My first reef tank! 32 biocube

[Calebd91]

Try mixing your water change water the day before you put it in the tank and see if that fixes your cloudiness problem. I also put a pump in the bucket with mine and leave it running overnight. Usually after seven hours the water is crystal clear in the bucket.

Yea I had pre mixed this bucket last week. I see now that’s not the best method for the Red Sea mix so I’ll be waiting to mix my next change batch

 

[SteveEreef]

Yea I had pre mixed this bucket last week. I see now that’s not the best method for the Red Sea mix so I’ll be waiting to mix my next change batch

Tanks looking good. I’m no expert but Red Sea Coral pro should be mixed no longer than 2-4 hours per the manufacture. At 1.026 the dKh should be approx 12. Also each bucket of red sea salt has a batch number so you see what the dKh, cal, mag is at. If interested you should checkout Red Sea website. Happy reefing!

 

[Calebd91]

Tanks looking good. I’m no expert but Red Sea Coral pro should be mixed no longer than 2-4 hours per the manufacture. At 1.026 the dKh should be approx 12. Also each bucket of red sea salt has a batch number so you see what the dKh, cal, mag is at. If interested you should checkout Red Sea website. Happy reefing!

Thanks! Yea I kind of failed on that part, I did only initially mix it for a few hours but I did it last weekend when I mixed up 2 5 gallon buckets, 1 for last Sunday’s change an tried to get ahead for this Sunday’s. I believe my low levels came from using the 2 little fishes mix previously so it’s taking some time to get the levels up in the display tank. I guess I should do full test on a fresh 5 gal batch of Red Sea an see what I’m getting reading wise to compare to what Red Sea claims.

 

[Calebd91]

All my corals from the POTO Halloween live sale arrived today! I couldn’t wait to get off work an get them dipped an in the tank. Of course after the ship and dip lol they was unhappy. Placed them in the tank close to where I’d like them to be permanent an will watch them an see how they do for week or so. Also ordered a sicce silent 1.5 to upgrade the return pump for some more flow.
These pics are during the sunset light mode and only 45min to hour after added to tank.
1st up is the fat head Duncan, I knew from the start I wanted one!

2nd is the Christmas favia, nice size frag. Will eventually be moved up to the rock behind it.

3rd is the Jason fox dayglo favia. A small frag but awesome color, he came off the frag plug really easy so went ahead and placed on the rock work. Hopefully it colors back up nice in day or so. Pink went kind of flat and green went darker. It almost blends in with the rock!

and last but not least is the teal pinwheel candy cane. Nice size that I hope to move up on a rock soon, color looks decent but in the pic it was more vivid so hopefully it comes back around with some time.

Hopefully after this weekends water change it will boost up my alk an calcium some as they on the lower end.

 

[MaxTremors]

Tank looks like it’s coming along nicely! Good on you for logging all of your parameters, it’s important to be able to see trends and changes over time. Also, that ‘Christmas Favia’ is actually a Goniastrea, they are really similar to Favia/Favites, just really commonly misidentified/mislabeled. Anyway, tank looks great!

 

[Calebd91]

Here’s some better pics of the corals after a day in the tank. Also got my sicce 1.5 in an will change it out this weekend during water change. I’d like to get a yellow watchman goby next I think!

Think this evening I’m going to remove the Duncan and candy cane from their plug an get them glued in, snail tipped the Duncan over a bit on the rock an conch kind of pushed the candy can over some so want to get them secured before they get unhappy!

 

[Calebd91]

Tank looks like it’s coming along nicely! Good on you for logging all of your parameters, it’s important to be able to see trends and changes over time. Also, that ‘Christmas Favia’ is actually a Goniastrea, they are really similar to Favia/Favites, just really commonly misidentified/mislabeled. Anyway, tank looks great!

Thanks! It’s been so much enjoyment so far an only getting better. I certainly wanted a good log system for my parameters, I started out using my notes app on iPhone but now with the graph and easily to go back an see dates an times I can see trends forming an hopefully leads to better stability although I’m religious on my water changes every Sunday. That’s good to know about the Christmas favia not really a favia. I’ll have to look into that some more, I noticed it looked much different then the dayglo favia so makes sense now!

 

[Calebd91]

Little update, got the sicce 1.5 installed an wow what a difference! It combined with the RFG nozzle I had already installed is huge gain in flow, and surface agitation witch I think is something I’ve lacked because of my lower PH numbers….but it could also be because I’m in a small (900sq ft) studio apartment built into my barndominium until the new house is built. I do try an open the window on occasion when I’m home on weekends (work 12hr days mon-thurs and leave house at 5am). Trying not to chase numbers but I would like to get them in better shape.

Just tested little bit ago and calcium is still low side but I’m still in believe after water change with the coral pro salt it will come up. But one thing I’m confused about is my nitrates dropping….from Tuesday at 1.1ppm to today it dropped to 0.20ppm. Can running the skimmer 24hrs be the cause of that? Is something else consuming it? I have no algae growth, no water changes, only a filter floss change every 3-4 days. No other filtration media besides small bag of carbon.
Was planning on water change this Sunday but now I’m thinking hold off another week so I don’t zero out my nutrients.

