Tank Build Progress

[haigyfish]

Hello y’all thanks for all tips and advice I have been receiving! I am starting this page to Create a thread for my tank build. Tank has currently been running for 5 weeks. I have had green chromis in there for about 4 weeks doing a fish cycle which I did receive major backlash. I am now 4 weeks into having the Chromis and after multiple readings of 0 ammonia and nitrite I added my next batch of fish. Currently I have a 30 gallon tank and will
Post update pictures. Salinity level is 1.023 hoping it goes up a little in the next coming days. My PH fluctuates around 7.9 so I think I am good in that case. I recently added a clown goby YWMG and a gramma. These guys are doing alright for the first day. Everyone ate but the clown goby which is concerning me. Tank temperature is a cool 78 which goes as high as 80.5 during heat waves. Here is the first tank setup and then the second picture is the most recent live rock setup!
this is my
First saltwater tank all
Tips and advice are welcome!

the last picture is algae I have in tank not sure what type!!

 

[Tuan’s Reef]

Your water seems cloudy and may be having a bacterial bloom. The bloom can deplete the oxygen in your tank. I see you have a power head pointed at the surface which should help with gas exchange. UV will clear the water.... run some carbon in the mean time. Stick a bag of carbon in your HOB.

 

[rsumner]

I don't see any fish in the pics. I also didn't understand what your question was or what assistance you needed from your initial post.

 

[haigyfish]

I don't see any fish in the pics. I also didn't understand what your question was or what assistance you needed from your initial post.

Just asking fir general advice it’s my first build

 

[haigyfish]

Your water seems cloudy and may be having a bacterial bloom. The bloom can deplete the oxygen in your tank. I see you have a power head pointed at the surface which should help with gas exchange. UV will clear the water.... run some carbon in the mean time. Stick a bag of carbon in your HOB.

I see your concern I should have noted I added another rock which stirred the sand up making it cloudy

 

[rsumner]

Just asking fir general advice it’s my first build

Keep in mind your salinity will only go up by itself as water evaporates from the tank leaving the remaining water more concentrated with salt (since it doesn't evaporate). Under normal operating conditions, you will add fresh water to make up for the water that has evaporated. Only add salt water to make up for the evaporated water when you want to raise the salinity.

Since you aren't keeping any coral (also called FOWLR), a SPG of 1.023 is fine and I would leave it alone. Acceptable levels for fish-only tanks is 1.020-1.025.

You seem to be on the right track. Since you have lightweight filtration, make sure you stay on top of your water changes weekly. The best thing you can do to keep your fish healthy and stress-free is maintaining your salinity and temperature during the water change.

 

[haigyfish]

I see your concern I should have noted I added another rock which stirred the sand up making it cloudy

Here is a fresh picture

 

[haigyfish]

Keep in mind your salinity will only go up by itself as water evaporates from the tank leaving the remaining water more concentrated with salt (since it doesn't evaporate). Under normal operating conditions, you will add fresh water to make up for the water that has evaporated. Only add salt water to make up for the evaporated water when you want to raise the salinity.

Since you aren't keeping any coral (also called FOWLR), a SPG of 1.023 is fine and I would leave it alone. Acceptable levels for fish-only tanks is 1.020-1.025.

You seem to be on the right track. Since you have lightweight filtration, make sure you stay on top of your water changes weekly. The best thing you can do to keep your fish healthy and stress-free is maintaining your salinity and temperature during the water change.

Hello man appreciate the response nice to hear I’m finally headed in the right direction . My filter is rated 250 gph with a wave maker rated around 350-450 gph. Would you still recommend a weekly water change. And during the water changes I plan to take out 3-4 gallons and swap saltwater in. Biweekly pushing it?

 

[haigyfish]

Hello y’all thanks for all tips and advice I have been receiving! I am starting this page to Create a thread for my tank build. Tank has currently been running for 5 weeks. I have had green chromis in there for about 4 weeks doing a fish cycle which I did receive major backlash. I am now 4 weeks into having the Chromis and after multiple readings of 0 ammonia and nitrite I added my next batch of fish. Currently I have a 30 gallon tank and will
Post update pictures. Salinity level is 1.023 hoping it goes up a little in the next coming days. My PH fluctuates around 7.9 so I think I am good in that case. I recently added a clown goby YWMG and a gramma. These guys are doing alright for the first day. Everyone ate but the clown goby which is concerning me. Tank temperature is a cool 78 which goes as high as 80.5 during heat waves. Here is the first tank setup and then the second picture is the most recent live rock setup!
this is my
First saltwater tank all
Tips and advice are welcome!

the last picture is algae I have in tank not sure what type!!

Hey y’all was wondering if I were to move a small
Rick into a different position would it be smarter to wait a week to let the fish settle or they will be fine? Simple
Adjustment

 

[rsumner]

Hello man appreciate the response nice to hear I’m finally headed in the right direction . My filter is rated 250 gph with a wave maker rated around 350-450 gph. Would you still recommend a weekly water change. And during the water changes I plan to take out 3-4 gallons and swap saltwater in. Biweekly pushing it?

The wave maker does not contribute to filtration besides keeping particles suspended so the filter can suck them up. The HOB filter you have will help with some mechanical and chemical (assuming you have some carbon in there). If I were running an HOB filter like that, I would change a 5 gallon bucket every week. Just my opinion.

