New Tank - 45 Days Old - Cleaning Glass and Water Clarity Questions...

DannyGT

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Hi All,

New member here!

As I mentioned in my original post, I don't have much to complain about. I used 40 gallons of water directly from my LFS show tank and went heavy on the CUC, so diatoms have never really been an issue for me. Sure, the rock started to brown here and there, but every time a part of the rock gets dark, the CUC cleans it up.

A couple of weeks ago, I started noticing some cloudiness in the tank. Like many beginners, I probably overreacted and used Seachem Clarity within hours of noticing it. Technically, it worked, but I feel like I'm constantly battling a slight blur in the tank. Some days, I clean the glass with the flipper, only to see buildup again 8 hours later. Does this ever stop??? I'm obsessed with water clarity and will stop at nothing to achieve it. That said, I also want to find a rhythm that makes the tank as low maintenance as possible. It sounds like these goals might cancel each other out. I really hope not...

Since my original post, I've made a few changes. I positioned the wavemaker dead center at the top to create a stronger wake at the surface, and I have a random flow generator on the return pointed more towards the center of the tank. Additionally, I removed the filter sponge and added Intank's filter floss tray holder. I added Seachem Purigen in basket 1, Chemi-Pure Elite in basket 2, and mixed Seachem Matrix with the ceramic rings that came with the tank in baskets 3 and 4.

I'm trying to strike a balance between being a heavy dosing, chemical media type versus an obsessive weekly water change guy. That being said, I haven't done a single water change yet, and yet my tank parameters are amazing. Everything (except carbonate, which I don't know much about) is spot on, and salinity is .26.

I take a few vacations per year, so I need the tank to be somewhat self-sufficient while I'm away. My ultimate goal, my utopia would be to change the filter floss once a week and do quarterly 5 or 10-gallon water changes. Is this realistic?
 

fishywishy

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The cloudiness is more than likely from an algae bloom since your tank is so new. it will go away on its own as your tank gets more established. It took me about 6 months for the cloudiness to go away in my first tank.

It’s definitely possible to have a low maintenance tank. For example, In my 29 gal with just a couple of fish and soft corals I change the water every 6 months and change filter cartridges whenever I remember.
 
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Mr. Mojo Rising

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Cleaning the glass daily or every 2 days is normal.

Frequency of water changes depends on your bioload vs your filtration system.

At only 45 days into the tank and into the hobby, you'll eventually get into your own routine for maintenance, everyone has a different maintenance schedule and everyone has their own belief system as to why and how often water changes should be done.
 
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DannyGT

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The cloudiness is more than likely from an algae bloom since your tank is so new. it will go away on its own as your tank gets more established. It took me about 6 months for the cloudiness to go away in my first tank.

It’s definitely possible to have a low maintenance tank. For example, In my 29 gal with just a couple of fish and soft corals I change the water every 6 months and change filter cartridges whenever I remember.
Thank you, and that's what I'm thinking as well, just needs time, and I'm being a completely impatient newb ;)
 
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DannyGT

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For what its worth - Last night I cut a new filter floss square last night and added a 50 micron polishing pad underneath it. Ironically, I woke up to an absolutely clear tank. It's gorgeous! haha.

Problem is, I'm doing too much, too quickly, that I never get to definitively know what I did that made the difference.
 

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