Bruno's Waterbox 20

[Rocktron1]

I meant don't clean the black part. Leave some algae for the clean up crew, and besides you'll end up with coralline algae on the back anyway eventually

 

[BrunoL]

Aha thanks. Yea but this was just some dust from the installation. Had a bit of a scare this morning, I couldn't find one of the clowns. Figured he had jumped so I spend like 30 minutes looking everywhere, in the back, behind the cabinet etc. I couldn't find him so I figured he jumped in the pump section and he's stuck to it. I took that out, still no clown. (I used the moment to redo the pump settings, it's still noisy. It must be touching something or doing something weird). Once the pump and heater are back in place, I see some movement in the sock and voila, little fella was coming up from the bottom of the sock to the surface to say hi.

I guess he must have swam (or got sucked in) the filter sock and with the pump off he casually decided to swim up again? I turned the return pump down either way to about 25%. However, considering the noise it makes, I'm not sure if I'm putting the stock one back in or swapping it out entirely.

 

[BrunoL]

Little update after checking the water.

• Alkalinity dropped to 8.9
• Salinity went up to 1027
• Phosphate went up to 0.42

I also checked Ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.

• Ammonia 0.25
• Nitrite 0
• Nitrate 1.5

I'm guessing the fluctuations are caused by 1) some water having evaporated and 2) the frozen food I dropped in there last night + the initial flakes that got sucked in to the filter area. I topped off with some clean RODI water (which I checked as well, PO4 at 0.00 ppm).

I also changed the temperature to 26C from 25C, which according to the documentation I found, that should be better for the fish. They do seem more curious and explore some more now that I turned down the return pump a little.

I'm filling up a jug of RODI atm so I can do a 25% change tonight.

This also makes me think that despite the live rock fished directly from an established & mature sump and the copepods, I'm still having a little micro cycle.

 

[BrunoL]

Did my first water change this morning. I'm still struggling a bit to estimate how much salt I need to mix. The box said 39gr/L for LPS & 41gr/L for SPS. So I went for 400gr on 10L buckets (2 buckets). Both ended up with a salinity around 1028-1029. I took some water out and refilled with RODI to get to 1026 and then changed 20L of tank water.

I also took a minute to check magnesium and calcium, now that my Sailfert tests arrived. I had very similar results both before and after the water changes.

• Salinity 1026
• dKH 8.8
• Mg 1300
• Ca 410
• Phosphate 0.43 (not sure why it's this high, my RO cranks out 0.00 water but it is in line with what I had measured a few days ago as well.)

Overall it feels pretty stable. I'll do another water change next week and clean out the back filter. I'm guessing there's some waste in there.

The clowns are happily swimming around and started responding well to the food flakes. They now come to the top of the water when I turn on feeding mode.

My only issue at the moment is that every now and then an Astraea flips over or falls of the rock. I have to check pretty much twice per do to make sure there isn't one laying upside down.

 

[BrunoL]

Little update, one of the little juvenile clowns appears to be struggling a bit. His swimming motion isn't as fluid as it should be, he seems to be a little stiff and he's breathing rapidly. While observing him over the last 30 minutes while checking water, I also saw him lay down for a few seconds before taking off again. I also have the impression he's a little skinny and I've not seen him dart after food like the other clown.

The water tests seem fine (as also indicated by the other clown being completely fine). I don't think it's something very contagious, else both fish would be having it.

I gave him a 5 minute freshwater dip after testing. I've thrown him back in the tank now, I guess we'll see if he pulls through. I don't have any medicine here so I'm not sure how else to relief or treat him.

 

[anemonalex]

Almost had a first casualty, I found a Nassarius snail crawling down the side of the tank, on the outside ... I guess they're exploring and searching for food. I broke up and threw 2 Hikari algae wafers in the tank. Considering the tank is new and doesn't have algae, I'm guessing the snails are hungry and scavenging. Is this a common thing though, should I order a cover?

Nassarius snails are carnivores and good ones. I'm sure not solely carnivores but they flock to decaying meat, put a piece of shrimp in also Look into TDO pellets for your clownfish food. A 20 dollar bag of the extra small size lasts my clowns about a year. It's a bad sign when animals try to escape the tank. I have only seen intertidal snails like limpets and nerites go out of the waterline. I would trust my hanna instruments, use a reagent and check again. If your lfs is using drop tests they are giving you a spectrum not a solid reading like hannah. I use calcium and alkalinity, going to buy the phosphate test when I have the money. I like the seachem phosphate drop test. Salifert nitrate test that's all I check. I'm not sure how extensive your marine biology goes. Search the Redfield ratio. When I was new it the hobby I thought ultra low nutrient systems were the only way. Welcome, and as for that little clown i would be worried about lack of oxygen or salt burn from trying to eat unmixed salt. Add a bubbler. If it's lack of oxygen from ammonia that should let it ride out the next few days. Just be careful with salt and cold water let it sit and mix it a few times.

