My waterbox 25 AIO

bvanfish · Dec 31, 2022

still fighting dinos but I think I am making it better slowly but surely. Can’t wait to get rid of them completely. I’ve been doing many different things to fight them but I am thinking it went from LCA to maybe osteperosis as it seems to be disappearing at night now. Might get a UV and run that too.

bvanfish · Jan 5, 2023

Starting to get growth on my branching cyphastrea you can see it moving out in the top right of pic, digi, blasto has popped a few new heads, and monti is getting larger!

also my Yuma had a baby and my gsp is spreading like wild fire on its island

bvanfish · Jan 5, 2023

Next update, bought a BRS 4 stage RODI unit, 160 gal of salt, and TDS meter, and a small heater. I will start mixing my own salt and get my own RODI from here on out. Very happy about that and am excited I will be able to control the exactly quality going into the tank!

bvanfish · Jan 9, 2023

Mixed up my first bucket of salt which was instant ocean. Loving my tanks parameters for the moment. I also did something new in my fight against dinos which I think I am slowly winning. I mixed up the silicate I am dosing and then took a long pipette and piped it with the powerheads off and shot it right on the sand to which it settled nicely. I am hoping the diatoms will start mowing it.

Excuse the extremely dirty glass. But I have now done a water change and I am not seeing the explosion of dinos. We will see tomorrow (24 hours) if it still looks pretty clean.

salinty: 35
temp:78.8
alk: 10.454
Ca: 405
Mg: 1290
Nitrate: 10
Phos: .1

Gumbies R Us · Jan 9, 2023

Tank looks really good!!

bvanfish · Jan 9, 2023

Gumbies R Us said:
Tank looks really good!!

@Gumbies R Us thank you ! this dino battle has sucked but it is hopefully coming to an end! I like where the tank is going and I am excited for the next addition

bvanfish · Jan 14, 2023

How I fought LCA dinos and seem to be winning

my steps

temp 78.8
turn off all whites red and greens
Block all outside light from getting into the room your tank is in
Drop photo period to 8 hours
Reduce intensity of lights
Get 10 nitrate .1 phos or 20 and .2 of
Dose silicates (a lot) I was doing smaller bits daily and changed to large amounts 1x week (I mix it with rodi and then I use a long pipette and pipe it right to the sand where there’s any spots no pumps for 30 mins)
Dosing different types of live phyto 1-2x a day
Adding pods 1x every other week about
No water change for 5 weeks
No glass cleaning for 5 weeks
Only changed floss when it stopped running through
Dosing 1 cap of MB7 right at light on sometimes 2 caps

this has gotten me to the point of white sand with just diatom dust a bit and no more bubbles being released up or on rocks. Did a water change a week ago and no real resurgence. Doing another tomorrow. Only have cleaned 1 pane of glass.

I did not blow off anything, use any chemicals, or mess with the sand bed at all!

bvanfish · Jan 18, 2023

Selective black outs seem to be working very well

bvanfish · Jan 29, 2023

Knock on wood but with all I did battling dinos they seem to be gone. The selective blackouts really have helped.

I added a tank raised biota mandarin and court jester goby. Also the chicago anemone is looking great. I had it in an acclimation box for 11 days and then moved it to the main tank. It seems very happy!

Nano_Man · Jan 30, 2023

I love your tank and corals but love your water test machine more .wish I had one of them lol

bvanfish · Jan 30, 2023

@nano man uk Thank you very much, actually that is my LFS and I found it to not be super reliable. It wasnt bad for being able to give you 8 or so parameters quickly but when I tested individually they were different, some more than others.

Nano_Man · Jan 30, 2023

Looked good seeing all in one reading but like you say if it’s not accurate no good

bvanfish · Mar 6, 2023

The tank is doing well, the nem is growing nicely and all coral seem to be growing well. Small algae growth but I’ve done manual removal which has helped.

my mandarin carpet surfed which I’m not sure how as I have a lid… so really sucks but I don’t know what Else I could have done.