2-3 Week old 15 gal nano

[Ralph Van Hee]

Hi everyone,

I'm pretty new to marine aquariums, but I always wanted one. I've had my fair share of experience with freshwater but about 3 weeks ago I finally decided I'd get a saltwater tank.

I ended up buying a new tank for my freshwater fish/inverts and used the 15 gallon they were previously in to set up my to be reef tank. Currently it has; 4.5 Pounds of live rock, 6.5 more arriving tomorrow.
1 Ocellaris clownfish that my girlfriend insisted on naming 'Nemo' (because originality is overrated)
1 Elegance Coral, about 10 cms when fully open. (I tried to be patient but couldn't help myself)
1 Halloween hermit.
1 Banded trochus.

So far the water parameters have been stable pretty much all the time, about a week ago my rocks started getting covered in coralline algea, that seems to be spreading pretty fast. The first week I tested my parameters twice a day, after that 2 times a week, with my water changes which i'm doing at 30% pretty frequently at the moment just in case anything starts building up. Temperature is stable at about 26.5 °C (79.7 °F)

As far as equipment and technical stuff goes, I haven't got a sump but a 200/L per hour filter, that's about 53 US gallons/hour. A 300L/ per hour pump (80 US Gallons/hour), A decent heater which I have a spare of in case it breaks, ofc an RO/DI unit and I use Red Sea Coral Pro Salt, at a salinity of 1.026

I'll link some pictures below, if you see anything 'red flaggish' I'd really appreciate it if you'd let me know Like I said I'm pretty new to this, but I think it's going reasonably well so far. Nemo eats out of my hand and the I feed the elegance about 2 times a week, I also heard coralline algea grows when your water quality is decent so that's probably a good sign as well.

A few questions however, been doing a lot of research on clams because they simply look stunning. I often see posts and care sheets saying they need a lot of room and pretty stable parameters, any chance that somewhere along the line I'd be able to keep a Tridacna Crocea in this tank?

The next corals I plan on getting are some zoas, a maze brain and a blastomussa. They seem like pretty good beginner lps, any opinions on if that's a good idea to continue with or should I get some softies first and see how that goes?

Tips and tricks of the trade are always very appreciated! And if I'm doing something wrong, smacking me in the face with it is also appreciated. Thanks in advance Pics down below.

-Ralph

Ps. Are those tiny feather dusters on my hermit's shell? Are they something to worry about?

 

[mcgyvr]

The "red flags" I see (read) is that you already have a clownfish and what can be a difficult coral in a tank that may not have even cycled fully and certainly is not mature yet and are impatient...
Then you have more live rock arriving tomorrow (which I assume means you ordered it online and its being shipped to you).. Which means a potential for considerable die off and potential ammonia issues that could very well end up killing everything in the tank..

I'd HIGHLY suggest you fully cure the live rock in another tank or simply tank the fish/coral back to the store..

Then I'd highly suggest doing more learning on the proper way to setup and maintain a tank..

Thats enough.. I went easy on you..

NOTHING good happens fast in this hobby..

 

[Ralph Van Hee]

The "red flags" I see (read) is that you already have a clownfish and what can be a difficult coral in a tank that may not have even cycled fully and certainly is not mature yet and are impatient...
Then you have more live rock arriving tomorrow (which I assume means you ordered it online and its being shipped to you).. Which means a potential for considerable die off and potential ammonia issues that could very well end up killing everything in the tank..

I'd HIGHLY suggest you fully cure the live rock in another tank or simply tank the fish/coral back to the store..

Then I'd highly suggest doing more learning on the proper way to setup and maintain a tank..

Thats enough.. I went easy on you..

NOTHING good happens fast in this hobby..

Hi, yeah you're right about adding the fish and Coral too soon. I did however add some bacteria to start up the entire process, I know that there's a lot of mixed opinions on store bought bacteria like that but I've used them countless times on new freshwater aquariums and did find that they almost entirely skip the cycle process. Every review on the marine bacteria I bought sure do make it seem like they do the exact same thing. And on your other point about the rock, I'm getting it from a friend who's getting rid of his tank because it's getting too high maintenance for his current occupation. That's also where I got the Coral. So wouldn't that eliminate most of the die off? Thanks for your fast reply

-Ralph

 

[mcgyvr]

And on your other point about the rock, I'm getting it from a friend who's getting rid of his tank because it's getting too high maintenance for his current occupation.

Even more reason to be cautious about the rock..
Slack on maintenance could mean excessive phosphates bound up in the rock, algae issues,etc...

Good luck..

 

[Ralph Van Hee]

Even more reason to be cautious about the rock..
Slack on maintenance could mean excessive phosphates bound up in the rock, algae issues,etc...

Good luck..

Yeah I get how that could make it bad too. I know him well though, he loves his tank and is pretty torn up that he has to get rid of it. I'm pretty sure he doesn't slack because he's still got a load of fish and inverts like some starfish (that are apparently pretty sensitive to parameter changes) he's looking to sell so I think I'll trust him on it.

Thanks!

 

[mcgyvr]

I hope the bottle of bacteria did is thing (and it can work fairly well)
Just continue to monitor regularly and have fresh saltwater ready to go if needed to do a water change..

