Established Tank Moved

[jaket]

First post..

so I recently purchased a (what I was told) 2 year established tank with 120 lbs live sand, 100 lbs live rock. fluval 1200mm light bar(replacing as it is junk but it came with it)

I’m running fx6 and cascade 1200 canisters being it’s not drilled. And a Sea clone protein skimmer. All included with the sale.

water was brought home by me and everything tested and replaced as it was in original home within an hour of draining the tank. Since I’ve done 2 water changes. 25% and salinity is 1.023 and 79%. Nitrates are about 40 currently and working on it

recently I’ve had a diatom bloom as far as I can tell. And quite a bit of black hair algae has set up shop in the tank. I’ve got a pretty well established clean up crew with nasarius snails, turbos, margarite,cerith and red legged hermit crabs. And a sand sifting sea star, Black Sea urchin and pincushion

my question is.Is there anything more I need to be doing or is this going through another ugly stage. I had a small spike in ammonia and nitrates after moving the sand around and disturbing everything. I’m sure the silicates in the water aren’t helping from the move.

but any advice would be helpful. I’m kinda new to saltwater but I’ve got the patients and time, I don’t want to overdo it or overthink it. I know the ideal situation isn’t what I have but I got this whole set up for $500 so I figured if Icouldn’t get it right, I might as well not drop 4-5,000 trying.

Any input would be helpful. I know ill
Get beat up but it’s what I got. Thanks

 

[shwareefer]

Those two giant canister filters are going to keep pumping nitrate into your system. Knowing that, you can try some nitrate reducing media in them but personally I'd just go all mushrooms, softies and zoanthids since they will love the nitrates. Maybe some pulsing xenia although it would likely go out of control in that tank. Diatoms will pass. Black algae is definitely high nutrients - have you tested phosphate? People will bash the Seaclone - is it skimming anything? Corals and fish look pretty happy to me...

 

[jaket]

Those two giant canister filters are going to keep pumping nitrate into your system. Knowing that, you can try some nitrate reducing media in them but personally I'd just go all mushrooms, softies and zoanthids since they will love the nitrates. Maybe some pulsing xenia although it would likely go out of control in that tank. Diatoms will pass. Black algae is definitely high nutrients - have you tested phosphate? People will bash the Seaclone - is it skimming anything? Corals and fish look pretty happy to me...

Yeah it’s skimming 1/2 a cup full a day of dark skim. Started skimming about day 3.
I knew they would bash it but it came in a box with the tank and I figured free is better than no skimmer. And I put a small sponge on the end for micro bubbles and they have since all went away

Everything is doing great as far as fish. The lion eats out of my tongs frozen silversides and shrimp. There’s a panther grouper in there and he’s going to be traded into the LFS before long. It hasn’t happened yet cause the lion and the grouper are best friends they never are more than a few inches apart.

And the lion and grouper haven’t messed with the hawk fish or the goby.and lets the cleaner shrimp clean his mouth and fins for now...but we’re going to set a smaller tank up for my wife’s reef tank so the little guys will be out before long

 

[Lemon]

can you get more pics of the fish?

 

[CollectOyster04]

Canister filters will be fine for that tank as long as you keep up with cleaning them. Had a 65gal setup I purchased like you some time back that had a canister. They hadn't cleaned it in forever, and it was pretty gross. I made a habit of cleaning it about once a month and had zero issues. Depending on your feeding schedule with thise fish, you may consider cleaning the canister more often.
As for the skimmer, I'd recommend some sort of auto top off to keep the water line consistent. Not keeping up with the evaporation(glass lids will help) will affect the skimmer's operation as the water level changes in the tank.
Keep doing your water changes and filter cleaning, siphoning out the algae as you go, and you'll get that tank looking good(it doesn't look terrible) again before you know it. Just keep up with the maintenance.

 

[Oldreefer44]

Recommend daily tests for Ammonia etc. Can often suddenly spike and kill everything. Be ready for large water changes if this happens

 

[jaket]

can you get more pics of the fish?

