Scoots 15 Gallon

[scoot]

Hi all! Figured its as good a time as ever to post my current tank. Ive got dreams to go much bigger but waiting until the wife and i build our house. I wanted to get my toes wet though before going crazy so here we are. Got a Hello Reef 15 thats been going for about 3 months - livestock is 2 clowns, cleaner shrimp, and cuc (cerith, trochus, nassarius, red leg hermits) and for coral ive got the start of a zoa farm, little bit of gsp glued to back wall, and a little acan in the sand.

For filtration i have been using filter floss then seachem purigen then some live filter media. No skimmer or scrubber or chaeto or anything so going pretty light for now but might get more if my nitrate+phos gets too crazy.

So far,

The good:
-clowns are doing good, they were super thin with stringy white poop when i got them but it cleared up with metro+focus and they have put on weight nicely since.
-Corals are doing well and growing a but, Ive noticed a few new zoa heads. Acan is a little closed in the photo but i think it was me messing with the lights for the photos, it opened nicely after putting the lights back on schedule. Only coral issue was a people eater zoa that i got rid of because of some issues that i suspected to be pests. I have a separate post concerning this.
-coralline algae is popping up all over the dry rock (only 1 piece of live rock added when starting, its on the far left of the tank).

The bad:
-going through a bit of a gha issue at the moment. I figure its just an ugly phase of it being a new tank, my nitrates are always around 10 (salifert) and the highest phos i have gotten is 0.05 (Hanna). I have been using a toothbrush to get the gha 1-2 times a week. If anyone has recommendations i would greatly appreciate. Should i just wait it out and continue with water changes and scrubbing and assume that this phase will pass?

 

[Calmwaters]

Hi all! Figured its as good a time as ever to post my current tank. Ive got dreams to go much bigger but waiting until the wife and i build our house. I wanted to get my toes wet though before going crazy so here we are. Got a Hello Reef 15 thats been going for about 3 months - livestock is 2 clowns, cleaner shrimp, and cuc (cerith, trochus, nassarius, red leg hermits) and for coral ive got the start of a zoa farm, little bit of gsp glued to back wall, and a little acan in the sand.

For filtration i have been using filter floss then seachem purigen then some live filter media. No skimmer or scrubber or chaeto or anything so going pretty light for now but might get more if my nitrate+phos gets too crazy.

So far,

The good:
-clowns are doing good, they were super thin with stringy white poop when i got them but it cleared up with metro+focus and they have put on weight nicely since.
-Corals are doing well and growing a but, Ive noticed a few new zoa heads. Acan is a little closed in the photo but i think it was me messing with the lights for the photos, it opened nicely after putting the lights back on schedule. Only coral issue was a people eater zoa that i got rid of because of some issues that i suspected to be pests. I have a separate post concerning this.
-coralline algae is popping up all over the dry rock (only 1 piece of live rock added when starting, its on the far left of the tank).

The bad:
-going through a bit of a gha issue at the moment. I figure its just an ugly phase of it being a new tank, my nitrates are always around 10 (salifert) and the highest phos i have gotten is 0.05 (Hanna). I have been using a toothbrush to get the gha 1-2 times a week. If anyone has recommendations i would greatly appreciate. Should i just wait it out and continue with water changes and scrubbing and assume that this phase will pass?

Nice start!

 

[PowChickaPowPow]

Looking good to me! I'm a newer hobbiest so I can't offer much advice but seems like you are off to a nice start. This website has been really helpful for me along the way! Zoas and clowns are looking nice. I also have the 15g from HelloReef. I see you put the wave maker on the back wall. I hadn't thought about doing that but seems like a clean look. I have mine on the left wall of the tank. Enjoy the journey!

 

[vlangel]

Hi all! Figured its as good a time as ever to post my current tank. Ive got dreams to go much bigger but waiting until the wife and i build our house. I wanted to get my toes wet though before going crazy so here we are. Got a Hello Reef 15 thats been going for about 3 months - livestock is 2 clowns, cleaner shrimp, and cuc (cerith, trochus, nassarius, red leg hermits) and for coral ive got the start of a zoa farm, little bit of gsp glued to back wall, and a little acan in the sand.

For filtration i have been using filter floss then seachem purigen then some live filter media. No skimmer or scrubber or chaeto or anything so going pretty light for now but might get more if my nitrate+phos gets too crazy.

