My First Reef Tank
- Thread starter AtomHeart
- Start date
LooseHip
Foaming Conehead
Source water? RO/DI, tap, store bought?
AtomHeart
New member
RO/DI with 0 reading on the TDS meter. most of he algae is red and dying but there are some green spots. regardless, the algae never goes away. I think it's a matter of running the tank so long with an inadequate cuc. I added an urchin last week that seems to be mowing good swaths. adding a second urchin tonight. I'll let it run for a few weeks with some grazers in the tank and see how it affects things.
AtomHeart
New member
by the way, current stock list is:
1 diamond goby
2 tailspot blennys
1 two-spot tang
1 pincushion urchin
1 tuxedo urchin
4 emerald crabs
2 peppermint shrimp
1 cleaner shrimp
1 pistol shrimp
2 scarlet hermit crabs
1 dwarf hermit crab
1 arrow crab
8 asters snails
6 nassarius snails
1 flame scallop
4 tiger turbo snails
seems like a lot but the tank still seems pretty empty.
1 diamond goby
2 tailspot blennys
1 two-spot tang
1 pincushion urchin
1 tuxedo urchin
4 emerald crabs
2 peppermint shrimp
1 cleaner shrimp
1 pistol shrimp
2 scarlet hermit crabs
1 dwarf hermit crab
1 arrow crab
8 asters snails
6 nassarius snails
1 flame scallop
4 tiger turbo snails
seems like a lot but the tank still seems pretty empty.
AtomHeart
New member
In these shots, you can see my algae problem. You can also see the areas where the urchins and snails have shaved away the algae, so hopefully in a week or two, we will have bare rock as a background for my corals to start going on.
Nino, sure I would be happy to help you out. Getting started can be a bit daunting, so I tried to give a step by step in this post as much as I could, but anything I missed, I'd be happy to talk with you about. Just let me know when you have questions. There are many here that are much more knowledgable than myself, as well.
Eric
AtomHeart
New member
Well, the algae is almost gone. Had a huge scare this week when I noticed a patch of hydrogen sulfide and a rotten egg smell coming from the refugium. I managed to isolate the fuge and get everything cleaned out. Now there's just a ball of cheato and some live rock rubble down there. The fish are all doing great, including the purple tang that was a little nervous at first. Time to get some corals. the Mexican turbos kicked some butt on that algae! Got some new tank shots to add too as soon as I download them from my camera. Things are going great.
AtomHeart
New member
well, I jynxed it! tested my nitrates and they have skyrocketed to 25mg/l in the three days since the deep sand bed came out. I'm praying the flame scallop doesn't die and nuke my tank. tonight I'm putting a new fresh 40lbs of sand in the fuge and doing a 20 gallon water change.
AtomHeart
New member
Ok, Here's the current situation for all you learners who are following the thread and trying to avoid the mistakes I've made:
The new sandbed is in, and looking pristine and wonderful. This time I know to watch for detritus build-up and keep the thing relatively clean, though stirring and siphoning doesn't appear to be allowed. As such I am going to stock the refugium with an assortment of detrivores to help churn the sand and keep the detritus eaten and processed. I plan to try ordering a detrivore kit from www.inlandaquatics.com and see how that goes.
Nitrates are being kept down by 20 gallon water changes every two days. I figure my total water volume for the tank and refugium and plumbing is in the 140 to 150 gallon range after sand and rock is accounted for.
Snails and Urchins that were added are doing a great job of removing the nuisance algae, and that could also be contributing to the rise in nitrates. I expect the algae to be gone for all intents and purposes in another week. That is with 1 pincushion urchin, 1 tuxedo urchin, and 6 mexican turbos.
I also put in 4 emerald crabs, and I believe two of them died suddenly (possibly because of nitrates?) yesterday, but it could have been molting...can't say for sure. Flame scallop still appears to be hanging in there and appears healthy. I continue target feeding daily with phytoplankton and oyster egg and hoping the nitrates (which are at 15 mg/l now) wont be intollerable for it.
Have a fresh ball of Cheatomorpha in the refugium over the top of the fresh sandbed, and some bits of live rock rubble.
