Reefing Journey 29g aqueon to 32g Biocube

Kaboobie

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Setup during this time: (not my current equipment setup)
- Aqueon 29g kit tank with led lid. The heater is in my QT tank.
- 10g QT tank with a sponge filter and 100w heater from the starter kit.
- 100w Eheim jager heater
- HOB filter from the kit.
- ceramic bio ring filter media in a media bag in the HOB and some filter floss.
- 303 GPH imagitarium powerhead.
- about 20lbs of dry rock from the LFS
- 5lb live rock from PetCo (the source of the red turf algae plague) BIG MISTAKE purchased to speed up the cycle.

So I started this version of the tank a year ago today. It was a freshwater tank at first, but I got some pretty nasty pests that I could not get rid of (camellanus worms). I broke it down, saved the three uninfected fish, and put them in a 10g. I sanitized this tank with 50/50 bleach for 48 hours. Then filled and emptied using up a whole bottle of de-chlorinator. Once I no longer registered chlorine, I let it dry out in the sun and filled it with sand, rock, and some cheap saltwater mixed from tap and reef salt from Petco.

I slowly cycled this thing over two months. I accidentally sacrificed a beautiful pair of clownfish when I thought it was fully cycled, but it turns out it was not ready for fish yet. So I got two snails and three hermits. There was already algae, of course, since I had lights on and cycled using fish food, not to mention my poor source water. They managed to bridge the gap for me, and a few weeks later, I added another pair of clownfish. This time all was well, and my black and white pair are happily swimming about to this day.

I knew I needed better source water but was on a budget and had to wait for the rodi. I finally bought one and performed a substantial about 80 percent water change now, also having upgraded my salt to tropic Marin pro I knew coral was in the future and decided to just get in the habit of using this salt.

Over the next two or three months, I added a yellow watchman goby and firefish to the tank. They did well in QT and showed no signs of pests or illness, so I introduced them to the tank after three weeks.

During this time, I had been working against a small amount of red algae that slowly spread through my tank. I would later identify this as red turf algae.

I will add some pictures to this post later, as well as continue catching it to where everything stands soon.
 
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Peace River

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Good luck with your system! We look forward to seeing your pictures! ;Snaphappy
 
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Kaboobie

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It was a little while after this point that I began to realize I had a pretty substantial algae issue that needed to be dealt with soon. I didn't want to do anything with additives and wanted to try to get this handled using livestock. I added a bicolor blenny hoping it would pick at the algae enough to keep the growth rate somewhat reduced. This was definitely not the case. As far as I am aware this fish rarely ever ate any algae at all. During this period I picked up a Hydor Koralia nano wave pump rated at 425 gph which replaced the Petco powerhead. A few weeks later I decided to add a tuxedo urchin to the tank so I picked one up from the LFS.

So here I made a pretty stupid mistake and only float acclimated this guy. The urchin did not last long in the tank probably 3 days tops before it was dead on the sand. Instead of helping me rid the tank of algae he kicked the bucket and added who knows how many nutrients to the water. I promptly pulled him from the tank and decided it was time to get away from this HOB and add a sump.

A couple of months later I picked up a CS90 HOB overflow from CPR aquatics paired up with an aqualifter to maintain the siphon. I added a Triton 26 V2 sump from Trigger Systems as it was the only sump I could fit in my stand and I wanted to utilize a refugium to try to outcompete the algae in the display. I got a Kessil H80 to light the refugium and a Varios 2 DC return pump from Reef Octopus rated at 792 gph. I also ordered 2 refugium starter kits from Algae Barn complete with pods chaeto and sea lettuce to stock my refugium and some red ogo as well as phytoplankton feed.

I plumbed everything in set it all up and added the algae and pods and began feeding the tank the phyto I was hopefully optimistic, unfortunately, a little under a month later I discovered something truly nasty in my tank. I found marine leaches attached to all my fish except my watchman goby. I rigged up an acclimation tube using airline and an airline regulator valve and I added a cleaner shrimp to see if perhaps he would eat them off the fish but alas I have no idea if this would have worked as my fish refuse to visit him no matter how much he desperately wants them too. I pulled all the fish leaving the inverts and transferred them to my QT tank and ordered some potassium permanganate. I freshwater dipped them while waiting for the big guns to arrive and some of the leaches did release but not nearly enough of them. I found little baby leaches hanging on to the glass in the display tank upon further inspection as well. Once the potassium permanganate arrived I dipped all the fish to remove the leeches. they released here and there but there were a lot of them on the clownfish. They were especially tasty to the leaches apparently as only one targeted the firefish and one or two on the blenny. The leaches on the firefish and blenny released in the potassium but unfortunately the blenny did not survive the treatment as I found him dead the next day.

