SlothMartin
New Member
Hi, hoping some experts (or less novice than me) can take a look and give me an idea what i am seeing here.
I thought i was going to put a slide in the microscope and see a ton of the same thing and easy identify. A little harder than i thought :)
Scroll to the bottom for pics, but will provde background that gets often asked
tanks 2 months old or so. cycled in 2 weeks, gave it 2 more, have had first round of fish and coral for about a month
fish all happy eating well. Corals all appear to be growing
juv yellow tang, 2 juv clown, 2 b cardinals, 1 firefish, 1 coral banded shrimp
around a dozen or more various snails, hermits, and 2 small conchs
corals are 2 hammers, a torch, duncan, gsp and the rest were from the bargain bin (not sure what they are)
started with dry marco rock and pink fiji sand (yes i now regret not starting with live rock)
rodi is reading 0tds out. salt is aquaforrest but i have reef crystals for the next batch
4x2x2 around 120g not inc sump
filtration is reefmat, chaeto (which is doing terribly) and skimmer which i turned off.
not dosing anything. feeding pellets in the morning with nori, and mysis in the evening half cube.
current parameters
temp 78
salinity 1.026
ammonia.nitrite 0
nitrate 1.3
alk 8.2
phos 0.04
these are all from today and all from hanna checkers. the nitrate and phos is down from last check, but they have never been zero.
mag 1380
calc 375
those are both salifert so estimates and were from last check a few days to a week ago (i am worrying about nitrate and phos, alk right now mainly)
i have bought so much bacteria, phos, nitrate additives etc. but waiting to act until i think i know what im doing. Last water change was last weekend and ready for another but dinos says dont water change, diatoms says do water change
the algae appears as a light dusting on everything, not very stringy although there are some very small short hair like things. There are bubbles in the alge on the rock but not in the sand. if i disturb the sand it takes a while for it to show back up
i cannot see any major change from night to day in the algae.
I have not done a blackout yet (afraid for corals)
i have UV sweeper on the way, have not ordered a plumbed UV unit yet. if its appropriate, a recommendation would be welcome.
and please let me know if i can do better with the microscope pics
i definitely spotted a dino here and there but usually just one by one. these little round guys seem to be what there is a ton of (they are smaller than what i think i identified as dinos but couldnt find one again for the picture)
p.s. pics taken at night after lights out so hammer is closed up but hes happy during the day
I thought i was going to put a slide in the microscope and see a ton of the same thing and easy identify. A little harder than i thought :)
Scroll to the bottom for pics, but will provde background that gets often asked
tanks 2 months old or so. cycled in 2 weeks, gave it 2 more, have had first round of fish and coral for about a month
fish all happy eating well. Corals all appear to be growing
juv yellow tang, 2 juv clown, 2 b cardinals, 1 firefish, 1 coral banded shrimp
around a dozen or more various snails, hermits, and 2 small conchs
corals are 2 hammers, a torch, duncan, gsp and the rest were from the bargain bin (not sure what they are)
started with dry marco rock and pink fiji sand (yes i now regret not starting with live rock)
rodi is reading 0tds out. salt is aquaforrest but i have reef crystals for the next batch
4x2x2 around 120g not inc sump
filtration is reefmat, chaeto (which is doing terribly) and skimmer which i turned off.
not dosing anything. feeding pellets in the morning with nori, and mysis in the evening half cube.
current parameters
temp 78
salinity 1.026
ammonia.nitrite 0
nitrate 1.3
alk 8.2
phos 0.04
these are all from today and all from hanna checkers. the nitrate and phos is down from last check, but they have never been zero.
mag 1380
calc 375
those are both salifert so estimates and were from last check a few days to a week ago (i am worrying about nitrate and phos, alk right now mainly)
i have bought so much bacteria, phos, nitrate additives etc. but waiting to act until i think i know what im doing. Last water change was last weekend and ready for another but dinos says dont water change, diatoms says do water change
the algae appears as a light dusting on everything, not very stringy although there are some very small short hair like things. There are bubbles in the alge on the rock but not in the sand. if i disturb the sand it takes a while for it to show back up
i cannot see any major change from night to day in the algae.
I have not done a blackout yet (afraid for corals)
i have UV sweeper on the way, have not ordered a plumbed UV unit yet. if its appropriate, a recommendation would be welcome.
and please let me know if i can do better with the microscope pics
i definitely spotted a dino here and there but usually just one by one. these little round guys seem to be what there is a ton of (they are smaller than what i think i identified as dinos but couldnt find one again for the picture)
p.s. pics taken at night after lights out so hammer is closed up but hes happy during the day
