4 month old fowlr set up. Looking for feedback.

Stroja62 · Mar 31, 2020

Hi all,

I setup a saltwater aquarium in december 2019. I didnt knowingly do a proper cycle.

Just a bit of background, i live on an island with coral reefs that are protected. Because of this i cannot buy saltwater fish, live rock or corals that are imported. I also cannot take coral out of the ocean here obviously.

When i statted the tank i got the water directly from clean ocean, the rocks and sandare from the beach. After a couple of days i put 15 small fish that all died probably because of amonia spike.

Since then i have added other creatures all from the wild. They have all been in for at least 2 months and are still alive.

I have tagged some pictures and was hoping i could get feed back and suggestions. Specifically in regards to the algae growing inside.

Brasileiro561 · Mar 31, 2020

No ocean is ever clean brother. Unless you went so far out in a boat but even then then it could still be dirty now days. Even if you used clean water you still used beach sand which was probably polluted somehow. Nevertheless you can only do so much in a situation like your So congratulations for the determination. As for the algae there are great products out there like vibrant. Had a few friends that used it and the results were amazing. If you don’t have access to that stuff just do it old school. Limit the light. Fish don’t need strong lights like coral. Don’t over feed. I also would suggest to keep doing water change for nutrient export. But if you keep using the beach water I think you’d be adding nutrient right back to it. Also get the basic test kit and test the beach water as well. That way you’ll have an idea what you dealing with.

Stroja62 · Mar 31, 2020

It the algae thats in the tamk rightnow good or bad?

Brasileiro561 · Mar 31, 2020

No algae is good algae I think. I mean nobody what’s thatching their tank. But of course there is worse kind and less bad algae. To early to tell right now but it looks like you have some red spots on your rocks and sand. Can’t tell by the picture but it could be Cyanobacteria. There’s plenty of information online about it. Or it could be coralline algae. Which is good algae normally you’ll see it in more mature tank with good light to grow it. But you mention getting the rocks from the ocean so that could be it as well.