60 gallon cube, very first tank!

KyminCO · Jan 15, 2024

I would love some veteran advice on the same size. I had 150 gal tanks as a teen - MANy years ago-when wet dry and canister filters were the new thing. Have been shopping Biocube 32 gal recently, just wanting something reasonable to build a reef tank to get back into it and relearn what is current practice etc. Then I saw a 60 gal cube sale - that has me tempted to go with it, given it’s a bit bigger - more flexibility. But it is just tank. I’m not totally sure what all I would need to invest in and whether it’s worth it to get the “deal” on the tank or just get the biocube to learn and ease back in. Thoughts and advice? Thank you!

ams3210 · Jan 19, 2024

KyminCO said:
I would love some veteran advice on the same size. I had 150 gal tanks as a teen - MANy years ago-when wet dry and canister filters were the new thing. Have been shopping Biocube 32 gal recently, just wanting something reasonable to build a reef tank to get back into it and relearn what is current practice etc. Then I saw a 60 gal cube sale - that has me tempted to go with it, given it’s a bit bigger - more flexibility. But it is just tank. I’m not totally sure what all I would need to invest in and whether it’s worth it to get the “deal” on the tank or just get the biocube to learn and ease back in. Thoughts and advice? Thank you!

Might be better off making your own post unfortunately, I am a total newb and can’t offer much guidance lol. I can tell you that when I was choosing my tank it was between the 60 and a 10, which is obviously much smaller than the 32, but I’m really glad I went with the bigger option. Best of luck to you!!

ams3210 · Jan 28, 2024

Hey y’all! Today I finally got a Kalkwasser dosing pump set up. Ive been tracking my parameters for about two weeks and found my tank to be decreasing the alkalinity by about .1 dkh every day, so in response I started experimenting with Kalkwasser. I mixed a weak concentration of 1/2 tsp per gallon in a 5 gallon bucket of RO/DI water, and for about a week now I’ve been hand dosing 60ml of this solution a day. I found this to be just about maintaining my alkalinity levels, admittedly I’d miss a dose or two so it wasn’t perfect but I still saw my rates hold steadier. I got a BRS dosing pump and found mine to have a flow rate of 1.5ml/minute, and based off this have set up my dosing pump to run on a wifi smart plug for 6 minutes 9 times a day every two hours from 4pm to 8 am, dosing 9ml at a time and a total of 81ml over the course of the day. With this I’m hoping to very slowly increase the alkalinity, I will monitor closely as I just set this system up today and need to make sure it doesn’t cause any spikes. I’m also curious what y’all think about the use of those wifi smart plugs in terms of their reliability.

Admittedly my parameters aren’t what I want them to be right now. As of this afternoon my alk tested at 7.5 dKH, and my phosphates are stubbornly hanging out between .2-.25. Nitrates are between 7-10 and pH is solid around 8.0. These are all I test for at the moment, so I’m aware my dosing system is an imperfect set up as I’m pretty blind about my calcium consumption and have no means to add magnesium or trace elements yet. Right now all I’m hoping to do is reduce the frequency of my water changes or at least the amount I have to change to maintain good parameters, as up till now I’ve been doing 25% water changes weekly, sometimes every 1.5 weeks which is just not super sustainable for me. I have an algae scrubber that I hope to help suck up phosphate once it gets going, till now I’ve been turning it on and off manually but finally got it on a timer so hope it should take off soon. I suspect part of the problem are my rocks which are double second hand (they guy I got them from got them from another guys reef) and can function as phosphate batteries is I understand. I’ve definitely been feeding too generously as well, so hoping to attack this phosphate problem from a number of angles by reducing feeding and keeping up GFO. Don’t want to change anything too quickly to shock the system, but I know getting phosphate down and alkalinity up will get me the growth I want to see.

Despite these less than perfect parameters they are holding pretty steady, so things are still look good in the tank. I can really notice some growth on some corals, but at the same time notice that the corals I’ve for a few months now holding steady but not growing a ton. I’m especially confused by mushrooms, I have two different Rhodactis mushrooms and recently neither seems super happy, one of which I’ve had since November and has barely grown at all! The internet made me think mushrooms would grow in a puddle lol. As well I have a micromussa that looks very happy and healthy, but was regrowing from fragging when I got it in November and still hasn’t regrown its heads fully, nor put out any new heads. I’m new to all this reef keeping business so I don’t know what to expect really, but I did think the mushroom might display some growth or spread by now. A LFS nearby has a deal where if you leave a review, you get a free coral, and so far I’ve brought 3 friends in with me to leave reviews for corals (shhhhhh nobody say nothin), so my tank is starting to fill out nicely. Fish are all looking happy and healthy, even the ultra shy watchman goby is starting to come out for feedings (so long as I keep my distance and sit down on the bed ).

Overall I’m pretty happy with the way things are going. I know I have some things to work on but I’m addressing them as best I can, outside of reef keeping I’m a full time online college student and working two jobs, so I try and focus on the things that feel accessible for me to change. Advice and constructive criticism are always welcome, and if you read all this yammering, thanks!

ams3210 · Mar 16, 2024

Hello reef2reef! Another tank update, and I’m happy to report it’s continued to be smooth sailing for me! Since I got the kalkwasser dosing set up things have really taken off. I’ve been consistent with water changes and have been testing my water parameters every other day for three months now, things are super stable (almost no variation over time) and it shows. A lot of my LPS have clearly grown a LOT since being added, and I’ve even added some hardier varieties of SPS that are putting on some good growth as well! I continue to evade any serious issues with nuisance algae and pests (knock on wood), and after some advice at the fish store I’ve been feeding less which has helped parameters remain even more stable. Ultimately my phosphate is still higher than I’d like it to be (hovering between .15 and .2 according to the salifert test), but I’m trying to avoid chasing numbers and instead focus on stability and listening to what the coral are telling me.

Since the last update, I’ve added three new fish: a bar goby and a banggai cardinal fish at the same time a little over a month ago, and just a few days ago I decided to send it and get a leopard wrasse. I’ve been eyeing the leopard wrasses at my LFS since before my tank first got wet, and with all the coral looking so happy and the water parameters so stable I decided to go for it. The one I picked out had been living at the LFS for about a week and a half, she was lively and I got to see her eat some reef nutrition R.O.E. So I figured she was as good a bet as I’d get. I’ve been consistently adding pods and feeding them phyto every few days for a while now, so the populations in my tank are good, even if she is slow to eat the roe or frozen. It’s the third day for her in the tank and it’s the first I’m seeing her out swimming around, she seems to be getting along very well with my other fishies thus far.

I feel like all the research I did before I started adding things to the tank has really paid off, and aside from skipping the ugly phase I’ve been fortunate to experience zero coral mortalities so far! So for now I plan on continuing on the way I have been, my next goal is to figure out a quarantine set up since I am beyond the point where tossing things into the tank and hoping it’ll be ok is acceptable for myself. Loving my time in the reefing hobby and looking forward to the future of my tank as I only get things further dialed in.