I think that’s all of them. Black urchin is busy trying to move rocks and the Pincushion is cleaning the filter head

 

[jaket]

Canister filters will be fine for that tank as long as you keep up with cleaning them. Had a 65gal setup I purchased like you some time back that had a canister. They hadn't cleaned it in forever, and it was pretty gross. I made a habit of cleaning it about once a month and had zero issues. Depending on your feeding schedule with thise fish, you may consider cleaning the canister more often.
As for the skimmer, I'd recommend some sort of auto top off to keep the water line consistent. Not keeping up with the evaporation(glass lids will help) will affect the skimmer's operation as the water level changes in the tank.
Keep doing your water changes and filter cleaning, siphoning out the algae as you go, and you'll get that tank looking good(it doesn't look terrible) again before you know it. Just keep up with the maintenance.

That’s how mine was when I got mine. They said they just cleaned it before I picked it up. But it was miserably gross. So I took it out and cleaned the foam and cleaned it. Did a 50% water change after about a week I had a pretty big green algae bloom and nitrates were pretty high. I check it daily and planning another water change and vac the sand. I’ve got some denitrating media in. And have been keeping checking ammonia. It’s getting more consistent. I figured a move would stir everything up. The sand was pretty bad just moving it. I left the sand in the bottom because I couldn’t find the wrassse and all the snails. But it cleared up in a few days. I still got lots of sand floating around. That fine sand and wrasses and trigger and grouper like to re arrange the sand

 

[CollectOyster04]

Many moons ago we had a lionfish(wife's favorite fish) that decided to take a real liking to our skunk cleaner(also one of the wife's favorites). Caught the lionfish with the shrimp halfway down his throat. We managed to save the shrimp from his clutches, but traded the shrimp off shortly after, lol. I would think any of those smaller fish are on borrowed time if you miss a feeding or two lol.
If you haven't kept them before, some reading on the mandarin and pipe fish care may not be a bad idea. Depending on your pod situation, they may not be getting enough to eat. Seems like you got quite the livestock haul in that tank deal !

 

[jaket]

Many moons ago we had a lionfish(wife's favorite fish) that decided to take a real liking to our skunk cleaner(also one of the wife's favorites). Caught the lionfish with the shrimp halfway down his throat. We managed to save the shrimp from his clutches, but traded the shrimp off shortly after, lol. I would think any of those smaller fish are on borrowed time if you miss a feeding or two lol.
If you haven't kept them before, some reading on the mandarin and pipe fish care may not be a bad idea. Depending on your pod situation, they may not be getting enough to eat. Seems like you got quite the livestock haul in that tank deal !

Haha yeah. I keep these guys fed. There is also a banded Moray eel in there too. He’s about 10”.

They all eat twice a day. Eel is about once every 2 days. It will eventually be a predator tank. Hopefully within a few weeks. The reef tank is cycling now.

We stocked 4 bottles of pods and a sack of about 1,000 large pods when we got it and planning on stocking every couple weeks until they can be moved. This tank had a bunch of pods in it when we bought it. So thankfully she stocked those. I was kinda blown away by what was all in one tank. I really don’t want to keep the grouper but he’s my kids favorite. He will probably go to the LFS after the newness of the fish wears off the 5 year old lol

I’m just excited what’s gonna be happening in a few years. I’m already addicted. And my wife said we need a smaller house so I can’t keep putting tanks up!

 

[Sebastiancrab]

Recommend daily tests for Ammonia etc. Can often suddenly spike and kill everything. Be ready for large water changes if this happens

Keep some Seachem Prime on hand just in case.

 

[Pistondog]

I think that’s all of them. Black urchin is busy trying to move rocks and the Pincushion is cleaning the filter head

Man. Love that picasso, had one 25 years ago.
Unfortunately not reef safe

 

[jaket]

Man. Love that picasso, had one 25 years ago.
Unfortunately not reef safe

He’s probably got the most personality. He’s always first to the food. He runs the wrasse off most of the time. And if I have to have my hand even 1/4 inch in the water he’s up nipping at me.
He tries to steal the silversides from the eel. May work for a while but they are all pretty small right now. Their sleeping cracks me up