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

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olonmv

olonmv

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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.
Thank you! My plans were leaning towards slowing down on livestock and doing just as you suggested, now even more so with the great response I’ve had today. Waiting is totally good with me. I’m actually having fun finding daily coral growths with what I have now. I just bought the Red Sea kits and plan to stay with them until they run out, or at least until the aquarium spending heat goes down and my wife quits bird dogging me haha. I leaned towards Red Sea based on what my LFS told me and what I also read on here. I’ll be keeping my numbers in check and gonna try going down to 3 gallon weekly water changes opposed to the 5 I had been doing (LFS suggestion). I really don’t feel like they do it to push a product but I am new to the hobby and a bit naive. I’ve seen them interact with regulars and the service vibe feels the same as when they deal with a noob (me). But I will definitely cross reference all advice through here. Thanks for the words!
 

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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.
Welcome!

whale GIF
 

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Welcome to R2R!! We love answering questions, and please don’t be afraid to ask ANYTHING. Something simple to a seasoned reefer isn’t always easy for a new reefer to pick up and we all get that. We’re happy to have you and teach you as much as we can!
 

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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.
To me that is half the fun. The reading and learning. This forum has been a big help
 
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olonmv

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Glad you joined us. My tanks have never been as clean as yours. I love feeding!
Thank you! I surely wish I could feed more but I’m afraid of overwhelming the tank with an ammonia spike and killing everything. Everyone seems to be ok with the every other day feeding schedule. I’m pretty sure the UV sterilizer has helped a ton in keeping the water clear.
 
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olonmv

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Welcome to R2R!! We love answering questions, and please don’t be afraid to ask ANYTHING. Something simple to a seasoned reefer isn’t always easy for a new reefer to pick up and we all get that. We’re happy to have you and teach you as much as we can!
Thank you! It’s been a real mind settler hearing that my params are ok and that I’m on the correct course. I love having answers to questions answered without being an annoyance to the only place I knew to get answers, and hopefully some day being able to contribute to answering someone else’s questions.
 

58e970b2-3f88-4897-87ba-5

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Welcome and the tank looks great so far. It’s just going to keep getting better as those coral grow and fill it in.
My experience is things got a lot easier at around 6 months, then started to really get going at 9 months.
After about 6 months of battling various algaes, they just sort of stopped causing problems. No more algae on my rocks or coral, so things stopped seeming dire. Maybe some green hair algae popped up on things like the glass or cables, but it wasn’t bothering anyone so wasn’t an issue or worry, just wasn’t terribly pretty.
At around the 9 month mark I started to notice visible amounts of growth on my coral. This is where things got really exciting. Seemed every couple days there was something new, like someone starting to split or a new arm coming off something.
Stick with it and before you know it you will be over the hill.
 
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olonmv

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Welcome and the tank looks great so far. It’s just going to keep getting better as those coral grow and fill it in.
My experience is things got a lot easier at around 6 months, then started to really get going at 9 months.
After about 6 months of battling various algaes, they just sort of stopped causing problems. No more algae on my rocks or coral, so things stopped seeming dire. Maybe some green hair algae popped up on things like the glass or cables, but it wasn’t bothering anyone so wasn’t an issue or worry, just wasn’t terribly pretty.
At around the 9 month mark I started to notice visible amounts of growth on my coral. This is where things got really exciting. Seemed every couple days there was something new, like someone starting to split or a new arm coming off something.
Stick with it and before you know it you will be over the hill.
Thank you!!! I was really nervous about joining because I thought I’d be scrutinized for the amount of life I have in my tank. Initially went slow waiting for the cycle to be done and when it was, I got carried away in stocking the tank. The excitement got me lol. I’m definitely team wait now as I want to be able to manage and treat the couple issues I’ve had. Hopefully I’ll be able to button this identification process down. Have noticed some coral growing like my GSP but that’s no big surprise. Zoas have sprouted a couple of new polyps and I started out with one paly now there are three polyps. Looking forward to continuing this hobby especially knowing that I’ve always got somewhere I can ask questions!
 

58e970b2-3f88-4897-87ba-5

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Thank you!!! I was really nervous about joining because I thought I’d be scrutinized for the amount of life I have in my tank. Initially went slow waiting for the cycle to be done and when it was, I got carried away in stocking the tank. The excitement got me lol. I’m definitely team wait now as I want to be able to manage and treat the couple issues I’ve had. Hopefully I’ll be able to button this identification process down. Have noticed some coral growing like my GSP but that’s no big surprise. Zoas have sprouted a couple of new polyps and I started out with one paly now there are three polyps. Looking forward to continuing this hobby especially knowing that I’ve always got somewhere I can ask questions!
Awesome that things are growing. Always a good sign.
People here seem to be quite friendly. It seems the main things to remember when asking for help is to post your parameter right off the bat and try to take photos in as white of light as possible (possibly try using a flashlight to help whiten things up?).
I haven’t try the flashlight trick, but have noticed that there is a correlation between photo blueness and amount of help with identification.
 
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olonmv

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Awesome that things are growing. Always a good sign.
People here seem to be quite friendly. It seems the main things to remember when asking for help is to post your parameter right off the bat and try to take photos in as white of light as possible (possibly try using a flashlight to help whiten things up?).
I haven’t try the flashlight trick, but have noticed that there is a correlation between photo blueness and amount of help with identification.
Ok with the lights on full white (the fish didn’t apprentice it) this is what I got. Thanks for the light tip for photo taking. Makes a huge difference! Is cyano what I’m up against?
6BE6D24F-2621-492E-8286-20125640EC39.jpeg
AC593397-CD8F-4C9C-A8B5-D617A9852D46.jpeg
6E0471F5-99B8-493A-8928-6B62E3BE4F35.jpeg
 

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I see you are running UV. I personally would not at this point as you might be killing off some of the good stuff as well. As far as Dinos siphon it off the rocks and leave it, it will burn itself out.
 
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olonmv

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Ivan, Should I hold off on any water changes as well? I’m almost 2 weeks into no water change and worried that a water changes will only make the dinos/cyano happy.
 

vetteguy53081

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I see a little cyano, diatoms and turf algae. The stuff on the rocks: brush with a Firm toothbrush or auto detail brush.
Reduce white light intensity and Check your phosphate and nitrate for elevated levels.
Add the following snails:

3 turbo
3 astrea
3 Trochus
3 Cerith
4 Nassarius
6-8 blue leg hermits.

Also add a pouch of chemipure Elite will will keep Phos and nitrates in check

Are you using RODI water or tap water from the faucet ?
Is tank at or near a window?
 

vetteguy53081

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