4,5 months IN, tank ugly stage?

[Gabbone]

Hi guys,

I am posting because I'd like your opinion.

My tank has a bit more then 4 months and everything is doing great and fine.

In the last month my rocks (the fake purple ones), started to cover of green and this should be normal as part of the maturing process.

Now I am noticing that also the sand in the front of the tank it's starting to "greenish-brownish" a bit. (See pictures).

I'd like to know if this is part of the maturing phase and I should or (should not) worried about it.

Here's my parameters (which I believe are on point since I am very strict)

F: 77*
S: 1024-1025
Ph: 8.3
Alk: 9.2dKh
CA: 440
Mg: 1475
NO3: 10ppm
PO4: 0.05ppm
WC: 15% every week
Lighting: Red Sea Reef Led 45: 12h blue only at 50% intensity + 3 hours moonlight. (It's a small tank, 30g AIO)
I also clean the front+side glass of the tank almost every day because green algae dots and brown dirt are formed.
I dose alk and trace colors every day.
I run skimmer, white cottons and a po4 remover. I made sure the tank is not starving and po4 are ALWAYS present, but in a decent range (0.05-0.1). If it goes too low, I dose Coral ab+ to raise a bit. (I know 0po4/0no3 or low values causes algae outbreak).

CUC is on point! Lots of "sand cleaners" including fighting conches, mitra mitra, cleaner shrimp, sand snails etc..

I took pictures under 100% white, 0 blue to show you better.

Thank you in advance!

 

[Idech]

Your light schedule is too long IME. That’s not going to help with algae forming. Moonlight isn’t required at all and you could reduce your 12 hours to 8 or 10, with ramp-up and ramp-down.

 

[Gabbone]

Thank you a lot. Thats exactly what I thought. As a correlation, I saw algae forming since when I increase the light schedule. Right now I am at 10 full + 1 hr ramp up and 1hr ramp down for a total of 12. Should I go at 8 full + 1 up and 1 down? And no moonlight of course!

 

[Idech]

Thank you a lot. Thats exactly what I thought. As a correlation, I saw algae forming since when I increase the light schedule. Right now I am at 10 full + 1 hr ramp up and 1hr ramp down for a total of 12. Should I go at 8 full + 1 up and 1 down? And no moonlight of course!

I like 8 hours with ramp-up and ramp down. That’s about what I do.

 

[Lavey29]

Numbers are fine but why are you dosing trace elements daily? How do you test your trace elements to know the correct dosage? Weekly water changes suffice for trace in new lightly stocked tanks. Your algae is normal and you will have a variety of ugly phases over the course of the first year.

 

[Asagi]

Honestly looks good to me. Get some conches in that bad boy.

 

[Gabbone]

Thanks guys.

- I have in total 4 sand conches so it should be fine.
- Regarding trace elements I was dosing red sea a/b/c/d 0.1ml of each per day. So not much. I will stop then.
- In the last couple of weeks I am dosing A LOT of Alk. I am having a depletion of around 0.8dKH every day but I believe this is due to the CO2 remover attached to my skimmer which increased the ph to 8.3 and therefore increase dkh depletion.

I have two question so far:

1. Would it be beneficial to scoop out of the tank that brownish layer of sand?
2. Can I just go from 12hrs to 8hrs light without hurting corals? Nothing gonna happens?

Thank you all again!

 

[Lavey29]

Thanks guys.

- I have in total 4 sand conches so it should be fine.
- Regarding trace elements I was dosing red sea a/b/c/d 0.1ml of each per day. So not much. I will stop then.
- In the last couple of weeks I am dosing A LOT of Alk. I am having a depletion of around 0.8dKH every day but I believe this is due to the CO2 remover attached to my skimmer which increased the ph to 8.3 and therefore increase dkh depletion.

I have two question so far:

1. Would it be beneficial to scoop out of the tank that brownish layer of sand?
2. Can I just go from 12hrs to 8hrs light without hurting corals? Nothing gonna happens?

