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

lelandmarine · Jan 23, 2021

WELCOME!
Here are some resources you may like

If you like to read

The Supreme Guide To Setting Up A Saltwater Reef Aquarium

This article was sponsored by @MarineDepot at www.marinedepot.com. Introduction The marine environment is one of the most complex systems on the planet. The aquarium you are about to set up is only a tiny sliver of the vast ocean, but it is no...

www.reef2reef.com

If you prefer video’s. First is “52 weeks of reefing” (lots of info but long and things have changed since it was made). Second video series is “5 minute guide”, shorter, good info

harley32907 · Jan 23, 2021

Welcome to R2R!

KevPool · Jan 23, 2021

Welcome to R2R. Looks like your off to a great start. I'm new to this as well and feel your pain sometimes it does feel overwhelming, fear not it gets easier as you go lots of things just take time and patience.

olonmv · Jan 23, 2021

IvanW said:
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.

I really sucked at Golf, hope this goes well hahaha. I hear ya on the LFS running a business.....came to the conclusion after they handed me a Red Sea recipe book and my suggested recipe was a butt load of supplements. Luckily I came here before jumping off the ledge and found that water changes take care of replenishing a ton of elements lost. I’m ok with slow and have pumped the breaks when it comes to adding bio load. Looking forward to having somewhere to ease my nerves on questions without pestering my LFS. Plus they be far away and driving in H-town is a drag.

olonmv · Jan 23, 2021

lelandmarine said:
WELCOME!
Here are some resources you may like

If you like to read

The Supreme Guide To Setting Up A Saltwater Reef Aquarium

This article was sponsored by @MarineDepot at www.marinedepot.com. Introduction The marine environment is one of the most complex systems on the planet. The aquarium you are about to set up is only a tiny sliver of the vast ocean, but it is no...

www.reef2reef.com

If you prefer video’s. First is “52 weeks of reefing” (lots of info but long and things have changed since it was made). Second video series is “5 minute guide”, shorter, good info

Great! I absolutely loath reading but have done a bunch of it since starting the hobby. Definitely like videos haha. Thank you!!!!

ScottB · Jan 23, 2021

Another welcome to you. And another suggestion to ride things out during the first 12 months. There is so much change happening in a young biome; it will make your head spin. Manage temperature, salinity and nutrient in/out. Otherwise, let it do its thing.

ps: I do some part time hours at my LFS and I/we always steer SW noobs to that 13.5 Fluval. Awesome value for money.

olonmv · Jan 23, 2021

KevPool said:
Welcome to R2R. Looks like your off to a great start. I'm new to this as well and feel your pain sometimes it does feel overwhelming, fear not it gets easier as you go lots of things just take time and patience.

The $2k nano tank blind-sided me and da wife doesn’t hesitate to remind me of the task I’ve taken lol. This has to succeed or we all know I’ll never hear the end of this lol.

olonmv · Jan 23, 2021

ScottB said:
Another welcome to you. And another suggestion to ride things out during the first 12 months. There is so much change happening in a young biome; it will make your head spin. Manage temperature, salinity and nutrient in/out. Otherwise, let it do its thing.

ps: I do some part time hours at my LFS and I/we always steer SW noobs to that 13.5 Fluval. Awesome value for money.

Thank you!!!! A week ago I was freaking out that I was gonna have to sink another $100 into this for supplements. Had no idea how to break it to the wife as I had already used up my “it’s easier to beg for forgiveness” card after coming home with $600 worth of stuff....oops. But yea, once I got to reading I quickly found that what I was already doing was just fine thanks to R2R. This place is great!!!! I went with the fluval after hours and hours of reading and videos. I agree, for the value, you can’t go wrong. It’s a great starter tank and I’ve learned a ton from this unit.

KevPool · Jan 23, 2021

I will say Nano tanks are way more unforgiving then larger units, but honestly your tank is looking great. Save what ya got left on the beg for forgiveness card for the day you bring home a 200+ gal tank lol. I never learn she told me if I bring home any more tanks I best be setting the garage up to live in bahahhaaaa, I've been drafting up a new garage with a loft above it jokes on her.

CMMorgan · Jan 23, 2021

olonmv said:
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.

Hey there! Welcome to the reef!! Hang in there. We've all been there. Do you have any pics of what you are dealing with? Have you tried Chemiclean?
All good things come to those that wait. Too much, too fast is just going to mess with your chemistry and bioload, giving you issue after issue. Remember it is a marathon, not a race.... slow down... take a breath.

olonmv · Jan 23, 2021

CMMorgan said:
Hey there! Welcome to the reef!! Hang in there. We've all been there. Do you have any pics of what you are dealing with? Have you tried Chemiclean?
All good things come to those that wait. Too much, too fast is just going to mess with your chemistry and bioload, giving you issue after issue. Remember it is a marathon, not a race.... slow down... take a breath.

How’s it goin?!?! Thanks for the welcome!!! I uploaded a pic of what I found that seemed new to my tank earlier on this thread, it’s on my GSP and seems to run onto the frag that’s glued to my back wall. I haven’t used anything yet because I have no idea which angle to take. I’m slowing down my desire to add bioload (difficult but it’s gotta be done lol) and am fully on board with goin a lil slower to learn what needs to be learned!!!! I love processes so this (reef tank husbandry) has been great.

olonmv · Jan 23, 2021

KevPool said:
I will say Nano tanks are way more unforgiving then larger units, but honestly your tank is looking great. Save what ya got left on the beg for forgiveness card for the day you bring home a 200+ gal tank lol. I never learn she told me if I bring home any more tanks I best be setting the garage up to live in bahahhaaaa, I've been drafting up a new garage with a loft above it jokes on her.

I’ve heard/read about that nanos vs larger tanks. I think the up keep is what frightened me as far as goin big. Plus the lofty expense if I failed at this. There no way to constitute a big loss on a whim so I figured small tank small loss.....that was a miscalculation lol. But seriously, da wife needs to be made a saint for all the “C’mon babe”s I’ve put her through. Saving grace is that my kids are into it and have gone through the progression of the tank with me. They get just as excited as I do.

G Santana · Jan 23, 2021

Welcome aboard

Uncle99 · Jan 23, 2021

Welcome.
Your parameters look great and so does your tank.
Continue to keep all parameters in the range.
Always seek stability especially with Temp, Salinity, and Alk and just let that system mature.
Resist touching things.

DonTavo27 · Jan 23, 2021

Welcome! It sounds like your taking great advice on the slow is better approach. As for the algae issue, it very well may come on the GSP Frag. You could scrape the GSP off the plug, and glue it directly to your rock, or even the back wall. Try not to add too many fish for now, and just let the tank mature.

Fred2482 · Jan 23, 2021

Welcome!

SaltyT · Jan 23, 2021

Welcome to R2R! You’re off to a great start! Patience and time are key with your first tank

Scubatricky · Jan 23, 2021

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.

olonmv · Jan 23, 2021

took tiny bits of the stuff I had a question on and did a scaled down version of this in a tiny white solo cup.....the pink has definitely turned to green and it may just be me but the water looks like a hue of pink. Kinda like the lowest shade in the Red Sea nitrate test wheel. Could it be cyano and is peroxide the angle to take?

Positive identification of cyanobacteria

Hi R2R members and visitors! I have one topic I would like to point out. The dreaded cyanobacteria Now most of you may know I spend countless hours studying this exact bacteria. Well I want to let you all know that most of the cases are not the common cyanobacteria that we see plague our tanks...

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