New to SW and new to RC!! My 30g build

[PAreefer40]

Just a little update. Going to pick up a nice piece of LR I found a my LFS tomorrow. Covered in coralline algae, also had a clam and a coral on it, but forget which kind of coral at the moment. Pics will be uploaded!!!

 

[adambom]

If you're planning on upgrading to a bigger tank in the immediate future I wouldn't invest too heavily in gear for this tank, as it will likely need to be re-purchased when you get that 90gal.

 

[PAreefer40]

If you're planning on upgrading to a bigger tank in the immediate future I wouldn't invest too heavily in gear for this tank, as it will likely need to be re-purchased when you get that 90gal.

Ok so the guy at the LFS talked me out of getting the LR. I'm just going to wait until I set up my 90gal

But I did pick up 5 turbo snails and 5 hermits.

 

[PAreefer40]

Just a little update on my tank. Lost a hermit the other day. Everyone else seems to be fine.
oh 8.0
Ammonia and nitrite 0
Nitrate 20ppm
Phosphate .25ppm
Ca 340
KH 11

I'm having a huge algae bloom in my tank, green algae all over the walls. But on a good note, I think I'm starting to get coralline algae.

 

[PAreefer40]

And this is from this morning. So it's definitely growing.

 

[PAreefer40]

Unfortunately, what I thought was coralline, I'm starting to think now that it is cyano.

 

[Mythicalelf]

Nice looking fish!

 

[PAreefer40]

Nice looking fish!

Thank you!!!!

 

[PAreefer40]

Woke up today, and my tank is covered in green film algae. I'm not sure why it's such a bloom though. Phosphates are low, but then again nitrates are a little high at 20ppm. So this morning before I left for work (didn't have much time) I used the mag float on the front and side walls and did a 10gal water change.

What I thought was coralline (in the previous pictures the lighter color pink on the left) is, in fact, cyano.
I may be ordering a clean up crew. I don't think the 5 turbos are enough.

 

[PAreefer40]

Does anyone know if I can scrap (mag float) the walls every day without doing water changes?

 

[chefbill]

I do, your skimmer should take it out of the water column

 

[OrQidz]

How often are you cleaning the canister filter? Sorry if you already said...but decaying stuff in there will lead to algae problems.

 

[stingeragent]

In my experience, CUC don't do anything for cyano. I had a huge bloom of it and it started to take over the whole tank. It was in a new tank and honestly looked pretty at first until it engulfed everything. Try to get out manually as much as you can.

 

[PAreefer40]

How often are you cleaning the canister filter? Sorry if you already said...but decaying stuff in there will lead to algae problems.

To be honest I wasn't cleaning it as regular as I should, I cleaned it yesterday and I'm going to make it a regular cleaning every 3 days.

In my experience, CUC don't do anything for cyano. I had a huge bloom of it and it started to take over the whole tank. It was in a new tank and honestly looked pretty at first until it engulfed everything. Try to get out manually as much as you can.

I did get some out manually, but it looks like my snails and hermits are keeping it back to a point. I have to get the rest out on my next water change tomorrow.

 

[PAreefer40]

I have not put a skimmer on this tank yet, as I am in the process of setting up my 90g and everything in this tank will be moved over and the 30 will become the sump. (this tank is sumpless) In the mean time I'm going to use a spare 10g I have laying around and put a skimmer in there, given that I can find a good skimmer in the $300 range that I will then be able to use on my 90g when that gets up and running.

But I am really starting to see the need for the skimmer. When the skimmer goes on, the canister is coming off.

 

[PAreefer40]

Is anyone able to help me with choosing a good skimmer I would be able to use on the 30 and then the 90g once I get that up and running? The plan is to cycle the 90 then move everything from the 30 into the 90 and convert the 30 into a sump. But I didn't want to have to buy 2 skimmers. I have been looking at the Super Reef Octopus skimmers.

Thanks for the help

 

[PAreefer40]

So last night I got some new livestock for my tank. I got a arc-eye hawk fish and a bubble tip anenome.

Here is the hawk fish

 

[PAreefer40]

Here is the BTA

 

[PAreefer40]

welcome to the forum! the fish look so cute. yes, diatom on the sandbed. good luck

Diatoms are gone. Have been for a few weeks now.

Here's my tank before the hem and hawkfish were added

 

[PAreefer40]

Actually that's not even a good picture lol. I'll upload one later tonight.