Biocube 14G Restart

[gimincorp]

So I have tried and failed at a mini-biocube setup/upkeep.
The hobby still draws me in so I dug up my old BioCube 14 and did the following:
1. Transferred live Rock (and dead rock) from that mini to the new 14G tank.
2. Dumped most (like 99% of it) of the "dead" sand from the mini to the 14G.
3. Figured how to take off that broken lid (That's like a $200 retro-fix - currently out of budget)
4. Leg-Suspended AI light over the center and programmed it (Why or why the moonlight doesn't work, huh?)
5. Started to adjust water down to 1,02x to host a clown and corals.
Current Setup as of today:
Tank: Biocube 14 minus the lid.
Light: AI Prime 16
Left Chamber:

• LC - Return Pump (MJ600) - I hear that it is too much for my tank so to get 5-10x turn over I need like 70-140Gph
• LC - Bottle ATO

Middle Chamber (MC):

• Stock Water Director (Makes the waterfall noise go away!)
• Nothing - planning to buy a media rack or (please donate, I promise to share if it grows) some chaeto?

Right Chamber (RC)

• Some small heater
• Some skimmer - (Currently runs lean, but some water bubbles over into collection cup already)

Display Area (DA)

• DA: Coralife Nano 240 circulation pump - with 10x turn over recommendation mine comes up to 17x?
• DA: (dead Sand) +/- 1.5"
• DA: Dead Rock (don't know how much of it)
• DA: Live Rock (Covered with Coraline?) Looks purple - about 740g - Petco calls it Medium
• DA: Beneficial Bacteria 30-day Gel Pack (top right)
• DA: Heat Regulator probe (back, top left)
• DA: Just noticed some plastic debris towards the back - will remove shortly.

Extras:

• Plastic sheet covering the top of the display tank.
• Air Pump
• Air Line
• Air Check Valve
• 3-way Gang Valve (1 - to Skimmer; 2 - Algae Reactor not related to this project; 3- Free, shut off)
• Power splitter

Live Stock:

• 2 Cowns (pair - very friendly with each other) like to hang out on the right side - away from power head)
• Nassarius Snails
• Some other snails - have to review which ones...

Questions:
1. Should I try to obtain true live sand (peferably from someone here) and replace (at least partially) my dead one with it?
2. I plan on replacing that rock rubble with live rock (would anyone here have some they want to off load?) or should I just buy it at Petco?
3. I'd like to start a GSP colony on the back wall (would someone here have some to share?) - otherwise I'd be getting it from Petco.
P.S. I'd rather get stuff and inhabitants from MR community than from Petco as I think it would be more nature friendly and would benefit this community.
Thanks for having me here!
Remark: sharing the photos here, makes me realize how ugly the thing looks. I'll try my best to organize/clean up the space so it actually is looking good...

 

[Geraud]

If you want live rock, there are some vendors out there like KP Aquatics and Gulf Live Rock. I tried both, KP was the best, even for the non-premium version.

Also these days Marco Rock has started seeding their dry rock into the ocean.

The advantage over getting that from an established tank, is that you will get more life (macro algae, micro fauna, sponges, tunicates, and potentially even corals)

 

[gimincorp]

1st Live Addition:
A Clowns pair!
Brought yesterday from a lengthy trip (Queens-Manhattan- Yonkers) That they took like champs! Temp + Water add acclimated for 5 minutes to my tank.
Out and about exploring this morning.
Tank notes:
I notice water level started to drop below Max - which is good, but it rises Salinity to 1.026. I remedied it by dumping 1/3 "c4" cup into Mid (Fuge) chamber to allow premixing before return to the Display tank. Plan on equLizing Salinity and water level in my next PWC upcoming weekend. Thinking of dumping 1gallon for starters. (Less than 10%). For Salinity - will use Fridge water and my "aquarium" salt.
Oh, started to notice algae growth on glass, switched off moon light and readjusted lighting schedule to Ramp-up - full - ramp-down.
I will edit this post upon return home tonight with proper values.

