My Office Waterbox Marine X 35.1 Cube Build

[jhuntstl]

I would skip the drip acclimation. Local or online, you generally only need to temp acclimate inverts by floating for 10-20 min. I'd be surprised if that's really the issue though. I'm still betting on the dinos.

 

[Gedxin]

Just an update to show the ugly that is my tank.

Dinos are perhaps 90% gone? Tough to say with how much cyano covers everything. I still definitely see dino-like stringy stuff near at the top of the tank, near the power heads and UV plastic encasing. The fight continues.

Tank looks *****. Really, there's just GHA/cyano everywhere. If I didn't have whites turned down to 20% (and 0% for half the light period) it would probably make me cry.

Two of my acropora have begun to STN. One significantly faster than the other (possibly RTN at this point.) My water params seem OK and reasonably stable (Alk hovering around ~8.) After a fair amount of research, I'm deciding it's due to too much light too fast. So I've cut back my lights to 60% and on a 40 day acclimation period. Really hoping this helps A) acro acclimation and B) GHA/cyano/dinos. I want to move the faster STN'ing lower in the tank, but I'm concerned moving it will cause more harm then good. Crossing fingers a significant light change will do the trick. If I don't see any improvement in a week, I'm cutting off part of the acro and moving it lower in the tank on a frag rack.

Also I glued some GSP on the back wall. Whatever.

Here's the tank under whites (a view I almost never use any longer), so you can see the mayhem:

 

[jhuntstl]

Not gonna lie. Looking pretty rough.

It'll most certainly pass in time.

 

[Gedxin]

Another smallish update, mostly because @jhuntstl is being a pal and wondering how it's going. Thanks bud.

The cat's out of the bag - I started a new tank last month. You can check it out here https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/my-4ft-peninsula-tank-journal.918518/ if you're interested.

That said, this tank is really struggling with the uglies. We're 11 months in and it's still got serious GHA, cyano and some dinos. The majority of the corals are doing well, minus a goni and two torches. I removed the goni last week and added to the peninsula. Today I removed the torches and dipped them in a 3% H2O2 solution, then in CoralRevive, and finally transferred them to the 4ft. They were going downhill, worst thing that happens is they die in the peninsula - best is they make a recovery. I firmly believe the GHA is what has seriously irritated them, it was all over their sides.

I've turned off my 14w UV for the time being, it just wasn't having any noticeable positive effects and really increased the noise with the additional pump. My little 9w GKM is still in my overflow and on though.

I've completely turned off my skimmer. I cannot maintain any nitrates or phosphate readings on my Hanna checkers (I know they're working because they read on the peninsula just fine.) We'll see how long this lasts.

Tank photo from a day ago, after a water change and before torch removals:

Not gonna lie, it's rough to look at. A few of my acros have died since the last photo, some made recoveries and others are growing at a slow pace, so there's something going right with the system.

Plan is to get my peninsula in a steady state (DINO FREE FOREVER?), then eventually ripclean (@brandon429 would be proud) this tank. Clean out all the sand, H2O2 the rocks. My peninsula can be a holding tank while I sort this mess out.

 

[Gedxin]

Photo updates of the GHA/Cyano madness. Maybe some dinos too? Not sure. Ripped out one acro and put it in my peninsula, it was super stressed. Only 3 acros left here, they're just barely hanging on. Most other things look pretty ok.

 

[jhuntstl]

Given how long this has been an issue for you, I would consider chemiclean and/or fluconazole. I only have experience with fluconazole. I had no other choice with my bryopsis. It caused no stress and if anything I saw increased PE throughout the treatment. It had the added benefit of getting rid of all my GHA. I wouldn't hesitate to use it in the future!

 

[FjordReef]

I have to agree with jhuntstl, it may be time for chemiclean, fluconazole or some other chemical/treatment option. Most people use these products with only positive outcomes! Just for your sake as I know I would be totally burnt out on having my tank with such a severe problem for so long.

All that being said, I absolutely love the zoa garden. Excellent contrast and tight together growth form makes for an excellent impact!

 

[Gedxin]

Gotta admit, the prospect of rip cleaning is not exciting to me, I spend sooo much time on the peninsula tank (mostly just staring at it honestly, and maybe checking acro growth) that I find only regular maintenance (weekly water changes/feeding) enough of an effort with the cube. Rip cleaning is just too much at the moment. That said, I read the latest article posted on R2R about dinos and treating it with carbon dosing. It sounds like a solid 'natural' solution for dinos, My problem is I kinda have a hair algae/cyano/dino trifecta. I bought NP-balance from Tropic Marin as a 'maybe' and will keep it in my back pocket. I'm honestly terrified of fluconazole and the latest algaecide findings a member here posted. But you can't argue with the successes people like @jhuntstl have had too. Ugh, paralyzed by decisions. Chemiclean, similarly has a ton of success (along with a few horror stories), but seems like a decent next step. Obviously staying the course is not fixing anything, so it comes down to me making a choice.

 

[shrimpy smell]

Would you recommend the life rock waterbox bundle? I plan on starting my first reef tank in a few months and was wondering if I should go with their bundle or if im better off buying by the pound

 

[Gedxin]

Would you recommend the life rock waterbox bundle? I plan on starting my first reef tank in a few months and was wondering if I should go with their bundle or if im better off buying by the pound

Yeah, I think the bundle is pretty decent. In my case it was way too much for my tank and I had a ton of extra pieces, so your mileage may vary depending on dimensions to bundle purchased.