Thank you all again!

Red sea trace elements dosing is based off calcium consumption. Do you know your daily consumption of calcium?

 

[Gabbone]

I do check calcium with hanna but honestly idk my daily CA depletion and I know I should dosing according to it; I was just testing to see if there's any improvements in coloration.

Btw,
1. Would it be beneficial to scoop out of the tank that brownish layer of sand?
2. Can I just go from 12hrs to 8hrs light without hurting corals? Nothing gonna happens?

Any guesses?

Thank you!

 

[Sophie"s mom]

Hi guys,

I am posting because I'd like your opinion.

My tank has a bit more then 4 months and everything is doing great and fine.

In the last month my rocks (the fake purple ones), started to cover of green and this should be normal as part of the maturing process.

Now I am noticing that also the sand in the front of the tank it's starting to "greenish-brownish" a bit. (See pictures).

I'd like to know if this is part of the maturing phase and I should or (should not) worried about it.

Here's my parameters (which I believe are on point since I am very strict)

F: 77*
S: 1024-1025
Ph: 8.3
Alk: 9.2dKh
CA: 440
Mg: 1475
NO3: 10ppm
PO4: 0.05ppm
WC: 15% every week
Lighting: Red Sea Reef Led 45: 12h blue only at 50% intensity + 3 hours moonlight. (It's a small tank, 30g AIO)
I also clean the front+side glass of the tank almost every day because green algae dots and brown dirt are formed.
I dose alk and trace colors every day.
I run skimmer, white cottons and a po4 remover. I made sure the tank is not starving and po4 are ALWAYS present, but in a decent range (0.05-0.1). If it goes too low, I dose Coral ab+ to raise a bit. (I know 0po4/0no3 or low values causes algae outbreak).

CUC is on point! Lots of "sand cleaners" including fighting conches, mitra mitra, cleaner shrimp, sand snails etc..

I took pictures under 100% white, 0 blue to show you better.

Thank you in advance!

Get yourself some good CUC! get some nassarius snails, some cerith snails, some blue legged hermit crabs, and maybe a diamond goby. All of these will help keep your sandbed stirred up, and clean. The cerith snails will clean algae thru out. If you get the hermit crabs, get plenty of extra shells. Otherwise they will kill your snails for their shells.

 

[Uncle99]

Rea Sea trace colours C (I think) dose iron, which feed the green plant stuff and the algae as well.

After a year, I found that stuff made absolutely no difference whatsoever.

 

[Formulator]

Looks exactly how a 4-5 month old tank should look. I think you are in good shape. You could throw a fighting conch and/or some cerith snails in there to stir up your sand bed if it bothers you. I run a 12 hour light schedule and don’t have a problem with it. As long as you are diligent with cleaning your glass and have an appropriate clean up crew and NO3/PO4 management plan, I think it is fine. After all, you want to be able to enjoy your tank which is harder to do with lots of dark time…

 

[Gabbone]

Thank you again guys.

- I am done with Hermit Crabs, unfortunately. I had two beautiful blue electric hermit with a lots of extra shells but they were making A HUGE MESS in my tank. I relocated them.
- As mentioned, I will stop dosing trace color.

Also I am very diligent with cleaning. So there's not an issue.

I am curious about the cerith snails; are they gonna work on the sandbed?

 

[Formulator]

Thank you again guys.

- I am done with Hermit Crabs, unfortunately. I had two beautiful blue electric hermit with a lots of extra shells but they were making A HUGE MESS in my tank. I relocated them.
- As mentioned, I will stop dosing trace color.

Also I am very diligent with cleaning. So there's not an issue.

I am curious about the cerith snails; are they gonna work on the sandbed?

Ceriths are great for your sand bed. They burrow into the sand and turn it over as they eat the algae.

 

[Lavey29]

I do check calcium with hanna but honestly idk my daily CA depletion and I know I should dosing according to it; I was just testing to see if there's any improvements in coloration.