 

[BrunoL]

Thanks for the response bud. I think the snail tried to get out as, as the tank was new, there wasn't enough food available. I've been feeding some frozen mysis, so there's some waste now for them to eat.

I left for my LFS (Animalis, it's like PetCo in France) this morning after seeing the clown being sad, looking for some common medicines. Before leaving I did turn on the RO/DI unit with a 20 gallon bucket under it.

Good news and sad news once I got to the store. The sad news is that they're closing down their marine section and will only sell freshwater. The good news is that I was able to pick up a load of stuff at -30%. I'm especially happy with that Tunze 9001.

Those eSHa products are basically Cupramine, Prazi and Malachite green / methylene blue - but the EU available versions. Prazi is a vet prescription drug here ...

I went home after this haul and did a 50% water change. I figure it can never hurt to put some clean water in there ... I also retested after that and water came back OK but my dKH was at 7.8, which seems low considering I usually get around 8.7-8.9 with my salt ... I'm pretty sure SeaGel, which is basically just Activated Carbon & some PhosGuard, don't impact dKH?

I figured I'd leave it and I went to install the skimmer in the back. I'm not sure how to fit it in there. I can't get it deep enough in there with the media and sponges. Which made me wonder, are my water levels OK. I think they are, I have them pretty much at the overflow part of each compartment. It does have my worry for the heater, I think I'll move that to compartment 1 or 2 in the future.

Also, while trying to get it in there, i figured I'd put the magnet on one of the decantation panels. Then this happened ...

It slid down directly in to the actual decantation bit. I had to re-empty the tank again and fish it out with some long plyers to get it out of there. Took about an hour and for a while I was thinking, well that's it, the tank is ******.

Anyway, I decided to set up the skimmer in the tank for now, mostly to oxygenate and also because I'm not sure where else to put it. I'll order an InTank basket so I can move the media to compartment 1.

Final result? Here it is.

We'll see if the clown pulls through. I feel like I've done what I can for him.

 

[BrunoL]

I found the clown like this this morning, still breathing but I'm not sure he'll make the day.

His gills are very red and swollen and he's got a lot of difficulties swimming.

The other clown on the other hand is completely fine, doing clown things.

I wanted to fish him out or another fresh water dip, but he's gone hiding somewhere now. He floated off while I was prepared the reservoir. Sucks a bit as I'm pretty sure if he gets under the rock scape, he won't be able to get out.

UPDATE: I found the little clown, he was no longer breathing, stuck in a hole in the back of the rock scape. I fished him out with little tweezers so I could inspect him more closely. His gills were very swollen. The other clown is still completely fine, so I'm not sure if I should start treating him for something or just let it ride out now ...

 

[BrunoL]

I mixed a new bucket of water and tested that, it came back at 8.9 dKH, just like the previous ones (for a salinity level of 1025 - 1026). I'm really not sure why I read 7.8 dKH yesterday, I must have tested wrong. For my saltwater mix, I mix the water using a 10 liters bucket and a 1000L/H return pump. I also have a spare 100W heater I drop in there. I usually let it run for 2-3 hours before actually doing the change. I feel like that should be enough for the salt to get completely absorbed and the cold water I store in the garage to get up to temperature.

Either way, clown 2 still doing well. I'll wait a bit to see how he does, keep the regular water changes up, and get a new buddy for him once there's no further traces of illness over the next 7-10 days.

 

[BrunoL]

Good update today, I went to see a fellow reefer nearby and got a bunch of frags:

3 Zoa frags: Goblin's fire, Vietnam Red & Rastas
Rhodactis Forestfire
Montipora JF Mean Streak

I've tried to make a photo, but my phone really isn't liking the Prime lights. I should probably check out getting a phone filter. The lights also aren't doing the scape any justice. That said, the Rhodactis and Zoas have started opening up about 2/3h after introducing them, so that's nice at least.

I've kind of placed them randomly in the tank for now, so they can get acclimated to the new tank.

I'm planning on putting the Montipora on the left rockscape so it makes a little overhang. It gets decent flow and full light there.

