Jake's 150 Gallon Cube Build
- Thread starter jcarlilesiu
- Start date
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If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
redneckgearhead
Aquarium Advice Freak
It can.
jcarlilesiu
Aquarium Advice Addict
There is some green algea in a few places, but overall, it looks like the green is fading with the diatoms.
Coraline is pink/purple and is spreading throughout the tank as well.
The tuxedo urchin that we got is helping to clean up the green algae as well.
Coraline is pink/purple and is spreading throughout the tank as well.
The tuxedo urchin that we got is helping to clean up the green algae as well.
Mitchell0605
Aquarium Advice Addict
That's looking great Jake. Very nice Toadstool. 
jcarlilesiu
Aquarium Advice Addict
Ok, I have been having diatoms for some time now. THey are really starting to urke me.
I understand that it is typical in a new tank, and I did add 200 pounds of argonite, but I am starting to doubt that its diatoms.
Its definately brown in color, and is mainly on the sand but sometimes on the glass behind the rock where the snails can't get. Comes off the glass fairly easily. Sometimes, it looks like its sheeting a bit, and many times has bubbles trapped in it. Kind of like hanging on to a filament on the top.
I have seen cyno before, and I am almost certain this isn't it. It never gets very thick, and doesn't actually coat things like cyno does. Plus, its pure brown.
It also comes back extremely fast. I have done some work on the tank, and moved some sand around and things, and its within hours that I can start seeing it again.
Am I just being impatient?
I understand that it is typical in a new tank, and I did add 200 pounds of argonite, but I am starting to doubt that its diatoms.
Its definately brown in color, and is mainly on the sand but sometimes on the glass behind the rock where the snails can't get. Comes off the glass fairly easily. Sometimes, it looks like its sheeting a bit, and many times has bubbles trapped in it. Kind of like hanging on to a filament on the top.
I have seen cyno before, and I am almost certain this isn't it. It never gets very thick, and doesn't actually coat things like cyno does. Plus, its pure brown.
It also comes back extremely fast. I have done some work on the tank, and moved some sand around and things, and its within hours that I can start seeing it again.
Am I just being impatient?
cmor1701d
Aquarium Advice Addict
It's probably diatoms and it just takes time for them to burn out in a new tank.
Mitchell0605
Aquarium Advice Addict
Keeping nutrients like nitrates and phosphates down helps.
jcarlilesiu
Aquarium Advice Addict
Haven't had much change in the tank for awhile, trying to save up some money after the whole expense of getting this tank set up.
But I wanted to post a quick picture.
She is guarding what she thinks are her farm animals for later consumption!
Notice the diatoms. Urgh. Go away! Anyway... will keep you all posted if anything changes.
But I wanted to post a quick picture.
She is guarding what she thinks are her farm animals for later consumption!
Notice the diatoms. Urgh. Go away! Anyway... will keep you all posted if anything changes.
Mitchell0605
Aquarium Advice Addict
Haha. Nice picture.
Zer0
is back to save the day!
I love cubes. That huge cube is so awesome. I definitely like the cat picture. That's so awesome! My cat would never do something like that.. she's a bum.
jcarlilesiu
Aquarium Advice Addict
Updates!
So we have gotten some more stock. For the fish, we got:
(4) blue green chromis
(1) Midas Blenny
(1) Watchman Goby
For corals we got:
A rock with some great green and orange zoas
A green long tenticle plate coral
Some free zenia
Purple favia w/ green center
Red zoa frag
Here are some photos:
Chromis in front of the plate coral
Red zoa frag
Watchman Goby in his home
Favia
Green and orange zoa rock
Mr. scooter the midas blenny
And one overall tank shot without flash
With flash
Notice the sand is brown. Its driving me nuts. I am looking at the tank right now, and its just plain ugly. Last week, I did my weekly 10% water change, and tried to siphon up all of the diatoms. By the time I was done with the water change, I could already see them forming again. I use only RO water, and they seem to be relentless. Covering the sand in all locations that have light, and a little on the glass. None noticable on the rocks or anything else.
I am starting to doubt that these are ever going to fade.
Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thanks
So we have gotten some more stock. For the fish, we got:
(4) blue green chromis
(1) Midas Blenny
(1) Watchman Goby
For corals we got:
A rock with some great green and orange zoas
A green long tenticle plate coral
Some free zenia
Purple favia w/ green center
Red zoa frag
Here are some photos:
Chromis in front of the plate coral
Red zoa frag
Watchman Goby in his home
Favia
Green and orange zoa rock
Mr. scooter the midas blenny
And one overall tank shot without flash
With flash
Notice the sand is brown. Its driving me nuts. I am looking at the tank right now, and its just plain ugly. Last week, I did my weekly 10% water change, and tried to siphon up all of the diatoms. By the time I was done with the water change, I could already see them forming again. I use only RO water, and they seem to be relentless. Covering the sand in all locations that have light, and a little on the glass. None noticable on the rocks or anything else.