Also anyone have suggestions for coral feeding? I’ve only been feeding the fish flake food but I’d like to get some frozen foods an maybe broadcast feed the tank to help promote the growth and health of my corals.

 

[Calebd91]

Went ahead with water change today an have had skimmer off, looks like I got a tad rise in my parameters so guess that’s a plus. Everything looks to be doing good still, only the dayglo favia is still not looking like it did at first, pink and green has darkened up some. I’ll get a pic tomorrow in the whites as the blues are on now. Also I believe I’m seeing some spots of light green coraline starting, two of my snails have nice pink spots on them as well as one having a nice long hair-do of some algae lol. No other signs of uglies in the tank so just going to keep on watching an testing. Would love to get new fish soon as the 2 clowns are only fish inhabitants so far. Yellow watchman is on my list and still unsure of what else. Open to suggestions. Thanks!

 

[Calebd91]

Tested this evening an phosphates dropped to 0. Feeding heavier an skimmer is off to try an bring it up as well as nitrates, I think I’m going to start waterchanges every other week. I guess the addition of the new corals is eating up the phosphates. Hopefully don’t get any dinos!
Also starting to see what looks like some coraline starting, lime green with some pinkish spots.
Params from this evening

 

[MaxTremors]

Little update, got the sicce 1.5 installed an wow what a difference! It combined with the RFG nozzle I had already installed is huge gain in flow, and surface agitation witch I think is something I’ve lacked because of my lower PH numbers….but it could also be because I’m in a small (900sq ft) studio apartment built into my barndominium until the new house is built. I do try an open the window on occasion when I’m home on weekends (work 12hr days mon-thurs and leave house at 5am). Trying not to chase numbers but I would like to get them in better shape.

Just tested little bit ago and calcium is still low side but I’m still in believe after water change with the coral pro salt it will come up. But one thing I’m confused about is my nitrates dropping….from Tuesday at 1.1ppm to today it dropped to 0.20ppm. Can running the skimmer 24hrs be the cause of that? Is something else consuming it? I have no algae growth, no water changes, only a filter floss change every 3-4 days. No other filtration media besides small bag of carbon.
Was planning on water change this Sunday but now I’m thinking hold off another week so I don’t zero out my nutrients.

Also anyone have suggestions for coral feeding? I’ve only been feeding the fish flake food but I’d like to get some frozen foods an maybe broadcast feed the tank to help promote the growth and health of my corals.

You corals will consume some nitrate and phosphate, as well as bacteria, but even if you don’t see big tufts of algae, you still have some algae. A one point drop in nitrates is nothing really. You do want to try to keep the nitrates at or above 3ppm and phosphate at or above 0.03ppm, having them at zero is asking for dinoflagellates. Your skimmer doesn’t remove nitrates or phosphates, per se, it removes dissolved organics that can contain or breakdown into nitrates and phosphates. Honestly with how low your nutrients are, I would take the skimmer off line (or keep it running with the skimmer cup off to keep the aeration/gas exchange it provides). For coral foods, you can try something like reef roids or reef chili for broadcast and target feeding, and for your larger polyp LPS you can target feed them some mysis, large plankton, or brine shrimp, or they also make LPS pellets you can feed them.

 

[Calebd91]

You corals will consume some nitrate and phosphate, as well as bacteria, but even if you don’t see big tufts of algae, you still have some algae. A one point drop in nitrates is nothing really. You do want to try to keep the nitrates at or above 3ppm and phosphate at or above 0.03ppm, having them at zero is asking for dinoflagellates. Your skimmer doesn’t remove nitrates or phosphates, per se, it removes dissolved organics that can contain or breakdown into nitrates and phosphates. Honestly with how low your nutrients are, I would take the skimmer off line (or keep it running with the skimmer cup off to keep the aeration/gas exchange it provides). For coral foods, you can try something like reef roids or reef chili for broadcast and target feeding, and for your larger polyp LPS you can target feed them some mysis, large plankton, or brine shrimp, or they also make LPS pellets you can feed them.

Thank you for the advice, I have got the skimmer turned off for now but I may take the cup off for some gas exchange help since my ph has been hovering around 7.8-7.95 on average. I plan on picking up some frozen mysis after work tomorrow if I get off in time and see what they have as far as coral feed like roids,chilli or pellets.

 

[xtravism]

I got a biocube as well bad to say but I’ve literally only tested my tank like 3 times in 6 weeks I just make adjustments here and there to my tank but honestly just make sure I do the most important thing of all water changes. I’ve seen tanks where all they do is a water change twice a week and run only a intank media basket with floss and chemipure blue and it does great. Like I wanna try a protein skimmer just to see if I see a change in anything but probably just going to stick with about the same thing filter floss, chemipure blue, and have a pretty decent size bag of bio media with all different sorts of media that I found on Amazon that is in the section where you would put a fuge basket next to the intank basket. The second pic is the person that uses a simple set up and just water changes. The first pic is my tank need to get some updated pics but just keep forgetting.