I dipped the clowns repeatedly for up to 10 minutes at a time over the course of several days. Eventually, they only had a few left and I decided to just manually remove them. I saw no sign that the baby leeches were going to die out and my research into their lifespans and feeding requirements indicated that it could take quite a long time. I decided that it would just be more efficient to put the fish back in the tank and remove the leeches as they attached until they were all gone. This would be hard on the fish but my female clown had been picking on my firefish and had bitten off most of the end of its tailfin and I needed to give them more space than the 10g before things got really bad. This strategy worked out I have since removed all of the leeches from the system and the firefish has recovered from its abuse. Unfortunately, I can only conclude that the leeches came in on the algae or in the pods from Algaebarn.

Having conquered this rather novel pest I turned my attention back to the algae issue which was continuing to grow further out of control. The refugium was not out-competing the nuisance algae to the extent that I was hoping for so I added another tuxedo urchin to the tank this time acclimating him properly. The urchin does eat a lot of algae but barely makes a dent in the turf algae and it continues to overwhelm my system. At this point, I began scrubbing the rocks with a toothbrush at every water change but the algae were tenacious, to say the least, and would almost completely retake any area I scrubbed by the end of the week. By this point, I have spent about 8 months without adding coral to my tank. I am beginning to wonder if using the subpar lights are what is contributing to the aggressive nature of the algae growth and decide enough is enough I'm getting on with it and purchase an AI Prime 16 HD Reef and set it up on the tank I then pick up my first 3 corals from Tidal Gardens I add a Mint Green Duncan with three heads a nice frag of Red Sea Pulsing Xenia (which I place on its own little island on the right-hand side of the tank) and a very sorry looking Teal Eye Favia that appears to have little to no skeleton under the flesh.

After about a month of success with those corals, I got sucked into a live sale and picked up a Bicolor hammer, teal candy cane, CB Fire Echinopora Lamellosa, supersonic galaxea, mystic sunset montipora, and Tyree aquibitulara (or however you spell that), as well as a really nice ultra blasto.



I decided to pull the trigger and purchase a bottle of Vibrant and begin dosing my tank to try to fight off the algae. I have lost the Tyree aquibitulara it bleached within a week of being in my tank. I placed it in the light I thought was appropriately near but slightly below the recommendation but it quickly bleached and died. I am fighting with the mystic sunset I can not find a light level that it stays happy and doesn't bleach, it bleaches within two days of being placed in a bright area of the tank and then fills back out but begins to brown anywhere else. I am on my 5th dose of vibrant and things are really turning around. I will chronicle the vibrant journey in the next post. We are nearly caught up to the present day now and I promise to go back and edit in photos soon.

My setup at this point:
- Aqueon 29g
- 10g QT system
- 100w Eheim jager heater
- ceramic bio ring filter media in a media bag I keep it cycled in the sump for putting in the QT when I need to set it up
- about 20lbs of dry rock from the LFS
- 5lb live rock from PetCo (the source of the red turf algae plague) BIG MISTAKE purchased to speed up the cycle.
- Trigger Systems Triton26 V2 sump
- CPR Aquatics CS90 HOB overflow with lid and aqualifter
- Kessil H80 refugium light
- Reef Octopus Varios 2 792 gph DC return pump
- AI Prime 16 HD reef
- Hydor Koralia Nano 425 gph wave pump

Livestock:
- pair of Black and White clownfish
- Firefish
- Yellow Watchman Goby
- Cleaner Shrimp
- Blue Tuxedo Urchin
- a whole slew of clean up crew primarily a variety of snails and a few hermits from reefcleaners.
- Red Sea Pulsing Xenia
- Teal Eye Favia
- Mint Green Duncan
- Bicolor Hammer
- Teal Candy Cane
- Ultra Blastomusa
- CB Fire Echinopora Lamellosa
- Mystic Sunset Montipora
- Super Sonic Galaxea
 
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Kaboobie

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Here is the tank as it stands today. It looks pretty rough but it's leaps and bounds better than it was before I began dosing vibrant. I'm somewhat patiently waiting for the day all this algae is gone. The turf is nearly beat though which is super exciting.