 

[gimincorp]

Rotating "return head" died (stopped). Replaced it with the "Innovative Marine Spin Stream Universal Nozzle." So far so good. I read it reduces flow, but that's OK, since I have a power head on the front bottom left of the tank.
The salinity is at 1.025 - ideal top range for my clowns. This is after a 1.5 gallon water change (with debris suction from the bottom yesterday.
Side note - that change (my first after a break in tank care) resulted in a water drop and mirriads of airbubbles being pushed into the display tank. Oh-ho, lesson learned! Return pump will be turned off for cleaning from now on. Replenished water yesterday with fresh water only thus dropping SG by 0.001 to an ideal top level today of 1.025.
Also Saturday: prior to that water change - moved rocks away from the glass to allow for easier algae scrubbing. Scrubbed algae and then syphoned it out during that 1.5G water change...

Back to Sunday: found and setup two remote controlled outlets for the return and recirculation pumps. They work off remote control - Should make next water change so much easier!
Fish looks happy with the daily feedings of Frozen Salt Water Multi Pack from Petco.

https://1drv.ms/v/s!Asg4QGZBQqZChJosJQdvpdD1GK1THQ

Notes for self:
1. Keep a gallon of water sitting a day prior to exchange to equalize to at least room temperature.
2. Turn off the return pump while performing the PWC to avoid the air-bubble storm.

 

[gimincorp]

Ugly algae or whatever it was got a good scrubbing off my rocks yesterday with a wand polymer brush. 1l PWC @ approx 1.0025 SG. Borrowed tank's power head to mix it up and titanium heater to equalize temp prior to pouring back into the tank. My poor babies probably got a scare
Oh I recovered the Water Director that apparently fell on the mid-chamber bottom. Tank is quet now!

 

[gimincorp]

Additions:
1. Today installed a MagnaFuge 760i 6-LED Refugium light.
2. topped off Fuge chamber (very bottom) with spare shells, and corals.
3. Concidently recieved, fluffed and dumped about 165g of Sea Lettuce (pentacleshop on eBay) atop of the coral/shells rubble plle.
4. Noticed bubble formations atop of display tank, upon scooping it was revieald that they are detached, floating unslightly black matter (algae/diatoms, not sure); Removed them and dumped down the drain.
5. Emptied Skimmer cup. Skimmage is weak, but yellowish.
Hope algae addition will improve the situation with nastiness in the main display. Will keep the light (manually for now) on reverse light cycle with the main Display.
6. Dropped a few flakes in as I have noticed my clowns eagerly waiting for me to give them something.

 

[gimincorp]

Abt 1G water change and rock scrub (Bike chain cleaning brush works great!)
Return pump in chamber 3 upgrade to "185 GPH" from Maxi-Jet 600. Thought MJ6 was giving too much outflow from the back and the new one is controllable. plus it can be switched to pulse.
Transplanted a medium sized sheet of Sea Lettuce to display tank - lets see if anything eats it?

 

[gimincorp]

The morning after return pump swap, 1g PWC and rocks scrub:

 

[gimincorp]

A bubbler inside the skimmer rotted and broke today!
A quick Repair:

1. Pull out skimmer body.
2. knock off black bottom using pliers as a hammer to hit on both sides at once. It does come off!
3. Discard broken (wooden?) air diffuser
4. Disconnect white air-to-diffuser adapter from the airline.
5. Cut off the hardened part of airline (about 1' in my case)
6. Insert (peferably longer) airstone (mine is about 1", 2"-3" would be better!) into the black base
7. Reconnect the airline tightly to the airstone.
8. Reassemble:
   1. Seat plastic tube on the bottom
   2. Insert the bottom keeping a little tabs (what are they for?) inline.
   3. Reinsert back into the tank

Cleaning:

• Used bike chain brush - BCB) (reserved exlusively for aquarium!) to brush the ugly black film off the rocks and sand bed and get it suspeneded in the water.
• Used credit card (also reserved excusively for aquarium!) to scrub the back wall off the same black growth.
• Used medium fish net to fishout the shreds of the said gunk.
• BCB scrubbed water director

Attempted PWC:
Dissolving 120g Salt in 1g of water resulted in 1.04 SG. Dilluted with 48 Oz of water to 1.025 while keeping MJ-600 stiring up the salt and Heater bringing the temps up from 13.9 to 25C.
About 1 g water pumped out and about 1.5g premixed as described above re-added.

