About a month ago i had a red slime outbreak in my tank. I am away and my wife is takeing care of it. With the stuff she got to kill the slime the guy to ld her to out a airstone in there. and he said that she could leave it in there after it cleared up. I guess the naked clowns like it. Is there anything I should be worried about it being in there. Never seen one in a reef tank before.
Air stone in biocube 14
- Thread starter joshsliftedzj
- Start date
I absolutely see no reason in adding an airstone to counter cyanobacteria at all. None what so ever.
Take that bio cube...second chamber where the grill is with bio balls...Take out all your bio balls...nitrate factories ....replace them with rubble live rock instead. At the same time buy filter pads and cut to fit under the grill over the live rock rubble.
My mod advise for you. I had the 29g for a year. So I know what you are dealing with. The filters from oceanic easily restrict flow just from dust kicked up by stupid fish or something.
Sorry I just went over this red slime thing in another thread...but Red Slime appears for only one reason. Enough Nutrients to grow from bad water chemistry. Nitrates and Phosphates are the causes.
You need to do siphon of all visible slime and do a 50% water change in the process of cleaning. (Do not brush slime it only spreads the bacteria)
Then after the big clean up and 2nd chamber changes...you should have better conditions. Slime will appear but not fast or growing fast. YOu must keep up on weekly water changes of 50% or greater (being a small tank this will be easy).
Biocube lacks protein skimmer so you are more reliant on old fashioned water changes. To prevent fast build up of nitrates. Practice feeding lightly. Food should not be floating around 5 min later in other words.
Prevention is key here:
1. weekly water changes of 50%...or 1g a day ...
2. Top off with quality water source that is nitrate phosphate free..RO/DI water for example.
3. Lightly feed
4. Keep photo periods in general not over 8 hours.
You should be fine if you do this from here out. With lack of information this is just general info for you.
I have taken out the bio balls the first day i had the tank. I use filter floss at the overflow to chamber 2. In chamber 2 i run a bag of carbon and under the shelf i use chemipure elite. I left the sponge in chamber 3. I think that it may be the cause of the outbreak. The tank has been slime free for about a month now. I plan on taking out the airstone when i get back from deployment. I also plan on getting the biocube skimmer and the uv sterilizer. I am also getting a korilia nano powerhead. I think with the last few addons to the tank I will be sitting pretty! I am also thinking of putting some rubble rock in chamber 2 also. i have some left over.
Bio cube skimmer is the only thing I would steer clear from...read my link on skimmers 1o1 in sig. You will see the entire design is flawed..... With a tank so tiny just good old fashioned big water changes will do great.
That tank can be kept in great condition just by that alone. I had a zoo,xenia, plate coral thing going on for a long time...i only modified the 2nd chamber...and 50% water changes weekly. That bio cube skimmer (i was new to salt at the time) I tried it...it was Epic Fail.
The UV sterilizer is nice...maybe overkill for a 19g nano though =) but certainly nice to have.
The nano hydor are good products...You could also go with a slighty better return pump and mods that go on the out take ...i forget what they are called but they can join together and are like adjustable flow tubes...you could split the flow direction.... this way you keep the display equipment free as much as you can...just a tip...the nano is still good thing.
PS. Good luck out there in Sand Land.
PSS: Oh confused your thread with a 19g nano my bad..!!!! 14g nano =p...duh..
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Cool thanks for the info on the nano skimmer. i won't waste my money on it. I will still get the sterlizer and power head. I am ready to get out of here and head home. Not much longer though.
Well that's good to hear. Try not to let the oddness of being home freak you out there man. Being stuck in traffic , could trigger your sensitive alertness.
I laugh at my pal everyday when he tells me about how his day in traffic went. It's good therapy for him :grinyes:..minus my laughing at him. :nutkick:
AHA brain fart was the problem here..... He may have used another brand for the cyano killing....it does strain O2 supply ...that being a small tank that makes sense...but with a 14 gallon nano you have a overflow and spill over chambers.
if a contained tank without the flow like in those back chambers the stone makes sense now....unnecessary for your case...but I finally recall why he may have done the air stone thing.
if a contained tank without the flow like in those back chambers the stone makes sense now....unnecessary for your case...but I finally recall why he may have done the air stone thing.
I wanted to add that switching out bioballs for live rock is no different of a nitrate factory, and if it is Im interested to hear the science behind that maybe I need an update. Perhaps the wisest step would be to remove everything out of the chamber and use it to collect no waste whatsoever, or turn it into a refugium. unless you are registering ammonia in an aged reef, why add more surface area to require cleaning? I say start binding up that nitrate by plant growth or total removal by water changes or more skimming.
I see it reverse. The interstices in live rock hold profoundly more detritus than flat-surface bioballs so for any rinsing effort the bioballs will become cleaner. Im also thinking small chips of live rock do not have anaerobic cores that function to turn nitrate into nitrogen gas, or people that have live rock filters would begin to see zero nitrates in their system with that setup alone, and I haven't seen that report yet. Not nit picking just wanted to know if some radical shift in reefkeeping occured to change up this notion...let me know.
also, one of the most important things is to know sometimes you will get outbreaks of various -reef- organisms without any water parameter issues at all. Too many times people stary jacking with this and that, when just a 90% water change and physical removal is all thats needed.
Most of the organisms we want to take out of our reefs for aesthetic reasons actually belong there, which is why they have evolved to appear from time to time. unless tests show some parameter really far out, physical removal has always been the best method Ive seen just my opinion
I see it reverse. The interstices in live rock hold profoundly more detritus than flat-surface bioballs so for any rinsing effort the bioballs will become cleaner. Im also thinking small chips of live rock do not have anaerobic cores that function to turn nitrate into nitrogen gas, or people that have live rock filters would begin to see zero nitrates in their system with that setup alone, and I haven't seen that report yet. Not nit picking just wanted to know if some radical shift in reefkeeping occured to change up this notion...let me know.
also, one of the most important things is to know sometimes you will get outbreaks of various -reef- organisms without any water parameter issues at all. Too many times people stary jacking with this and that, when just a 90% water change and physical removal is all thats needed.
Most of the organisms we want to take out of our reefs for aesthetic reasons actually belong there, which is why they have evolved to appear from time to time. unless tests show some parameter really far out, physical removal has always been the best method Ive seen just my opinion