30g Nano Cube

[michika]

The tank is having a few nasty outbreaks. I'm experiencing cyano, and in the last two days a sudden bloom of green hair algae.

Lately every time I do something in the tank I seem to make an accidental frag, so I have a bunch of frags I'm starting to grow out for sale.

I'm seeing my SPS coloring up with brighter, and more distinct colors.
This is a frag from 5/23

This is the same frag on 5/25

Under the actinics only

I expect it to eventually darken out like its parent

I recently added more inverts to my cleaning crew. I added in bumblebee snails, and blue leg hermits to help give more live to the tank, and for some added benefits.

I will be fixing the lighting issue (too yellow) this weekend, by replacing the 10,000K PC bulb with an actinic.

The plan right now is to
- figure out whats wrong with my auto-top off float switches
- combat the green hair algae
- combat the cyano
- Ensure my Ca levels stay steady via the kalk. reactor
- Look into a calcium reactor, and a 2.5lb CO2 bottle.
- stop making accidental frags

[Der_Iron_Chef]

Does SPS break that easily? Not having dabbled with SPS, I'm ignorant!

[michika]

My blue-tip stag seems to be rather fragile compared to other SPS I've kept. It also happens that I have been rather clumsy as of late when working around it.

To me SPS is fragile in general, but more so when its branches are long, and thin.

[michika]

The tank has moved, and I'm sorry to say I missed how it used to be aquascaped.

The tank now looks like this, aka an algae farm! I'm not impressed with it at this moment.

A month ago I was experiencing a cyano bloom, and issues with the balance between my calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium. The cyano has subsided, but in its place is now, what I have tentatively identified as bryopsis, and green hair algae. Thankfully my aformentioned levels are balancing out, and remaining constant. The levels are still lower then my goals, but they stopped fluctuating, so I'm pleased in that respect. I'm still actively trying to get the levels up to where I want them.

I added a Hydor Koralia 1 to add additional flow to the front center of the tank. I'm pleased to say that I see a nice change in the corals in its path; great polyp extention, and no algae in its path.

The magnetic base

The actual powerhead, side view

I've also added a chiller, as I didn't account for the crazy heat in my new place. I picked up a 1/4HP Aqua Logic chillder from Mr.Alberta for an awesome price. The tank now runs at a happy 79-80 constantly. This is my favorite new addition as I'm constantly worried about the temperature of the tank now.

So right now I'm focusing on beating my hair algae, and bryopsis problems. I think its triggered by three things, so I'm focusing heavily on getting these all under control.

1) Water quality, I had to give up my RO/DI unit when I moved, I've been using Prime as a water conditioner in the meantime. I'm going to try and find a new unit with a sink adaptor ASAP.

2) Lighting, I've been complaining about how I feel my lighting is too yellow. I learned that yellow lighting may contribute to the growth of my algae problem. So I've ordred a new PC light, actinic this time, to balance out the yellow of the 10K MH.

3) Flow, flat out I think my flow (Hydor not included) is insufficient. I'll be looking into re-aquascaping for better flow, upgrading my return pump from a Mag 7, and changing the position of my Hydor.

I've also had a few great oppertunities to pick up some lovely frags, and have gone ahead and placed a few orders. I'm excited to see more colors in my tank soon. Right now the dominant colors are blues, greens, and browns.

On that note here is a recent shot of the frag I posted previously. This one is under both MH and PCs.

And to round this post out, a few photos of my still tiny Orange shoulder tang.

[fishytime]

Is buying bottled RO or DI water from the grocery store not an option? I started my 20g with tap water and promptly switched to store bought RO. Since then my algea issues have been slowly going away. I find that with a 20g tank I only use about a bottle and a half of water a week( between top-offs and my 4g ish water change) so it only costs about $7.

[michika]

Originally Posted by fishytime

Is buying bottled RO or DI water from the grocery store not an option? I started my 20g with tap water and promptly switched to store bought RO. Since then my algea issues have been slowly going away. I find that with a 20g tank I only use about a bottle and a half of water a week( between top-offs and my 4g ish water change) so it only costs about $7.

