New and feel like I’ve bitten off too much.

[MERKEY]

Hello and welcome to R2R!

 

[Scubatricky]

Hello and welcome!

Oh god, that's an awful post. I have a six line wrasse....I'll never catch the dang thing!

 

[olonmv]

Many people have said the same thing, and I'll repeat: slow is the key.

Take your time. Reef tanks like stability. If something appears today that wasn't there yesterday it's because it's taken the opportunity presented to it. Increase in nutrient, increase in light etc etc.

I've never had a fish die of starvation, so the first thing I do when I get an nuisance intruder is to reduce feeding. Nutrient drops cause problems in themselves, but rarely as bad as nutrient increases.


Then....do nothing...just sit and watch. If nuisance algae is a problem that is affecting corals, manually remove it by cycling and dump the waste down the drain. If you're removing algae, you're also removing nutrients with them.

When I got into the idea of having a reef tank I definitely read a lot of the patience needed in the hobby. Excitement got the best of me and slowly turned into stocked. Only plans I have in additions to the tank in the future will be no bio loading corals and mayyyyyyybe a pistol shrimp for my yellow watchman. Past that I’m currently in cruise mode minus the minor road bumps. Forgive the ignorance, when you say nutrients is that in reference to nitrate levels?

 

[olonmv]

Oh god, that's an awful post. I have a six line wrasse....I'll never catch the dang thing!

Lol, I’ve been heavily advised against them.....but they look so cool. I will heed the warnings though.

 

[Scubatricky]

When I got into the idea of having a reef tank I definitely read a lot of the patience needed in the hobby. Excitement got the best of me and slowly turned into stocked. Only plans I have in additions to the tank in the future will be no bio loading corals and mayyyyyyybe a pistol shrimp for my yellow watchman. Past that I’m currently in cruise mode minus the minor road bumps. Forgive the ignorance, when you say nutrients is that in reference to nitrate levels?

Nutrients are anything that promote growth of an organism.

Nitrates
Phosphates
Silicates

And many other minor little things in between.

I experienced a diatom outbreak. Watched it for a week and took an age to trace it back to a knackered RO membrane. It caused me headaches, and took me ages to control, as the live rock in my system had absorbed silicates over time, so even after fixing the RO unit the rocks leached silicates back into the system. Of course I couldn't work out why the silicates were still present in the system and the diatoms were still spreading. Water changes and silicate removal products eventually brought the problem back under control.

What I'm trying to point out is that if you see A and react with B, do t expect B to solve it straight away.

 

[Scubatricky]

Lol, I’ve been heavily advised against them.....but they look so cool. I will heed the warnings though.

It should be the last fish you plan on adding.

I added it to a tank with several clowns, that were considerably larger than it....it took a while for the six line to get put back in its place, the clowns still move out of the way when it swims past.

In a 700 litre tank

 

[olonmv]

I hope I find my source but I suspect that my initial problem (dinos) was attributed to me keeping the water column too clean and if I’m correct I’m starting to have a cyano outbreak from the bit higher nitrates but I wanna say the cyano or what I thinks is cyano was present before the dinos. I had to remove pink stuff from some palys from time to time.

 

[Specific Ocean]

Nutrients are anything that promote growth of an organism.

Nitrates
Phosphates
Silicates

And many other minor little things in between.

I experienced a diatom outbreak. Watched it for a week and took an age to trace it back to a knackered RO membrane. It caused me headaches, and took me ages to control, as the live rock in my system had absorbed silicates over time, so even after fixing the RO unit the rocks leached silicates back into the system. Of course I couldn't work out why the silicates were still present in the system and the diatoms were still spreading. Water changes and silicate removal products eventually brought the problem back under control.

What I'm trying to point out is that if you see A and react with B, do t expect B to solve it straight away.

One thing I noticed in this hobby is that some people are very reactive (my former self included) and not so much proactive. Now that I jumped back in, I’m researching like I’ve never done before. This is a hobby you cannot rush

 

[olonmv]

It should be the last fish you plan on adding.

I added it to a tank with several clowns, that were considerably larger than it....it took a while for the six line to get put back in its place, the clowns still move out of the way when it swims past.

In a 700 litre tank

My tank is waaaaaay to small to even consider one. But yes, I hear they’re mean.

 

[Scubatricky]

One thing I noticed in this hobby is that some people are very reactive (my former self included) and not so much proactive. Now that I jumped back in, I’m researching like I’ve never done before. This is a hobby you cannot rush

Wise words. Observe, think, plan, then take action.

You will read stuff and think 'i'll know what to do'. Then when it happens, the hardest thing to do it to resist the urge to react and follow through slowly with what you have learned. It a bit like knowing all about fire safety, and then when you come across a fire, resisting the urge to scream and run around in panic.

