Life begins in the 750!

[rygar]

Like the title says...life has begun.

The tank has been getting increasingly cloudy. Figured I'd just let it be. Looked a little closer today and discovered that it was full of tiny white pods scooting all over. The tank is hazy and I'm thinking its from the instant ocean, but all these pods make it look bad. Cool, and I'm super excited about it, but it looks really bad. Could these have come from the aragalive I added last month?. I used all dry rock and have added no corals. Just a couple clowns.

And should I start adding more frozen food to feed the tank and get the the biological filtration growing before adding more fish? Food for 2 little clowns probably won't cut it. And what are all these pods eating? There's nothing to eat!

Never started a tank from scratch like this. Always had live rock full of life to begin with.

 

[ezerasurfr]

Sounds like a bacterial bloom. How old is the tank?

 

[Ricardo18]

Like the title says...life has begun.

The tank has been getting increasingly cloudy. Figured I'd just let it be. Looked a little closer today and discovered that it was full of tiny white pods scooting all over. The tank is hazy and I'm thinking its from the instant ocean, but all these pods make it look bad. Cool, and I'm super excited about it, but it looks really bad. Could these have come from the aragalive I added last month?. I used all dry rock and have added no corals. Just a couple clowns.

And should I start adding more frozen food to feed the tank and get the the biological filtration growing before adding more fish? Food for 2 little clowns probably won't cut it. And what are all these pods eating? There's nothing to eat!

Never started a tank from scratch like this. Always had live rock full of life to begin with.

I assume the tank has completed its cycle?
-If no....just feed the 2 clowns (no additional food) and wait for the cycle completion.
-If yes..good!
Regardless..The cloudiness is most probably an algae bloom or bacterial bloom which is normal for a new tank.(that is what the Pods are feeding on).Your biology is not "strong" enough to consume all the bloom YET. Once the biological filtration kicks in, the bloom will go away and things will clear up.
Easy on the water changes because you do not want to strip the water of its biology.

 

[rygar]

tank has been running for a few months now, but the clowns have only been in it for a few weeks or so. So it's probably not cycled. How can you tell in such a big tank? Will the nitrate spike still show up? Nitrates are at 0 and have been. Ammonia also at 0. Seems like you'd need a lot of stuff in there to get a spike. Don't want to dump all kinds of junk in there all at once to make this happen like you'd do on a smaller tank.

 

[Ricardo18]

tank has been running for a few months now, but the clowns have only been in it for a few weeks or so. So it's probably not cycled. How can you tell in such a big tank? Will the nitrate spike still show up? Nitrates are at 0 and have been. Ammonia also at 0. Seems like you'd need a lot of stuff in there to get a spike. Don't want to dump all kinds of junk in there all at once to make this happen like you'd do on a smaller tank.

Big tank..small tank...its all the same:
Test for Ammonia,has to be 0.00,Nitrite, has to be 0.00.
Your tank is PROBABLY CYCLED.

 

[ADVRESOURCE]

I placed 7 fish in my 240 after two months. The diatom bloom came and went. The PODs are active. The Ammonia was 0 for a while but due to overfeeding is at around 0.25 ppm while nitrate is between 0 and 0.25 ppm. I place a clean up crew and they did a great job on the diatoms.

 

[rygar]

It's been a while since posting. Diatoms are winding down. VERY happy about that.

I've added a blue tang, naso tang, chromis, coral beauty and small cleanup crew...taking it slow. Haven't done much with coral. Just a couple 2 headed candycanes. Once they take off and start splitting, I'll start adding other corals. Might be a while though. Also refugium is not growing caulerpa well at all. So picked up a Reef Octopus 8000 skimmer. Had to do something. Maybe once the tank has aged, I'll focus on developing the refugium more. But for now, seems to be a waste of time.

Currently have 3 royal grammas on order. Thinking a few pyramid butterflys or a few heniochus.
Not a fan of chaotic reef tanks full of fish. So it's one or the other.
What do you guys think? 3 pyramids or 3 heniochus? Or should I go with more of one or the other?

 

[McPuff]

Not a fan of chaotic reef tanks full of fish. So it's one or the other.
What do you guys think? 3 pyramids or 3 heniochus? Or should I go with more of one or the other?

It's a huge tank... I say go for all 6 of them. It will look terrific.

 

[dave.m]

No pictures, no tank.

Dave.M