New Reefer Alert!

Jerad81 · Sep 30, 2020

Hello all, my name is Jerad, I'm from Des Moines, IA, and I am a total newbie to the reefing world. I just started my first ever reef tank back in January and it has already been quite the adventure! I have a 20g IM all-in-one tank that has been through quite a mess so far. It has been overrun twice by some ugly brown stuff, not real sure what it was. After a few months on a blackout and A LOT of water changes I believe I have finally gotten rid of it! Before the blackout I lost my two clown fish as well which was a real bummer but also inspired the blackout afterwards. On a more positive note though my snail and hermit crab survived the storm and are doing great! I also just added my first two corals on Saturday so my fingers are crossed I have better success than I had with my clowns . Here are some pics of my tank now and hopefully I'll be adding more to it in the next couple weeks. Also, can anyone help me identify the green one? My lfs told me what it was but I've been having a massive brain fart and can't remember or find any pics of one that can help me. Thanks and I look forward to meeting you all!

sp1187 · Sep 30, 2020

welcome to the show.

BighohoReef · Sep 30, 2020

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

BeltedCoyote · Sep 30, 2020

Welcome to R2R!!!

WIReefer · Sep 30, 2020

Welcome to R2R!!!

Cell · Sep 30, 2020

Welcome to the forum!

Can you get a better pic of the green one? Whatever it is, it's not looking super happy. It could be candy cane/trumpet or maybe a duncan. Very pretty ricordea though. Also, if you have just the one snail, times that by like 10, including a fighting conch and some nassarius for your sand bed. A hearty CUC will help you with that algae.

Billldg · Sep 30, 2020

Welcome to R2R!!! Ask all the question you want, that's why R2R and the Reef Squad is here. We want you to be successful, so please ask any question and add #reefsquad to alert the squad.

Fred2482 · Sep 30, 2020

Welcome!

F i s h y · Sep 30, 2020

Welcome to the party! Happy reefing! I agree that is a beautiful ricordia. And the green one appears to be a candy cane or trumpet coral that isn't super happy.

flampton · Sep 30, 2020

welcome welcome welcome to the r2r!!

fishguy242 · Sep 30, 2020

hi welcome to the reef going to love it here!!
lots of fun/info/fun/help/fun...

Peace River · Sep 30, 2020

Welcome to Reef2Reef!!!

Daniel · Sep 30, 2020

Nice scape, welcome to R2R! And agree with above, certainly looks like a candy cane coral.

Pistondog · Sep 30, 2020

Jerad81 said:
Hello all, my name is Jerad, I'm from Des Moines, IA, and I am a total newbie to the reefing world. I just started my first ever reef tank back in January and it has already been quite the adventure! I have a 20g IM all-in-one tank that has been through quite a mess so far. It has been overrun twice by some ugly brown stuff, not real sure what it was. After a few months on a blackout and A LOT of water changes I believe I have finally gotten rid of it! Before the blackout I lost my two clown fish as well which was a real bummer but also inspired the blackout afterwards. On a more positive note though my snail and hermit crab survived the storm and are doing great! I also just added my first two corals on Saturday so my fingers are crossed I have better success than I had with my clowns . Here are some pics of my tank now and hopefully I'll be adding more to it in the next couple weeks. Also, can anyone help me identify the green one? My lfs told me what it was but I've been having a massive brain fart and can't remember or find any pics of one that can help me. Thanks and I look forward to meeting you all!

Hey Jerad, welcome.
Next time things don't look right, let us know.
We've probably been there.

Flippers4pups · Sep 30, 2020

KWT · Sep 30, 2020

Welcome to R2R, sit back, relax and enjoy

Jerad81 · Sep 30, 2020

Cell said:
Welcome to the forum!

Can you get a better pic of the green one? Whatever it is, it's not looking super happy. It could be candy cane/trumpet or maybe a duncan. Very pretty ricordea though. Also, if you have just the one snail, times that by like 10, including a fighting conch and some nassarius for your sand bed. A hearty CUC will help you with that algae.

Fishy65 said:
Welcome to the party! Happy reefing! I agree that is a beautiful ricordia. And the green one appears to be a candy cane or trumpet coral that isn't super happy.

Daniel said:
Nice scape, welcome to R2R! And agree with above, certainly looks like a candy cane coral.

Thank you all for the advice! I looked it up and I believe it is a candy cane/ trumpet coral. I moved it to a new location in the tank because it almost directly under my wavemaker and might not have been getting enough water flow. Also, I tested my water parameters and got the following results: pH = 8.2, NO2 = 0, NH3/NH4 = 0, NO3 = 20, and KH = 2-4. I might have lost count of the number of drops I added in my alkalinity test but I know it's somewhere in that range. From what I've found online so far that seems to be way too low. Are there any easy ways to raise it or should I leave it alone for now?

I haven't added any extra CUC members to my tank because I was worried there wasn't enough algae in my tank to feed them yet. I will definitely move them up my priority list now though.

Billldg said:
Welcome to R2R!!! Ask all the question you want, that's why R2R and the Reef Squad is here. We want you to be successful, so please ask any question and add #reefsquad to alert the squad.

Thanks for letting me know! I will definitely keep that in mind in the future!

I will hopefully have a build thread started for this tank either today or tomorrow. I will let you know when I get it posted!

In the meantime, here are a couple more pics. My phone doesn't take closeups as well as I would like but hopefully this one is easier to see.

F i s h y · Sep 30, 2020

That does seem very low for alkalinity. I would do the test again to verify. Raising it slowly over time is the way to go if it is in fact to low. In my opinion controlling the change using water changes makes the most sense but ive never had to do that before. Im sure a quick search will give you some ideas. Anytime I see a test result that far off I question the validity. You may also want to test what your salt mix is mixing to for ph and alkalinity.