 

[Stuartmercer]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

 

[IvanW]

Cyano is an on going issue in most tanks at some stage or another. My current tank is over 4 1/2 years old and I still go through cycles and my water volume is substantially more than yours. I am not familiar with the tank you have or the gadgets it comes with. I am not a huge fan of too many gadgets. Water changes are a form of nutrient export. I only skimmed through the post. Don’t over feed, give the rock and sand time to work. I personally would not use Chemiclean at this point. Try and siphon some of the Cyano give it a bit of time to burn itself out. I know it looks ugly. Someone in an earlier post mentioned changing things in the tank can cause its own problems,how right they are. Make small adjustments over time as it takes ages to see good consistent results but watch a system crash over night. Watching a coral grow is like watching paint dry, but it can bleach out in a few hours. I am certainly not trying to put you off in any way, quite the opposite actually. Hang in there and don’t give up it’s a total learning experience and a great sense of accomplishment when you start to figure it out.

 

[Jimbhoy13]

Welcome to R2R and the salty world. As people have said, take things slowly. Your parameters look ok. If you want to spend some good money get yourself some good test kits.
Lots of knowledgeable and helpful people here who will support and advise you when needed.

 

[hdsoftail1065]

Welcome to R2R!!!

 

[olonmv]

Cyano is an on going issue in most tanks at some stage or another. My current tank is over 4 1/2 years old and I still go through cycles and my water volume is substantially more than yours. I am not familiar with the tank you have or the gadgets it comes with. I am not a huge fan of too many gadgets. Water changes are a form of nutrient export. I only skimmed through the post. Don’t over feed, give the rock and sand time to work. I personally would not use Chemiclean at this point. Try and siphon some of the Cyano give it a bit of time to burn itself out. I know it looks ugly. Someone in an earlier post mentioned changing things in the tank can cause its own problems,how right they are. Make small adjustments over time as it takes ages to see good consistent results but watch a system crash over night. Watching a coral grow is like watching paint dry, but it can bleach out in a few hours. I am certainly not trying to put you off in any way, quite the opposite actually. Hang in there and don’t give up it’s a total learning experience and a great sense of accomplishment when you start to figure it out.

Steering away from chemical remedies is definitely my mode of wanting to do things. I’m gonna keep an eye on things and tweak as little as I possibly can. I’m a bare bones kinda guy myself and don’t mind water changes and the work that comes tied to keeping it simple. I’ll continue to siphon out the nasty stuff and also run my uv non-stop until things subside while keeping up with maintenance.

 

[olonmv]

Welcome to R2R and the salty world. As people have said, take things slowly. Your parameters look ok. If you want to spend some good money get yourself some good test kits.
Lots of knowledgeable and helpful people here who will support and advise you when needed.

Thanks!!! I’m hoping that I’ve kinda learned the curve on the API test minus the nitrate test. As for my parameters other than ammonium ph and nitrite I’m using Red Sea testing kits. Figured I’d burn through the API stuff before investing in another brand. Also invested in the refractometer which was way easier and reliable than the SG one I had. I’m glad that my numbers are still in range considering that it’s almost been 2 weeks since the last water change.

 

[Snuggs]

Welcome. When I started my journey every new growth of algae had my in a panic! The more I tried to fix it the worse things became. I found that consistency and patience. Lots of patience was they key. Algae dinos cyano all had their day and they all came and went. Maybe I have become desensitized. But that patch of red wiry stuff is not going to ruin my day

 

[olonmv]

Welcome. When I started my journey every new growth of algae had my in a panic! The more I tried to fix it the worse things became. I found that consistency and patience. Lots of patience was they key. Algae dinos cyano all had their day and they all came and went. Maybe I have become desensitized. But that patch of red wiry stuff is not going to ruin my day

Thanks! This definitely has that new parent feel to it. I totally freak out with every little thing. I’m afraid of the horror stories of nuked tanks and feel like everything is a nuke situation. What was fuzzy red/pink with the lights on is Definitely fuzzy green with lights off or non existent on sand bed. Is that still residual dinos maybe? And hair algae because I’ve elevated nitrates? So much to learn. But ready for the knowledge.

 

[paintman]

Welcome to R2R! First advice I would give you is when your budget allows, get some better test kits! Preferably Hanna or 2nd choice Salifert. Next piece of advice, DON'T LISTEN TO YOUR LOCAL FISH STORE! They will tell you anything they want you to hear to get you to buy some new gadget, or magic in a bottle. Get all your advice from this forum.

Also for now hold off on adding any additional livestock. And I don't mean a couple of weeks. Let your bacteria mature for awhile and just try and keep all your water parameters stable. i.e. Alk, Calcuim, Phospahate, Nitrate. As your system matures you will probably see your alk drop.

 

[Jeffcb]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!