My First Reef Tank

Well, the good news is my ammonia is starting to drop. I'm down to .75 mg/L. My Nitrite has gone WAY up to 3.5mg/L.

I'm assuming the diatom bloom in the refugium is not a big deal, but do I need to do anything about it? I don't have a light on the main tank right now, and am just using the room light that is above the tank. I have a feeling that since the actinic and white aquarium light on my refugium caused the diatom bloom down there, as soon as I add a light to the main tank, I'll get a similar bloom up there.

My plan is this:

1. Do a 10% water change tomorrow.
2. This week, add a phosban reactor, and activated charcoal in a second reactor.
3. Next weekend, add some washed live sand to the main tank and do another 10% water change.
4. Next week, add cheato and possibly some clean up crew in the refugium.
5. Wait until the ammonia and nitrite get to zero, and then add a light and clean up crew to the main tank at the same time.


Depends on how fast the nitrite starts dropping...I might have to get rushed into this, but at this point it could still be going up for all I know, so I'll just plan on the timeline I'm showing above unless anyone sees any problems or thinks I need to address the diatoms in the refugium immediately.

It appears when I leave the light off in the refugium, the diatom bloom dies back some, so I wasn't planning to run the light anymore until I get some cheato in there and some small cleanup crew to eat the things growing.
 
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I wouldn't do a water change now, that will only prolong your cycle. I would not worry one bit about the diatoms, seems every new tank goes through this phase...
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14245594#post14245594 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by AtomHeart
I CAUGHT THE CRAB!!!! I CAUGHT THE CRAB!!! Detailed pictures of him will be posted tonight.
Click to expand...

Glad to hear you got it!!
 
Here is the culprit. I'll post him up on the Ident. forum and see if anyone knows what it is. He's now happily living in my diatom covered refugium.

crab5.jpg


crab4.jpg


crab3.jpg
 
Ok, got my GFO Reactor and Carbon Reactor on order, along with some dry sand for the display tank. Things are coming along nicely. I'll try to set a trap for the isopods in my refugium in the next day or so...Ammonia is down to .5mg/L and nitrite is way up to 5 mg/L or higher.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14193310#post14193310 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by AtomHeart
Hi whyamisofly,



I intend to get an 2x250w, 4x54w Outer Orbit light eventually, as this is intended to be a mixed reef with clams and sps coral. As for livestock, my intended list for now is:

2 Clark's Clownfish
1 Long Tube Anenome or Bubble Tip Anenome
1 Kole Tang or Orange Tipped Bristletooth Tang
1 Rainford's Goby
2 Psychedelic Dragonets
1 Green Coral Goby
1 Algae Blenny or Diamond Goby
--------------------------------------------------
Click to expand...
Psychedelic Dragonets


Congrats on your setup. Stocklist is great however speaking from experience I would wait on the Dragonets and the Diamond Goby until the tank is established 6+ Months. You need lots of pods for them to eat. In addition, I am not sure that either of them thrive in a bare Bottom tank.. Hopefully somebody will chime in.
 
I think he is putting sand into his display tank. But I agree I would make sure you have a nice established fuge going before you get the dragonets. You can find some dragonets that are eating pellets or frozen every once in a while. They are cool fish!
 
Yea, sand is going in this weekend. Grey Coast by SeaChem.

The dragonettes will be going in the tank at probably the 1 year point. Didn't really think about the Goby, so thanks for bringing that up.

Its exciting, and I hope it can be as nice as those TOTM's someday.
 
Sounds like a good plan. Remember the Diamond is a bigtime carpet surfer. I lost two of them. The first one through the back of my hood (where the hinges are) and the second one was able to find a small gap in the fly screen I put up prevent losses like the first one.
 
Ah...doesn't sound like the Diamond Goby is the right fish for me then. I need to find a good sand sifter that is also still nice to look at. Anyone have a good suggestion for a docile sand sifter?
 
Where you planning to have a open canopy and Pendant lighting? If so you can make a screen 1/4" mesh that will not block the light. I will search for the thread that had the best design.


The Diamond Goby is by far the most attractive one that I know.
 
Yea, I was planning to just have an open top. We'll see.

Tomorrow I'll be adding sand to my system. I have two bags of live sand, and 3 bags of dry sand, that I'll be adding, but I'm really dreading clouding up the whole system for days...not to mention the scum of silt on everything after the water clears. Maybe I just wash the sand as well as possible before adding it to the system. Not sure how to go about this.
 
You first posted posted on D.A.R.C. and I replied about adding your sand first before adding water. I tried helping you out before getting into a mess. You can get a large container and empty out all of your water and rock. Kind of like a mini-startover. When adding water on top of the sand, you could pour the water over your live rock or use plastic bags to break the fall of the water hitting the sand. If enough care is taken you could keep the water pretty clear for the most part.
HTH's ,Jerry
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14265745#post14265745 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by AtomHeart
Ah...doesn't sound like the Diamond Goby is the right fish for me then. I need to find a good sand sifter that is also still nice to look at. Anyone have a good suggestion for a docile sand sifter?
Click to expand...

I had a pair of yellow watchman gobies for about 4 years with no jumping incidents or other issues.
 
Hi Jerry,

Yea, I got and understood your post, and appreciate the advice, however the part that prevented that from being a viable option was that there was a lot of gunk and die-off that had to occur with the dry rock, and I didn't want to have to try to dig all that detritus out of the sand, so it had to be bare bottom for the curing process. I also want the rock to be setting on the glass, instead of on the sandbed. It is a chicken or egg situation to be sure.

Now that the water and rock is in there, there's no way I'm undertaking the chore of removing and storing 120g of saltwater, and 100lbs of rock...I'll just have to rinse the sand to get as much of the cloudiness out of it as possible, lower it into the tank one small cup at a time, and go from there. I don't see any way around a sandstorm, but hopefully it won't be a total disaster, hehe. *crosses fingers*
 
Ah ok...When I added sand to the refugium, I didn't yet have my filter sock on...but now I do have a 200micron filter sock, so maybe that will minimize the issue. The last time it only took 48 hours to clear back up. Plus this sand isn't nearly as fine grained as the sugar fine stuff that went in my refugium's deep sand bed.
 
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