mherb24
Community Member
I’m new to modern day reefing.
38 years ago I had a 29 gallon show tank. Had it back when I was in high school. Was so easy to take care of. Had a little glass hydrometer to monitor temp and specific gravity. Barely did anything to the tank and had long living moray, lion fish and cow fish along with a horseshoe crab.
March 26 of this year my wife purchased me a new AquaTop Recife ECO 40 gallon tank. Initial setup went smooth mixing the salt, adding live sand and started with dry rock and 1 piece of ‘live’ rock.
Live rock today is a lot different from live rock back in the day. Rock purchased 38 years ago was full of life…today it was wet rock.
Anyway, I started things off the old fashion way, tossed in a watchman goby and clown and let it cycle. Quickly learned that that is no longer the way to start a cycle. Lfs did not even mention the additives that can start the cycle when I bought the fish.
The stock light…well, to be polite was a bare bone light with no controls other than on and off. Wanting to keep the tank on a set schedule I upgraded to a AI Prime 16hd. I played with it for a few days and quickly adapted towards Saxby’s settings, just added 2% blues at night for a slight night light.
Thats when the fun started. I had an algae bloom most likely the result of a better light. Kept reading that diatoms are a normal part of a new setup. Let it run its course. But it quickly changed from brownish sand to reddish color film covering sand, rock, even corals.
Tested my tap water and its disgusting! Tap water is NOT the best source to mix your salt with. Purchased a 4 stage RODI system. Blew off as much of the red as I could and did a massive water change. Red algae came right back. Every day I was cleaning off my rocks, corals and stirring up the sand bed.
The stock tank only had a return pump, so reading about how water movement is key to a successful tank so added 2 wave makers. The red algae was starting to slow, but had to be cleaned off daily. Then found out it was Red Cyano I was dealing with. One course of chemiclean and within 2 days it’s all gone. My fish and corals had no ill effects from the chemiclean. Only my anemone is not looking happy.
But left behind are a dozen or so small green patches in the sand, but the rocks are clean. Hmm, now I have Bryopsis. Ordered Reef Flux. Comes in on Tuesday. Hopefully it will clear the Bryopsis and I will have a clean tank once again.
My parameters have stayed constant other than ph:
ph - 7.8 to 8.2
amonia - .25
nitrite - 0
nitrate - 10
calcium - 340
kh - 14
phos - .25
magnesium - 1290
salinity - 1.024
I am having ph swings. I add Reef Buffer to bring the PH back up to 8.2, but it drops down to 7.8 by the next day.
Ammonia has never been at zero. Tested my RODI water and it tests positive for ammonia. Checked with my water company and we do have chloramine in our water. The chloramine is not being removed by the RODI system. I do use a water conditioner that is supposed to eliminate chloramine.
I’ll update as I treat with the Reef Flux in a few days.
I’m not sure my rock structure is tall enough, I was thinking of lifting my top rock and putting another rock under it to get what will become my SPS rock higher in the tank.
I attached a few photos March 28, May 16, June 2 (cyano), July 2 (bryopsis)
38 years ago I had a 29 gallon show tank. Had it back when I was in high school. Was so easy to take care of. Had a little glass hydrometer to monitor temp and specific gravity. Barely did anything to the tank and had long living moray, lion fish and cow fish along with a horseshoe crab.
March 26 of this year my wife purchased me a new AquaTop Recife ECO 40 gallon tank. Initial setup went smooth mixing the salt, adding live sand and started with dry rock and 1 piece of ‘live’ rock.
Live rock today is a lot different from live rock back in the day. Rock purchased 38 years ago was full of life…today it was wet rock.
Anyway, I started things off the old fashion way, tossed in a watchman goby and clown and let it cycle. Quickly learned that that is no longer the way to start a cycle. Lfs did not even mention the additives that can start the cycle when I bought the fish.
The stock light…well, to be polite was a bare bone light with no controls other than on and off. Wanting to keep the tank on a set schedule I upgraded to a AI Prime 16hd. I played with it for a few days and quickly adapted towards Saxby’s settings, just added 2% blues at night for a slight night light.
Thats when the fun started. I had an algae bloom most likely the result of a better light. Kept reading that diatoms are a normal part of a new setup. Let it run its course. But it quickly changed from brownish sand to reddish color film covering sand, rock, even corals.
Tested my tap water and its disgusting! Tap water is NOT the best source to mix your salt with. Purchased a 4 stage RODI system. Blew off as much of the red as I could and did a massive water change. Red algae came right back. Every day I was cleaning off my rocks, corals and stirring up the sand bed.
The stock tank only had a return pump, so reading about how water movement is key to a successful tank so added 2 wave makers. The red algae was starting to slow, but had to be cleaned off daily. Then found out it was Red Cyano I was dealing with. One course of chemiclean and within 2 days it’s all gone. My fish and corals had no ill effects from the chemiclean. Only my anemone is not looking happy.
But left behind are a dozen or so small green patches in the sand, but the rocks are clean. Hmm, now I have Bryopsis. Ordered Reef Flux. Comes in on Tuesday. Hopefully it will clear the Bryopsis and I will have a clean tank once again.
My parameters have stayed constant other than ph:
ph - 7.8 to 8.2
amonia - .25
nitrite - 0
nitrate - 10
calcium - 340
kh - 14
phos - .25
magnesium - 1290
salinity - 1.024
I am having ph swings. I add Reef Buffer to bring the PH back up to 8.2, but it drops down to 7.8 by the next day.
Ammonia has never been at zero. Tested my RODI water and it tests positive for ammonia. Checked with my water company and we do have chloramine in our water. The chloramine is not being removed by the RODI system. I do use a water conditioner that is supposed to eliminate chloramine.
I’ll update as I treat with the Reef Flux in a few days.
I’m not sure my rock structure is tall enough, I was thinking of lifting my top rock and putting another rock under it to get what will become my SPS rock higher in the tank.
I attached a few photos March 28, May 16, June 2 (cyano), July 2 (bryopsis)
