Another Biocube 32

[Reef of Fillory]

Corals are looking much better after gluing them in place. I think that the constant knocking around before they were glued was stressful for them (my urchin is quite a character moving everything).

Going to slowly be taking out the live rock from the sump, although I don't know what I'm going to do with it... Thinking about seeing if I can't put a nano tank on my desk at work.

Likely going to be trading in the Toadstool and zoas rock, even though the local fish store will give me very little for them ($20/ea)

Looking for a clam this weekend, (or if anyone in West Michigan has one to sell) - I'll also sell you the two corals mentioned above for the trade in price $20/ea.

Coral beauty is finally eating, I've bought around 6 types of food for her, she's started eating formula one flakes. Didn't touch the clam on a half shell, angel blend, mysis etc.

I feed very heavily and as often as I can (looking to buy an auto feeder). No algae issues in the tank with the refugium growing, but I can't check my phosphates to any reasonable level. API kit goes from 0-.25... I don't know why they make a test kit that won't detect the necessary levels in an aquarium.

 

[Reef of Fillory]

Left home for a weekend and came back to my chaeto falling apart. It looks like it might have had too much light. I had been turning it every night. The carpet had started falling apart with tiny pieces everywhere including my display.

 

[Reef of Fillory]

Removed all of my chaeto (what I could) it was dying, getting slimy, turning white and falling apart. There are tons of small pieces of chaeto that broke off and got into the tank and all over the sump. Going to let it settle then try to remove it little by little.

Going to move my refugium back to the first section of the sump and put my new skimmer into the second section. Got a skimmer rated from 90-175 compared to the monster I was using rated for 150-320.

 

[Reef of Fillory]

My chaeto keeps falling apart, can't figure out why, aside from ATI showing no phosphate and nitrate (doesn't capture low ranges)

All the little bits are pieces of chaeto from the bundle. I bought this chaeto 2 days ago from the LFS.

Also added an aquamaxx coneS CO1 skimmer, moved the chaeto to the first section and moved rock from the chaeto section in hopes that getting it spinning will help with it not dying off.

This was before cleaning [no rocks around it]

This is after cleaning [with rocks around it]

The Mandarin seems to be doing well, moved around very slowly but it is not getting picked on by any of my other fish. It's very very tiny.

The skimmer started off great, produced a nice foam head right off the bat, then I cleaned the cup and it isn't producing a head anymore. Any ideas? Could it be that it just needs some time to re produce the foam?

Any opinions on whether moving the rock to around the skimmer would effect it's ability to produce the foam head?

 

[Reef of Fillory]

Took the skimmer out and found the pump packed with chaeto. 15 minutes of picking later, have a clean skimmer and it's pulling out gunk again.

Got my Hannah checker, phosphates are .021 which is probably the reason my chaeto is falling apart. Not sure how I'm going to continue. I think I way overfeed already, have 5 fish in my biocube. I don't want to start dosing nitrate/phosphate.

I really like my new skimmer, but I'm thinking about taking it out and running fuge only.

 

[Reef of Fillory]

Put my TaoTronics light back on the fuge and came back 4 days later to a giant chunk of Chaeto...

The H380 must demand too much in terms of nutrients on my tank. Thinking about selling the H380 and putting the $$ towards some corals!

 

[Reef of Fillory]

I've switched my Triton bottles over to smart water bottles so that I can see the levels. I also added a diy CO2 scrubber made from a BRS dual reactor that I previously used for carbon and gfo. We'll see what happens with the pH.

Also put the h380 back on after recommendation to try it on a shorter light schedule. It's on for 6 hours a day now to see what happens.

My chaeto has a brown/purple skimmer on it that comes off everywhere when I handle the chaeto ball. I think it might be cyanobacteria. I'm not sure what to do about it though, hopefully it doesn't kill the chaeto again...

Added a few corals that I got from my lfs over black Friday weekend. Hoping with the CO2 scrubber I can get some increased pH and growth from my corals.

 

[Reef of Fillory]

Cleaned my skimmer today, replaced co2 media, put the taotronics light back on, packed and shipped the h380 to NY and pulled out most of the dead/dying chaeto

 

[Reef of Fillory]

Added another acan? That I got from my lfs today. Also finally got a couple of pictures of my Mandarin... Got a short video that I'll post a bit later. Added a small ball of new chaeto to the fuge. The pH scrubber is working great I'm going to go to home Depot after work tonight to get supplies to plumb the input to the skimmer cup.

I just realized that the way I have my reactor set up that incoming air isn't going over any water before going through the first canister of media...

 

[Reef of Fillory]

Connected my scrubber to my skimmer cup, also got a watchman goby and pistol shrimp.

Going to Lowe's tonight to get some potassium nitrate to start dosing nitrate as I'm certain my chaeto issue is due to no nitrates.

I'm also going to be moving my skimmer to the first section in my sump so that it stops getting clogged up by chaeto. This goes against Triton recommendation but makes my life easier [emoji4]

 

[Reef of Fillory]

Dosed Nitrates twice, the first time it went to maybe .25 and the second time I didn't measure afterwards. It's been about 4 days since the first dose, and I can see that algae [green] is now growing on the rocks. [It could be the start of Coraline]

I hadn't had chaeto since it died off last [it completely died off and disappeared]. But I added Chaeto yesterday 12/12/17 with my TaoTronics light on the sump.

Going to check parameters tonight [I ran out of magnesium, but just got some delivered from BRS]

Im hoping to have to adjust my Triton dosage to account for faster growth


My CO2 Scrubber being tied in to my skimmer lid was forming a ton of condensation within the air line + the first chamber of the reactor. I've taken the tube out of the skimmer cup and might have to just change the media more often.