chaseter's biocube nano extravaganza

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nemo_66

Guest
i would have to suggest you stop using so many additives. you said you used some bacteria from the lfs, and i guess thats ok. ive personally never used it. but calm down, the brown algae will go away with time. your snails havent even gotten to it yet. lol
you cant solve all your problems with additives, but you can solve most with patience.
my tank has been cycling for around 2-3 weeks now, and its still not ready, but i havent added any additives, or anything else to make it go faster. just wait a little.
 

chaseter

Member
Not to sound rude but how is one additive, bacteria starter culture, "so many additives?"
I just don't want the stuff to overrun my aquarium and make it look like crap. I have enough cuc in there to take care of it all so if they don't remedy the problem, I will have to look into additives to eliminate it.
If it is brown algae, it just doesn't go away on its own, or so I read.
 

chaseter

Member
Well the source of the problem, as I read, are silicates and nitrates. Now I use RO water so that eliminates tap water as a source. But, I get sw that is premixed from the LFS so that might contain some silicates from their salt mix. I don't overfeed so I know that isn't the problem and I only have one fish and I know he isn't producing enough nitrites->nitrates to sustain all that algae.
So, the only course of action I can think of is adding something to their water when I get it to eliminate any silicate. I also have my refugium so that should be taking care of trates anyways. I honestly can't think of what else might be causing it.
I can wait it out, I just don't want it to get too out of control that I have to take all the rock out to cure it with no light to kill all that crap. I would think you would want to get on top of it to stop the spread of it as quick as you can because it has no benefit to the aquarium.
 
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nemo_66

Guest
i didnt say you added a lot of additives, i just said you shouldnt add so many addittives.
 

chaseter

Member
I will give this a couple of weeks. If it gets worse, then I have to be proactive about it. Either my cuc are all lazy d-bags or the salt water I buy premixed is feeding that algae so I will need to add something to it to eliminate the silicates. Buying it premixed is a lot easier than using tap water and having to mess with de-chlorinators and all that jazz.
 

chaseter

Member
A few updates!
I bought some more cuc and they took care of that algae in about 5 days! A little more costly than water additives but I agree in that I want to stay away from as much non needed chemicals as I can. So, crisis averted!
One of my snails had babies! She made a long string of eggs on the glass and they hatched today. You can see tiny tiny little specs slowly moving around. Hopefully they grow up and I can trade those little turds at my LFS for something neato!
We got our second fish. Since this is also my brother's tank, we went halfzies, he picked out a firefish. Now, I really didn't want the thing as imo they aren't the coolest looking fish and they hide a lot. Well I was shocked to find out that the little firefish is now best friends with the goby! We were scared when we first put in Firefish (that's his name haha) because Mr. Goby came leaping out of his cave that he guards and nipped at Firefish. Firefish stayed up swimming around all night so we were a bit worried. The next day when I wake up to turn on the lights, those two were asleep side by side in the cave! Now, they both come out together and they both sleep together. It is hilarious.
I will post pics later.
 

socalnano24

Active Member
Sounds like things are going well. Good luck with the new firefish. What kind? Red or purple? in my experience diatom blooms can happen for the first few months and don't necesarily mean you doing anything wrong. Sounds like your cuc is kicking --- now though
 

chaseter

Member
It's a red firefish.
All of my corals are doing excellent as well.
The yellow polyp I posted before has now doubled in size and a new polyp is already growing. I didn't know those suckers ate fish flakes but it eats everytime I feed the fish and it is growing at a crazy rate.
I also would like some suggestions on some beautiful corals that are good for my 14 and will thrive under my lighting. I already have a couple of zoo frags.
 

chaseter

Member
An update:
Week before last, after more extensive research than before, I decided to get another anemone and hold off on another fish. After my bubble died, which in fact I think I bought a sick/dying one already, I decided to get a hardier anemone. I picked a little white, purple tipped sebae. Unlike my first anem, this one found a foothold in my cave:( Well, that caused Goby and Firefish to not be able to hang out in their favorite place. I feed the anem for a few days and then moved him to the front in a nice piece of hollow live rock. Now he resides there!

I have had him for nearly 2 weeks now and he is doing great. Yesterday, he shrunk to almost nothing and I thought he was dying but he was still eating so I believe he was exchanging the water in his body. Sure enough he is back to normal right now.
I do weekly water changes because I don't have purigen yet. The refugium is still going good and nothing has died.
 

chaseter

Member
Everything is still doing great. Bought a couple new zoas.
I still do weekly water changes and all params are perfect. I have a little bit of hair algae growing but I put in some phosguard and growth stopped while my snails chomp down on it.
 

chaseter

Member
Oooohhhh! I went today to the LFS to perouse their wonderful selection of frags. Well, they had a large piece of LR with some polyps on them. But, inside the LR was a colony of tiny brittle stars. There were easily 4 I could see. So, I bought that sucka.
I go back every week to look for some cheaper frogspawn frags. They have only had large pieces that were 50-60 bucks:( Anyways, today they had a frag for 20 bucks so I snatched that too. I can't wait for my tank to grow and when those star fish grow, trade them suckas in!
Also, I cleaned the refugium today and there were baby shrimp in it. I was like WTF!? I picked one up and it looked exactly like a shrimp. Anybody know what it could possibly be? I didn't murder it as I didn't know if it was a pest species but it was almost clear and as I said, looked like a tiny tiny shrimp. If he is a bad guy, I know where he lives:eek:
 

socalnano24

Active Member
probably just copepods, thats a good sign for your fuge. Some look like shrimp or mini lobsters while others look kind of similar to clear rolly polleys. Your fish will eat em, and they consume detritus.
 
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