 

[Winslow___]

I love this build thread! I have the exact same tank for the last two years and have loved it. My biggest thing was I removed my skimmer and decided to make the sump into a refugium and wish I did it from the beginning. I was seeing my skimmer was just working overtime even when having it off during the day.
I do have one problem I can not seem to fix, the flow into the weir will fluctuate regardless of the pump speed or if I run floss in the overflow. Wondering if you have had this problem too or if the sicce 2.0 was the perfect flow amount.

 

[Winslow___]

I love this build thread! I have the exact same tank for the last two years and have loved it. My biggest thing was I removed my skimmer and decided to make the sump into a refugium and wish I did it from the beginning. I was seeing my skimmer was just working overtime even when having it off during the day.
I do have one problem I can not seem to fix, the flow into the weir will fluctuate regardless of the pump speed or if I run floss in the overflow. Wondering if you have had this problem too or if the sicce 2.0 was the perfect flow amount.

 

[Gedxin]

I love this build thread! I have the exact same tank for the last two years and have loved it. My biggest thing was I removed my skimmer and decided to make the sump into a refugium and wish I did it from the beginning. I was seeing my skimmer was just working overtime even when having it off during the day.
I do have one problem I can not seem to fix, the flow into the weir will fluctuate regardless of the pump speed or if I run floss in the overflow. Wondering if you have had this problem too or if the sicce 2.0 was the perfect flow amount.

Hey, thanks for the comments! I also have removed my skimmer from this tank. Maybe I oversized it, but it takes out way too many nutrients and honestly seemed to contribute to my persistent dino problem. I have since about 3 months ago installed a bubble magus filter roller. It's working alright. I have some thoughts about its short comings, especially as they rate to this tank. Do you have photos of your sump? I'd love to see what layout you've got.

I honestly dislike a lot of things about the tank (largely the nano part.) For about the last year my biggest problem has been green hair algae. The best way to get rid of it is manual removal, which results in free floating GHA when I scrub and siphon during water changes. I had hoped the filter roller would capture most of the GHA, but what actually ends up happening is the weir/overflow/drain catches it in various ways and causes blockages (which sometimes causes issues with gate valve drainage.)

Livestock update: My original clownfish pair is no more. Juniper, the female, had a switch flip one day and bullied the male to death. It all happened so quickly, I noticed the nipped tail and lethargy. I immediately quarantined Juniper in an acclimation box, but the damage had been done - Ash succumbed to his injuries a few hours later. Fast forward a week and my firefish goes missing. No where to be found. Fast forward another week and I see my dottyback has nipped fins. Alright, fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me, but THREE TIMES, ugh. I decided Juniper was too stressed in this tank and moved her to my peninsula. Here she was a medium sized fish in a big pond. She looked a bit iffy for the first day, a ton of glass surfing - but has since become a model citizen and is quite happy in the new tank (especially 'caues I got her a new mate yesterday, more on that in my other build thread.) I attempted to get a Diamond Goby for this tank, along with a bonded pair of Black Ice clowns. The goby came DOA, but the clowns are alive and well!

Obligatory photo update. Still tons of GHA. I've tried lowering lights, tried taking the rocks out and scrubbing. Tried less feedings. It is what it is at this point - a mess and imbalance reef environment. I will continue the good fight, but it sure is exhausting. I recently transferred some rock from my Peninsula tank, in hopes of culturing a better ecosystem.

 

[jhuntstl]

Hey, thanks for the comments! I also have removed my skimmer from this tank. Maybe I oversized it, but it takes out way too many nutrients and honestly seemed to contribute to my persistent dino problem. I have since about 3 months ago installed a bubble magus filter roller. It's working alright. I have some thoughts about its short comings, especially as they rate to this tank. Do you have photos of your sump? I'd love to see what layout you've got.

I honestly dislike a lot of things about the tank (largely the nano part.) For about the last year my biggest problem has been green hair algae. The best way to get rid of it is manual removal, which results in free floating GHA when I scrub and siphon during water changes. I had hoped the filter roller would capture most of the GHA, but what actually ends up happening is the weir/overflow/drain catches it in various ways and causes blockages (which sometimes causes issues with gate valve drainage.)

Livestock update: My original clownfish pair is no more. Juniper, the female, had a switch flip one day and bullied the male to death. It all happened so quickly, I noticed the nipped tail and lethargy. I immediately quarantined Juniper in an acclimation box, but the damage had been done - Ash succumbed to his injuries a few hours later. Fast forward a week and my firefish goes missing. No where to be found. Fast forward another week and I see my dottyback has nipped fins. Alright, fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me, but THREE TIMES, ugh. I decided Juniper was too stressed in this tank and moved her to my peninsula. Here she was a medium sized fish in a big pond. She looked a bit iffy for the first day, a ton of glass surfing - but has since become a model citizen and is quite happy in the new tank (especially 'caues I got her a new mate yesterday, more on that in my other build thread.) I attempted to get a Diamond Goby for this tank, along with a bonded pair of Black Ice clowns. The goby came DOA, but the clowns are alive and well!

Obligatory photo update. Still tons of GHA. I've tried lowering lights, tried taking the rocks out and scrubbing. Tried less feedings. It is what it is at this point - a mess and imbalance reef environment. I will continue the good fight, but it sure is exhausting. I recently transferred some rock from my Peninsula tank, in hopes of culturing a better ecosystem.

It's nice to see this tank again. Looks great even with the gha. Way better than when it was a cyano, gha, dino fiesta.

Sorry about Ash. No fun losing the OGs. =(

 

[Gedxin]

Not too much to update. Still fighting loads of algae. Regularly measuring <1 no3 and <.01 po4. At least algae seems to exclusively be green hair algae - no more cyano or dinos. Plopped an extra frogskin frag in there to see what happens...browned out within a few days. Not enough light I guess, but upping the lights would increase algae. No-win situation.

 

[jhuntstl]

Looks good to me!