Back to Starting Point (14 Gallon Biocube)

[gimincorp]

A bit frustrated, I watched my biocube flourish and then die off.
At its best the tank had: xenia's, toadstool, Leather shroom, orange monti, zoa colony and star polyps. A gourgeous (under blue lights) anemone and two clowns. Snails and hermit crabs roamed the tank. Serpae stars were usually sucked out with PWC and thrown back.

Disaster strike (early summer)
- Test kit (API Marine master) is gone (mysteriously disappeared).
- Thermometer broke (battery died?)
- Koralia spinning deflector broke and then got lost.
- Actinic light stopped turning off (will have to troubleshoot)
- Finally something (I don't know what) happened - maybe it was a high temperature spike? - killed off most of inhabitants.

Monti had bleached. Totadstool deflated and died. Xenias are gone and so are zoas and stars.

Current situation (survivors):
Now my tank looks like a disaster: anemone is reduced to a white blob with tiny tentacles. One of the clowns was replaced due to disappearance of original one (he probably got chopped up by the water pump).

Red and teal/red striped shrooms are tiny (hopefully not dead yet).
Some snails and crabs are seen crawling around.

Weird creatures (long leg and long tentacles) like anemones? - are sifting the water.


So, where do I start taking back the control?
All of equipment I currently have: Biocube with 1 working 10K PC (I think) light with timer; room AC set to 79F; hydrometer, API Ammonia test kit (showing 0 ammonia!); Supplements: Iodine, Calcium A & B, Buffer, TraceSuccess, water purifier (Microblift I think).

Plan to buy a new thermometer today.

 

[OzoneParkGuy]

Start with the anemone, get rid of it... nothing worse than a dying one to continue fouling the tank. Pay close attention to those other new anemones... sounds like aptasia. They thrive on nutrient rich water. Do a google search (images)on thoose to try and identify if thats what you have in your tank now. Get better test kits... Salifert to name one brand. Get Alk, Calcium, Magnesium and Phospate also buy Nitrite and Nitrate..always good to have even those. Get a qt tank to transfer whatever you have left and use it as a holding tank while you start the new make up. Do biweekly water changes and keep up to par with it. Preventitive + Routine = Sucess. Also change your bulbs and inspect everything else like you stated. Also purchase a better protein skimmer for you DT. If your old ps was working properly it should have produced a hell of alot of skim from what was going on in your tank. Keep posting your progress. LMK

 

[guarda]

+1 on taking that anemone out. ASAP! mine died and my apt reeked of dead rats

 

[gimincorp]

OK, today's water test shown: 1.030 SG. PWC was carried out (1 bucket with SG of 1.024) to lower SG to more appropriate level for BTA.
Morning t= 83.5 prompting me to turn on AC back to 78F.
Skimmer cup was next to full and was emptied.
I still need to figure out what to do with the lighting for the hood. Currently on 1 10K bulb is working...

 

[gimincorp]

After yesterday's PWC: SG= 1.026 which is much better from what I understand for my inhabtants (Clowns and Anemone) than 1.030 which was yesterday.

 

[basiab]

Small tanks have a major advantage and a major disadvantage.
The advantage the small volume of water, so you can change just one gallon a week and that will be a nice percentage change and it will provide all the nutrients for your tank without having to add any.
The disadvantage is that the small volume of water, so if anything goes wrong there is not much to dilute the problem and your tank will crash.

Right now you need to stabalize your tank before you add anything. Part of stabalizing should include a good maintenace schedule that you never miss. Make sure everything is working properly, pumps, filters, lighting etc. and then let things setlle for a month or so.

 

[jrobbins]

After yesterday's PWC: SG= 1.026 which is much better from what I understand for my inhabtants (Clowns and Anemone) than 1.030 which was yesterday.

In order not to stress out anything else that survived you might want to make more gradual changes to the tank. In my opinion lowering the sg that much in a day is too fast.

Within reason stability is more important than the actual levels. So if you are going to try and tweak the levels in your tank I would do it gradually. This applies to most stuff, including temp, ph, sg, cal, alk, and pretty much everything I can think of except maybe ammonia, copper, and nitrites (i am probably missing a few things here)


Sent from my iPhone using Reefs

 

[gimincorp]

7/27/10 Good News

Right now you need to stabilize your tank before you add anything. Part of stabalizing should include a good maintenace schedule that you never miss. Make sure everything is working properly, pumps, filters, lighting etc. and then let things setlle for a month or so.

Aha, that's exactly what I'm doing. Just determined that both of my ballasts are working fine by switching them in places. Now I'll swap the bulbs in place to ensure that it is the bulb that burned out and not some other electric component. Then, based upon results I'll order parts from nanocustoms. Don't want to get LEDs as I don't plan on keeping this tank for too long, but will get a setup with new cooling and an additional light bulb.

Oh, consider it an invitation to share shipping costs from Nanocustoms. I plan to put an order in later this week. PM if interested or reply here.