I am starting to doubt that these are ever going to fade.
Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thanks
Mitchell0605
Aquarium Advice Addict
Don't worry. Your tank is new. The nutrients will burn out and the diatoms will fade. Give it 2-3 months. Keep up the 10-20% weekly PWC's with RO water. Nice new stuff.
jcarlilesiu
Aquarium Advice Addict
Update again... no pictures.
One of the 4 chromis is MIA. Haven't seen him for a couple of days, and I am fearful that he is crab food. When they were all introduced to the tank, they all schooled for a day, and then the single one went off on its own for a few days and then disappeared. They all looked fine, and the other 3 are doing wonderfully. It was odd. Maybe there just wasn't something right about him.
Then, yesterday, I went to feed and the watchmen goby didn't come out of his home. Everyday when I feed he comes out and waits for some food to come towards the bottom and eats it. We found him last night when going on an aptaisa hunting excursion, and he was dead... in his home.
A bad day.
The weird thing is, everything else in the tank looks great and I will talk more about that later. I hope something isn't in there killing these things. As posted earlier we took a big red eyed reef crab HH out and a mantis out, but I am starting to think that there is something else in there.
I suppose it is possible that the watchmen starved, since the other fish are so much faster at catching food floating in the column, but he seemed to get a decent amount.
Before all of this drama though, we made a few more purchases. I don't have pictures now, but wanted to update. We picked up a purple ricordia, and a copperbanded. I know its still a bit early for the copperbanded butterfly, but we noticed a field of aptasia in the tank a few days ago and needed some help killing this stuff. The trusted LFS stated that they have had him about a month and a half and was eating mysis regularly. He looked good, so we got him at a good price.
This morning, before lights on, I was looking in the tank and he was already out of the cave he was hiding in moving around the rockwork just looking at it. He has been doing that since being introduced to the tank. Haven't seen him pick at anything except a few HH feather dusters. I am excited to get home today and see how he is doing all settled in.
KH continues to be a bit of a problem. We have been dosing Kalkwasser in our RO top off and I think that might be contributing to a KH which moves between 4-7 Dkh. The LFS suggested Reef Builder supplement to try and balance the KH with our high Calcium of 520-540. He told us to stop dosing Calcium until we see KH come up and Calcium start to drop. Thoughts?
Thats it for now, everybody else is happy and healthy. Sad day with one KIA and one MIA however.
One of the 4 chromis is MIA. Haven't seen him for a couple of days, and I am fearful that he is crab food. When they were all introduced to the tank, they all schooled for a day, and then the single one went off on its own for a few days and then disappeared. They all looked fine, and the other 3 are doing wonderfully. It was odd. Maybe there just wasn't something right about him.
Then, yesterday, I went to feed and the watchmen goby didn't come out of his home. Everyday when I feed he comes out and waits for some food to come towards the bottom and eats it. We found him last night when going on an aptaisa hunting excursion, and he was dead... in his home.
A bad day.
The weird thing is, everything else in the tank looks great and I will talk more about that later. I hope something isn't in there killing these things. As posted earlier we took a big red eyed reef crab HH out and a mantis out, but I am starting to think that there is something else in there.
I suppose it is possible that the watchmen starved, since the other fish are so much faster at catching food floating in the column, but he seemed to get a decent amount.
Before all of this drama though, we made a few more purchases. I don't have pictures now, but wanted to update. We picked up a purple ricordia, and a copperbanded. I know its still a bit early for the copperbanded butterfly, but we noticed a field of aptasia in the tank a few days ago and needed some help killing this stuff. The trusted LFS stated that they have had him about a month and a half and was eating mysis regularly. He looked good, so we got him at a good price.
This morning, before lights on, I was looking in the tank and he was already out of the cave he was hiding in moving around the rockwork just looking at it. He has been doing that since being introduced to the tank. Haven't seen him pick at anything except a few HH feather dusters. I am excited to get home today and see how he is doing all settled in.
KH continues to be a bit of a problem. We have been dosing Kalkwasser in our RO top off and I think that might be contributing to a KH which moves between 4-7 Dkh. The LFS suggested Reef Builder supplement to try and balance the KH with our high Calcium of 520-540. He told us to stop dosing Calcium until we see KH come up and Calcium start to drop. Thoughts?
Thats it for now, everybody else is happy and healthy. Sad day with one KIA and one MIA however.