Btw,
1. Would it be beneficial to scoop out of the tank that brownish layer of sand?
2. Can I just go from 12hrs to 8hrs light without hurting corals? Nothing gonna happens?

Any guesses?

Thank you!

You can siphon sand during water changes. Typically alk and cal deplete proportionally and mag is 1/10th of that for depletion. I run my lights for 10 hours with 1 hour ramp up and 1 hour ramp down included.

 

[Gabbone]

Thanks again!

Therefore if I get 0.8dKh Alk depletion per day I have 0.8ppm CA depletion per day?

 

[Formulator]

Thanks again!

Therefore if I get 0.8dKh Alk depletion per day I have 0.8ppm CA depletion per day?

Nope, they are different units of measure. 0.8 dKh is about 14 ppm. At this stage though, your water changes are probably sufficient to maintain alk and cal. You shouldn’t need to dose until you get a heavier load of stony corals, or decide you don’t want to do water changes.

Edit: just saw you mentioned you are observing daily drop of 0.8 dkh. Is that morning to night or measurements 24 hours apart? You may have daily fluctuations in dkh that don’t represent actual consumption, so double check that before dosing anything. The calcium and magnesium depletion will not be consistent with alkalinity if it is being depleted by some other means than coral skeleton building. Your tank is primarily soft coral and I would be surprised to see the consumption you mentioned.

 

[Gabbone]

Nope, they are different units of measure. 0.8 dKh is about 14 ppm. At this stage though, your water changes are probably sufficient to maintain alk and cal. You shouldn’t need to dose until you get a heavier load of stony corals, or decide you don’t want to do water changes.

Thanks.

As I mentioned before:

"In the last couple of weeks I am dosing A LOT of Alk. I am having a depletion of around 0.8dKH every day but I believe this is due to the CO2 remover attached to my skimmer which increased the ph to 8.3 and therefore increase dkh depletion."

It's very weird because I am using the Red Sea Coral Pro Salt which has a dKh of 11.5. I had 11.5 alk for almost 4 months and now suddently stays between 8.5 and 9.2 with dosing Alk every day.

 

[Formulator]

Thanks.

As I mentioned before:

"In the last couple of weeks I am dosing A LOT of Alk. I am having a depletion of around 0.8dKH every day but I believe this is due to the CO2 remover attached to my skimmer which increased the ph to 8.3 and therefore increase dkh depletion."

It's very weird because I am using the Red Sea Coral Pro Salt which has a dKh of 11.5. I had 11.5 alk for almost 4 months and now suddently stays between 8.5 and 9.2 with dosing Alk every day.

Yes, sorry I missed that. See my edited post above. I am highly skeptical that you are losing the alkalinity via calcification processes which is where we get the 1:1 calcium to alk dosing suggestion. Your calcium consumption is probably much lower with the current selection of soft corals you have and you don’t have a ton of coraline algae sucking it up (I think you mentioned the purple on the rocks was artificial).

In general the rule is don’t dose what you don’t test. You can get away with using the suggested ratios and only testing alk when your tank is more mature and you have a decent load of active stony coral calcification happening, but I don’t think that is the case here. For now I recommend testing your calcium and alkalinity separately and dosing only what is needed. Probably just alk at this point.

 

[Sophie"s mom]

Looks exactly how a 4-5 month old tank should look. I think you are in good shape. You could throw a fighting conch and/or some cerith snails in there to stir up your sand bed if it bothers you. I run a 12 hour light schedule and don’t have a problem with it. As long as you are diligent with cleaning your glass and have an appropriate clean up crew and NO3/PO4 management plan, I think it is fine. After all, you want to be able to enjoy your tank which is harder to do with lots of dark time…

I could not agree more! My tank, including ramp up, and ramp down are actually on for 14 hours. Total time in full light is about 12. And the worst I deal with is having to clean the glass every other day.