My 18g Cubish Tank - Page 3

clownfish4 · 03/21/2018, 08:16 PM

My alkalinity seems to be holding with a 20 ml/day dose. The biggest issue I am having now is hatching Brine shrimp. I’m using the San Francisco Bay inverted bottle bases. My issues are I can’t tell when the eggs hatch, so I just go with 36 hours. The shrimp fit through my Brine shrimp net, so I had to make my own sieve. When I siphon out the Brine, even when leaving several inches of water in the hatchery, a lot of unmatched eggs come out. Most of the eggs are bubbling it and sticking to the sides of the bottle and not hatching.

clownfish4 · 03/23/2018, 09:30 PM

Quick update:
- The COR15 showed up in stock yesterday so I ordered one. Should be here mid-next week.
- I have a major diatom outbreak (expected). I’m continuing 5g (~25%) water changes until they’re gone. I decided not to get a DOS for water changes. I’m just using airline tubing to siphon each at a relatively similar rate and using valves to adjust the faster of the two.
- I’m going to start dosing Red Sea Trace Colors and will stop water changes once the algae subsides.
- The skimmer is doing great but the ATS still hasn’t kicked off.

clownfish4 · 04/02/2018, 10:22 PM

The stringy algae is byropsis

I raised my magnesium so it tests greater than 1500, but it doesn’t seem to be impacting it. I’ll wait a few more days then try spraying it with peroxide. My COR pump arrived but will take time to plumb in.

clownfish4 · 04/04/2018, 06:15 PM

The increased magnesium and hydroxide had no measurable effect. I ordered some Purigen and PhosGuard since my nitrates and phosphate have been higher than desired. I'm going to run these with carbon and see if I can starve the algae to death.

The skimmer is doing well, but still too wet at the lowest setting. I raised it higher in the water column, maybe 1/4" higher than the recommended waterline level. The ATS still has no useful growth, just some light green/red algae that is so thin it would have to be scrubbed off with some elbow grease.

Diatoms are going crazy. I cleaned the glass yesterday and it is completely covered again less than 24 hours later. The byropsis is on all the rock, sand, glass, returns, etc. It exploded in a very short time. After I get the Purigen, PhosGuard, and carbon running I am going to continue 5g weekly water changes. If my levels don't drop I will do larger water changes. Once all my levels are close to 0 I will continue running the media but stop water changes and watch it, with the hope that it will stabilize.

clownfish4 · 04/15/2018, 01:57 PM

A week after adding the PhogGuard, Purigen, and carbon I am seeing significant effect on the algae. Before I added it my tank walls would be completely covered in diatoms a day after I cleaned them and all of the rock was covered in lush, green byropsis. Now, my walls barely grow any algae, all of the byropsis is brown and looks to be "melting", and the amount of byropsis in the tank is less than 20% of what it was. Below are some photos from today. The tank doesn't look great, but it is significantly better than it was.

Oddly enough, my phosphate only dropped from .3 to .2, but nitrates dropped from 10 to 2.

Untitled by Mike Burns, on Flickr

clownfish4 · 04/23/2018, 01:03 PM

DISCLAIMER: Ignore all the wires, I wanted to get everything in it's place before doing the cable management. That is the next project on the list.

I'm still battling some pretty bad algae problems, but I made a lot of progress in the past couple of days.

Yesterday I got the COR-15 plumbed in and mounted all the Apex units. My favorite part about this pump is that it's powered by the Apex, so it freed up an outlet on the energy bar. The COR-15 pushes the same amount of water as my old pump at ~20% power. I cranked it up to 35% which seems to be about the max my sump can handle with the filter bags in the baffles. I assume if I pulled the filter bags out I could push more through, but I'm happy with the ~210gph, giving me roughly 14x turnover. Ideally I'd like to get that up to 20, so I may try adjusting the placement of the filter bags.

Today I added a UV sterilizer. I went with the Green Killing Machine as it is a drop in and small. I have never used a UV sterilizer in my 16 years in the hobby, as I've never considered them necessary, but I'm about at my wits end with my current algae issue, so figured why not. The GKM is cheap and super simple, both of which made it worth trying, and it took the open outlet on the energy bar from adding the COR.

I'm also doing a 3 day blackout to try and kill more of the algae off and got a nice pic of my gobies sharing their den, minus the algae on the acrylic in front of them. I have not seen their pistol shrimp in weeks, so I'm assuming he may have died.

Untitled by Mike Burns, on Flickr

clownfish4 · 05/01/2018, 09:53 PM

Not too much to report, other than I'm still fighting a lot of algae. On a positive note, I saw my red banded snapping shrimp today, so he is not dead! Pics below. I took a video as well, but can't get it to upload. I'll add it once I figure out how to.

Untitled by Mike Burns, on Flickr

clownfish4 · 05/02/2018, 01:23 PM

Video of the red banded snapper.