Mitchell0605
Aquarium Advice Addict
Sorry about the Goby. It happens sometimes. Good luck with the Copperband. Hope he eats your aiptasia.
It happens sometimes. Good luck with the Copperband. Hope he eats your aiptasia. 
capj64
Aquarium Advice FINatic
I don't know how I miss such great threads when I read a couple hours a day on this forum!
Taggin' along for updates
Taggin' along for updates
jcarlilesiu
Aquarium Advice Addict
It has been such a long time since my last update.
I think this will be my last update in this build thread as the tank is now beyond built, but progressing nicely. Since I haven't posted since April, there has been alot of things that have changed.
The copperbanded didn't make it. He was great for about 3 weeks at which time he started to show signs of ich. We immediately moved him to quarantine, dosed copper, and observed. For several weeks, he progressivly got worse and worse and ended up not making it. He was absolutely beautiful, and I will have another in the future.
We did put in a long tenticle plate coral. He did very well for a long time too, and then suddenly stopped showing his tenticles and over the coarse of a few weeks died. We left his skeleton in there hoping that maybe it would propogate.
Our orange recordia was on top of the rock, got knocked off, feel behind the rock work... and is nowwhere to be found. MIA if you will.
Enough of the bad news, now for the good. All of the other species listed early are doing very well. The clowns, blenny, chromis have all gotten fat and healthy and are very comfortable in their home. The zoos are growing like crazy and doing well. GSP is in three colonies and growing. Leather is good and happy.
We also aquired 3 anthias, two females and one male. One of the females ended up turning male, but they all seem to be living well. We also saved a one spot fox face rabbitfish from Petco. Poor thing. He has been fully acclimated and in the tank for several weeks doing great. The last of the fish purchases was a niger triger. He is small, 2 inches, and we fully understand and accept the risks involved with a trigger in the reef. Until he proves to be non-reef safe, he will have a welcome home.
We have also purchased a rose bubble tip anenome. He has been in the tank for a couple of months. He is doing well and growing big and happy, but the clowns are not hosting in him. We wish they were.
A birds nest coral was also purchased and put in a month or so ago and is has new growth all over it.
Got a clove polyp, some galaxia, a favia, finger coral...
Thats about it. I will take photos when the lights come on and finalize this thread appropriately with photos.
Thank you to everybody who followed along and chimed in with opinions and directions. Your help, and this forum, is valuable beyond words.
Thanks.
I think this will be my last update in this build thread as the tank is now beyond built, but progressing nicely. Since I haven't posted since April, there has been alot of things that have changed.
The copperbanded didn't make it. He was great for about 3 weeks at which time he started to show signs of ich. We immediately moved him to quarantine, dosed copper, and observed. For several weeks, he progressivly got worse and worse and ended up not making it. He was absolutely beautiful, and I will have another in the future.
We did put in a long tenticle plate coral. He did very well for a long time too, and then suddenly stopped showing his tenticles and over the coarse of a few weeks died. We left his skeleton in there hoping that maybe it would propogate.
Our orange recordia was on top of the rock, got knocked off, feel behind the rock work... and is nowwhere to be found. MIA if you will.
Enough of the bad news, now for the good. All of the other species listed early are doing very well. The clowns, blenny, chromis have all gotten fat and healthy and are very comfortable in their home. The zoos are growing like crazy and doing well. GSP is in three colonies and growing. Leather is good and happy.
We also aquired 3 anthias, two females and one male. One of the females ended up turning male, but they all seem to be living well. We also saved a one spot fox face rabbitfish from Petco. Poor thing. He has been fully acclimated and in the tank for several weeks doing great. The last of the fish purchases was a niger triger. He is small, 2 inches, and we fully understand and accept the risks involved with a trigger in the reef. Until he proves to be non-reef safe, he will have a welcome home.
We have also purchased a rose bubble tip anenome. He has been in the tank for a couple of months. He is doing well and growing big and happy, but the clowns are not hosting in him. We wish they were.
A birds nest coral was also purchased and put in a month or so ago and is has new growth all over it.
Got a clove polyp, some galaxia, a favia, finger coral...
Thats about it. I will take photos when the lights come on and finalize this thread appropriately with photos.
Thank you to everybody who followed along and chimed in with opinions and directions. Your help, and this forum, is valuable beyond words.
Thanks.
jcarlilesiu
Aquarium Advice Addict
I totally forgot to upload the photos I said I would.
I made a video instead. Let me know what you think.
YouTube - Dreaming of Sushi - 150 gallon reef
I made a video instead. Let me know what you think.
YouTube - Dreaming of Sushi - 150 gallon reef
Silent Night
Aquarium Advice Regular
worth it!
Excellent. A great read!
Excellent. A great read!
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