 

[Calebd91]

Still seeing 0 phosphates and only .9 nitrates as of today, been over feeding, no skimming an Havnt changed filter floss an have left some flake food on top of floss in hopes it would raise nutrients. Still no luck, worked lot of overtime this week so wasn’t able to get by lfs.
anything else i can do to get them up? I’m not seeing any algae growth that could be using them up either

 

[SteveEreef]

You could dose nitrates and phosphates diect. Brightwell has a couple of products or Fish of Hex. If you want to mix them yourself and save a little money Loudwulf sells the powder.

 

[Calebd91]

You could dose nitrates and phosphates diect. Brightwell has a couple of products or Fish of Hex. If you want to mix them yourself and save a little money Loudwulf sells the powder.

Ordered some neophos and neonitro, skipped water change this weekend in fear it would keep phosphate and nitrates bottomed out. Nitrate is slowly coming up but phosphate is still reading 0.00, still have skimmer offline and feeding more, some flakes are on top of filter floss still hoping it will break down an raise nutrients some. All corals are still open an healthy looking so that’s a plus.

 

[Calebd91]

Been kind of struggling since last update, started dosing nitrate an phosphate and got nitrate up to 2.7and phos to .03….2 days later and they dropped to 1.2 and 0 again. Did a small 3 gallon water change and dosed back up again to 2.1 and .03 2 days rolls by again an I noticed some new colors in the tank.
First is this snail who has a wild hairdoo of algea, then some brownish strands popping up on some the rocks, also looks like some red an green maybe coraline on the return nozzle, but then there was some dark red looking stuff down in a rock crevice. Wasn’t sure if it was good or bad stuff so I used a turkey baster and sucked up most the brownish stuff an the one red strand out. The snail has it attached pretty good on him so I left it for now. Also picked up bottle of Vibrant and dosed 1ml per gallon.

Also my conch has burried himself for about 6 days now, I see his eyes pop up so I know he’s not dead but he hasn’t done that before an is usually always working on the sand bed, now it’s pretty rough looking.
And the candy cane Coral is looking a little bleached, all the others still seem to be doing great.

I started the skimmer back up to help with aeration and change floss pad out about every 3 days. Just kind of trying to figure out why my nutrients are just steady dropping and what to do to find a balance. Any suggestions or help is much appreciated. I’ve attached the pics of tank in current state and tried to get close pics of the algae’s I’ve seen.

 

[Calebd91]

Noticed a slight decrease in the algea today after the dosing of vibrant and manual clean up.

 

[Calebd91]

Little update, not getting much feedback but it gives me a place to make note of the changes an whatnot. Maybe some help along the way eventually….
Did a 10 gallon water change nov 28th, nitrate still zero but phosphate up to .02. Dosed 3ml of neonitro and rechecked on nov 30th. Nitrate up to 9.1! Phos .04 atleast we arnt bottomed out any more. Ran skimmer an slightly less feading until this weekend when I knew I could spend some time on it.
So Friday morning I mixed up 8 gal of salt water an while it was mixing and heating I scrubbed the glass, and gave the rocks a quick blast off. Shut pumps down 30 min or so after an pulled the floss an changed for fresh, did water change and started pumps back up (oh yea added a jaebo slw 20 wave maker around thanksgiving as well).
This morning I fed corals a bit of reef roids an then the clowns some mysis. All are looking happy except the candy cane who just still looks a bit bleached an im not sure why, it’s been in same spot for a month an is very low in the tank so I don’t think it’s to much light but then again I’m not sure ?
Also noticed some bright green algea again on the return nozzle, not sure what exactly it is but that’s only place i see it. And few of the snails still have their long hair algea ha. Not sure if I should clean them off or just leave them be.

 

[Townsaquaria]

Looks good. Welcome (back) to the hobby. My Dad also had a fish only salt tank about 20-25 years ago too and he quit, and I started up by myself about 10 years later. I've had my biocube 29 running for 4 years and my Dad is going to take it in for a simple fish only tank again as I set up my XXL 750. The biocube is a great tank!

There's hate over nano skimmers but I don't know why? I had a Coralife skimmer in mine and it worked perfectly fine. It was clearly pulling crap out, but I removed it because of noise and I was fine with doing weekly water changes. I prefer a refugium but that's hard on the biocube. I tried a hang on the side refugium but it just attracted algae rather than getting rid of it. So I came to accept that water changes and filter media was my only option. It was never a real issue, but I'm glad to have a sump in my next tank project.

Don't stress over your phosphates and nitrates. Commit to regular weekly or bi monthly water changes including siphoning the sand, and you shouldn't have any real issues. I know the beginning stage is very unstable but give it time and it will settle and take away any stress.

Tank police will always come after you no matter what you do, but in reality, a lot of people add fish and coral right away. I didn't in my biocube because I was paranoid. I didn't add fish for the first two months. But in our reefer 250 we added a tank load of fish and coral week 1 and haven't had a loss after almost 2 months. Take what you read with a grain of salt and don't let negativity get to you. You have a unique science project that you'll come to your own conclusions about.

I do agree with others that adding some established live rock will help. You could just add some to the filtration in the back. It doesn't take much, really. There is something about aged rock that helps create a near invincible tank.