmer full 24 hour vinegar soak. I believe system crashed due to

1)NOT DOING WEEKLY WATER CHANGES - 2 weeks in the cube seems to be too far in between
2)Skimmer underperforming/not working well for the past 2 weeks. On 1/30/19 when I came home skimmer was producing absolutely NO bubbles
3)Started siphoning out sandbed with water change

02-02-19: Performed another 5 gallon water change, and sandbed siphon/removal. All SPS is officially dead, everything else in the tank seems to be doing well. Zoa’s seem to be starting to open up again. Will keep on task of 5 gallon WEEKLY water change, and will continue to siphon out sand until tank is bare bottom, or extremely limited coverage.

Will post another update later this week. In Awesome news, should be receiving my AI Prime HD in the next few days. Really excited to get that on the tank!

 

[NY_Caveman]

Sorry for the losses. I would think the skimmer is not the issue. Several people run them intermittently. I myself have pulled the cup a couple of times when nutrients were very low. I would be more concerned about the loss of gas exchange than nutrient removal though. The extra nutrients are just food.

How are your parameters? Also, the tank has been up a bit over one year I believe. Could pulling the sand have disrupted something foul beneath, or the sand removal started after the SPS loss?

 

[Haggisman14]

Hey @NY_Caveman

I do agree with you, and think the skimmer issue is more of a gas exchange rather than the actual nutrient removal problem. I'm going to make sure I do about every 3 month maintenance on that skimmer moving forward so this doesn't happen again.

I still have to full check parameters (test kits were all accidentally tossed out in a recent cleaning). The sand removal started after the SPS loss. I know people in the past have said after a year or so, they can have issues with shallow sandbeds that don't have the full deep sand bed characteristics, so I figured to try getting rid of that. My tank had gone 2 weeks in the past without water changes, and the only thing that would occur would be a little bit more algae, but never something like this.

 

[Haggisman14]

A little update, I won a new AI Prime and Flex mount from a Waterbox/AI giveaway on Facebook a few weeks back, and I just received everything in the mail yesterday. Of course I got it hooked up, and programed, and gotta say that I do love what it's putting out for my cube. Previously had a Kessil 160, and asthetically I like how it looks over my tank better. Sound wise, there's definitely way less noise coming out of this light than the kessil too. I was going to go with the Modified AB+ program from BRS, but I was looking at the AI page, and they had a really nice looking program from David Saxby that looked similar to AB+, but with a few variables. I'm going to try this out first. I really really really really love the fact that my tank will now be on a real lighting schedule, and not just a simple on off, with me making manual adjustments to the spectrum when I get home. I"m also curious to see if I notice differences with the addition of the red and UV channels. Can't wait to see what this does for the tank!

@Waterbox Aquariums and @Aqua Illumination (can't find your actual username), Just wanted to let you know that I got my light yesterday, and it's installed and rocking already! Thanks again!

And now the pictures, b/c lets be honest, threads are worthless without them!

Thanks for looking!

***SPS Update***
So to follow up the thread from last week, all of my SPS did indeed die. Dead as a doornail, and hey, I'm okay with that, it happens. Everything else in the tank has been doing well, and I really hope the new light schedule can help the corals too. As discussed, I'm going to stick with a weekly water change of 5 gallons, and I am also working towards pulling all the sand out of the tank, and running bare bottom, or just a slight dusting of sand on the bottom...nothing that will store years worth of ditritus and end up cusing me issues in the long run. Probably won't be getting any new corals until April/May timeline.

 

[NY_Caveman]

That is a bummer on the SPS, but congratulations on the win.

 

[Haggisman14]

I view it as a give and take in this hobby. I don't feel horrible when I see some of the best out there having a bit of a tank crash. I do know there are some downsides of having everything in a biocube. For instance, using the larger pump, I know my temp in my tank is a big higher than if I had a separate sump, in an open area with added water volume, etc.

One day!

In other news, it really is amazing getting new things for the tank!

Here's my current program

 

[Haggisman14]

A quick update. I found a form on facebook that is sharing prime schedules, and I'm trying this one. A lot of people have been showing some great success, so I figured i'd give it a shot. This also works well for my viewing period at home:

No other pics at this time. Doing a water change tonight. Will try and snap some pics!

Still LOVING my AI Prime, and especially how it looks with the flex arm!

 

[Haggisman14]

So did another update. Did a 5 gallon water change last night, and switched up the prime again to the tried and true AB+ spectrum. I'm not going to change it out again for the foreseeable future. Going to let this run for at least a month, and then go from there.

I noticed that my hammer coral (my main one), is really happy. Started out with 2 heads originally. Top head split quite awhile ago, and now one of those heads is splitting again. The bottom head is in the process of its first split, AND, it looks like there is a new head protruding from the skeleton just below the flesh of the top head. I'm not sure if this is possible, but I would assume it is.

During my water change I continued my sand bed siphoning. Going to keep going till I'm bare bottom, or just a slight covering of sand. I've noticed that too my sand gets kicked up and settles on my rock work, and I just don't like it!

Will try and grab some pics tonight!

 

[Haggisman14]

Lets be real...this is what everyone wants! Pictures. Here are my first updated pics in awhile. FTS, followed by some other close ups. I'm circling what I think "might" be a new head popping out of my one hammers skeleton. Who knows!

On a side note, my corals do seem to be much happier under the lighting of the AI Prime. So far I'm loving the AB+ schedule, and I really think my corals are too. I very possibly could have had better results with my kessil under a controller, but not having one, things were touch and go, and everything was done manually. Now with the Prime, I have a nice ramp up, solid light schedule, gettin those extra UV, reds and greens that I wasn't with the kessil, and still have a nice ramp down period that I get to enjoy the tank while I'm at home until lights out.

Onlything I would "possibly" change is having a Hydra 26 over the tank so it has 2 pucks for better light coverage. The prime does a perfect job of lighting the tank, but you can notice some shadows on the outer edges of the tank.

Onto the pictures!

 

[Haggisman14]

Quick update: Did treatment #2 of F-Aptasia. Only reason I had to do a second treatment is that I didn't see/treat all the buggers the first time out. I can report that almost 2 weeks after my initial treatment, everything that I treated is dead and gone. None have come back. The only one I had to treat on my main trouble rock that was on the back of the tank, and it was 1 that was on the side/underneath part of the rock. I found a bent needle, and retreated last night, so hopefully he's gone now!

Other than that, tank is doing well. Cerith snails I added about 3 weeks ago are doing well, only one was killed by one of y large hermits, and the others are doing a great job on cleanup. I'm continuing with my weekly water changes, and sandbed removal.

All corals are continuing to look very happy under the Prime HD, and I personally love the AB+ schedule it's on. My hammer has never looked happier!

Until next time!

 

[Haggisman14]

A few more updated pics. Tank is continuing to be happy. Starting to consider a possible salt switch (coming to the end of my bucket of red sea black bucket), contemplating going over to Tropic Marin, but really not 100% sold on it yet. Seems that a lot of people love it, but on the flip side, not sure if I should stick with the adage of "if it ain't broke...don't fix it!"

Thinking in April I'll be doing a nice purchase of some corals from the tank. Really want to add some new SPS in the tank, some possible montis, and who knows what else. Want to get some really good frags back into the tank to allow things to grow out nicely!

Some pics from Sunday night.