75g Lurking danger and Leafy Seadragons

[vlangel]

That’s a perfect regime but is it possible is Dino’s, not Cyano?
Just want to check. I’ve only seen Cyano is loose mats or sheets.
I don’t see any sheeting of that stuff at all, but, sometimes pictures can’t show detail well.

Two things make me unsure, returning very quickly, and pale rust colour, that could be Dino’s if they look more powdery on the sand.

Usually we see flowing mats of red, dark red or greenish patches sticking to stuff, but still, always easy to remove.

I did not check with a microscope but I am leaning toward cyano because it is not really on the rockwork or any of the coral. Its not stringy or filamentous looking at all and as far as I can tell they are not toxic which is more indicative of dinos. What it really looks like is diatoms but they should have run their course in my tank by now. Whatever it is, I am pretty sure that I've had it before and it always eventually went away.
Now that my nitrates are in a good place, I am going to try and bring my phosphates down a little, along with my other actions. Besides that, I am not going to fret too much over this.

 

[vlangel]

I have been focusing on my tank on both Fridays and Mondays. A while ago I realized that I needed to dose more than once a week when it comes to macroalgae because they use up iron very quickly. Also I am guessing that my coral need more AFR since I am not doing water changes. Today I cleaned the pre-filter to my canister which was really dirty and siphoned the surface of the sandbed. I replaced the water back into the tank after siphoning out the dirty sand. Then I added coral snow. Lastly I added phosphate sponge to lower PO4. Both fish and coral look very good. Even the goni is looking better.

 

[vlangel]

I decided to try and keep my tank more stable to deal with the sandbed uglies. That led me to buy a PH and alkalinity kit as those are not things that I have tested for years. I can hear the gasps of horror! And rightly so as my tank was really low in both! I am amazed that my coral could still look as good as they did considering. So I set about to slowly raise both. The Alkalinity has responded pretty well but PH has not. My guess is that without a skimmer, having macroalgae respiration, and using glass tops this is not going to be easily fixed. I will do a few successive bigger water changes to see if that helps.

Its was kind of bad timing, (since my tank isn't at its best) but our our local reef club hosted a coral show. Still I figured I could buy sturdy coral. I came home with quite a few nice frags and a maxima clam! I chose mostly zoas, but also got a monti, a pocci, a pulsing xenia and a variegated Kenya tree. My tank is not full but if these frags grow its going to look like a tank that is not brand new. Ignore the ugly sand. Unfortunately the new coral are in the worst part of the tank for clean looking sand.

 

[griss]

You better ship that Maxima to me for safe keeping. Congrats on the nice acquisition.

Looks great. I no longer chase ph. I will test it on occasion but, IMO Alk is much more important.

 

[vlangel]

You better ship that Maxima to me for safe keeping. Congrats on the nice acquisition.

Looks great. I no longer chase ph. I will test it on occasion but, IMO Alk is much more important.

I dont know how safe the clam is with me but I think i have the keeping part down! LOL This clam is so beautiful. I had a crocea years ago that grew from this size (1 and half inches) to about 4 or 5". I ended rehoming it along with all my fish when I kept seahorses. I have missed having a clam ever since.

I am guessing that my PH has been low for quite some time. It's literally been probably a decade or more since I tested PH. Our water out of the tap was 8.3 and so with me doing water changes I just assumed that it would stay in a reasonable range. I am not going to chase PH either but I will try to be more diligent about blowing detritus into the water column to be filtered out and I will do bigger water changes as long as my nutrients don't bottom out.

 

[griss]

I love Tridacna. Probably my favorite invert.

Our homes are so well sealed these days, we tend to lean towards low ph. If you could somehow introduce outside air, it will likely make a big difference.

 

[griss]

Many people run and airline tube from outside to their skimmer intake.

 

[vlangel]

Many people run and airline tube from outside to their skimmer intake.

I don't have a skimmer but my tank is reasonable close to a window so maybe I could just put an air pump (with an airstone or open airline) just outside an open window?

 

[griss]

I don't have a skimmer but my tank is reasonable close to a window so maybe I could just put an air pump (with an airstone or open airline) just outside an open window?

That would work