everything is brown...

[JamieB]

Are you using API Test (Notorious kit for measuring ammonia wrong and high.)?
Is the water cloudy at all? Ammonia tends to cause bacteria blooms that cloud water.

Never heard of a clown doing this. If all the fish are at the surface aerate the tank and yes, add bacteria.

@brandon429 may want to check in,

Thanks,
Yes API, But it has been reading constantly 0 for several weeks so it seems something has changed. It’s just one of the 2 clowns, the other isnt doing it, neither is the orchid dottyback.
Water is crystal clear at the minute..

 

[brandon429]

being able to chart the tank health alongside the testing will help us in api misread studies. There are perhaps metabolites or other changes in chemistry that cause the misread. Resist adding anything in response, just keep us updated on tank pics vs free ammonia readings as the readings are a false alarm. Cloudy water delayed (you really did rinse clean agreed you left no mud) would be the first bad sign

nobody can tell us why api misreads, we have to make guesses. But your tank is doing what they all do post rip clean, which is run great.

notice in the whole sand rinse thread we dont use ammonia testing not once, this is why.

post pics of the ammonia reading currently
loss of the shrimp before adding anything in response, living shrimp means no free ammonia

we do want to chart api here alongside actual tank outcomes, helps reveal patterns.

 

[JamieB]

Ok cool thanks for the fast response and explaining.

I think I was just a bit spooked as the fish has never done this before, and it was so close to the
Rip clean....

 

[JamieB]

being able to chart the tank health alongside the testing will help us in api misread studies. There are perhaps metabolites or other changes in chemistry that cause the misread. Resist adding anything in response, just keep us updated on tank pics vs free ammonia readings as the readings are a false alarm. Cloudy water delayed (you really did rinse clean agreed you left no mud) would be the first bad sign


and then loss of the shrimp before anything

Ok cool, yes I was surprised but there was 0 clouding even right after I refilled the tank... just crystal clear

It looks absolutely amazing today...

 

[brandon429]

great teamwork + updates

we can find patterns from other cleaning events to rely on here till api allows us a stand down :) hey can u post the ammonia reading taken currently let’s see how long it’s rebound takes


the fish vid isnt loading for me w have to be YouTube upload then link here

in pic #1 first post the clowns are at the top mouth just below

 

[JamieB]

Yes I’ll regularly post the levels so we can see how long it takes to level out.

Really appreciate all the support, I’m amazed at how generous you all are with your time and assistance.

I would still be staring at a brown glass box considering if it’s worth all the hassle if not for brandon.... whereas all I’m thinking now is how long until I can Buy a much bigger tank

 

[brandon429]

your awesome tank will get through these minor challenges welcome to nano reefing it’s quite a rush compared to freshwater

 

[JamieB]

your awesome tank will get through these minor challenges welcome to nano reefing it’s quite a rush compared to freshwater

I could never go back to freshwater after a taste of reefing... I find it 100x more interesting...

 

[brandon429]

If the shrimp is doing fine today, we're home free :)

how is that shrimper. and if he has keeled over, but the water is clear and fish still swimming lol then the tank is still ok but that timing looks horribly bad.

 

[JamieB]

If the shrimp is doing fine today, we're home free :)

how is that shrimper. and if he has keeled over, but the water is clear and fish still swimming lol then the tank is still ok but that timing looks horribly bad.

Shrimp 100% happy today!
Can’t explain the odd clowns behaviour yesterday...
Also sorry for not posting the vid but don’t have YouTube account, need to work out how to upload vids...

Still amazed that all that cleaning doesn’t disturb the bacteria. Love the fact that it’s debunking common myths though!

 

[brandon429]

ok great update, this is helpful to chart the entire progress from cleaning, testing bumps and consistency compared to other tanks in the big thread. very good read here for others contemplating the move/cleaning if needed.

 

[smacbride]

Clownfish do all kinds of weird things. My larger clown is now working on moving all the substrate from the back of the tank to the front, clearing it down to the glass...

 

[JamieB]

Clownfish do all kinds of weird things. My larger clown is now working on moving all the substrate from the back of the tank to the front, clearing it down to the glass...

Thats reasuring to hear

 

[JamieB]

Its back!

4 days of gleaming clean tank, now it starts again.
I'm going to start cleaning glass and sand every day with a cloth and net - hopefully this should stop it building up again.
The algae magnet I think was useless as it was leaving all the mess in the tank every time.