 

[Reefingainteasy]

Ugly algae or whatever it was got a good scrubbing off my rocks yesterday with a wand polymer brush. 1l PWC @ approx 1.0025 SG. Borrowed tank's power head to mix it up and titanium heater to equalize temp prior to pouring back into the tank. My poor babies probably got a scare
Oh I recovered the Water Director that apparently fell on the mid-chamber bottom. Tank is quet now!

 

[gimincorp]

DA Water Level Problem/Skimming Problem.
So my quest to properly level the water in chambers continues... I figured, since Display Area (DA) is full, overflow (RC) is full, the problem is between Center (CC) and Left Chamber. Since I can't regulate MJ-600's output I look at potential flow restrictions... Whoa! Apparently a "rockfall" plus Sea lettuce were clogging the Ch 2-3 slit at the bottom! I have removed all Sea Lettuce; scooped the rubble away from the slit towards oppositng wall and then cut out "false floor" from a plastic mesh I had on hand. Installed the FF above the rock rubble, fluffed the Sea lettuce and reinstalled water director with a filtersponge atop of it. BTW, I don't think that filter sponge is serving any purpose.... Anyhow. This modification, at least for now have reduced the DA water level to below the outflow grid, adding to the skimming action.
About nuisance "Algae" aka the Uglies. Uglies are everywhere! It is on the back bottom (under return nozzle) near the top of the back wall (between intake and outflow) and (way less of it) on the rocks. I think that since introduction of Sea Lettuce the problem has diminished quite a bit, but by no way has gone out.
To combat the problem further and in anticipation of Anemonies arrival, I have purchased a 4-Bottole kit: Tisbe, TIgger and Apex Copepods and a bottle of Phytoplankton to feed em. Shall arrive soon!
P.S. That MJ-600 is really loud though...

 

[SantaMonica]

This might help understand the "uglies"...

Nutrient Export

8362 What do all algae (and cyano too) need to survive? Nutrients. What are nutrients? Ammonia/ammonium, nitrite, nitrate, phosphate and urea are the major ones. Which ones cause most of the algae in your tank? These same ones. Why can't you just remove these nutrients and eliminate all the...

algaescrubber.net

 

[gimincorp]

Added a bottle-cap of Phyto and a capful of "water" from each of the "Pods" bottles I got. Though I do not see any active pods in them (!?) - wonder if that is because of my low vision....

 

[gimincorp]

Apparently I've been doing 1/2g water changes!

1. PWC: So, today another 1/2G water change made. 2.5Lb of live rock removed from the tank, brush scrubbed under 1/2 water (freshly taken out from the tank) and carefully re-placed back into the tank's center forming a "reef wall?" Keeping away from the glass to provide clearance for scraper.
2. Dosing:
   • 5 drops 10% iodine. Heard mixed opinions on whether it is good/bad and that one shouldn't dose what's not measured... Nevertheless went for it. We shall see.
   • 1 Capful of Phyto added, 1 capful of waste water transferred to the bottle for volume refill. Water bottle placed on the window sill and provided with air line and air stone. 5 drops of self-made "rust Juice" added to the bottle as fertilizer.
3. Maint:
   • Glass scraped with magnet cleaner (doesn't do a superb job)
   • Rockwork rearranged to center island
   • Filter pad washed under dirty water to remove debries (it has some carbon inside)
   • Sea Lettuce hand-disturbed inside refugium - awaiting clips to attach it on sides of the tank - 1, to help with nutrient export and 2 - to help shield the tank from the sun.
4. Daily feeding later: 1/4 cube of frozen food from Petco's Variety Pack.

 

[gimincorp]

Not exactly my BioCube, but closely related!
Setup Phyto and Copepod "farms."
These are super low tech and are sort of experimental.

