Cycling my fluval evo 13.5

[rmorris_14]

Thanks for the confirmation, that's what I thought it was...
What should I be feeding my 2 snails? They keep snarfing on my coral frags!
Where in NJ are you? I'm in Highlands, near SandyHook....
Thanks again!
Franz in NJ

Butting in on your question about feeding snails....Are they turbos? I feed mine squares of nori sheets. I tear it off and hold it in front of them with tweezer until they latch on. once your tank ages and has a steady food source, you shouldn't need to supplement.

 

[FJReck63]

Butting in on your question about feeding snails....Are they turbos? I feed mine squares of nori sheets. I tear it off and hold it in front of them with tweezer until they latch on. once your tank ages and has a steady food source, you shouldn't need to supplement.

No worries! Thanks for asking, yes, they are 2 Turbo snails (and they are quick)...I pull them off the coral frags, and place them on the other side of the tank, and come back in 10-15 mins. they're heading back to the frags!
Are Nori sheets frozen food? Hopefully my LFS has some....How often to feed them?

Thanks for the HiJack and info.!

Franz in NJ

 

[Sharkbait19]

Thanks for the confirmation, that's what I thought it was...
What should I be feeding my 2 snails? They keep snarfing on my coral frags!
Where in NJ are you? I'm in Highlands, near SandyHook....
Thanks again!
Franz in NJ

I’m in the Millstone area, kind of right in the middle of the state! Snails will mostly consume algae and detritus. Based on your pics, the snails appear to be Astreas. Astrea snails are mostly algae grazers, so I’d assume that they’re routinely cleaning the algae around the frags and on the corals themselves.

 

[cpalminteri]

Welcome to the forum!

Thanks a bunch! So overwhelmed but excited with all the information

 

[cpalminteri]

Welcome to the forum!

Thanks a bunch! So overwhelmed but excited with all the information

Thanks for the confirmation, that's what I thought it was...
What should I be feeding my 2 snails? They keep snarfing on my coral frags!
Where in NJ are you? I'm in Highlands, near SandyHook....
Thanks again!
Franz in NJ

lol also live in Jersey North though

 

[Bobby1993]

Welcome guys! I look forward to hearing your progress.

a little update””

I am still leaving my tank alone.
My readings are currently sitting at
Amonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 25

no bottle bac required!
I’m not going to bother with a water change until I am going to put fish in etc.

I have diatoms at the moment. There slowing going (I think).
I’m leaving the lights on pretty much all the time now to fight off the Dino bloom.
No other algae noticeable.

I removed my carbon the other day as it was time, it’s a little cloudy but I’m not bothered just now as I’m still letting it stew away.

Intank media baskets are out of stock almost everywhere here in the UK so it’s hard to find!
once I get my hands on them I’ll add some more media etc. I’ve only got the stock bio balls in there and the foam.

 

[Bobby1993]

I just rescaped my tank. Will this affect anything no?
was thinking coral placement for my last scape and don’t think it would’ve worked. This is what I’ve done now.
what you guys think?

 

[Sharkbait19]

Nice scape! Redoing it won’t cause a problem outside of kicking up some crap that had settled (could be bad with some delicate corals). With no livestock in the tank it definitely is fine.

 

[Bobby1993]

Nice scape! Redoing it won’t cause a problem outside of kicking up some crap that had settled (could be bad with some delicate corals). With no livestock in the tank it definitely is fine.

Thank you mate!
got some more carbon today so should be nice and clear again soon

 

[kmhighsealevel]

What does the film look like? When I first set mine up there was foam at the top similar to sea foam. Seems like a regular occurrence in new tanks.
Some hypocritical advice here - you probably should be testing on a regular basis to ensure everything is on track. I don’t (mostly out of sheer laziness), but if a problem shows up I will test. I may be more inclined if I had better test kits (api is not the way to go). I am not nearly as experienced as other reefers on here (only been doing it for a year and a half), but I think that everyone soon figures out their tank. If certain corals act off you can generally tell something is up. My frogspawns will start to close up in the days before water change day, may just be coincidence but I take the hint.
I just remove water from the top with a jug. You can siphon substrate, but when you have a strong enough cuc and good flow, there really isn’t a need.
My rocks are close to the back (about 1-2 inches), so I can’t really fit my hand back there for algae. I try to do my best. Even towards the front it gets close near the bottom, and don’t get me started on the torch coral (it’s decided that I don’t go for the algae there).
Most of my corals are pretty low maintenance, my hardest are probably my torch and frogspawns. The sinularia leather out back could probably use a trim but I like how big it is.
I regularly have to pull out Xenia and trim the gsp to keep them from overwhelming the tank. I take the frags to the lfs for store credit.
Happy to help! Keep the questions coming!

Great reply and advise. Glad that I found this thread as Bobby1993 has similar concerns to mine and we seem to be following similar paths although my rock and sand was not live but it appears that things are progressing nicely. I thought about the rock placement for the same cleaning concerns so I can just barely get in behind without making the front area of the tank too small.