So far,

The good:
-clowns are doing good, they were super thin with stringy white poop when i got them but it cleared up with metro+focus and they have put on weight nicely since.
-Corals are doing well and growing a but, Ive noticed a few new zoa heads. Acan is a little closed in the photo but i think it was me messing with the lights for the photos, it opened nicely after putting the lights back on schedule. Only coral issue was a people eater zoa that i got rid of because of some issues that i suspected to be pests. I have a separate post concerning this.
-coralline algae is popping up all over the dry rock (only 1 piece of live rock added when starting, its on the far left of the tank).

The bad:
-going through a bit of a gha issue at the moment. I figure its just an ugly phase of it being a new tank, my nitrates are always around 10 (salifert) and the highest phos i have gotten is 0.05 (Hanna). I have been using a toothbrush to get the gha 1-2 times a week. If anyone has recommendations i would greatly appreciate. Should i just wait it out and continue with water changes and scrubbing and assume that this phase will pass?

Are your rocks glued? If not you could try turning some of the rock that doesn't have coral on it, over so the algae side doesn't get light? If the rock is glued, maybe you could slightly shorten the photophase? How long are your lights on? If its longer than 7 hours, maybe try reducing it slowly over the next couple of weeks.

 

[scoot]

Hi all! Figured its as good a time as ever to post my current tank. Ive got dreams to go much bigger but waiting until the wife and i build our house. I wanted to get my toes wet though before going crazy so here we are. Got a Hello Reef 15 thats been going for about 3 months - livestock is 2 clowns, cleaner shrimp, and cuc (cerith, trochus, nassarius, red leg hermits) and for coral ive got the start of a zoa farm, little bit of gsp glued to back wall, and a little acan in the sand.

For filtration i have been using filter floss then seachem purigen then some live filter media. No skimmer or scrubber or chaeto or anything so going pretty light for now but might get more if my nitrate+phos gets too crazy.

So far,

The good:
-clowns are doing good, they were super thin with stringy white poop when i got them but it cleared up with metro+focus and they have put on weight nicely since.
-Corals are doing well and growing a but, Ive noticed a few new zoa heads. Acan is a little closed in the photo but i think it was me messing with the lights for the photos, it opened nicely after putting the lights back on schedule. Only coral issue was a people eater zoa that i got rid of because of some issues that i suspected to be pests. I have a separate post concerning this.
-coralline algae is popping up all over the dry rock (only 1 piece of live rock added when starting, its on the far left of the tank).

The bad:
-going through a bit of a gha issue at the moment. I figure its just an ugly phase of it being a new tank, my nitrates are always around 10 (salifert) and the highest phos i have gotten is 0.05 (Hanna). I have been using a toothbrush to get the gha 1-2 times a week. If anyone has recommendations i would greatly appreciate. Should i just wait it out and continue with water changes and scrubbing and assume that this phase will pass?

Are your rocks glued? If not you could try turning some of the rock that doesn't have coral on it, over so the algae side doesn't get light? If the rock is glued, maybe you could slightly shorten the photophase? How long are your lights on? If its longer than 7 hours, maybe try reducing it slowly over the next couple of weeks.

They are glued. My light is set up for 12 hrs with 2 hr ramp up and 2 hr ramp down.. ive known this is pretty long but was hoping to make it work with my work schedule. Im open to shortening it, what would you recommend? Will the corals need an adjustment period for shortening the light schedule? Also i try to feed the clowns morning and night (pellets once and mysis once) if the tank is dark when i leave in the morning is there a way to get around this other than auto feeder if im at work? Appreciate the help

 

[vlangel]

They are glued. My light is set up for 12 hrs with 2 hr ramp up and 2 hr ramp down.. ive known this is pretty long but was hoping to make it work with my work schedule. Im open to shortening it, what would you recommend? Will the corals need an adjustment period for shortening the light schedule? Also i try to feed the clowns morning and night (pellets once and mysis once) if the tank is dark when i leave in the morning is there a way to get around this other than auto feeder if im at work? Appreciate the help

Hhm, I see your problem. The coral definitely should have an adjustment period, the slower the better. I would try to get down to 9 hours to start with and see if that helps. Other than an auto feeder for 1 of the meals, I am at a loss how to do 2 feedings with a long work day.

 

[scoot]

They are glued. My light is set up for 12 hrs with 2 hr ramp up and 2 hr ramp down.. ive known this is pretty long but was hoping to make it work with my work schedule. Im open to shortening it, what would you recommend? Will the corals need an adjustment period for shortening the light schedule? Also i try to feed the clowns morning and night (pellets once and mysis once) if the tank is dark when i leave in the morning is there a way to get around this other than auto feeder if im at work? Appreciate the help

Hhm, I see your problem. The coral definitely should have an adjustment period, the slower the better. I would try to get down to 9 hours to start with and see if that helps. Other than an auto feeder for 1 of the meals, I am at a loss how to do 2 feedings with a long work day.

