New Mixed Reef 32 gallon Biocube

[Aquaman6410]

Hi all, I'm new to the forum and new to the reefing world. I have a lot of experience with keeping/breeding different freshwater fish mainly Discus, Angelfish, apistogramma and other dwarf cichlids. I also have years of experience with planted tanks, all the way from low tech to high tech setups. I'm extremely comfortable with aquarium and the advanced parts of the hobbies but just a compete newbie in reefing/saltwater. I know a little about it, the basics, but it's been all from friends in the hobby and reading! So enough of the intro about me. I'm excited to get to know you all.

My tank is a 32 gallon Biocube. It has the stock pump, 2 Koralia 425gph powerheads, and was just upgraded this week to the Nanobox Retro Plus M LEDs. The tank was fishless cycled with ammonium chloride. The tank was started with "live" sand in a bag and about 25 or so lbs of Reef Cleaners rock. I wanted to not go the live rock route and try to avoid bad hitchhikers where I can. Tank has been running for at least 4 months. It houses a purple Firefish and a pair of Bullethole Clowns. Inverts include a fireshrimp, pom pom crab, and 3 sexy shrimp. There is a small CUC which is 9 blue leg hermits, 4 nassarius snails, and one Zebra Turbo. Everyone gets along great, all are original fish with no loses and I love the tank. I have a few frags that all get dipped prior to being added. I currently have some zoa frags like rastas, bambams, magician and scrambled eggs. All only a couple heads but the magicians are growing fastest now. I have a torch, green hammer, duncan, micromussa, and green star polyps frag (on its on island for now!). All frags seem happy and open. Still trying to dial in new LEDs and not bleach them or give too little light. So far, so good.

I've also purposely started a colony of tisbe pods in the tank. They seemed to reproduce in a huge way a month ago and now died down to normal numbers again but I plan on adding more pods for diversity and they never hurt.

I keep the salinity at 35ppt and do a weekly 5 gallon water change weekly with 0 tds RO/DI I make at home and use Fritz RPM salt.

So I know about new tank things such as diatoms and what not. I also know reef tanks go through the "uglies" but I figure I sound ask. I have this brown fuzzy looking algae on my rocks and its thicker in high flow areas. Its not very long and looks like peach fuzz I guess. I took some out and put H2O2 on it but didn't see much bubbling. Doesn't seem like diatoms as it doesn't blow off and likes high flow. It happened once about the first month of the tank and then disappeared on its own after a few weeks. Well, now it is back again for about a week. Both times it seemed to bloom a little while after new fish additions, not inverts or anything else. Could be in my head. Anywho, tested water. Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrates all at 0 using Red Sea tests. Phosphates 0. Alk at 9dkh last check. I do weekly water changes and don't mind if adding more will help but I don't see anything in the tests to warrant it. Wondered if I doing too much! I don't mind water changes and I tend to like to do them. (If you are familiar with us Discus keepers, we do 100% daily water changes when growing out our juveniles. I still do my 1-2 60% water changes on my 125g discus tank.)

Let me know what you all think it could be. Just curious. I'll add some pics as well.

Thank you all again!

 

[glb]

Welcome! You’ve done a lot of research! Your numbers look good. Do you have any other method of nutrient export other than water changes? (Eg Nopox or a skimmer? The only reason I ask is that there’s usually some nitrates in systems without these measures. Not sure about the brown stuff but there’s all sorts of ugly in a newly cycled tank. What test kits do you use?

 

[Aquaman6410]

Thanks for the reply and welcome! Right now, only nutrient export is water changes. Total water volume is a little over 25 gallons after rock, sand, etc was added. (I counted as I initially filled it lol). I change 5 gallons every Friday so 20% weekly water changes. I don't use a skimmer (at least yet, still researching if I want it and my best options that will fit in the back) and the other thing I did plan on was a refugium in the back with some chaeto. I have not considered Nopox but heard great things. My test kits are all Red Sea except for Phosphate, that is seachem. All are only a few months old. The levels may not be 0 but they appear as 0 in color and are not high enough to register on even the lowest readings. So I guess technically they can be around 0 but not high enough to register a reading.

I actually worried I was doing too much water changing and I've heard having 0 nitrates/phosphates could cause issues but I've read conflicting things.

Not sure what the brown stuff is either but I'm hoping it starts to die down.

 

[Aquaman6410]

Here is another photo of it. Hard to see but the fuzz is covering all rocks. Its starting to go on my frag discs and one of my zoas was starting to get some on it. My hammer coral seems to not be shrinking lately, but sure if this is related or the algae is starting to pester the corals. The one zebra turbo I added unfortunately is lazy and only seems to want to clean the walls and the upper walls around the surface of the water. Should I added any type of snails to help control this while the tank goes through this? Or what do you think the cause could be or an ID on this?

 

[glb]

Sounds like you have things running well. You might not need to change 20% weekly. Just keep an eye on the nitrates and phosphates. Nopox is great but you have to have a skimmer to use it. Water changes can do the trick in a tank your size. I’m not sure about the brown stuff. Could be diatoms or algae. Hopefully someone who’s had that will chime in.

 

[Aquaman6410]

From lots of research and banging my head on the wall, it appears to be dinoflagellates. It seems dry rock started tanks lacking biodiversity could have a dino problem if they are somehow brought in. Having 0 nitrates and phosphates seem to be something that doesn't help. My water changes could actually be a bad thing here.