I can only wish I was so lucky as to be able to do that. The "RO/DI" water from the local store is horrible, it has a high TDS reading, thus making it unfit for use. My tanks have almost always been run with RO/DI, so this tap water thing is kind of new for me.

My tank current evaporates between 4-5g per day due to the heat in my suite. Then there is the ~10g water change I do each week. I would be going through a good bit of water each week.

You did give me an idea though, perhaps, if I can't source out an RO/DI system that works with my exisiting taps, then maybe I'll look into having water delivered from a water company. Thanks for the idea!

[michika]

Well its been over a month since I updated. I avoided doing so mostly because all the hair algae has become embarassing, and depressing.

Obviously my hair algae problem isn't resolving itself. Shortly after my last post I got a new RO/DI system and installed it. I've been only using RO/DI water since then. I've also switched my lights, I got another actinic bulb, so my PCs are both actinic. I also upgraded my MH bulb from a 10K, to a 15K XM bulb with phenomenal results.

I've also been so lucky as to take advantage of the opening of Wickedfrags.com. These lovelies came to me,



and this came as a freebie:



I was also lucky enough to make a trip to Calgary and pick up frags from Snappy (Greg), and Nate. They all made a successful trip home and look great.

These are a few of the frags a month or so after they arrived in my tank, I'm really pleased with how they are coloring up, and many of them have begun to encrust or push out new branches.





I've been adding a few nano fish, a green clown goby, and 4 absolutely tiny chromis. The goal was to add the 4 tiny chromis to my existing shoal in the 90g once they got used to the flow, but then we had that unfortunate tragedy where almost all the fish died from the 90 and we shut down the tank.



Green clown goby:


Here are the before and the after shots with the new MH lighting.
Before:


After:


I've recently started selling off a bunch of my extra frags. They are just causing too much clutter, and its always a good plan to have frags of your favorite peices somewhere other then your own tank.


I recently traded off some of my frags for a paly frag from Edmonton Eskimo. It looks awesome under actinics.



I finally added my Calcium reactor. It was DIYed from a phosban reactor and a Mag 4 pump. So far I'm pleased with it, it fits in my sump, and so far its been working wonderfully.

First version:


Final version:


My recent additions have been more LPS from the 90g when it got shut down. I am temporarily housing my yellow damsel, and an ocelaris clown. I plan to keep the neon green candycane, hammer coral, ricordia, one neon green mushroom, and the red zoos.

The tank right now is too full. I'm trying to sell or trade off a bunch of my SPS frags to create space, and I'm also looking at temporarily housing my ocellaris, yellow damsel, and tang in another location until probably December when I am again able to start up a much larger and more appropriate system.

Since I've been having so many problems trying to resolve my green hair algae problem I have finally resorted to adding an urchin in an attempt to get the agae cleaned off. I plan to either move it to my larger system, or sell it off once its done its job.

I'm happy to see that my has come together, I still have some minor adjustments to make, mostly in regard to livestock. I'm still frustrated with the hair algae, but sometimes I'm still able to look past it an enjoy the system without focusing on its flaws.

[Mik_101]

Man those are some intense frags you have. I love them all. Paly frag dose look grate under actinics.

[Der_Iron_Chef]

The DIY Calcium Reactor is interesting. Where'd you find how to do that, or did you just come up with it on your own? Mind explaining it for a Calcium Reactor virgin like myself?

[michika]

The DIY Calcium idea first came from the fact that I couldn't use my dual chamber reactor from my 230g (well I could but I think it would a bit of overkill. The rest of it came from the fact that my kalk. reactor was successful.

Originally the plan was to just make a whole new appropriately sized calcium reactor, but then while out shopping I saw a phosban reactor for the first time in person. From there it was some bantering with Krazykuch and then we had a rough idea. In short it was trying to find the most useful and cheap materials with which to make a calcium reactor.

There was really no where to find out how to make it, we just tried it out, and we lucky enough that it worked. If it didn't work I was just going to use the phosban reactor to actually run phosban or something.

Thanks Mik for the compliments. I have a whole tank full of frags to photograph now, so maybe I'll put a few more shots up once my MH comes on for the day.