Pictures!

fishyfun2

fishyfun2

Member
Ok, here is my tank about 1 week ago. Now it is covered in diatoms!!!! CUC is working hard, but maybe i need to kill the lights for awhile. I'm running both the daylights & actinics about 11 hours a day. Do you think 10 hermits, 1 emerald crab, and 2 snails (1 astrea, and 1 mexican turbo) are not enough for this size tank?

 
anthony17

anthony17

Member
looks good just take it slow and dont rush things, i like your rock work, cant wait to see it when you get your fish, and yea that sound like a good clean up crew i dont think it would hurt to get maybe a few snails
 
subielover

subielover

Active Member
Has the tank cycled? If not I wouldn't add anything else until ammonia, nitrite and nitrate are all at 0. If it has cycled then I would add some cerith and nassarius snails.
 
fishyfun2

fishyfun2

Member
Thanks! The stand was a piece of furniture we used as a microwave stand, i had painted it white years ago. And then my crafty hubby built the canopy to hold my light more securely. The legs that came with it were a little wiggly.
Glad you like it!
 
fishyfun2

fishyfun2

Member
Originally Posted by subielover
http:///forum/post/2920317
Has the tank cycled? If not I wouldn't add anything else until ammonia, nitrite and nitrate are all at 0. If it has cycled then I would add some cerith and nassarius snails.
Subie, that is an interesting question. My tank cycled extremely fast! Like less than 2 weeks. I am testing it every 1-2 days, and these are my results from basically the past week, it's the same every time. Had some issues at first with low pH, but that seems to have resolved with water changes.
pH = 8.2
Amm = 0
Nitrites = 0
Nitrates = 0-5
Alk = nml range
Temp = 76
SG = 1.024
Ammonia got only up 0.25 ppm, and trites went to 1.0 pp, and trates went to 10 ppm. I had brittlestars that came in on my rock and didn't want to hard cycle, so i did partial water changes every few days to keep amm down at that level. They all survived and are doing great. I added the CUC the last few days and have had no spikes at all. They are all thriving as far as i can tell. Also, forgot to mention i have a cleaner shrimp in there, i'm feeding him frozen carnivore food 2x a day and still have no spikes happening. How do i know when i'm ready for a fish?
 
reefman22

reefman22

Member
In a new tank, if you have the lights on for multiple hours a day, it is common to see algae blooms. If you want to cut back on the algae build up, you can cut the hours your lights are on to under 8. That will keep it in check at least while the tank is still young.
reefman
 
aquaguy24

aquaguy24

Active Member
don't get to excited about the algea...just cut back on the lights and the algea should go away on its own..its a new tank so it will go through some algea stages..nothin to worry about unless u have hair algea all over or cyano takes over then u might want to check ur water source and such..as for the cuc, i'd do a few turbo snails and a couple emerald crabs for now and see how it goes..i'd ditch the hermits..they will kill the snails for shells and food..good luck...
 
aquaguy24

aquaguy24

Active Member
forgot to mention that ur tank looks awesome..great start..couple more lbs. of live rock should do the trick...
 
fishyfun2

fishyfun2

Member
I'm using a koralia nano (240 gph) & then my filter is 300 gph. I've thought about adding another one soon. I've noticed that the coralliine algae is coming on nicely in the areas of higher flow?
 
happitylogan

happitylogan

Member
If you move this to the nano section I bet you'd get 10Xs the posts you have here :) the nano ppl tend to post alot and are very helpful.
your tank looks awesome on that stand with the canopy
 
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