New tank syndrome or worse?

Rbjames · Aug 11, 2021

Hi - we filled a 500l tank at the start of June and now my rocks look like the attached photo. Phosphates around 0.03, nitrates 2.5 and I’m stocking two tangs, large fox face, two emerald crabs, two tuxedo urchins, 5 trochus snails as crew to tackle it but it still looks like the photo.

Should I worry or just keep the blue lights on and not take any more photos like that for a while? I’m just running rowaphos and do 4l nightly water changes.

Thanks in advance
Richard

brandon429 · Aug 11, 2021

you have the choice to hand guide the system into compliance or let it run its course

rocks without coralline are expected to do that, however tolerating it differs between parties

if someone offered you sixty thousand dollars to devise a reasonable way to make that stuff disappear, you could. In one pass, by taking out rocks and doing X to them, then set them back clean you have both clean rocks and sixty grand-you'd find a way its the motivation that counts.

anything you want to use within reason, just shy of blowtorch fire, will preserve your cycle so simply decide if you like the look, age of tank doesn't matter.

in my math class X=external peroxide cleaning lol

its not just in the water changes, you have the ability to directly lift every rock up, stack in a pile outside your tank, scrub off growths from each one, set back clean and repeat as needed

or you can let it beard over bigtime.

brandon429 · Aug 11, 2021

DInoflagellates haven't hit so you wont hate reefing with that minor challenge above

continued use of rowaphos may change that balance however...starving out green algae vs manually ripping it out imbalances params that suppress dinos in new tanks. its more preferable to lower overall light intensity, shift it towards blues, hand kill algae, back off rowaphos and away from parameter starving to control invasions.

let your hand or an animal control them instead, make all params select for coral growth.