BioCube 29gal testing Parameter

DarrylJ · Feb 28, 2018

Hello R2R
Still trying to figure this stuff out. I did a test reading on my tank and I not sure if I have the correct readings so if any one can help me understand the way to read this would help me for the future testings.

I hope it's clear to see I know it's bad lighting

Crabs McJones · Feb 28, 2018

DarrylJ said:
Hello R2R
Still trying to figure this stuff out. I did a test reading on my tank and I not sure if I have the correct readings so if any one can help me understand the way to read this would help me for the future testings.

I hope it's clear to see I know it's bad lighting

From what I can make out your alk is high at 12 and your calcium is low at 300. Magnesium looks low as well. Very hard to tell from the pictures. You'll want your alk at 8 and your calcium around 420-450 and magnesium between 1300 and 1400

DarrylJ · Mar 1, 2018

My BioCube 29gal is still under construction. I've been Ill and was not able to tend to it for about 3 months. I had algae and red slim covering rock and sand bed first thing. I did was a 10 gal water change, vacuum the sand and powerhead the rock to get as much crude off.
about 4 days later I used chemiclean 3 scoops waited 48 hrs then 10 gal water change a again. found out my salinity was 1.04 I then added RO/DI water to drop it to 1.025
Before all this my equipment used bag of chemipure, all gone, active charcoal in first chamber, coarse sponge in chamber 2, and filter between 2-3 chamber return pump. I have deep sand bed, about 30 lbs rock.
I had a about 6 acans, mushrooms etc... corals and about 6 damsel.
The test above was the taken just this week. It looks like my Mag. about 1200, Akl about 11.2 Cal low off the chart ..... SMH,
My tank looks like DEATH!!!!!

John3 · Mar 1, 2018

Well there is still some tissue on your frags and acans can come back even with a tiny amount of tissue. How are your nitrates? If your nitrates are higher you can run higher alk and be ok. The most important thing at this point is to bring your parameters into a good range and work on keeping them as stable as possible. If you can do that some of the corals may recover with some time.

I run a biocube with higher (than most) nitrates. I keep my parameters as follows:

Calcium 420-460
Alk 11-12
Nitrates 15-20
Temp 78
Salinity 1.026
Magnesium 1350-1450

One additional powerhead is really needed in a 29 cube to have enough flow. I’m using a skimmer in chamber 2 and I got rid of my hood and now use a radion light. You should be fine with the stock lighting for thr corals you have. Getting rid of the hood enabled me to use a better light and add a bigger skimmer. It wasn’t my original plan but it has worked well.

I went through a small amount of cyano(not enough flow), green hair algae, dinos, etc. once you get your tank mature a lot of the crud stuff just goes away and your rock will really clean up.

John3 · Mar 1, 2018

Oh one other thing I did that I think really helped. I moved my rock so that it wasn’t sitting against any walls, not even the back. This really helps keep fish poo and other crud from accumulating behind rock in areas you can’t really clean.

saltyfilmfolks · Mar 1, 2018

I wouldn’t sweat the details in a way.

The basic easiest fix would be water changes. And a tooth brush.

Take you’re time and do it over the next few weeks.

IMO , you could dose up or down or sideways, lol, and the numbers on the test might look better , but the issues will take the same time and other issues wouldn’t have been addressed.

So it sounds like you’re on the right track really.
I’d say a bit of testing error in there is common.
As long as you’re not dosing , wc will return you close to the salts alk cal mag parameters.

DarrylJ · Mar 2, 2018

Just find my Apex Jr. it was in storage. Last time I used it HELL BROKE LOOSE......LOL
it was on this same 29gal, but I had a sump and it was sitting on the inside with the sump. Something happen one day and the display went blank the plugs stop working almost flood my living room. So I went back to the stock setup, throw it in a box and it was out of here.
2 yrs later witch was yesterday I pull it out read a few forum post on Apex Classic Community just updated firmware witch gave me a head ache. Finally get it to work again. So Happy now i'm gonna go home an setup the tank just for the basic right now.

Lisa Cain · Mar 4, 2018

DarrylJ said:
My BioCube 29gal is still under construction. I've been Ill and was not able to tend to it for about 3 months. I had algae and red slim covering rock and sand bed first thing. I did was a 10 gal water change, vacuum the sand and powerhead the rock to get as much crude off.
about 4 days later I used chemiclean 3 scoops waited 48 hrs then 10 gal water change a again. found out my salinity was 1.04 I then added RO/DI water to drop it to 1.025
Before all this my equipment used bag of chemipure, all gone, active charcoal in first chamber, coarse sponge in chamber 2, and filter between 2-3 chamber return pump. I have deep sand bed, about 30 lbs rock.
I had a about 6 acans, mushrooms etc... corals and about 6 damsel.
The test above was the taken just this week. It looks like my Mag. about 1200, Akl about 11.2 Cal low off the chart ..... SMH,
My tank looks like DEATH!!!!!

