dacia
Active Member
I am really loving my tank so far! I set it up about a month ago and it is doing great. It's a 75 gallon tank with a 30 gallon sump/fuge. I had the water circulating with the live rock for about a week before putting anything into it.
Right now I have a large black & white perc that has been there for 2 weeks. I also have a powder brown tang whcih I introduced a week ago. They get along great, and the tang is a voracious eater.
I have to place food on both sides of the tank so the 2 fish don't go after the same pieces of food! It's funny to watch, though.
I wanted to go slow with the CUC, because I have a feeling that my DSB in the 55 crashed because the CUC was too large. So I started out getting just 2 Turbo snails a couple of weeks ago when I got the clownfish. They went to town on the rocks and are still doing pretty good.
I also bought some corals which are doing beautifully. I bought a colt coral, yellow polyps, yellow leather, and a carnation coral...the carnation is fully opened now, and it even looks better than when I purchased it (he was a new arrival at the store and didn't have much time in their tank, so it didn't open up all the way there). The carnation is 2 weeks old and others are 1 week. I am extremely pleased with how great they look! I plan on posting pictures soon.
The water params were never high or out of control. The live rock was previously in my 55 gallon tank, so when I moved it into the 75 there was already a fair bit of coralline algae growth along with some other things like feather dusters and sponges. I also have some purple mushrooms on one of the pieces of rock which are now at least double the size they were just last week. I would normally wait at least a month before stocking a new tank, but I tested the water and noticed that the cycle was going pretty quickly...and I attribute this to the "used" live rock with all the organisms already present on it, and the fact that I scrubbed the crap out of it and let it soak in a dark rubbermaid tub for a week before adding it to the new tank (I was trying to start my 75 completely new).
Today I noticed diatoms had formed literally overnight on some of the rocks, part of the substrate, and part of the tank wall. I examined the rocks and found that this was the ONLY noticable algae. I had a problem with green bubble algae in the 55, but after scrubbing the rock and killing it off in the dark rubbermaid tub, I haven't seen any of that mess. I also don't see any hair algae forming. So, once again, I believe the tank is progressing nicely for being as new as it is. Everything looks great and appears to be healthy...I just hope the tang slows his eating down because he's gonna eat a hole through my wallet, haha!
Yes, I do have questions...
As I said before, I think my problems in the 55 were mainly caused by a too large CUC. I think that when the snails, hermits, etc. started dying off, the water params were out of control and even frequent (weekly and sometimes even twice a week) 25-50% water changes didn't really help. Sure, it would help for a couple of days, but it was seriously hard to keep up with it. I had hair algae, bubble algae, brown algae (looked like diatoms, but the tank was 5 years old?), and even some (yuck) red algae that looked like bubble algae. It overtook the tank FAST, and it was very hard to keep yanking all the nastiness out everyday. Even a couple of my corals died. es/crybaby.gif" border="0" alt="" title="cry" class="inlineimg" />
I DO NOT WANT THAT TO HAPPEN AGAIN!!!
So...
Should I get anything to add to my CUC now that the diatoms are showing up, or just let my 2 Turbos attempt to eat everything in sight? I am really wary of crabs, even hermits, because of the chance that they might nip the corals...or the hermits attack the snails for their shells. I have crushed coral substrate this time around, so sand sifters wouldn't do me much good.
How much longer would you wait before getting more corals and fish? I want to get a few more fish and various corals to finish out the tank eventually. I would love to get an anemone, but will probably skip it since they are hard to care for...and I don't want my clown to get territorial anyway since he is getting along with the tang so great right now.
Should I start the weekly water changes now since it appears the cycle is coming to a close? I think that this will lower the silicates and nitrates slowing algal growth, and I really can't think of much else that will do that. I was thinking of getting one of those nitrate sponges to run in my filter, but how well do they work? Are they a waste of money? Also, I am going to start tossing some macros into the fuge soon. What are the best ones to get? And should I use just a regular flourescent light over the sump/fuge for them?
