take over of a nano reef

M

Matrajeous

Member
Hi there all I currently have a 20 gallon long nano reef going at home. I started itwhile up in college and transported it home with the help of the local aquaculture majors at my college. the tank is like a said a 20 long with a coralife compact light source, a cascade filter, and a nano fission protein skimmer. (I have experience with a larger tank approx 75+ gallons.) ok back to the nano. Once i got the tank home and re-set all of the equipment, live rock, live sand, loghts and what not back in the tank at home the temperature in the tank went to extremes of mid 80s,and the tank was over ridden with brown algae. my inverts are still alive ( 5 blue leg hermits, and 2 scarlet hermits, 1 margarita turbo snail) minus a few snails that i bought recently that are dropping like flies. a local pet store at home suggested that i take the glass cover off the tank and put the coralife compact on the riser legs. so I did so, it helped with the temperature decreasing it now to about 76-78 degress durring the day. to get rid of the brown algae i have a magnet scraper and bought some more snails. as i mentioned earlier the snails are dying rapidly , all water conditions are proper and normal, and the phosphates are normal. the brown algae is now being accompanyied by the only way for me to describe it is white/grayish spiderwebs around the bases of my live rock. What is that? anyone have ideas? suggestions? Im new to here so if anyone can help me out to get rid of this brown algae and spider webs please let me know. could i have killed my live sand in transport? hope to hear from anyone soon.
 
[welcome]

The new snails may be dying from acclimation shock, either to your tank or at the store. It takes a while for it to happen.

The brown algae, probably diatoms or cyano, are normal after moving a tank and disturbing the biological filter.

The "spider webs" are probably mucous coats coming of dead organisms due to the move.

Your best bet is to test for ammonia, add carbon to remove DOCs (dissolved organic compounds), set the skimmer to remove a wet skimmate, use a turkey baster to get the organics into the water column, do water changes, and have a cold beer or six (if you're of age of course).

Good Luck,
 
Thanx I will try more water changes i hgave been dumping the wet skimmate from the skimmer frequently its very light in color. I already have carbon as part as the filter substrate in the cascade filter. Last i checked i had no ammonia. I will try to do more water changes and c if that has an affect on anything. I am also running the tank on minimal light to try and reduce the algae growth. I will keep ya posted thanx again
 
no my fish died in transport I just purchased some damsels that i have in a quarentine tank to make sure they don't have anything that i will b putting in the tank by the end of this week. but other than that only inverts the hermit crabs and snails. they are the only things that survived the transport
 
You didn't mention nitrate readings.

I'm assuming pretty much everything on the rocks is dead.

If so, I'd put all the rock in a bucket with water(matched conditions), then clean out the tank, siphon off any detrius from the sand,etc.. . Scrub off each rock then rinse off in another bucket of SW then return to tank. You'll probably have a bit of a re-cycle. Also, if there's nothing else that needs light, I would just keep it off.

If you do have some living matter still on the rocks, I'd similar to the above, but just be more careful of what you remove from the rock.
 
I do still hgave living matter on my rocks nice coraline on there as well my feather dusters come out every once in a while, nitrate readings are good. i also have worms and wut not on the rocks at night don't really see them much durring the day. there is a depleted number of them from when i first started the tank but sum none the less. I will try rinsing them all off. should i try to introduce new live sand???? cause the spider webs and brown algae are all over the sand with a little on the rocks.
 
Probably not, most of the stuff should be on top of the sand. Just start a siphon with a hose and wave the end of the hose over the sand layer to suck up anything deposited on it.
 
would u recoment getting sand from an established tank at the pet store or just buying a bag of the pre packaged live sand? or even still i have a bunch of very fine white sand should i just put that in and add live rock or the crushed coral is better??? this whole nano stuff is new to me and was working great i just don't know where it went wrong. while im doing all this should i put my hermits and snails int he quarentine tank with the damsels? thanx for all the help again guys
 
most people say crushed coral is not too good for nanos, it allows stuff to become trapped in it (poo, etc) and will raise your nitrates.
 
so go with the super fine bagged dry sand then? i had that in a 40 gallon tank i had a little over a yr ago. I liked the look but for this time i tried the packaged live sand. It worked for a while but i dunno. thoughts?? suggestions???
 
yes go with the pre-packaged live sand
it has an experation date on it so check that
then let your tank cycle and once you have a reading of 0 ammonia and nitrite then you may add 1 fish at a time and take it slow
that is the trick to this hobby
VERY slow
 
ok sounds like a plan i have 4 damsels in a quarentine tank, i will take out all my inverts and place them in the quarentine tank as well, clean my live rock and get rid of the old sand and place in new live sand, maybe sum new live rock since the rock i have still has life to it. Re-cycle the tank and c where it goes.... start with minimal light and wut not, last tyme i started with 4 hours a day and worked my way up. ok i will try this again hopefully since i am starting over we will c how it goes... although i will be back on here in a few months when it is tyme to go back to school on how to transport everything properly.
 
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