 

[brandon429]

Perfect. That selection of minor growth, you want it, you don’t want to try and starve it out that will cause coral bleaching. Those growths are expected, and now manageable down from 75% coverage back to 5% and solely we determine if it remasses. Some of the easy tricks to lessen that grow back are making your lights far bluer than currently running, that much white selects for green algae and haze but with minor upkeep, even all white won’t cause an invaded reef. We all run different primary production levels, we can see in the nuisance algae forum what that looks like. At any point, those entrants can do what you did as well but it’s harder for large tanks. You have no algae problem now because you caused that condition without delay, all threads in the nuisance forum are varying degrees of delay in progress.


uv light is a common effective cheat people use to burn out those growths and prevent grow back, but in a nano direct cleaning is still simple. Be doing strong weekly water changes and removing growths until you stumble upon a lucky prevention arrangement.

that very high quality live rock we trusted to run your whole setup outputs nutrients into the water along with any fish, live rock produces whole waste pellets daily like snails do (the tiny animals within expel waste) so that combined with bright lights and new system is easy formula for work needed. Dont use Gfo, or phos guard, or any nitrate additives, simply do minor direct gardening upkeep. Your tank is ready for a few starter corals :)

not one time does rip cleaning prevent us from having to do work, it’s a skip cycle access technique. Knowing what we now know, no nano reef ever has to entertain an invasion unless we want to. My own fifteen year old nano has had more rip cleans than I can count, it’s how we got to fifteen.

 

[JamieB]

Perfect. That selection of minor growth, you want it, you don’t want to try and starve it out that will cause coral bleaching. Those growths are expected, and now manageable down from 75% coverage back to 5% and solely we determine if it remasses. Some of the easy tricks to lessen that grow back are making your lights far bluer than currently running, that much white selects for green algae and haze but with minor upkeep, even all white won’t cause an invaded reef. We all run different primary production levels, we can see in the nuisance algae forum what that looks like. At any point, those entrants can do what you did as well but it’s harder for large tanks. You have no algae problem now because you caused that condition without delay, all threads in the nuisance forum are varying degrees of delay in progress.


uv light is a common effective cheat people use to burn out those growths and prevent grow back, but in a nano direct cleaning is still simple. Be doing strong weekly water changes and removing growths until you stumble upon a lucky prevention arrangement.

that very high quality live rock we trusted to run your whole setup outputs nutrients into the water along with any fish, live rock produces whole waste pellets daily like snails do (the tiny animals within expel waste) so that combined with bright lights and new system is easy formula for work needed. Dont use Gfo, or phos guard, or any nitrate additives, simply do minor direct gardening upkeep. Your tank is ready for a few starter corals :)

not one time does rip cleaning prevent us from having to do work, it’s a skip cycle access technique. Knowing what we now know, no nano reef ever has to entertain an invasion unless we want to. My own fifteen year old nano has had more rip cleans than I can count, it’s how we got to fifteen.

I turned the blue light off just to take the photo as it showed the growth better. Also to clarify... I have dry rock its not live rock.
Thanks for explaining all the above, Ill keep on with the cleaning then and start thinking about more coral :)

 

[brandon429]

nice, all activated now and moving along. the new growths really makes sense in a brand new setup

they have that stuff painted excellent, looked like little white fanworms all attached. getting hard to tell visually nowadays.

 

[JamieB]

nice, all activated now and moving along. the new growths really makes sense in a brand new setup

they have that stuff painted excellent, looked like little white fanworms all attached. getting hard to tell visually nowadays.

Yes it is very nice stuff!

 

[brandon429]

How are we looking here

have you kept the clean condition with little follow up cleanings

 

[Karen00]

for small tanks we have learned its actually better to rip clean than anything else, due to clouding.

as of now if we reach in the tank and grab sand and drop it, cloud results

same for rocks: twist them mid tank sharply, and a cloud of feed for invasions + actual invaders comes off and casts into the water.

if we use water controls/changes/dosers to kill the brown above, thats in addition to clouding plus new clouding from dieoff.

the only reason rip cleaning didnt originate at the start of the hobby is because nobody understood what filtration bacteria actually do, they stay on surfaces even if we rinse is what they do :)

rip cleaning isnt harmful in the least, we have thousands of participants now, able to get pics off any recent job to match another. its just not very fun work for 100 gallons. per above, even if someone has a large tank it still works if they're serious enough to execute and follow through.

we literally rinse the sand in tap water for as long as it takes to be clear, then RO water, then put it back into a clean nano with all new water and acclimate the fish back in.

the rocks are cleaned off manually out side the tank and the whole thing goes back without a cycle always.

no cloud means no cycle, and cloud means cycle, its why we dont have to test params in rip cleans we can see if a system has clouding or not with our eyes.

for nanos, no better way exists. de clouding is thinking about future invasions, namely cyano.

thats next up

This is very interesting! I have been following your replies on other posts, especially when they're about cycling issues. I have a question regarding your rip cleaning method for Nanos... Do you use this method for all nasties (algae, etc) no matter how old the tank is or is this for new tanks only to get through the ugly phase of startup? My first tank is going to be a nano because of space issues so I'm interested in everything nano (processes, livestock, equipment, etc.).