I'll probably put the Rhodactis in the middle where it is now. It's got lower light there and it's a little more protected from the flow, it's a better, calmer area.

As for the Zoas, I was thinking of maybe getting a magnetic Tunze nano frag rack and making a floating Zoa garden on the back panel. For now I've just placed the plugs in the sand, as the frags are still tiny.

I may pick up a standard magnetic frag rack as well so I can place them somewhere on the panels while they grow out a little.

 

[BrunoL]

Little update, let's start with the parameters.

Temp 25° C
Salinity 1025 - It's been super steady lately
dKH 7.2 - Seems to be slowly going down ...
Ca 370
Mg 1230
PO4 0.30 - Steady, even going down a little since last check.
NO2 - 0
NO3 - 0

New update, bunch of stuff came in today ...

I contacted Cobalt Aquatics, as they're impossible to find over here. They told me the Aquael Ultra is their EU version of the same heater. I picked one up because the Eheim is indeed a little big for the 3rd chamber, I use it as a redundancy in the 2nd chamber now but may take it out and use it to heat up my salt mixing buckets.

I also took out the Sicce Synchra 1.0 and replaced it with the AI Axis 40. The Axis 40 is more powerful, way more silent and best of all, controllable via the app. It's so nice that the Nero, the Prime and the Axis all work together and when I hit feeding mode for example, it all just synchronizes and slows down. It was annoying having to unplug the Sicce every time ... not to mention I just couldn't get it to run silently.

I got the AutoAqua Smart ATO Duo G2 - It's basically the EU version of the Duetto really. I spend a long time thinking about this one honestly. I wanted to go get the Tunze 3155, but I was REALLY put off by the noise the pump makes. I know there's a new version of the pump but somehow I don't agree on having to buy a new 60 dollar pump for an item that really retails at 200. The vendor told me to get the Osmolator 3, but that's really just a fully electronic model as well which kind of puts it in the same league as the AutoAqua ATO. In the end I got the Smart ATO, which has been great so far. The pump is small and sits in a 1L jar next to the tank at the moment. The only thing I hear then it goes on, is the water sprinkling in to the tank. The pump is completely silent. I'll get another reservoir later on, I'll probably just drill a little hole in a 3L trash can and use that as an ATO reservoir. Or maybe a paste spaghetti tupperware box.

Then finally, I got some acessoires like Seachem Dip and some Tunze coral gum & gel. I got the Tunze nano frag rack with the idea of putting it against the back panel and using it as a floating Zoa garden ... I'll drop my 3 frags on it and we'll see how they develop.

I may get some all for reef as well, as my Mg & Ca are a little on the lower side. I'd really like to bump up my dKH a bit as well though, I'll see what's around.

Pictures to come shortly, once I've installed everything!

 

[BrunoL]

OK so I'll have to invest in some lenses, my phone really doesn't like taking pictures of the tank.

I'm not sure I like the floating frag rack, but I'll see if it grows on me and more importantly, if the zoas like it.

 

[BrunoL]

Bunch of updates! I visited a fellow reefer nearby here, who's got a huge tank. Guessing it's close to 1000g, mostly SPS dominated. I got a bunch of frags for the waterbox:

Euphyllia glabrescens Toxic Green
Seriatopora caliendrum Bird of Paradise
Acropora formosa blue
Montipora Setosa

I also went back to the store to pick up a new buddy for Nemo, and got some other stuff with it. Picked up a little anemone, a Entacmaea Quadricolor Sunburst and a little filefish (Acreichthys Tomentosus). I think it's awesome how these little guys swim.

Here's a picture with the newcomers just lined up before I place them on the scape. I ordered some Reefing Art phone filters so I can finally get some good pictures in. I'll be sure to post those when they arrive.

I did have a funky surprise when I started to drip the fish and anemone prior to introducing them. My salinity was still sitting at 1025 but my overall density had dropped to the 33-32 range (a little hard to tell on the refractometer). I'm not sure how salinity can stay the same but density fluctuate, considering temperature was still at 25°C. The Euphyllia opened up nicely, the Rhodactis opens up great as well, I would guess they wouldn't if the water parameters were off? I didn't want to do any overzealous actions, so I just did a 15% water and turned off the ATO for the night so I can let it slowly creep up. I'll monitor it throughout the day tomorrow and turn the ATO back on when I'm at a satisfactory level. Which begs the question, should I be chasing salinity 1025 or density 35?

