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

olonmv

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Ok, so here goes. Extremely excited to be a part of R2R and am completely new to reefing and open to suggestions (the more affordable the better lol).

Im under the guidance from my LFS from after cycling to now. I also feel like a pest because I ask a ton of questions so I decided to join R2R seeing this is my go to place for advice on any of my questions. I’ve gotten a ton of very knowledgeable advice here. Although the advice is great I always go down the rabbit hole when self diagnosing and don’t wanna be a bother to my LFS on asking a bunch of dumb questions and extreme amounts of reading for some who doesn’t dig reading sucks.

October 27 2020, commissioned a stock fluval evo 13.5. Used live sand from petco and their water. Went the shrimp method for seeding the tank and removed it 5 days later. Purchased API’s master saltwater test kit and kept an eye on the cycle. Ammonia spiked off charts then balanced after nitrites spiked and then nitrates began to register within a month.

while cycling I found the LFS that I liked based on advice from here. Walked in, it didn’t stink. Owner was elbows deep cleaning a tank and his staff attending customers and answering questions. Caught them to speed on my setup, looked around and went home with ideas.

Diatom bloom came and went so off to the LFS we went!

November 27 2020, added (2) small clowns. 1 bigger than the other. And from that point on started doing weekly 3 gallon water changes with petco water. Feeding pellets every other day.

December 3 2020 one clown died from an attack by the other over night. No indication that they were beefing seeing that during the day they were BFF’s. Saddened by the days news I had to fill the void. Got a frag of GSP a frag of a single head of candycane and 5 nassarius snails and 5 self righting snails.

Push FF and a few purchases later I currently have 1 clown (was larger replacement for bullied clown) (the original bully died spontaneously) checked parameters all was good I’m still haunted by that till today, (2) firefish gobies a lawnmower blenny a watchman goby (1) skunk cleaner a small flower anemone, a frag of zoas, 1 dunkan head, 1 hammer coral, 3 paly polyps, some Acans. Also upgraded to the AI prime 16hd and running AB+. Also got a rodi buddy some Red Sea salt and started mixing my own water to 1.025. Filtration is bio media that came with tank and half a bag of chemi-pure. Not dosing anything. Feed every other day and alternate from frozen food mixed with reef-roids and pellets.

All was going great parameter wise until Dinos reared their ugly heads. Got the Red Sea algae test kit and found my water was too clean. 0 nitrates 0 phosphates.

With advice from LFS and what I found here I decided to take a shot in the dark seeing I didn’t have a microscope to identify which Dino I had and bought the 9w green killing machine. Ran a complete dark out with the sterilizer running 24/7 for a couple of days. Uncovered a couple days later and the sand bed was significantly better. Been running the sterilizer non-stop for a week but now I think Im getting either cyano or red hair algae. How can I identify? I dropped some into a tiny bit of the culprit into a solo cup with a lil tank water and a few drops of 3% peroxide about an hour ago and it’s still a pink/red color and the water hasn’t changed colors.
DOES THIS EVER STOP!!!! Lol.

my parameter as of yesterday (1/22/21)
Ammonia- 0
Nitrites- 0
Nitrates- 6ppm
Ph- 8
Phosphates- .08
Ca- 410ppm
Mag-1280
Alkalinity- 7.8dkh
Tested at 78 degrees Fahrenheit

Last water change done prior to these readings was performed on 1/10/21 before 2 day blackout.
For ammonia, nitrites and ph I use API all others are Red Sea test kits.

Please keep in mind that I’m a noob and Thanks for any advice! Sorry I wrote a short story.
 

Peace River

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Welcome to Reef2Reef!!!

Clownfish.gif
 

Zach B

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Welcome :) Sometimes it can all be quite overwhelming but don't let it get you down, we all have been through it or will have. Post some pictures and we may be able to help you identify the nuisance algae
 
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olonmv

olonmv

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Welcome :) Sometimes it can all be quite overwhelming but don't let it get you down, we all have been through it or will have. Post some pictures and we may be able to help you identify the nuisance algae
This is what it looks like in the solo cup after about 2 hrs of peroxide. And one of it on the GSP frag where it’s prominent. I only have an iPhone so pardon the bad pic.
 

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Bradley2448

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It can take months for a tank to properly balance itself out, and with so little livestock in the tank, the more you mess with the system itself the longer the process is going to take. Be prepared to go through fluctuations and just remember that their are very few problems in this hobby that are solved in a day. Sometimes time is your best friend
 
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olonmv

olonmv

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It can take months for a tank to properly balance itself out, and with so little livestock in the tank, the more you mess with the system itself the longer the process is going to take. Be prepared to go through fluctuations and just remember that their are very few problems in this hobby that are solved in a day. Sometimes time is your best friend
A little reassurance goes a long way. It’s a bit overwhelming but I like challenges. Just want to make sure that I’m being proactive without harming my inhabitants. I also had no idea how addictive this would turn out. Geeeez. Lol.
 

IvanW

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Welcome. I am told that next to golf this is the next most frustrating thing.
The best advice I can give you is don’t be in a hurry. I realize that it is all new and exciting but slow down. Research, join a club ( we have a zoom meeting every third Friday of the month SCMAS, of Reefapalooza fame)
Don‘t take everything you hear at face value as everyones problems as well as their solutions may not work for you. There is a ton of valuable information on this site but you have to do your homework. LFS is also a great resource but remember they are running a business and their end goal is to sell you stuff. All of us have tons in our garages to prove my point.
Don‘t panic at the first sign of a problem.
 
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