1. Bought a kit off eBay
2. Bought 4-way Gang valve off Amaxon
3. Used lighter to fit air tube over gang valve's unexpectedly large input nipple... (airline could fit INSIDE of it!)
4. Cut two longer ajd two shorter airline tubes.
5. Drilled 6mm and 3mm holes in each bottle cap.
6. Threaded tubes into cap holes.
7. Added airstone for the plankton bottle line.
8. Closed lids
9. Adjusted lines to reach the bottoms
10. Adjusted airflow for pods - slow bubble, for plankton lively microbubble stream.
11. Set my farm on the windowsill.

Care: plan on adding pods to tank, plankton to pods bottles and to tank.
Tank water to plankton bottle for growth.

 

[gimincorp]

BioCube Care Day

1. Scrubbed filmy dark susbtance off the rocks, glass and sand as well as off the powerhead. Scooped it up with fish net
2. After turning off just the return pump performed a 1/2g water removal.
3. Checked in-tank Lettuce sheet weight - comes in at 18g. Checked that mid-chamber is OK (algae is loose and living.
4. Scraped the glass in mid chamber and the walls with bike chain brush (my favorite now!) scraped the aquarium display glass with magnet cleaner (Yellow on inside)
5. Blown out under water all the gunk from the rotating return nozzle
6. Rinsed the filterpad - was covered with dark gunk too.
7. Meanwhile salt solution got ready (up to tank temp) in a jar. Measured its salinity and brought it up to 1.025ish.
8. Dunked water into 2nd chamber of the back. Turned return pump back on and was surprised that the level dropped too low! Repeated mixing up, warming up another gallon of water and dunked it into the second chamber OK;
9. Restored ballhead of the HD16 AI light by placing a simple strip of scotch tape over the hole where ballhead rests. Firm now! Lowered it about 1" over the previous setting.
10. Re-covered the tank and cleaned the outside of the glass with the Ammonia & papertowel.

Side note: Added 1 dropper-full (from the Hydrometer kit)of the rust juice to the plankton bottle. Moved the said bottle to the sunnier window. Checked that the air in Copepods bottles is at rolling bubbles and quite agitated in the plankton one.

 

[gimincorp]

She is in!

 

[gimincorp]

She has shriveled down and bubbled up!
I have basted her with bits of defrosted feed my clowns like...

 

[gimincorp]

Dont remember if i had posted about it, but my skimmer kinda broke. The wooden(?!) Bubbler split in half and separated from the unit.
I did repair it rhough!
Removed the white airhose-to-bubbler adapter. Cut-off hardened length of a tubing. Attached a cylindrical aquarium air bubble diffuser and reassembled the housing.
The skimmer works again!

 

[gimincorp]

OK, Another Saturday is here.

1. Used turkey bastard to whiff the uglies off the rocks
   1. Noticed that I got much less uglies since adjusting the light spectrum on AI 16 and introducing Sea Lettuce to the display tank.
2. Scrubbed the glass.
3. Used the fish net and turkey baster to catch and release all big chunks of the nasties from display area.
4. Rinsed the 2nd chamber water director cover (an aquaclear filter cut in half to fit). It apparently collects a lot of dark colored gunk!
5. Sure enough emptied rinsed the skimmer
6. Performed 1/2 gallon water exch. and as usual, had to add more than 1/2 gallon back to bring the tank to desired water levels. Missed the mark and overfilled about 1/2 above the max fill line. Seems OK though.
7. Overall noticed that the uglies have reduced quite a bit! Happy to notice that.
8. Found an interesting botle in the basement, watched a video on YouTube and found the contraption (mini oxydator) among the aquarium junk I have. Filled it up and installed it in the back left corner. Video mentioned no harm, but help with algae control from slow hydroxiperoxide release into the tank.

Egh, couldn't help myself from buying an RODI installation kit for under the sink w/o realizing it won't fit under my sink! Egh. Will try to fit it in the basement instead... Enough fo that RODI collecting dust in the basement - time to put it to use!