Looking for... advice? Validation? Lots of questions.

angrynoodle11 · Dec 21, 2021

Hey everybody! I've had fish in my first tank (32gal biocube) for about 2 months now, and ran it without fish for 6ish weeks while it cycled before that. I've had a ton of algae of different types (which I know is totally normal) but I guess I'm looking for some validation that things are on the right track.

My biggest concern is currently that my PO4 and NO3 are really low. I've been doing a 5gallon WC once per week, but skipped last week due to low nutrients. Did a WC yesterday and nutrients are still bottomed out. Testing with Hanna, my last couple of weeks looked like this:
Dec 20: PO4: 0.0 / NO3: 2.3
Dec 12: PO4: 0.0 / NO3: 2.7
Dec 6: PO4: 0.2 / NO3: 0.0
Nov 20: PO4: 0.0 / NO3: 9.
PH is consistently around 8 and NH3 is always 0. Haven't tested for anything else. Any ideas to increase PO4 or NO3 without dosing? Just overfeeding? Is it dangerous to have nutrient levels this low?

My water also seems cloudy with white specs floating. It's been like that for weeks and hasn't improved. I'm running filter floss and was running chemipure blue and purigen, but removed these a few weeks ago to see if I could raise PO4/NO3. Should I add carbon again?

I also have this bright green algae that none of my snails will eat. What kind of algae is this and is there anything that will eat it? I think the brown is diatoms and there's some purple patches of what I assume is cyano in there. I'm going to be getting more snails soon since mine seem to enjoy spending all of their time on the glass instead of the rock.

Anyway, here's some photos. If you have any thoughts or advice or validation I'd love to hear it.

T-J · Dec 21, 2021

What's on that frag plug?
Your nutrients are low because you don't have anything in your tank. Minus whatever is on that frag plug, you have nothing to dose for, and nothing to worry about except the fish. Just let the tank finish cycling. Let the fish poop. Let the CUC do it's thing.
No need to do a weekly waterchange with two fish in that tank. You could easily go more than two weeks IMO.

Nachopapa · Dec 21, 2021

What’s your tank going to be when it’s all grown up? Fish only? Softies? Macro algae haven? That answer will tell you how much you should care about nutrition levels.

nice aqua scape! I did similar in my nano16 after watching BSRTV episode

angrynoodle11 · Dec 21, 2021

T-J said:
What's on that frag plug?
Your nutrients are low because you don't have anything in your tank. Minus whatever is on that frag plug, you have nothing to dose for, and nothing to worry about except the fish. Just let the tank finish cycling. Let the fish poop. Let the CUC do it's thing.
No need to do a weekly waterchange with two fish in that tank. You could easily go more than two weeks IMO.

No frags. You might be looking at my snails, which definitely have something weird growing on their shells. They were like that when I got them, but they seem to be fine!
Thank you for validation that things are good. I've been up on WC because of cloudy water but I suppose I should give it some time to settle.

angrynoodle11 · Dec 21, 2021

Nachopapa said:
What’s your tank going to be when it’s all grown up? Fish only? Softies? Macro algae haven? That answer will tell you how much you should care about nutrition levels.

nice aqua scape! I did similar in my nano16 after watching BSRTV episode

Planning to eventually get a few softies, but have been taking it slow to learn and get things settled before adding too much. I'd like to add more fish soon too.

Thanks! I love the aquascape and the clowns are obsessed with that little cave under the tall rock.

Saltydog69 · Dec 21, 2021

just let it keep cycling, so much more to a cycle for reef tanks than just mesasuring the nitrate... add some bio diversity also, another fish or two, start dosing live phyto. youll be fine

Mhamilton0911 · Dec 21, 2021

Hello!! I'm fairly new as well, reefing less than a year, but I might be able to help a little.

Looks like you started with dry rocks? They'll likely absorb the phosphate for a while, which is what happened/is happening in my own tank. I dose phosphate and nitrate and still get 0 phosphate and really low nitrates. I've been dosing for 2 months now. Low nutrients can be responsible for dinos and other nuisance algae. Your snails are likely carrying a variety of algae, some of my snails also brought in vermited snails, which I clipped off.

What type of CUC (clean up crew, snails, hermits,etc) do you have?

angrynoodle11 · Dec 21, 2021

Saltydog69 said:
just let it keep cycling, so much more to a cycle for reef tanks than just mesasuring the nitrate... add some bio diversity also, another fish or two, start dosing live phyto. youll be fine

Thanks. Is there a benefit to dosing phyto if I don't have any corals or other filter feeders?

T-J · Dec 21, 2021

angrynoodle11 said:
Thanks. Is there a benefit to dosing phyto if I don't have any corals or other filter feeders?

Yes. It increases your biodiversity. They also produce waste which feeds bacteria. They will also help outcompete dinos for food.

angrynoodle11 · Dec 21, 2021

Mhamilton0911 said:
Hello!! I'm fairly new as well, reefing less than a year, but I might be able to help a little.

Looks like you started with dry rocks? They'll likely absorb the phosphate for a while, which is what happened/is happening in my own tank. I dose phosphate and nitrate and still get 0 phosphate and really low nitrates. I've been dosing for 2 months now. Low nutrients can be responsible for dinos and other nuisance algae. Your snails are likely carrying a variety of algae, some of my snails also brought in vermited snails, which I clipped off.

What type of CUC (clean up crew, snails, hermits,etc) do you have?

Yes, I started with dry rocks. I was thinking that this was one reason for low nutrients. Definitely want to raise the nutrients slightly to avoid things like dinos!

I have 1 tiger conch snail, 3x Nassarius, 3x cerith (but one has a deformed shell and doesn't move very far from his spot on the sand bed), and 3x trochus. No crabs (I'm terrified they'll eat my conch). Any suggestions for additions?