 

[OldReefGuy]

^yup....what he said

 

[zsuman101]

you can kiss the elegance coral goodbye it wont survive, i dont know why your store sells them. nobòdy should until the gurus figure out how to keep more than 1 every 1000 or so that come to market. what are you using for light? light and water quality are king in reefing, do some more research before you go further. good luck zsu,

 

[Ralph Van Hee]

I hope the bottle of bacteria did is thing (and it can work fairly well)
Just continue to monitor regularly and have fresh saltwater ready to go if needed to do a water change..

Certainly will do, thanks

 

[Ralph Van Hee]

you can kiss the elegance coral goodbye it wont survive, i dont know why your store sells them. nobòdy should until the gurus figure out how to keep more than 1 every 1000 or so that come to market. what are you using for light? light and water quality are king in reefing, do some more research before you go further. good luck zsu,

Hi zsu, I didnt get the elegance from a store but from a friend who fragged his. I have done a lot of research on it and I know youre talking about ECD, however if I remember correctly that was mainly a thing with indonesian variants. My friend had this one for a long time and its an aussie, so wouldnt that mean that the chances of ECD are pretty low to nonexistant? Since it was the only elegance he had and it didnt show any symptoms for the entire time he had it, I heard that with the aussies its more like a 50 50 chance itll either die or do great and that it can be pretty hardy if it does survive.

 

[zsuman101]

Well good luck then you are a lucky reefer.

 

[Ralph Van Hee]

Thanks

 

[nursedude]

How are things testing out?

We are excited for you, but dubious things will go entirely well. My thoughts are, I would rather have you come here and get good information even after setting up in what some will consider a premature manner than blindly keep going. Welcome! You have the right idea, keep testing and keep up with the water changes as needed.

I am in the uglies with my tank, oh lovely algae. You may find a bloom soon, just depends on the bioload of the tank verses the bacterial load. As far as a clam, a few suggestions, water needs to be extremely stable, and lighting must be adequate. Give it some time before adding anything else, how can you know where the Ca or Alk is going to land until you give it a bit of time to stabilize. JMO. Wish you much success.

 

[Ralph Van Hee]

How are things testing out?

We are excited for you, but dubious things will go entirely well. My thoughts are, I would rather have you come here and get good information even after setting up in what some will consider a premature manner than blindly keep going. Welcome! You have the right idea, keep testing and keep up with the water changes as needed.

I am in the uglies with my tank, oh lovely algae. You may find a bloom soon, just depends on the bioload of the tank verses the bacterial load. As far as a clam, a few suggestions, water needs to be extremely stable, and lighting must be adequate. Give it some time before adding anything else, how can you know where the Ca or Alk is going to land until you give it a bit of time to stabilize. JMO. Wish you much success.

Hi, thanks for the advice, yeah i definately had some hair algea popping up for a bit but my hermit luckely made short work of those. Just tested the parameters, currently I've got
NH3: 0
NO2: 0
NO3: 10 ppm
PO4: 0.2 ppm
Calcium at 460 ppm
Magnesium at 1400 ppm
Alk at 4.4 meq/l
Salinity 1.026
Temp 26 c

Last time i didnt check every single thing but the only differences i noticed were that my ammonia was at 0.1 ppm and my nitrates at about 15ppm, that was about 4 days ago before a water change.

 

[Ralph Van Hee]

Even more reason to be cautious about the rock..
Slack on maintenance could mean excessive phosphates bound up in the rock, algae issues,etc...

Good luck..

Also mcgyver I ended up curing the rock as a just in case anyways, got it in its container at the moment and if the ammonia levels dont rise much in a week it should be good to go right? If they do, the usual curing process and time? Thanks for the advise.

 

[JeffyT]

I would also definitely keep in mind, 15g is a small tank. Temp swings and chemical imbalances happen way more often and way faster in a nano setup.

As for McGyvr's comments, he's definitely helped me out a lot. Always answers my questions on this forum. I would heed his words of wisdom.

Your tank is going to go through another cycle, even with the bottled bacteria. As the new rock cured properly would take you weeks. I would definitely be concerned for your clown, I know they are fairly hardy because they are essentially damsels. But the Ammonia might kill everything in your tank.

 

[Ralph Van Hee]

A little update on the now +-1.5 month old tank

A little update on the now +-1.5 month old tank

So far so good, havent had an ammonia spike, everything seems perfectly stable right now. The elegance coral is doing great and eating about 1 time a week. I upgraded my lights to an aqua medic aquarius 30 which the corals seem to love as they opened up a lot more. Also upgraded my filter a few weeks ago to an 800l/hour that takes care of a lot of flow and surface movement requirements, set it to about half way so it doesnt make a sand storm and the corals seem to open up a lot more since i did that too. Other than the elegance I got a tubipora musica of about an inch in diameter which has gotten at least a dozen new polyps since i bought it. A blasto and a piece of maze brain that i feed at night once a week. The clown fish has certainly put on some extra grams and seems to be growing quite well. Skimmer is a resun sk 300. Wasnt too sure about it at first because of the price but it i extremely quiet and efficient once you get it broken in. Would you guys say im in the clear of any ammonia spikes or cycle issues now? Still doing water changes every week sometimes 2 a week. Every time the nitrates hit 15+. Thanks in advance for the help and tips guys, I really appreciate it