DC_Reef's 34g Solana Cube Rebuild

[DC_Reef]

34 Gallon Solana Cube - v2

 

Original tank was running for 3 years before bubble algae attack forced me to tear down the tank and re-build everything

 

150w MH HQI Pendant with Phoenix Bulb

44mm glass skimmer from gn0meglass

2"x4" activated carbon Media Bag

~20 lbs. live rock

2" argonite substrate

 

Livestock:

2 Amphiprion ocellaris hosted in a tree coral

2 Chromis cyanea

1 Chelmon rostratus

16 Florida Ricordia

Frogspawn

 

Future plans:

20 lbs more live rock

Apex Controller

ATO (I've heard the JBJ systems work well with this tank)

Upgrade main tank pump

 

 

 

Smugmug Gallery

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 4, 2012 by DC_Reef

[Jan]

Where did you get that skimmer?

34 Gallon Solana Cube - v2

 

Original tank was running for 3 years before bubble algae attack forced me to tear down the tank and re-build everything

 

150w MH HQI Pendant with Phoenix Bulb

44mm glass skimmer from gn0meglass

2"x4" activated carbon Media Bag

~20 lbs. live rock

2" argonite substrate

 

Livestock:

2 Amphiprion ocellaris hosted in a tree coral

2 Chromis cyanea

1 Chelmon rostratus

16 Florida Ricordia

Trumpet Coral Frag

Frogspawn

 

Future plans:

20 lbs more live rock

Apex Controller

ATO (I've heard the JBJ systems work well with this tank)

Upgrade main tank pump

 

 

 

Smugmug Gallery

 

 

[DC_Reef]

Jan - I got the skimmer from Gnome Glass - He makes skimmers for smaller tanks, in 22-44mm sizes. I got the largest one he makes, 44 mm, with the glass hook and slide, which he rates for up to 40 gallon tanks.

 

Unfortunately, his website is still kinda under construction, but has given great customer support via e-mail.

http://gnomeglass.com/aqua/index.html

 

Reefbuilders has a great write up with more detailed pics.

http://reefbuilders.com/2012/05/31/gnome-glass-air-skimmer/

Edited June 4, 2012 by DC_Reef

[DC_Reef]

Can anyone ID this coral on the right? It came along in the bag with Jan's Ricordea GB.

 

[Jan]

Looks like a bleached ricordea.

[Ryan S]

Glad to see you rebuilding and not giving up! Kudos to you! Out of curiosity - is there nothing you can get when bubble algae enters the tank? No fish or inverts eat it? Or treatments like high MAG or something?

[Coral Hind]

I agree with Jan that it looks like a bleached ricordia. It should regain the color in time.

 

Ryan, Manual removal and the addition of emerald crabs might work. In smaller tanks it is not as easy as most of the fish that may eat it require a larger tank.

[Ryan S]

Thanks, and can he do anything to prevent it from going in this time? Can you dip corals to kill bubble algae or anything? (not to go off topic, but I went to a LFS once in the area (not a sponsor here thank God) - and they were selling a large piece of coral named "Bubble Coral" that was just a huge pile of bubble algae. It was like $60 for the piece).

[Coral Hind]

QT the coral or rock until the algae has been removed is about the only way. No dips that I know of.

[DC_Reef]

Glad to see you rebuilding and not giving up! Kudos to you! Out of curiosity - is there nothing you can get when bubble algae enters the tank? No fish or inverts eat it? Or treatments like high MAG or something?

 

 

Ryan - There is a bit more to the story. When I moved last year, I could not take my tank with me so I setup the tank at my Dad's house. He has more experience than me with FW and SW fish tanks, but he didn't really have the time to care for it so neglect took it's toll on my tank. I know my Dad didn't change the water for many months, and the metal halide bulb was over a year old so the light spectrum and intensity had probably shifted to be more conducive to "bad" algae growth (hair and bubble) than "good" (coraline). At the same time, much of the livestock suffered and passed away. I knew the tank was pretty much at the point of no return and that no amount of emerald crabs, or fish would be able to overtake the current conditions.

 

~3 months ago I moved to a new place that did allow me to have the fishtank so I decided to start all over again from scratch. I took out all my live rock and substrate and bleached it out in the sun for a week to kill off and bubble algae and unfortunately all the cool coraline growth on my rock. I then dunked and soaked the "dead rock" in RO/DI water to knock off any remaining dead stuff. Scrapped the tank really good with a razor blade and then rinsed everything off with RO/DI water. Filled it back up with RO/DI water and instant ocean and stabilized the specific gravity at 1.024 and let the tank begin cycling with a scoop of sand from another established tank.

 

My neighbor was breaking down his nano tank and gave me the 2 clowns that were already hosted on the tree coral and some of his live rock and sand to jump start my cycle. I've been testing my levels every day, and the levels looked good so I slowly started adding more live stock.

 

Regular weekly 15% water changes with IO, dosing B-Ionic every other day, and checking the water parameters daily is the only maintenance I'm doing right now.

 

I really love my gnome glass skimmer, it's completely silent and no microbubbles! I had an Aquamaxx HOB-1 before which produced a ton of micro bubbles in my tank that I could never seem to get rid of. The pump broke on the Aquamaxx and the replacement pump costs more than the glass skimmer and air pump did.

 

More pictures to follow as I build up the tank. I'm using my Canon 5Dmii and 100 mm f/2.8 macro at the moment. It's been pretty tricky to get things in focus and deal with the refraction of the glass in the tank at the same time.

Edited June 4, 2012 by DC_Reef