00000IMG_00000_BURST20200703162028127_COVER.jpg
 
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Kaboobie

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I did a roughly 20% 10g water change yesterday rather than a regular 5g 10%ish water change. Added the 6th dose of vibrant to the tank. I tested my ph after the change it was 8, and my alkalinity was very low at about 4.6dkh, so I decided to cook up some sodium carbonate and added one tsp dissolved in RODI water to bring the alkalinity up. I had read recently on the Tropic Marin pro reef salt mix that it runs alkalinity lower than other salts. I confess I have not tested since adding coral (shame on me, I know). I had expected the alkalinity to be at a reasonable level since I had been doing water changes with this salt. Still, apparently, it had gotten low very quickly after adding corals. I am waiting for some calcium chloride to arrive soon so I can prepare to dose this as with the sodium carbonate as a two-part dosing regimen. I dosed again this morning in the same quantity as I want to raise the alk slowly to 8dkh. I tested a couple of hours later and got a ph reading of 7.9 and alk at 6.3dkh. I'll test tomorrow morning before I dose the sodium carbonate and after for a better picture of what this dose is doing to the alk level.

I purchased two new corals which should be arriving on the 8th I got another blasto and a cyphastrea for the left darker side of the tank.
TSA Midnight Moon Blastomusa:
2ONLINE.N2.062520-1.jpg

Peppermint Cyphastrea:
2ONLINE.Y2.062520-1.jpg
 
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Kaboobie

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Added the new cyphastrea and blasto to the tank both are doing great and seem to be well acclimated to their positions. I'll toss up a photo soon that shows where they are. I noticed a rather unfortunate development in the tank today...Cyano. it's all over the return line and the back glass all growing over all the dying algae. I am pretty sure this is a sign the phosphates are rising so I have refreshed the GFO in the sump and blasted and scraped it away hopefully things will be improving but it's probably just a side effect of killing off the algae and not changing the GFO in time to keep the phosphates down.
 
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Kaboobie

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So sad news my firefish bit the dust the other day. I came down to find a hash on his belly with his inners on the outer I'm not sure what happened I can only assume a crab pinched him one good.
 
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Kaboobie

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Did my weekly water change today 10% this week I have been alternating between 10 and 20% water changes unfortunately I hadn't been paying attention and i'm out of salt....gonna need to get an order in later today as none of the local shops carry the salt I like. I'm still dosing vibrant though am now battling a very ugly cyano outbreak as the algae began to be overwhelmed. In an attempt to outcompete the cyano I have been double dosing the vibrant twice a week with mixed results. I decided to reduce the time my light is on by two hours.

I added some more cleanup crew including about 7 hermits 4 blue legs and 3 random reef safe hermits from reefcleaners. I also got a few more snails with my order and a pitho crab. I also moved the blastos up onto the rock somewhere I hope they will be happy, time will tell, they were great on the sandbed but that could not last as I have started really trying to get in and clean the sand every time I water change one section at a time. I did the front left corner today as you can probably tell. The tank is still looking rough but it's starting to turn around.
MVIMG_20200719_152512.jpg


I'm also adding to this update a shot of my sump tank and the little filtration I have right now as part of my entry into the tunze skimmer giveaway. I don't have a skimmer at all and desperately need one to help me get this build under control so I would love to actually win this thing. My refugium is emptied of the chaeto right now as I did not want the vibrant to kill it off. I have it sitting in my QT tank right now but if it doesn't make it I'll have to order a fresh batch in. You can see some of the green coraline algae that grows in my tank down not the white bottom of the sump skimmer chamber. I need to get in here soon and fully scrape out all the GHA that is in the refugium and growing on my media that is cycling for my QT tank.
IMG_20200719_151158.jpg
 
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Kaboobie

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Ran out of salt so I skipped the water change this week. I have some arriving tomorrow however, one good result of this skip was the cyano seems to have vanished. Now I don't know that it was the skipped water change or the vibrant just outcompeting it but it's all but vanished. The tank is coming along the candy cane looks healthy which I had been worried about for a while. My Duncan is growing tons of new heads. The blastos look great and seem happy almost anywhere in the tank. The hammer is giving me some issues but It could be just a little angry from the cyano still also one branch is splitting right now so it's looking a little meh right now. I am waiting to see if it gets happier overall but am considering moving into a lower light area. The xenia is growing like a weed and I'm pretty sure it will cover that island it's on within two or three months. I"m looking to add a few more fish to tank soon but want to get a skimmer first. I feel like the system is getting more healthy and stable and I'm pretty excited about it.
 

