new 20g tank questions

[Hhaynie]

Hello! I've had my nano tank for a little more than a month now, and have a few questions. a few weeks back, I had a huge problem with red/brown thick algae growing on the rock and sand. it's mostly stopped growing there, but is now covering the glass. what's the normal timeline for a new tank to get past the ugly phase? I run purigen and Poly filter, and do a 25% water change with reef crystals every week. I used live sand and have rock from an established tank. All I have as far as stocking is a snail and some bristle worms. I run a Hipagero 2 for eight hours. Do I need to let it do it's thing, or should I be more proactive?

also, how normal is it for GSP to lose its color? I have two big rocks of it and there are patches of completely brown, fully green, and mostly brown with green tips. when I got the coral from a local hobbyist, it looked like a neon green carpet. A rainbow bubble tip I got from the same dude is seemingly doing fine, so I don't think something's that off?

Thanks for your input, reef tanks are weird, and cool, and amazing!

 

[OfficeReefer]

Hello, @Hhaynie. It's possible one should slow down and reflect on your tank as it matures. First of all, you will have an ugly stage of some sort, but it can be minimal if not overlooking other areas.

What's the state of the water right now and last week?

What size and depth is your tank and sand bed?

Would you have any pictures to share?

 

[kevgib67]

Hello! I've had my nano tank for a little more than a month now, and have a few questions. a few weeks back, I had a huge problem with red/brown thick algae growing on the rock and sand. it's mostly stopped growing there, but is now covering the glass. what's the normal timeline for a new tank to get past the ugly phase? I run purigen and Poly filter, and do a 25% water change with reef crystals every week. I used live sand and have rock from an established tank. All I have as far as stocking is a snail and some bristle worms. I run a Hipagero 2 for eight hours. Do I need to let it do it's thing, or should I be more proactive?

also, how normal is it for GSP to lose its color? I have two big rocks of it and there are patches of completely brown, fully green, and mostly brown with green tips. when I got the coral from a local hobbyist, it looked like a neon green carpet. A rainbow bubble tip I got from the same dude is seemingly doing fine, so I don't think something's that off?

Thanks for your input, reef tanks are weird, and cool, and amazing!

If this is your first algae bloom it is most likely diatoms. They naturally occur after a new tank has cycled and feed off of silicates. Unless you are adding silicates ( using tap water), once the silicates are gone they disappear on their own. If you want to speed up the process, on top of vacuuming them out, you could start adding copepods , which feed on them. Now is an excellent time to start growing your copepod population. There are much more algae’s to come that will make you giggle at your worries about diatoms. The ugly stage will last about a year and perhaps longer if you started with dry rock. Remember, every established and beautiful tank yo see has been through the ugly stages.

 

[Hhaynie]

If this is your first algae bloom it is most likely diatoms. They naturally occur after a new tank has cycled and feed off of silicates. Unless you are adding silicates ( using tap water), once the silicates are gone they disappear on their own. If you want to speed up the process, on top of vacuuming them out, you could start adding copepods , which feed on them. Now is an excellent time to start growing your copepod population. There are much more algae’s to come that will make you giggle at your worries about diatoms. The ugly stage will last about a year and perhaps longer if you started with dry rock. Remember, every established and beautiful tank yo see has been through the ugly stages.

I use RODI, and have live rock that seeded all kinds of stuff, pods included. I wasn’t sure if the algae was diatoms, it was thicker and had a slimy texture (for lack of a better word). Here’s some pictures, it looks pretty good right now.

 

[kevgib67]

I use RODI, and have live rock that seeded all kinds of stuff, pods included. I wasn’t sure if the algae was diatoms, it was thicker and had a slimy texture (for lack of a better word). Here’s some pictures, it looks pretty good right now.

Ya , I don’t see any alge. What you decided seems more like cyano.

 

[srobertb]

I use RODI, and have live rock that seeded all kinds of stuff, pods included. I wasn’t sure if the algae was diatoms, it was thicker and had a slimy texture (for lack of a better word). Here’s some pictures, it looks pretty good right now.

Looks fine. You’ll see diatoms, probably cyano, and hair algae over the next few months. I’d suggest water changes and manual removal (toothbrush of least favorite child is what I use) + turbo snails. In such a small tank resist the urge to add chemicals and miracle cures and media. Water changes and time. Fish will make your life harder. Don’t worry about your GSP. Keep doing water changes, remove any sludge that gets on the rock.

Think of finding a turbo snail soon. I like hermit crabs, cerith, and nassarius snails but they do less for you. Nerites are useless and will crawl out of your tank.

Semi-related -I just learned my turbo snails leave a zig zag pattern behind them but Trochus snails clean algae completely.

 

[Hhaynie]

Ya , I don’t see any alge. What you decided seems more like cyano.

I scraped it off a day or two ago, and it hasn’t grown much anywhere else in a while. I was confused because I thought cyano was more of a problem with mature tanks.

 

[Hhaynie]

Looks fine. You’ll see diatoms, probably cyano, and hair algae over the next few months. I’d suggest water changes and manual removal (toothbrush of least favorite child is what I use) + turbo snails. In such a small tank resist the urge to add chemicals and miracle cures and media. Water changes and time. Fish will make your life harder. Don’t worry about your GSP. Keep doing water changes, remove any sludge that gets on the rock.

Think of finding a turbo snail soon. I like hermit crabs, cerith, and nassarius snails but they do less for you. Nerites are useless and will crawl out of your tank.

Semi-related -I just learned my turbo snails leave a zig zag pattern behind them but Trochus snails clean algae completely.

I did have a snail hitchhiker, not quite sure what species, ID?

 

[srobertb]

I did have a snail hitchhiker, not quite sure what species, ID?

Speak of the devil and she/he will appear. Looks like a trochus.

 

[OfficeReefer]

Looks good @Hhaynie. Keep doing what you are doing and test your water. This is the most important aspect of knowing good and bad and what aspects may trend towards that outcome. In regards to your second question, I would check the flow against the GSP coral.