I also had a snail that hadn't move in a few days, so I decided to give him a little nudge and found his shell completely empty, odorless and empty. I did find some white traces on the shell, as if something had scraped it. I've tried to make a picture of it. Has it been attacked, or did it get too close to the powerhead? There's no odor in the tank and other parameters are good (dKH 7.5 / 1025sg / NO2 at 0 / Ammonia at 0. I figure that if I have a dead snail, I'd be seeing spikes?

After all that was done, I put the mesh on the powerhead to make it anemone safe and fed some mysis. There won't be any more livestock changes any time soon, so the system can stabilize a little.

Finally, as you can see from the pictures, I'm getting some diatoms on the sand bed. I didn't have my siphon with my when doing the water change and I assume they'll go away eventually on their own but something to keep track of as well. I did notice that while filling my bucket of RODI today, I got 1ppm water. I didn't really check it last week, but the week prior to that, I was getting 0ppm water. I've ordered a new resin, I figured it's more important do to the water change, all things considered than to skip a week and wait for the resin to arrive. I did notice my live rock is turning slightly green, it appears to be encrusting, so I'm guessing it's some coralline algae, there are fairly decent patches of purple / dark algae already. I also have some areas where it appears to be branching. I'll try and get some decent pictures of this when I get the lenses.

That's all for today, but I'd be very keen to hear your thoughts on the salinity / density question, and on the missing snail mystery.

 

[BrunoL]

Shame on me for not researching a fish, but the more I read about the filefish, the more I worry for my bta, euphyllia and zoa's. I'll have to keep a really close eye on him and make sure he doesn't nibble.

 

[BrunoL]

So far so good. Salinity came in around 1025 but closer to 34 ppt just now, it's slowly creeping up. I'll wait a little longer and then reposition the ATO sensor at that level and turn that on again as well.

I'm a little concerned about the filefish nibbling on things but so far he seems content scavenging the rocks and eating the mysis with the clowns. Nothing seems damaged ...

The BTA and Euphyllia opened up nicely this morning as well, although I did see this night when I had a little peek (when it's pitch black), that the anemone deflated and opened up a lot and had almost what looks like its mouth wide open. I'm not sure if it's maybe trying to catch food at night in the dark? However, as soon as I opened the shutters in the house and some light came in, it closed its mouth and then when the tank lights kicked in, it inflated its bubbles. I'm guessing this is normal behaviour?

I also tried to get a shot of the rocks under white light, we agree this is coralline algae? I also tried to get a shot of the darker stuff, which appears to be branching.

New week today as well, I started dosing magnesium and calcium, the idea being to bump them up a little and then switch over to All For Reef. Considering there's a fair few new corals, I figured it can't harm to spot dose those 2 and bring my levels up a little.

That's all for today!

 

[BrunoL]

Did a good clean of the sand bed yesterday and ordered some more snails, more specifically some Cerith snails. I also took the hard corals off of their pegs and placed them on the rockwork using some tunze coral epoxy.

I'm pretty happy with the corals now but I'd like maybe a duncan or hammer to fill up the bottom left of the scape. I'm also considering maybe a rock anemone, but we'll see. I'm really digging the BTA, I'm tempted to get another one for the left side of the tank.

I also noticed the ATO goes a little haywire from time to time, mostly because the level in the 3rd chamber fluctuates. After some testing, I think there's a flow restriction issue in the 1st chamber. When I turn up the pump full speed, the display fills up all the way and basically make the tank overflow in to the back chambers. However, when I take out the filter sock, all is dandy ... So I pulled the trigger and ordered the InTank basket from the US. I really hate how shipping costs more than the actual product, but the sock seems to be a bottleneck in the system, and is just such a drag to clean ...

I also modded the Tunze 9001 to have the magnet on the side, but because of the fluctuating water levels, it's not been super effective. I've turned it off until the InTank basket arrives.

 

[Rocktron1]

You'll find even with the media basket you'll get the same issue from time to time. Don't pack the filter floss in too much, as once it clogs up it will be same as filter sock

I now just use a small bit of fine floss at top, and some course black sponge under that in media basket 1st chamber, change the white floss every few days with a new piece. If I go away for a week or so I remove the white floss and just leave a bit of the bigger black stuff in there so it doesn't clog

 

[MeesterClean]

Looking good! Excited to follow your progress!

 

[BrunoL]

Bunch of new stuff arrived today, and I went to see another fellow reefer this weekend. Naturally I came home with some frags.

My USPS packages arrived today. Both ReefingArt & inTank were great, I'm happy to receive them.