Heard. I will start slowly lowering down to 9 over a month or so and keep up with the manual removal. Any thoughts on additional CUC? Im torn on a tuxedo urchin as im having pretty good coralline growth and ive heard they will mow it down, but i was thinking maybe emerald crab?

 

[vlangel]

Heard. I will start slowly lowering down to 9 over a month or so and keep up with the manual removal. Any thoughts on additional CUC? Im torn on a tuxedo urchin as im having pretty good coralline growth and ive heard they will mow it down, but i was thinking maybe emerald crab?

Yes, tuxedo urchins are good except they can be bulldozers mowing over everything. An emerald crab maybe could help and the hermits and snails you already have are good. There are not a lot of fish herbivores that work in a 25 gallon except perhaps the bristletooth blennies, like a lawnmower, bicolor or midas and they are the cutest fish. Lawnmower blennies can be really effective but can get bullyish however. And of course another fish would add more bioload and maybe you don't want that just yet while your tank is still developing its biome.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Following along!

 

[vlangel]

Heard. I will start slowly lowering down to 9 over a month or so and keep up with the manual removal.

If your lights are fully programmable, try to reduce the peak portion of the photophase, while reducing how much white light the tank gets. Its the white and red spectrum more than the blue that makes the algae flourish, while the coral do well with the blue, especially with you having zoas and acans that are not as light needy. Don't cut out the white and red completely however. If your fixture is not fully programmable, then shortening the photophase can still help a lot.

 

[scoot]

Heard. I will start slowly lowering down to 9 over a month or so and keep up with the manual removal.

If your lights are fully programmable, try to reduce the peak portion of the photophase, while reducing how much white light the tank gets. Its the white and red spectrum more than the blue that makes the algae flourish, while the coral do well with the blue, especially with you having zoas and acans that are not as light needy. Don't cut out the white and red completely however. If your fixture is not fully programmable, then shortening the photophase can still help a lot.

That makes sense, i have an ai blade so its fully programmable. Ill drop whites down while i slowly shorten. Thanks for all your help!

 

[vlangel]

That makes sense, i have an ai blade so its fully programmable. Ill drop whites down while i slowly shorten. Thanks for all your help!

You are very welcome. Give it some time but I think you will begin to see things move in the right direction.

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

I have found cerith, trochus and pythos crab to be great algae workhorse. Have a few other snails like nassarious 2 different species and Conch great for sandbed as well as pistol shrimp. I have 1 scarlet hermit. Hermit crabs never did a great job and caused problems. I see trochus and pythos work the hardest. I have a tailspot but more for looks as they don't graze enough.

 

[steveschuerger]

With the lights check intensity as depending on the light wattage it can be another factor. I use ReefCleaners for my cuc needs. Their starting packages are for 30 gallons or so but you can buy smaller groupings of snails etc separately to create your own package of clean up crew. I have a 25 and I did a mix of Astrea , cerith, dwarf cerith and Nerite snails . Also added some stomatella snails later. They did a good job but I’ll have to add some more soon as I have a mantis shrimp slowly eating my crew.
Nice tank by the way . Thought about the Hello Reef but decided I wanted larger.

 

[scoot]

I have found cerith, trochus and pythos crab to be great algae workhorse. Have a few other snails like nassarious 2 different species and Conch great for sandbed as well as pistol shrimp. I have 1 scarlet hermit. Hermit crabs never did a great job and caused problems. I see trochus and pythos work the hardest. I have a tailspot but more for looks as they don't graze enough.

I'll have to look into pythos, thanks!

 

[scoot]

With the lights check intensity as depending on the light wattage it can be another factor. I use ReefCleaners for my cuc needs. Their starting packages are for 30 gallons or so but you can buy smaller groupings of snails etc separately to create your own package of clean up crew. I have a 25 and I did a mix of Astrea , cerith, dwarf cerith and Nerite snails . Also added some stomatella snails later. They did a good job but I’ll have to add some more soon as I have a mantis shrimp slowly eating my crew.
Nice tank by the way . Thought about the Hello Reef but decided I wanted larger.

Yeah i definitely want to go bigger also, we're planning on a 300ish room separator tank when we build our house in a few years, i mostly wanted something to get my feet wet and really learn all i can on so i don't mess the big one up too badly