Thanks for the help. I will hopefully get some pictures up pretty soon, too!
Right now I have a large black & white perc that has been there for 2 weeks. I also have a powder brown tang whcih I introduced a week ago. They get along great, and the tang is a voracious eater.
I wanted to go slow with the CUC, because I have a feeling that my DSB in the 55 crashed because the CUC was too large. So I started out getting just 2 Turbo snails a couple of weeks ago when I got the clownfish. They went to town on the rocks and are still doing pretty good.
I also bought some corals which are doing beautifully. I bought a colt coral, yellow polyps, yellow leather, and a carnation coral...the carnation is fully opened now, and it even looks better than when I purchased it (he was a new arrival at the store and didn't have much time in their tank, so it didn't open up all the way there). The carnation is 2 weeks old and others are 1 week. I am extremely pleased with how great they look! I plan on posting pictures soon.
The water params were never high or out of control. The live rock was previously in my 55 gallon tank, so when I moved it into the 75 there was already a fair bit of coralline algae growth along with some other things like feather dusters and sponges. I also have some purple mushrooms on one of the pieces of rock which are now at least double the size they were just last week. I would normally wait at least a month before stocking a new tank, but I tested the water and noticed that the cycle was going pretty quickly...and I attribute this to the "used" live rock with all the organisms already present on it, and the fact that I scrubbed the crap out of it and let it soak in a dark rubbermaid tub for a week before adding it to the new tank (I was trying to start my 75 completely new).
Today I noticed diatoms had formed literally overnight on some of the rocks, part of the substrate, and part of the tank wall. I examined the rocks and found that this was the ONLY noticable algae. I had a problem with green bubble algae in the 55, but after scrubbing the rock and killing it off in the dark rubbermaid tub, I haven't seen any of that mess. I also don't see any hair algae forming. So, once again, I believe the tank is progressing nicely for being as new as it is. Everything looks great and appears to be healthy...I just hope the tang slows his eating down because he's gonna eat a hole through my wallet, haha!
Yes, I do have questions...
As I said before, I think my problems in the 55 were mainly caused by a too large CUC. I think that when the snails, hermits, etc. started dying off, the water params were out of control and even frequent (weekly and sometimes even twice a week) 25-50% water changes didn't really help. Sure, it would help for a couple of days, but it was seriously hard to keep up with it. I had hair algae, bubble algae, brown algae (looked like diatoms, but the tank was 5 years old?), and even some (yuck) red algae that looked like bubble algae. It overtook the tank FAST, and it was very hard to keep yanking all the nastiness out everyday. Even a couple of my corals died. es/crybaby.gif" border="0" alt="" title="cry" class="inlineimg" />
I DO NOT WANT THAT TO HAPPEN AGAIN!!!
So...
Should I get anything to add to my CUC now that the diatoms are showing up, or just let my 2 Turbos attempt to eat everything in sight? I am really wary of crabs, even hermits, because of the chance that they might nip the corals...or the hermits attack the snails for their shells. I have crushed coral substrate this time around, so sand sifters wouldn't do me much good.
How much longer would you wait before getting more corals and fish? I want to get a few more fish and various corals to finish out the tank eventually. I would love to get an anemone, but will probably skip it since they are hard to care for...and I don't want my clown to get territorial anyway since he is getting along with the tang so great right now.
Should I start the weekly water changes now since it appears the cycle is coming to a close? I think that this will lower the silicates and nitrates slowing algal growth, and I really can't think of much else that will do that. I was thinking of getting one of those nitrate sponges to run in my filter, but how well do they work? Are they a waste of money? Also, I am going to start tossing some macros into the fuge soon. What are the best ones to get? And should I use just a regular flourescent light over the sump/fuge for them?
Thanks for the help. I will hopefully get some pictures up pretty soon, too!