I installed the media basket in chamber one. I didn't have any floss left, but did have some fine bleu foam that I've put in there for now. In the middle area I've put the Purigen & Seagel and in the bottom section I've put the Seachem Matrix. Now the only disadvantage is that I had to take about half the Matrix out of the bag for it to fit in there, but then again, did I really need 3 pounds of media for 2 clowns and a filefish? .

I also put the top cover on there, I love the way it hides the cables, skimmer, ... Just looks so much better.

More people responded on the local facebook group here and I went to see another fellow reefer this weekend. He had a bunch of frags available, so I inevitably came home with a Rhodactis mushroom (Indosinensis neon green) and a little green Caulastrea frag.

I've not decided yet where the Rhodactis will go but I'm liking the Caulastrea location. I'm not sure if it'll enjoy itself on the rock work like that, growing sideways, but we'll see. For now I've not fixed anything and its pretty much just held in place by gravity. Worst case, I swap the Rhodactis & Caulastrea and put the mushroom on the rocks and the branches in the sand.

My diatoms are slowly going away as well. My PO4 checked in at 0.13 but nitrates are still reading 0. That said my test has very large margins between the different color grades (API test), I've ordered a more precise Salifert one. I don't believe nitrates are at 0, considering the algae growth.

I also have some more CUC arriving tomorrow, I'll be reinforcing the snail team with a strawberry conch, some trochus and cerith snails and a little blue legged hermit crab. I also got a bunch of spare shells to avoid potential future snail homicides ... I feel like that should balance the CUC out nicely. The issue I had with my current team is that the Astraea snails don't leave the rock and the Nassarius snails, who roam the sand don't eat algae. With the trochus, cerith, conch and hermit crab, it should be much more balanced.

Finally here's a more recent full view shot.

I'm pretty happy with the way it's running now. All corals seem to be doing quite well and I've noticed some grow on several of them, such as new heads on the zoas and new polyps on the seriatopora. The BTA and Euphyllia are looking fat and seem to be doing OK. The BTA also hasn't move a hair since I placed it in the tank, it must be enjoying that spot.

That said I'll be out of town next week for 5 days, we'll see if the tank can run on autopilot then ...

 

[BrunoL]

Little update, let's start with the parameters. I wanted to test all of this as I've been gone for a little over a week and pretty much had the tank run on autopilot, with just the ATO and my Eheim autofeeder running.

Temp 25C
Salinity 1026 (Refractometer)
dKH 8.9 (Hanna)
Phosphate 0.15 (Hanna ULR)
Nitrate 10 (Salifert)
Calcium 410 (Salifert)
Magnesium 1290 (Salifert)
Silicate 0 (Salifert) - Tested this because my RODI came back as 1ppm during last water change.

I ordered some NitraPhos as I'm struggling to bring these down further, despite the Seachem Seagel already in the media basket.

I was dosing All for Reef manually before going away, but obviously I didn't while I was out. I've started again, that should bring the Magnesium up a bit.

The algae that were there when I left, are still there. It would appear to be dinos. As I don't have a microscope, I'm not sure which type. They go almost completely away at night, I have barely any in the morning and by lights out they appear to be most present. I do have some individual long brown hairs that appear to form during the day as well. I suck them out every time. That said, it appears to be largely under control though, the conch does a great job keeping the sand bed mostly clean and the snails do good work trucking around the rocks. I ordered a bottle of Microbacter7 and a GKM, reading through the forums, these seem to be effective methods of battling algae.

I also noticed the Rhodactis & Zoas are a little closed up. I'm pretty sure the Rhodactis was splitting before I left but the coral seems stressed now. The Euphyllia is pretty closed up as well and has some damage on a bunch of polyps. The tips (the white balls?) are missing from some polyps. The BTA look happy, he's still chilling in the same spot. My clown fish were clowning around but the filefish look well content and pretty chubby actually.

Since I had the autofeeder on with only pallets, I'm guessing the filefish went to town on the softies. This is speculation and I'm not sure this is what caused the corals to stress but I did see him nip every now and then prior to going away. Since he did get regular frozen food I think he didn't feel the need to do more than nibble, but during my absence and with the lack of mysis, I think he went to town on them. The filefish got evicted and was passed on to a buddy, who is keeping him in his sump . I ordered some coral foods so I can help the stressed and damaged regain some strength and open up again. The feet on the Euphyllia and on the Rhodactis look healthy, so I'm hoping they'll pull through, especially once they get some specific foods.

Here's a picture of the Rhodactis, Zoas & Euphyllia. Is the Rhodactis maybe still splitting? You can also see the algae on there in those pics.

That's all for now!