Noob turning fresh tank to reef

[Oiler3535]

Went away for a week. Think the house sitters fed tank too much. Fish all fine (2 Ocellaris, 2 Banggais, and a Royal Gramma). Ammonia 0, phosphate nearer 0 than the first colour on API test, and Nitrates indistinguishable from the 0 colour. But tank covered in hair algae, and other algaes on sand and glass (orange spots?). Got a brown emerald crab (cousin to emerald?), but no snails at lfs. Going to bigger store Tuesday so hoping to grab a tailspot blenny (very unlikely), a few Astraea, a few zombie snails, and a few Trochus. Hopefully help. And yes, I scraped everything I could and did a 20% water change first thing. Kinda amused by the hermit crab with the Trump hair though.

 

[Jon0807]

I think you're going way too fast on the fish stocking. And a QT can consist of a little 5 to 10 gallon tank. Heck, you can even use one of those plastic totes. It's not something you have to keep running, just enough to go through the quarantine process.

 

[Oiler3535]

I realize about the stocking. But lfs never gets Banggais. Started with the gramma, then a couple of weeks later got the Banggais be they actually had them. Then a week later was given the clownfish. Wasn't planned.

 

[schnebbles]

I think you need a bunch more live rock. It's crucial for your tank from what I know. I also switched from fresh back in October. I've crashed it twice 2nd time I'm sure was me not doing my water changes and over feeding. I'm sill afraid I over feed but doing my wc's weekly.

The rock is so important to keep everything operating.

It's heartbreaking when you crash it and lose your fish. Not saying you will, just telling you my mistakes over the past year.

I'm so glad to see Sk8er told us how the canister is bad, I've been running one but I think I'll remove all of the bio balls/sponges from it and switch it to something else in it. I like it merely for the water flow at the top of the tank from the spray bar. I never understood just why they were bad. Now I get it!

Good luck!

 

[Oiler3535]

Ya. I've got a good 50lbs of dead rock curing. Not ready yet though.

 

[schnebbles]

Ya. I've got a good 50lbs of dead rock curing. Not ready yet though.

awesome! I think when I got mine I mixed my rock so it all went in right away. Never thought of that and if you mentioned it I didn't see it.

ps - starry blennies are the coolest fish! I lost mine in my 2nd crash and just got another one and I realize how I missed mine. they are cool. I got a flame hawk too and I'm awaiting him to get adjusted because they are pretty neat too but he's hiding around my skimmer (no sump). i got him Thursday so I'm hoping he comes out of hiding soon. I watched one at the store quite a while before I made my mind up to get one.

 

[Oiler3535]

Never seen a starry blenny. I wanted a tail spot. Will look that one up! My lfs only seems to get bicolour or red lipped, and not sure how reef safe those are.

 

[Oiler3535]

Starry blenny looks great, but says it gets over 4-5 inches and already near max bioload in my tank (yes I know many would say I've blown way past that already lol---seen many people say I should have 4-5 inches of fish total in my 46g)

 

[Oiler3535]

Diatom bloom on sand. Phosphates and Nitrates negligible. Driving the 90 minutes into the city Tuesday, so hopefully my lfs (until closes in a month) has some good clean up crew in stock. Hoping for some Astraea, trochus, zombie snails, and maybe a shrimp or two.

 

[Oiler3535]

Cannot find any snails anywhere. The couple of emerald crabs have decimated the hair algae, and I scraped the glass well before a water change and looking much better. Managed to get 1 Astraea snail, but always upside down and eventually a hermit got it. Never seemed to do a damned thing. LFS keeping snails on order for me and hopefully get some at some point. They will have a tiger blenny, which while I wanted a tail spot which they can't get, looks good.