Bonsai B-Box (Sept. Cyano update! HELP)

[cody.sheridan-2008]

Great work mate

[NewyReefer]

Congrats on second mate looks tops

[Kah]

You really put something amazing together in the Bonsai B Box there! Great job!

[Mr Miagi]

Well this is my first update since coming runer up in the comp! Thanks very much for your encouraging words guys! Pretty much as soon as the competition was over, I went on a spending spree and bought alot of equipment. I replaced the old skimmer, which was effectively pulling our next to no skimmate. I thought this was a sign of such a small bioload on a small system. It wasn't until I replaced it with a new skimmer (a Tunze Comline 9004), that I realized that it was the skimmer that was useless. The Tunze is silent, and pulling out half a cup of tea coloured skimmate a week! The only downside is the microbubbles it seems to produce. I have added a filter layer at the bottom like suggested in the instructions, but you still have the occasional release of thousands of bubbles!

Next on the list, and what I thought might have been responsible for the ridiculous amount of microalgae my tank would grow, was the lights. Basically meant for freshwater aquariums, I thought I would experience better colour and growth with a Marine focused LED. So I bought and installed the fabulously built MicMol Nano Colour. Its a great unit. I originally used 5% lights as "moon" lighting overnight. It wasn't until several nights after installation I realized 5% was quite a significant amount of light, and my fish hadn't slept for 3 days! But instead of creating a coral garden, I seem to have created a cyano-garden.

I bought these corals with recession already, but you can see these the cyano attaching to every surface it can!





To combat this, I have added more LR rubble, more live sand from my local LFS and reduced lighting intensity (but not hours, yet), siphoning cyano as I do my weekly water change. I have monitored alkalinity regularly, and it seems to swing alot. I have since then added an Tunze Auto-top up, adding Randys Alk recipe. Hoping this will stabalize the alkalinity, which might control the cyano. Any advice would be gratefully appreciated. Im pretty over it.

I found by chance a large female chequered cardinal to go with my small, presumed male. To add/compound the comedy of my BonsaiBox, after getting randy for several weeks, the female jumped clear from the marine aquarium, over 30cm and landed in the nearby freshwater planted nano. I cant win.


The only thing I can say that has honestly worked for me in the last 3 months is this beauty:


I have recently picked up some beautiful Favites and Echinophyllia. I will post more photos when I am actually happy with the tank and they are doing okay.

[chromus]

Can you run the system with boosted alk Benny, like 11+dKh boosted?

I found it suppresses cyano enough for the system to start to heal.

[Rod the Reefer]

That's what I suggested.

And also get a dosing pump to keep things stable.

Rod.

[Mr Miagi]

Well this tank has come a long way.

Last update was Cyano issues galore, and I can still remember the red slime covering every surface and feeling like quitting. Glad I didnt.

Unfortunately, the bowl idea wasnt the greatest. I think it can work, but it requires less surface area taken up by liverock. When I removed the bowl, the sand within it was anoxic, and the most likely cause of all the issues I was having. I added some small pieces of liverock, but more importantly, I added some live sand from several sources (Thankyou Marine+ and Rod the Roofer). I thought this might have been an issue, as originally, the live rock went straight into the bowl, and nothing had been placed onto the majority of the main sand bed.

Anyway, the main update is everything is going really well now. The Duncan has been fragged heavily since the last photo. I had a magnificent Torch Coral as a prize from Oceanarium which has gone abllistic. I still have numerous 'shrooms and zoanthids from those early pictures which have been fragged, and the little Histrio Goby is a beast. One of my all time favourite fish.

Photos when the tank settles from my latest clean!

[searlesy]

I love the idea, and it certainly looked great before the Cyano. Just a thought, why don't you get a bowl, knock the bottom out of it, leaving an inch or two around the outside. That will stop any areas of low flow, give the whole structure access to the complete sandbed, and aesthetically look no different?