A Macro Cube

Archaic37

Archaic37

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Hi BAR! Been a while since my last tank which was short lived, hoping to keep this one for longer.

Equipment:
fluval 207
Ai hydra 32
Mp10
Inkbird 200w titanium

Trying to keep a minimal build with macro algae, LPS!
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I also got lucky to find a perfect 18”x18”x18” cube tank used.

Thanks, I’ll take the sponge out. Anything I should use in place of a sponge?
 
I received some advice to add corals first (already added 8 macro algaes) before fish. Any thoughts on this advice?

I’m hoping to get some torch, hammer, frogspawn, acans but am wary of BJD in a new tank. I have enough experience that I definitely do not want gsp, cloves, Kenya tree or zoas.
 
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Tank has been settling in decently with corals, macro and a bicolor blenny.

I do notice my euphyilia tend to close up after the peak photo period then reopen a couple hours later. I dropped the peak blue, uv channels by 10% and seemed to improve that. I think I’m going to up the flow rate during peak lighting a bit and see if that also helps them. The 2 digis also seem to close their polyps after mid day.
 
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Had a few speed bumps, power outage, no heater for days during vacation, all swings but it’s normalized! Corals are open, good color and signs of growth all around.

Currently fighting ULNS. Can’t get nitrates above 0 and phosphorous is at 0ppb.

I’ve been dosing about 20ml of live phyto every few days and my macro algae’s are really establishing.

Current livestock of bicolor blenny and 2 small clowns. Feeding daily with brine and music until they stop eating, spot feeding, TDS pellets, oyster feast. Only have doing 15% WC every 10-12 days.

Just picked up Red Sea reef energy and neophos to give a bit more nutrients.

Lots of pods in the system and signs of good Coraline growth
 
Everything in there probably is sucking up all the fish waste for now (rocks included). Once they saturate you should see numbers go up. In the meantime you could cut back water changes, save some time. Just don't want to end up with a dinoflagellaten mess.
 
Tank has been okay, I went on vacation/work trip a couple times in the past month and got an odd mini cycle.


Pre-vacation: 0 nitrates but generally happy corals and daily half doses of neonitro and neophobia

Vacation 1: tank sitter (minimal frozen food and no nitro/phos) and auto feeder with TDO pellets. Returned to still 0 nitrates but generally fine corals

Began feed heavy and dosing neo/phos at half dose with almost daily testing

Corals all began shrivel (especially hammers and mushrooms) lost a couple small acros. But torches have had minimal issue with all this (maybe because they can process ammonia better?)
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2 weeks of continued heavier feeding to raise nitrates still testing at 0ppm and .01p phos with 2 kits

Clownfish showed signs of gill issues and thought to check ammonia.

Ammonia was at 0.4ppm, 20% water change, flushed canister filter and sponges. Ammonia is down to 0.2 and clownfish and corals seems much better.

Other 3 fish (clown, bicolor blend and 6 line) all seemed unaffected by the ammonia and corals are clearly on the up.

I sent in an ICP too, waiting on results.

Here’s some pics from a post feeding so some corals are closed from that

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Tough start with dry rock only. You should add a piece of live rock. I do think too low phosphates are a bigger issue than the nitrates.

Throw a small dead clam in there (grocery store) and see if it helps raising your phosphates. If not, keep adding more clams until you get tp 0.1 mg/L PO4.
 
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My parameters have generally all with in check (alk, cal, mag) Been struggling to maintain a consistent alkalinity, I switched from b-ionic alk to AFR a couple months ago but alk stays consistent then swings up or 0.5-1 at random within 2-3 days even though I’m only dosing ~0.1dkh alk/day

I think the corals, algae, bacteria have been ebbed and flowed which causes the big swings up or down.

@Alexander1312 i had picked up a bunch of rubble from multiple vendors when starting this tank and put it in the canister so it should have a wide variety of bacteria. The rock itself all looks quite healthy with Coraline, filter feeders, huge pods population
 
Archaic37 said:
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My parameters have generally all with in check (alk, cal, mag) Been struggling to maintain a consistent alkalinity, I switched from b-ionic alk to AFR a couple months ago but alk stays consistent then swings up or 0.5-1 at random within 2-3 days even though I’m only dosing ~0.1dkh alk/day

I think the corals, algae, bacteria have been ebbed and flowed which causes the big swings up or down.

@Alexander1312 i had picked up a bunch of rubble from multiple vendors when starting this tank and put it in the canister so it should have a wide variety of bacteria. The rock itself all looks quite healthy with Coraline, filter feeders, huge pods population
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What test kits are you using to do the test with?

Afr doesn't instantly raise alk calc or mag. Unlike esv raises it all within a few minutes.

Afr can take 2-3 days to completely take effect. To my understanding.

I use esv for adjustments only. Afr I been dosing daily for at least two years.

Afr doesn't allow you to adjust one single element hence adjusting them when needed to stay in range. Maybe once a month I have to adjust a element to maintain the balance between them. As over time with only afr one or two slowly tends to drift outta range.
 
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I have Red Sea and salifert for nitrate, Red Sea and Hanna for alkalinity, calcium, Hanna for phosphorous ULR and aquaforest for mag. I’ve cross checked a lot of these tests as they’ve came in odd.

Yeah understood AFR takes a few days to be seen. It’s just not agreeing with my dosing rate for how much it swings up.

Cal and mag seem to be in range with alk when testing
 
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