Having trouble with a Nano Tank

[ASJenness]

My wife has a 8gal cube. We're having trouble with red slime and other various things. Do you guys with really nice nanos do bi-weekly water changes?
We do weekly water changes and it seems that we cannot keep the small reef tank clean. I really want to tie the little 8gal system into my 55gal tank but it'd be too much of a hassle. I just can't get the water within good parameters.
Any suggestions?

8gal cube, have bio balls, carbon bag, filter, one little power head (cannot remember the gph), 1 10k compact flourescent, 2 nano clowns, feeding 2x a day with a mix of flake and pellets (leaving little to no waste)

 

[james1990]

im not the most experienced reefer here but I started about a year ago with a 9gal cube and recently upgraded. we need a little more info on the tank, what kind of corals and bioload are you working with? if your stocked with corals you may need to up the water changes.

for me, going from carbon pads to a carbon reactor was night and day on my 9gal. Once I started adding corals I added a 10gal sump with a fuge and my water was crystal ever since. I never messed with bio balls but I highly recommend considering a fuge set up. Again, this is just what worked for me. on a 8gal nano adding water volume adds alot of stability

 

[tommer725]

Do no bioballs. dirt builds up and does more harm than good. anyone will tell you that. I would feed only 1x per day or 1x per 2 or 3 days. They may eat it, but they are used in the wild to getting a lot less food and this just builds up nutrients. you do not want any nutrients. add chaeto to your tank to help get nutrients out. take a little chaeto out and throw it away. this takes the nutrients with it. sounds like you have an all in one, where the filter and stuff are built into the back,but i may be wrong. go to the new to the hobby forum people there are more helpful.

 

[schlosser_jr30]

I do water changes two times a month that totals about 28g. No fuge for me. I just use LR in the sump and chem-pure elite and purigen.

 

[Giovanni]

+1 on getting the bio balls out. When feeding leave the fish hungry not full, so feed less. Often dry food is high in phosphates so you might want to look at that. Here is my Fluval Spec V Build.

 

[GooGs]

When I got red slime in my nano I heard that it may be a flow issue. I upgraded my powerhead to get more movement and the slime went away. Plus the corals loved the added flow. This on top of nutrient reduction, no more cyano.

 

[ASJenness]

james1990 We've got 2 nano clowns, 3 mushrooms, 2 very small kenya trees, a little bit of gloves, 3 small zoa frag rocks, some gps, very small brain coral frag, birdsnest frag, and a plating monti frag.

tommer725 Cool, I haven't heard about the bioballs holding dirt and such so I'll take those out and replace with some rock rubble I have in my 55g tank. I will also feed them a lot less. I've heard that dry food has more phosphates but I though as long as most of it was eaten it wasn't a hassle. I'll try the chaeto trick too. Yes, this is an all in one system.

GooGs The powerhead thats in there right now seems to be almost too much right now. I have to position it right just so it doesn't take the sand up too.


Thank you all for the responses.

 

[debincalif]

The corals in your tank really don't add much to the overall bioload. I think you'd be best off by removing the bioballs and reducing how much you feed. Not sure what kind of set up you have in your cube, but you might want to look into using filter floss to help remove solid waste, and then using chemi-pure and purigen. Also make sure you've got enough critters in your CUC.

If the cyano is really bad, you can do a lights-out period to get rid of it - much better than dosing with chemicals.