Questions: 4 months in checkpoint

gkMiami · May 10, 2021

I have a 130.4 Waterbox reef that has been set up a little over 4 months ago. Unfortunately, none of my friends are in the hobby, so it is difficult for me to guage progress or next steps. So, I'm reaching out to you. Before I post my questions here are some stats:

- Tank went through a month of a fishless cycle. I added tubro start and then dozed with ammonia. After that once ammoniate and Nitrite was at zero, I added fish [slowly over the past 3 months]
- I do weekly 10-15% water changes. 0 Ammonia and Nitrate, .05 Nitrate and 0 Phosphate. temp at 78-79. Ph at 8.1-8.2. Salt at 1.024-25
- socks change 2-3 times a week
- I have a GFO and Carbon filters.
- CO2 scrubber to keep Ph at 8.2.
- I have a ton of flow. 2 MP10s and 2 MP40.
- I have a few hermits, trochus snails. Fish: 2 clowns, kole tang, yellow tang, foxface and a diamond goby that is coming out of QT on Wed. After that I want to switch to adding corals.
- Fish I have seem happy, except a 6 line that died, because I think he got sucked into a wave maker.

The questions I have are:

1) I have roughly 1.5 inches of sand. I vacuum all of the areas next to the glass all the way down to the bottom of the tank. Should I be doing this, or leave the sand alone and just agitate/clean the surface?
2) After 4 months I believe that I'm still in the diatom phase with some cyanobacteria. I have some green algae on the rock, but have never seen hair algae. Should I continue to wait or should I change my routine?

Tank before cleaning:

tank after cleaning

Thanks!

Jekyl · May 10, 2021

I usually vacuum about a third of my substrate at a time. Algae is coming. My ugly phase didn't end until tank was around a year old.

gkMiami · May 10, 2021

Thanks. I wasn't sure if I'm fighting Nitrate/Phosphate too aggressively this early on by running GFO and Carbon. Also, did you wait for a year to add coral?