BiocubeBlakey

I will post some pictures this evening. The tank runs surprisingly cool at a constant 77 degrees. It is an open top with a sunpod suspended above it. I'm also lucky enough to have free utilities so the ambient temperature in my apartment is always around 65. That might help as well. I was manually removing during treatment and have actually seen some improvement after actively working to raise the pH. I just realized that my test kits are about 3 years overdue for a replacement so I ordered the full kit, but as of right now I am just determining water quality by the health and behavior of corals and fish. They seem super happy and the dinos seem to only rear their heads after 5 hours of lights.

I have two koralia 1's and a maxijet 1200 so I think the flow is pretty decent. As far as dosing, I just dose 2 part and pH Up 8.3. As far as livestock goes, I just have 2 small ocellaris clowns and a small 6 line wrasse. I blacked out the tank for 3 days but it didn't really do much. I've been using RO/DI since the beginning. Funny that you mention the crushed coral. Before upgrading to this tank, I had a 14 gallon biocube for a year with sand instead of crushed and I never encountered any dinos. That was before I had my RO/DI unit too.

I have been battling dinoflaggelates in my tank for the last 4 months. I've done everything from blacking out the tank to syphoning to raising the ph to chemi pure elite and so on and so on. The stuff will disappear for a few days to a week and then one day reappear with a vengeance. I love my fish and corals but it is taking over so profusely that the setup is an eyesore and I don't think it's even fair to my fish. Should i just sell the fish and coral and get rid of all of the rock and crushed coral and start over??? I kept the tank successfully for 2 years without ever having an algae problem and the dinoflagellates don't seem to be going anywhere. Setup: 24 Gallon JBJ Nanocube 150w Sunpod Metal Halide with 20k bulb Stealth Heater set at 68 Maxijet 1200 Circulation Pump Media Baskets filter basket with filter floss (changed every 3 days) and chemipure elite packet Two Koralia 1 pumps in tank for water movement. Specs: pH 8.2 Amonia 0 Nitrates 0 Using part A and B for calcium and alkalinity needs. S.G. 1.024 Any help would be much appreciated. Otherwise, I'm going to start all over. On that note, are there any 24ish gallon tank owners that are having ongoing success and could share your setup info with me. I refuse to give up on my tank but this stuff is ruthless.

Thanks Charlie. I think I'm going to turn the center chamber into a refugium. Hitting up home depot and the LFS tomorrow for supplies. My ammonia already spiked and the nitrites are on their way down already 48 hours after setup. I guess the rock is cycling it. I am considering putting a fish in just to make sure it is a proper cycle. Didn't really want to use a cardinal or damsel because I know that I don't want to keep those fish, and I don't like the idea of stressing out/killing a fish just to cycle a tank. I was thinking that using a small piece of dead shrimp to get the cycle going would be no different than living in an apartment that others have spent years farting in...as long as it's clean when you move in.

Thanks for the input so far guys. I just wanted to say that I don't have bioballs. They are ceramic rings. Also, the only thing that is new in the tank is the water. Everything else, including the filter media was previously cycled. Does this effect the timing at all? Also, should I just let the live rock cycle the water or should I put a fish or dead shrimp or something in there. Thanks again.

I am moving up from my 14 gallon biocube with 48W Power Compact Lighting to a 24 Gallon Nano Cube with a 150 Watt Sunpod Metal Halide. I have upgraded the return pump to a Maxijet 1200 and I have another 1200 shooting out from behind the live rock (24 pounds). The live rock has been in my buddy Shane's propagation tank for months and is really lightweight and porous. I moved some of the bioballs and live sand from my Biocube over to the nano. Tank has been up and running about 24 hours. Water is clear. Temps are about 78 degrees with the light on. Calcium is at 410 ppm. PH is 8.2. There is a bit of nitrates from my tap water (will use R.O. in the future). The questions that I have for you guys are: 1. What products would you recommend for me to remove the nitrates in my system until my next water change with R.O. Water? 2. With well-seasoned live rock and bioballs and sand from my 2 year old biocube, how long should I wait to add my first: a.Fish (moved from my other tank) b. Inverts (crabs, snails, cleanup crew) c. Corals (soft corals, lps corals, sps corals) 3. How long do you guys think it will be before my tank is ready to have everything moved over? My live stock includes Fish (2 inch six line wrasse, pair of 2 inch false percula clowns, 2.5 inch yellow spot goby) Inverts (about 15 hermit crabs (red and blue leg), 8-10 various snails, a couple nudibranchs that randomly came from the rock, Cleaner Shrimp Corals (Single Mushroom Coral, 6 polyps candy cane coral, frogspawn, ricordea mushroom, green pagoda, various zoas, slipper coral, galaxea coral, plate montipora, encrusting montipora, Australian Acan lord. Favia Coral, Lapastrea, blue clove polyps, green star polyps, yellow scroll coral, button corals, fiji pom pom xenia, regular xenia, acropora) 4. Seeing as I have a lot of established bacteria in the tank already, will I see the spikes associated with a normal cycle if I just start adding stuff? Thanks for your help. This website is awesome.