UPDATE: I did swap the bulbs in place and it does look like my Actinic is out of order... So, within this/next week I'll be ordering the upgrade from nanocustoms to bring my tank up to 3 bulbs (10K, Actinic and 50/50).

 

[Imbarrie]

Heat is a common problem with all in one aquariums. Unless you take off the lid and replace the light.
Were you changing the water?
If so how much and how often?

Stability cannot be stressed enough higher salinity will cause less stress than a rapidly changing salinity. Anemone will react very adversely to this.


Sent from my iPhone using Reefs

 

[E.intheC]

there is definitely some good advice listed above. I agree with consistency and slowly adjusting water parameters to ideal levels.

I also want to add that those corals you had originally are pretty noxious. Softies/Leathers in general can produce quite the chemical reaction and cause a problem for other corals in a mixed reef.

Generally speaking, a 14 gallon is too small for an anemone. There are those who will disagree (and some reefers who will have success here) but especially for someone relatively new to the hobby, I don't think a 'nem is a good idea.

Good luck. Just get those test kits, keep vigilant, and keep positive. You'll get there eventually.

 

[gimincorp]

Skimmer keeps overflowing, even tossing its cap off. I wonder if I can somehow setup to an overflow of some sort. Red mushrooms are still alive, green/red striped ones I think are gone though...

 

[knockout]

I had this same tank and it took me three crashes until I got it right...

My biggest two problems were heat and salinity, my secondary problem was filtration

1. Heat
The lights are so close to the water that the heat they produce even from two PC lights get the water hot in no time... what I did was remove the hinge screws and lifted the light about 3 inches off the water, this added more air circulation over the water

2. Top off
IMO the best spent money for this size tank is an ATO sytem, I could not keep the salinity on this tank in check, if you forget one day the next day is off the roof

3. Filtration, the filtration included with the tank is a joke, so I added an aquaclear filter to the back of it, with the hood lifted this was easy to add to the mix

IMO you dont need a skimmer for a 14g biocube unless you have a sump, you are probably better served with the hang on back filter, aquaclear are good for this, yes anemone on a biocube maybe not a good idea... but no big deal to me

One gallon water change every week, dont even need to dose anything if you use a quality salt mix.

here are some pics of what changes I made.

 

[gimincorp]

Thanks Knockout, I will consider your suggestions!

Today: An overflown skimmer cup was emplited, then a squirt of Tech CB A and Tech CB B were added, about 28 drops of iodine as well.

 

[gimincorp]

Morning t= 85.1F (with AC in the room set to 80F!)
SG = 1.027
Skimmer cup was overflowing again - emptied it.

 

[knockout]

that is too hot... ad a small fan to blow across the water surface, it will bring the temp down a lot, salinity still too high, do not add any salt water, just replace the skimmer waste with fresh water and test an hour later

what kind of skimmer are you using? I keep seeing the mention of a skimmer but no make model!

 

[gimincorp]

My skimmer is something that looks like this:

IMG SRC=http://img.auctiva.com/imgdata/1/7/6/9/2/4/webimg/317049270_tp.jpg

"BioCube Nano Protein Skimmer Oceanic Bio Cube 14 & 29" most likely

 

[gimincorp]

Evening: 11:57 PM. Emptied skimmer cup which for a change didn't overflow. t=86.7 F with AC set to 79F.
I'll be looking into setting up the fans or a fan to blow on water as I was advised ASAP. The order for the hoood upgrade will be placed next weekend since this week put a significant strain on my budget.

Oh I had to return my Ammonia test kit as it was no good - crystallizing on contact with water. From what I've heard it was becasue it was too old. Also returned BioCube hydrometer as this piece of junk wasn't showing readings anywehre close to those of DEEP SIX.

 

[gimincorp]

11:09 PM.
Acclimated and dropped in 3 star fishes (white kind) and three zoa colonies. One actually opened while being acclimated. Couldn't glue them (super glue gel somehow doesn't work for me) - so I'll let them attach/spread naturally.
Emptied skimmer cap. Opened the flap - according to one of the MR members, with clowns in tank it's a no danger to keep the flap opened.
Will be raising the hood soon.
I'm torn between getting an LED pendant (no hood setup and keeping an original setup and getting either more lights (3 PCs instead of 2) or LED strip light from Wingo... - definitely need more advice here.
Now the t= 87.3 F which is WAY TOO HIGH!
Oh, I added some fresh (conditioned) water to bring salinity down. Will report new SG tomorrow.

 

[gimincorp]

Good Morning (7:40 AM)
Emptying skimmer cap - greenish/yellowish liquid. Cup didn't overflow this night.
Morning t= 84.2F, keeping flap opened.
Took the flap off the hinges in the morning.
All 3 colonies of zoas opened up!
Found 2 teal-brick striped mushrooms that I thought I had lost altogether!
Red shrooms are doing OK too.

 

[gimincorp]

This morning the skimmer cup was almost empty!
I wonder what causes those flactuations in skimmate production?
I moved anemone recently closer to the center of the tank (where it used to be) together with the rock as her foot was firmly attached and I didn't dare to wedge her off her wedded rock.