No Algae and I know I'm not lucky

[ilikefish69]

75g, 29g sump, over 120 lb of live rock in the system, 40 lb live sand, running two or3 LED bars 12 hours a day.

current stocking list
2 clown
zoa, mushroom, condy nem, GSP

I keep waiting for the 'ugly stages' to occur so I can inevitably tinker. I haven't done anything to the tank other than the weekly 10% WC and top off for salinity. Don't plan on dosing or skimming or UV to the tank anywhere in the near future.

Tank has been running with fish since the end of March, fish went in after completed cycle roughly a month, ammonia produced with ghost feeding and dead shrimp, dr tims bacteria added to a bucket of rock and let it sit for 24 hour then put rock in.

I had the tiniest little outbreak of diatoms about a week after fish, probably late April/early May.

The only 'algae' I can really see is a film on the dry rock that is a shade darker than dry rock when it hasn't been wet yet. Might not even be algae but just the dry rock settling in to the environment.

Am I doing something wrong? I assumed that algae growing would be a good indicator of some sort, but the fish are happy and the corals are growing. There has been hair algae on the frags from LFS the corals come on, but that is not spreading.

CUC is 2 conch, a ton of hermit blue leg, many various snails , no mexican turbo

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

75g, 29g sump, over 120 lb of live rock in the system, 40 lb live sand, running two or3 LED bars 12 hours a day.

current stocking list
2 clown
zoa, mushroom, condy nem, GSP

I keep waiting for the 'ugly stages' to occur so I can inevitably tinker. I haven't done anything to the tank other than the weekly 10% WC and top off for salinity. Don't plan on dosing or skimming or UV to the tank anywhere in the near future.

Tank has been running with fish since the end of March, fish went in after completed cycle roughly a month, ammonia produced with ghost feeding and dead shrimp, dr tims bacteria added to a bucket of rock and let it sit for 24 hour then put rock in.

I had the tiniest little outbreak of diatoms about a week after fish, probably late April/early May.

The only 'algae' I can really see is a film on the dry rock that is a shade darker than dry rock when it hasn't been wet yet. Might not even be algae but just the dry rock settling in to the environment.

Am I doing something wrong? I assumed that algae growing would be a good indicator of some sort, but the fish are happy and the corals are growing. There has been hair algae on the frags from LFS the corals come on, but that is not spreading.

CUC is 2 conch, a ton of hermit blue leg, many various snails , no mexican turbo

If everything seems happy I wouldn't stress about not seeing excessive algae growth...the fact that the rock was live may have helped some

 

[ilikefish69]

OOPS no I meant it was dry rock - only 9 lbs of very expensive LR from the LFS to seed

 

[dthom]

Pictures are always helpful, but it sounds like you are in good shape.
Your weekly water changes are likely keeping your nitrates and phosphates in check.
With your good clean up crew, they are keeping everything mowed down.

Have you tested your nitrates and phosphates?

 

[Dani305]

 

[rmorris_14]

You win the day!

 

[ilikefish69]

Lol that is hilarious. Here are pics. Check the sweet lighting, new set up

 

[ilikefish69]

Also only test for nitrates and they’ve never passed 20 ppm most often remain nearly undetected, api test kit I know I’m bad

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

Lol that is hilarious. Here are pics. Check the sweet lighting, new set up

Are your lights always that low?? If so, that's probably slowing down any algal growth by a good bit...

 

[ilikefish69]

Low as in too far or close to the water? Literally just finished changing them from this set up probably 10 minutes ago

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

Low as in too far or close to the water? Literally just finished changing them from this set up probably 10 minutes ago

Low as in it's dark...if you turned some white light on you'd probably notice a good bit more algae start to grow

 

[ilikefish69]

The perspective is weird, just measured and they are 12” from the water now, they were less than 4” from the water

 

[ilikefish69]

Got a 48” reef day+ Being shipped to add in the white light

 

[dthom]

For a new tank things are looking good!
Yeah, tank does not come across as too bright so that could be inhibiting algae growth as well. Dont stress too much. Things are looking g good. Just keep taking it slow and make adjustments one at a time and slowly.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Just here to add, if you don’t have any/much algae in the tank, make sure you’re feeding/offering some algae wafers/nori or something to your CUC - especially the conches - so they don’t starve. The hermits would need some meat too, so - assuming you’re not feeding your clowns enough for both them and “a ton” of blue leg hermits, some sinking carnivore/omnivore food for the hermits would be good also.

You might already have this taken care of, but I figured I’d put this out there just in case.

 

[ilikefish69]

I’m doin pellets 3x a day and mysis 1/2 frozen cube thawed out. Thinking it’s time to add a third fish to increase the amount of waste produced, thanks for all of the infos

 

[MoshJosh]

2 clowns in 105 gallons of water makes me assume nutrients are pretty low/dilute. . . that plus dim lighting. . . plus a little live rock. . . plus CUC