Darryl, I started off with live sand, bacteria and gradually added fish and corals one by one. I still face challenges here and there and Reef 2Reef has been helpful. I test my water weekly and I basically test
for pH, ammonia, nitrates and nitrites. I just go a few items tested a a local store. I am no expert like the others but I would say from my limited experience is work with the water. I pay lots of attention to my water and change 5-7 gallons weekly. I probably pay to much attention to the water quality and will probably slow down on the water changes. I have the filter that comes with the biocube, purigen and chemipure all in back chambers.

DarrylJ · Mar 8, 2018

Oh man did a test last night parameter is way off all over the place.

Sal. 1.30
Mag. 1800
alk. 11.2
Cal. 200
phas. 1.42
Temp. 79.2

Eeeek!!!!

Thinking of a water change tonight hoping that will help this will be the 4 water change in 3 weeks. Also I need to build my ATO tonight I've just been pouring RO/DI into tank.

AwesomeusPrime · Mar 8, 2018

Hello Fellow Biocuber,

I'm assuming you mean your salinity is 1.030, you can do two water changes with a salinity of 1.018 and 1.016 to lower your Bio Cubes salinity down to around 1.026
I'd retest your Alk and Calcoum after the two water changes and hopefully Alk will have dropped down a little bit while Calcium will have risen. You will want to add Calcium Chloride into the tank, you will know how much to add once the water changes are done. Use this site to input your current and desired Calcium levels after the water changes and what product you're adding to get how much to add. https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/reef-calculator/
I'm assuming you're dosing a pH buffer, which would likely explain why your Alkalinity is so high and your Calcium is so low.

Just doing a bunch of water changes will fix all these problems on their own too.

John3 · Mar 8, 2018

Those numbers are a bit suspect being so far out. You may want to bring a sample to a lfs and have them test it to be sure.

If your salt is that high either your mixing salt too high for water changes or you leg a lot of water evaporate without topping up.

What salt brand are you using?

DarrylJ · Mar 8, 2018

John3 said:
Those numbers are a bit suspect being so far out. You may want to bring a sample to a lfs and have them test it to be sure.

If your salt is that high either your mixing salt too high for water changes or you leg a lot of water evaporate without topping up.

What salt brand are you using?

I'm buying the saltwater from LFS I do have salt I can mix, but right now I'm in a small place and it easier to buy for now. But I do have red sea reef salt the purple box

John3 · Mar 8, 2018

Your water is so far off I would really wonder what you are getting from the lfs. It might be easier to buy if it’s good but if not it makes a lot of extra work for you. You could test some new water from them and see what it is giving you. I can’t see how it would be good considering your tanks numbers.

I used the salt you have and it’s fine. The idea is that if you pick a good salt and do weekly changes you should balance out with the right ph, ca, alk, etc.... once you balance out the weekly changes are just adding small amounts of ca/alk/mag and trace elements to keep things at proper levels and also exporting some nitrates.

DarrylJ · Mar 8, 2018

John3 said:
Your water is so far off I would really wonder what you are getting from the lfs. It might be easier to buy if it’s good but if not it makes a lot of extra work for you. You could test some new water from them and see what it is giving you. I can’t see how it would be good considering your tanks numbers.

I used the salt you have and it’s fine. The idea is that if you pick a good salt and do weekly changes you should balance out with the right ph, ca, alk, etc.... once you balance out the weekly changes are just adding small amounts of ca/alk/mag and trace elements to keep things at proper levels and also exporting some nitrates.

I'm gonna do a 10 gal water change to night with red sea salt mix and test with in 4 day from now so Monday night after work will be tested.
See where to go from there.

John3 · Mar 9, 2018

It will take a few changes with the Red Sea salt but you should get close to their advertised ca/alk/mag not meets.

Once you get a good amount of corals growing you may have to supplement ca/alk between changes but for now you should be fine with just weekly changes.

DarrylJ · Mar 13, 2018

Added a few new pieces 3-13-18
water change over the weekend 7 gals trying to get everything equaled out testing water tonight for Alk,CAl,Mag, No2 good with all the others perm.
New to the tank is Mushrooms and a Flower pot

DarrylJ · Apr 3, 2018

Update on my BioCube 29Gal
4-3-2018
Tested my water last night:

Using Redsea Pro salt in my tank I have Mag 1200, Cal 420, kH 12.6 my pH was about 7. 4 - 7.8 so I used some Reef buffer also

DarrylJ · Apr 3, 2018

DarrylJ said:
Added a few new pieces 3-13-18
water change over the weekend 7 gals trying to get everything equaled out testing water tonight for Alk,CAl,Mag, No2 good with all the others perm.
New to the tank is Mushrooms and a Flower pot

this was taken few weeks back