Bottom line: Deep Sand Bed of 4" deep oolitic sand in my refugium was definitely doing a lot of denitrification on the system, as I had just tested nitrates at 0 two days before removing it, and they tested at 25mg/l two days after removing it. Cheatomorpha would not keep up, hence the need to reintroduce a deep sand bed, however, I can't say if the system's bacteria would have eventually readjusted and overcome the nitrates or not. It's possible that leaving things alone would have been fine, but I like the deep sand bed for growing little critters in the refugium, so I went back to it.
Cyanobactera was receding quite a bit thanks to the mexican turbos, but eventually the receeding stoped, so I decided to go ahead and do a 2 day cyano-bacteria treatment with Chemi-Clean starting last night. Was probably a bad time to have to turn off the skimmer, and remove the activated charcoal and phosban, but I couldn't stand staring at the cyanobacteria any longer with the other problems finally clearing up. Tomorrow night, I will report on the state of the tank after turning back on the skimmer, doing a 20 gallon water change, and reinstalling fresh phosban and charcoal.
WHEW! This hobby can be demanding at times. *pant, pant, pant* Anyone about to get into reefkeeping needs to know what they're getting into!
The new sandbed is in, and looking pristine and wonderful. This time I know to watch for detritus build-up and keep the thing relatively clean, though stirring and siphoning doesn't appear to be allowed. As such I am going to stock the refugium with an assortment of detrivores to help churn the sand and keep the detritus eaten and processed. I plan to try ordering a detrivore kit from www.inlandaquatics.com and see how that goes.
Nitrates are being kept down by 20 gallon water changes every two days. I figure my total water volume for the tank and refugium and plumbing is in the 140 to 150 gallon range after sand and rock is accounted for.
Snails and Urchins that were added are doing a great job of removing the nuisance algae, and that could also be contributing to the rise in nitrates. I expect the algae to be gone for all intents and purposes in another week. That is with 1 pincushion urchin, 1 tuxedo urchin, and 6 mexican turbos.
I also put in 4 emerald crabs, and I believe two of them died suddenly (possibly because of nitrates?) yesterday, but it could have been molting...can't say for sure. Flame scallop still appears to be hanging in there and appears healthy. I continue target feeding daily with phytoplankton and oyster egg and hoping the nitrates (which are at 15 mg/l now) wont be intollerable for it.
Have a fresh ball of Cheatomorpha in the refugium over the top of the fresh sandbed, and some bits of live rock rubble.
Bottom line: Deep Sand Bed of 4" deep oolitic sand in my refugium was definitely doing a lot of denitrification on the system, as I had just tested nitrates at 0 two days before removing it, and they tested at 25mg/l two days after removing it. Cheatomorpha would not keep up, hence the need to reintroduce a deep sand bed, however, I can't say if the system's bacteria would have eventually readjusted and overcome the nitrates or not. It's possible that leaving things alone would have been fine, but I like the deep sand bed for growing little critters in the refugium, so I went back to it.
Cyanobactera was receding quite a bit thanks to the mexican turbos, but eventually the receeding stoped, so I decided to go ahead and do a 2 day cyano-bacteria treatment with Chemi-Clean starting last night. Was probably a bad time to have to turn off the skimmer, and remove the activated charcoal and phosban, but I couldn't stand staring at the cyanobacteria any longer with the other problems finally clearing up. Tomorrow night, I will report on the state of the tank after turning back on the skimmer, doing a 20 gallon water change, and reinstalling fresh phosban and charcoal.
WHEW! This hobby can be demanding at times. *pant, pant, pant* Anyone about to get into reefkeeping needs to know what they're getting into!
AtomHeart
New member
First two pictures are old pics, before the algae completely overgrew everything. The rest are the two short weeks of turbo snails, urchins, lighting change, water changes, changing out of deep sandbed in the refugium, cheato, and two changes of phosban and carbon...you can see the algae slowly melt away till there is literally almost none left. I think the lights I had were far too "red" and now that I'm running blue lighting, the algae can't hang on against all the other ways I'm attacking it.
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