Got Dem Chamber Two Blues

Yesterday I decided to do something about chamber two. For other BioCube owners out there, this may be familiar.

I had a Tunze 9002 with an InTank collection cup that had mixed success over a year of different experiments with water height and positioning, but I have given up on it. I think a skimmer is something that really needs perfectly constant water height and a fraction of an inch difference can cause a problem with the Tunze. I do my best to fight evaporation with RO (manual top-off) but the Tunze itself is part of the problem; once it pulls up some dark tea colored water, it's already affecting the water height and I can't babysit this thing 5 times a day to make sure all of its needs are met.

I have also been battling some nuisance algae for the better part of a year. It's not at plague proportions (some may disagree) but it is unsightly and forms a mat on my sand. Some of it is hair algae, some film, and most is one type of Cyano or another - green, mostly.

This mod is something that I've been considering for at least 2 years now - basically ever since this post. The container that I had scrounged to grow chaetomorpha next to the Tunze has served me well for many years and has grown literally pounds and pounds of chaeto, but it's time to upgrade! And by upgrade I mean Upgrayedd:

Now that the Tunze is out of the picture, almost the whole volume of chamber two is available for chaeto growth. This is hopefully the solution to my nuisance algae problem (along with partial water changes - PWCs).

Here is the plan. I threw this together in Visio since I am not proficient with any sort of 3d modelling CAD or SketchUp.

This is to be an insert that takes up all of the usable space within chamber 2, and has a large space for growing chaetomorpha. It should double or triple the current refugium volume and will be much easier to clean since the whole thing lifts out. It will also serve as a resting point for the filter pad that collects particulate as it flows over the first chamber wall.

I went to TAP plastics and got all of this material (including cutting) for about 15 bucks. That's a hell of a deal. I also picked up a syringe applicator and some acrylic cement. The guys at TAP were quick and I left with the materials, and then assembled them tonight. They are currently curing in the garage, and I'll post pics soon.

Dig In

As many before me, I often vacillate between two extremes in fish/reef keeping.

On the one hand I look at the tank and figure that I could do so much more with a bigger tank. I imagine having a nice 120 or 180 display plumbed through the wall into a proper fish room. A real skimmer, a real dosing system, a controller. All the things that I can't really fit into a BioCube (which is a lot).

On the other hand- I often feel I don't have time to do maintenance on this little tank, and the tank suffers. That isn't really the case, obviously. I do have time, it's just a matter of where my time goes. More often than not a lazy video game evening, bass practice, errands, a movie, or chores take precedence (and all of those things are constantly battling each other for attention too).

I find it strange to be simultaneously planning the next step (bigger) in the hobby while I think about how hard it would be to sell all my stuff, and whether I really want the hassle of a tank. I suspect, since even the infamous chingchai has considered dropping the hobby, that this is just par for the course.

Time Flies

My oh my, it's been a long time. I didn't realize it's been over 2 years - holy crap. As it happens so often in our hobby, life has been extremely busy. Work has been pretty crazy, and I got married in 2012. My tank has not gotten the attention it was getting before.

My LED array still going strong and I haven't had to touch it a single time. Knock on wood! By now I would have had to replace several bulbs in a MH or T5 setup.

I am going through my first run-in with Aiptasia currently, and I'm not quite sure how to handle it. I would love to get a couple of proven peppermint shrimp to take care of the problem but I have a rather large and ornery Mithrax crab that is cleaning my rocks, and a rather small but still quite ornery sixline wrasse who owns the tank. I don't think dainty shrimp would do too well in the tank right now, so I might have to go with chemical warfare.

A lot of the coral has changed places, died, or has been introduced since my last update. It's not in any condition to show off right now (I have a Mithrax for a reason), but I did just get a nice extender tube, tripod, and remote shutter for my Canon 60D so I will be putting it to the test once the tank is back up to snuff.

For anyone curious... I had a horrible run-in with fate, and my digital thermometer died at the same time as my heater. I realized the heater was bad, but not that the thermometer was reading over ten degrees off. I replaced the heater and began trying to calibrate it using my thermometer, which was reporting the temperature to be in the mid seventies (the Jager heaters need to be calibrated when they're initially installed).

Naturally as I dialed in the heater, the water got warmer and warmer and I didn't have a reference. I'm amazed the corals lasted as long as they did but I had no idea that there was a problem until I brought my coral to a friend's house for safe keeping during my Europe trip. Even after being in tupperware for ten minutes during the drive over, I immediately noticed a huge temperature difference between my water and his. Mine was 5-10 degrees warmer!

In the end I lost over half of my livestock to this- some of my favorite corals and specimens I was very proud of having nurtured to double or triple their size. I lost the Duncanopsammia axifuga colony that I brought from three little polyps to a giant 30+ cluster... I am bummed out just thinking about it even a year after.

I chalk this up to inexperience and lack of preparation. Now I always have multiple thermometers (both digital and floaty old-fashioned ones) to prevent this kind of thing from happening again, and I am very careful with new heaters.

Now if I could only get my alk back up to where it's supposed to be!