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Ran out of salt so I skipped the water change this week. I have some arriving tomorrow however, one good result of this skip was the cyano seems to have vanished. Now I don't know that it was the skipped water change or the vibrant just outcompeting it but it's all but vanished. The tank is coming along the candy cane looks healthy which I had been worried about for a while. My Duncan is growing tons of new heads. The blastos look great and seem happy almost anywhere in the tank. The hammer is giving me some issues but It could be just a little angry from the cyano still also one branch is splitting right now so it's looking a little meh right now. I am waiting to see if it gets happier overall but am considering moving into a lower light area. The xenia is growing like a weed and I'm pretty sure it will cover that island it's on within two or three months. I"m looking to add a few more fish to tank soon but want to get a skimmer first. I feel like the system is getting more healthy and stable and I'm pretty excited about it.
Your tank is looking really good!! I have the same size tank but am currently running with a canister filter. Did you have to drill your tank or how does it pump water to the sump? How is your tank now? I'm surprised I never came across this build before when looking for builds similar to mine. I'm surprised your build thread doesnt have many readers considering how detailed it is, plus we can all learn from reading what others have done. Though I dont have readers on my thread either haha. I just put in my very first duncan yeaterday. I cant remember, do you dose anything in particular? The guy working the store said Duncan's grow really slowly "like candy canes" he said... but my candy cane did NOTHING for a year and then it exploded and was splitting like crazy.
 
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Kaboobie

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Your tank is looking really good!! I have the same size tank but am currently running with a canister filter. Did you have to drill your tank or how does it pump water to the sump? How is your tank now? I'm surprised I never came across this build before when looking for builds similar to mine. I'm surprised your build thread doesnt have many readers considering how detailed it is, plus we can all learn from reading what others have done. Though I dont have readers on my thread either haha. I just put in my very first duncan yeaterday. I cant remember, do you dose anything in particular? The guy working the store said Duncan's grow really slowly "like candy canes" he said... but my candy cane did NOTHING for a year and then it exploded and was splitting like crazy.
so I totally missed your reply I've been kind of dark on here for a while. But the overflow was a HOB overflow I couldn't drill it as it was already filled and I wasn't willing to drill a wet tank.

So good news/bad news update. Bad news first, I tore down the tank. I just couldn't do it the algae problem while reduced was still holding very strong despite dosing, adding algae eaters (converted some mollies to saltwater as I didn't feel comfortable with a tang in the system at this time), manual removal, etc. To top it off I got dinos and that was just the final straw for me.

So I tore the system down the tank is in my garage pulled it apart and dry. I moved the corals and my fish that were still going to my QT 10 gallon system and put them in my bedroom. I had everything in there for a couple of months. During this time my clowns developed a hatred of my hammer and Duncan corals (or they wanted to host them I dunno) and beat them both badly. The Duncan is beaten up pretty bad and the hammer bit the dust. The most bulletproof coral in my system the Red Sea Pulsing Xenia looks like crap it's not fluffing up the way it normally does, is not pulsing, and is mostly a dark purplish color.

So now the good news lol. I have a new aquarium. I decided I wanted something overall simpler and picked up a Biocube LED 32 AIO. I have the aquarium set up in my living room now filled with no sand or rock at the moment but I transferred the bio media to the back chamber and put the corals and fish in the tank. Everything is going well so far and the corals are beginning to acclimate to the new conditions.

I am in the process of bleaching (when I say bleaching I really mean I'm using powdered chlorine, I have a pool) the old rocks clean and once they are chlorine and organic free I will be adding them to the aquarium. I am still deciding if I'm just going to go bare bottom rinse the old sand super clean or pick up a bag of fresh sand. I'll let you know in my next update what I decide to do. I"ll upload a picture of the current setup soon.
 
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Kaboobie

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Tank is up and running realized my RODI system was well past when it needed replacing so I took care of that today. As a result of my less than perfect water I have a bit of a cyano issue and decided to not deal with all the bs trying to cure it the natural way and went straight to a chemiclean treatment started last night. I have new corals in the tank and new inverts all doing well other than the frogspawn and hammer that came with bacterial infections that despite an iodine dip just slaughtered them. Thankfully the frogspawn had two heads and one made it through. The hammer was not so lucky which really sucks it was a single head that was beginning to split.

I added some macroalgae to the display as well. Some Halimeda, pencil cap, mermaids fan, and some codium. They look nice are already showing signs of growth and should help with maintaining good water parameters. I have pictures that I will post in the next update once the chemiclean treatment completes and the cyano is gone.
 

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