Untitled by Mike Burns, on Flickr

04/15/2018, 01:57 PM	#55
clownfish4 Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Arlington, VA Posts: 743	A week after adding the PhogGuard, Purigen, and carbon I am seeing significant effect on the algae. Before I added it my tank walls would be completely covered in diatoms a day after I cleaned them and all of the rock was covered in lush, green byropsis. Now, my walls barely grow any algae, all of the byropsis is brown and looks to be "melting", and the amount of byropsis in the tank is less than 20% of what it was. Below are some photos from today. The tank doesn't look great, but it is significantly better than it was. Oddly enough, my phosphate only dropped from .3 to .2, but nitrates dropped from 10 to 2. Untitled by Mike Burns, on Flickr Untitled by Mike Burns, on Flickr Untitled by Mike Burns, on Flickr Untitled by Mike Burns, on Flickr Untitled by Mike Burns, on Flickr Last edited by clownfish4; 04/15/2018 at 04:33 PM.

04/23/2018, 01:03 PM	#56
clownfish4 Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Arlington, VA Posts: 743	DISCLAIMER: Ignore all the wires, I wanted to get everything in it's place before doing the cable management. That is the next project on the list. I'm still battling some pretty bad algae problems, but I made a lot of progress in the past couple of days. Yesterday I got the COR-15 plumbed in and mounted all the Apex units. My favorite part about this pump is that it's powered by the Apex, so it freed up an outlet on the energy bar. The COR-15 pushes the same amount of water as my old pump at ~20% power. I cranked it up to 35% which seems to be about the max my sump can handle with the filter bags in the baffles. I assume if I pulled the filter bags out I could push more through, but I'm happy with the ~210gph, giving me roughly 14x turnover. Ideally I'd like to get that up to 20, so I may try adjusting the placement of the filter bags. Today I added a UV sterilizer. I went with the Green Killing Machine as it is a drop in and small. I have never used a UV sterilizer in my 16 years in the hobby, as I've never considered them necessary, but I'm about at my wits end with my current algae issue, so figured why not. The GKM is cheap and super simple, both of which made it worth trying, and it took the open outlet on the energy bar from adding the COR. I'm also doing a 3 day blackout to try and kill more of the algae off and got a nice pic of my gobies sharing their den, minus the algae on the acrylic in front of them. I have not seen their pistol shrimp in weeks, so I'm assuming he may have died. Untitled by Mike Burns, on Flickr Untitled by Mike Burns, on Flickr Untitled by Mike Burns, on Flickr Untitled by Mike Burns, on Flickr Untitled by Mike Burns, on Flickr Untitled by Mike Burns, on Flickr

05/01/2018, 09:53 PM	#57
clownfish4 Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Arlington, VA Posts: 743	Not too much to report, other than I'm still fighting a lot of algae. On a positive note, I saw my red banded snapping shrimp today, so he is not dead! Pics below. I took a video as well, but can't get it to upload. I'll add it once I figure out how to. Untitled by Mike Burns, on Flickr Untitled by Mike Burns, on Flickr Untitled by Mike Burns, on Flickr

03/21/2018, 08:16 PM	#51
clownfish4 Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Arlington, VA Posts: 743	My alkalinity seems to be holding with a 20 ml/day dose. The biggest issue I am having now is hatching Brine shrimp. I’m using the San Francisco Bay inverted bottle bases. My issues are I can’t tell when the eggs hatch, so I just go with 36 hours. The shrimp fit through my Brine shrimp net, so I had to make my own sieve. When I siphon out the Brine, even when leaving several inches of water in the hatchery, a lot of unmatched eggs come out. Most of the eggs are bubbling it and sticking to the sides of the bottle and not hatching.

03/23/2018, 09:30 PM	#52
clownfish4 Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Arlington, VA Posts: 743	Quick update: - The COR15 showed up in stock yesterday so I ordered one. Should be here mid-next week. - I have a major diatom outbreak (expected). I’m continuing 5g (~25%) water changes until they’re gone. I decided not to get a DOS for water changes. I’m just using airline tubing to siphon each at a relatively similar rate and using valves to adjust the faster of the two. - I’m going to start dosing Red Sea Trace Colors and will stop water changes once the algae subsides. - The skimmer is doing great but the ATS still hasn’t kicked off.

04/02/2018, 10:22 PM	#53
clownfish4 Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Arlington, VA Posts: 743	The stringy algae is byropsis I raised my magnesium so it tests greater than 1500, but it doesn’t seem to be impacting it. I’ll wait a few more days then try spraying it with peroxide. My COR pump arrived but will take time to plumb in.

04/04/2018, 06:15 PM	#54
clownfish4 Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Arlington, VA Posts: 743	The increased magnesium and hydroxide had no measurable effect. I ordered some Purigen and PhosGuard since my nitrates and phosphate have been higher than desired. I'm going to run these with carbon and see if I can starve the algae to death. The skimmer is doing well, but still too wet at the lowest setting. I raised it higher in the water column, maybe 1/4" higher than the recommended waterline level. The ATS still has no useful growth, just some light green/red algae that is so thin it would have to be scrubbed off with some elbow grease. Diatoms are going crazy. I cleaned the glass yesterday and it is completely covered again less than 24 hours later. The byropsis is on all the rock, sand, glass, returns, etc. It exploded in a very short time. After I get the Purigen, PhosGuard, and carbon running I am going to continue 5g weekly water changes. If my levels don't drop I will do larger water changes. Once all my levels are close to 0 I will continue running the media but stop water changes and watch it, with the hope that it will stabilize.

05/02/2018, 01:23 PM	#58
clownfish4 Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Arlington, VA Posts: 743	Video of the red banded snapper. Untitled by Mike Burns, on Flickr