 

[haigyfish]

The wave maker does not contribute to filtration besides keeping particles suspended so the filter can suck them up. The HOB filter you have will help with some mechanical and chemical (assuming you have some carbon in there). If I were running an HOB filter like that, I would change a 5 gallon bucket every week. Just my opinion.

I think I will follow your advice! So when I do the water change I simply
Siphon out 5 gallons and gently add the 5 gallons of saltwater. After I add SHOUld I add MB 7 or fritz bacteria to help with the water change?

 

[rsumner]

Just make sure the salinity and temp of the new water matches that of the water in the tank. Since you have live rock and sand in the tank, you should have plenty of surface area for your bacterial population to stay healthy during water changes. With that being said, I know a lot of people who swear by regular bacterial boosts. If you want to add the bacterial boost with every water change, go for it. If you notice bacterial bloom, then cut back (it will look like snot everywhere in the tank).

 

[jabberwock]

I think I will follow your advice! So when I do the water change I simply
Siphon out 5 gallons and gently add the 5 gallons of saltwater. After I add SHOUld I add MB 7 or fritz bacteria to help with the water change?

There is not bacteria in the water. No need to add more when changing water. Water change exports nutrients like nitrate. Use the change to gently clean a small area of sand at a time with the siphon. Next change, clean a different small area.

 

[HankstankXXL750]

I think I will follow your advice! So when I do the water change I simply
Siphon out 5 gallons and gently add the 5 gallons of saltwater. After I add SHOUld I add MB 7 or fritz bacteria to help with the water change?

I have over 1000 gallons in 6 different tanks. Once they were cycled I never added more bacteria. There is no reason to add more bacteria unless you have something go really wrong which is unlikely. In my experience HOB filters don’t really get the job done, so regular water changes as others have said will be important.
An easy upgrade would be to add a canister filter like a Fluval. I run an FX6 on three of my tanks. Would be way to big for yours, but they make smaller ones.
Not something you have to jump on right now, but without a sump, it is a way to get more mechanical filtration and a way to be able to use other media like Seachem Matrix, Phosguard etc.

Saw on another thread of yours about your parameters and you quoted nitrite at 0. This is good, but you don’t need to test nitrite ever again after the tank is cycled. You also don’t need to test for ammonia as it is highly unlikely that you would ever have an ammonia spike, unless you do a drastic cleaning of your tank. I saw someone else recommended siphon cleaning your sand, and as they said, do only a small area each time. Maybe a 1/4 or so. Many different bacteria grow in the sand bed, especially anaerobic, when you disturb the sand bed it stirs them and exposes them to oxygen which can cause them problems. This is why you never vacuum your entire sand bed, or stir it up at one time.

As your tank gets established it will (not may) go through the ugly stage. Possibly starting with diatoms (brownish coloration on your rocks and sand, Cyanobacteria (red or green slime algae. This is natural and should pass with patience and water changes. With no corals and fish only you can turn off your lights for a few days and it will help as at least Cyano is photosynthetic.

What you want to focus on now is nitrates. By focus I don’t mean chasing numbers (you will see this often referred to on this site) test for nitrate weekly right before water change. Super high nitrates can be harmful to fish long term, but unlike ammonia, it won’t kill them outright. Nitrates in a fish only tank can be kept between 20-40ppm in a reef should be between 5-10. Nitrates are like fertilizer to algae and can lead to Green Hair Algae (GHA). So there is nothing wrong with keeping a fish only tank lower than 20 but you also don’t want to run at 0 as it will lead to other issues. I would suggest a Hanna HI782 High Range tester. More expensive up front, but you don’t have to decide what color your test is. It reads it and gives you a number.
More than likely you will see GHA within the next few weeks. Along with keeping your nitrates lower, a Clean Up Crew (CUC) will be beneficial for controlling it. You don’t want to get them too soon as they can starve with nothing to eat, but 2-3 snails I like turbo and astria, but there are many other choices. Turbos will die if they get upside down like a turtle, that is the only downside for them. They also get bigger, but won’t be a problem in a 30. I have emerald crabs also, without corals they are perfectly fine, some say they will harm some corals, so far I haven’t experienced that but just so you know. These crabs do a great job on GHA. I don’t have a single strand in my 210g reef, but it does grow in my refugium and Frag tank in the sump. This means that it is present, but my tank
mates keep it cleaned up. On that note, all invertebrates will die from copper exposure, so this means if you want shrimp, crabs, corals etc you cannot treat for ich or other parasites in you Display Tank DT. You need to have a small Quarantine Tank QT to treat for parasites and other ailments when you get new fish.

so much more as well. Feel free to reach out with questions.

 

[Susan Edwards]

You can, if you have room, add some media (ceramic rings, de-nitrate, matrix, biomax etc) for additional places for your bacteria to grow. You'll have to rinse periodically. I have a hob on a fresh water and a canister with media in ea. I also have an AIO saltwater tank and add media to the media chamber there.

I add mb7 and mb clean to my AIO and my big display to boost bacteria and help with nutrients (not too high). Also after adding fish, you can add stability or prime for a day or so to all your system to adapt to the newcomers

Astria snails also cannot right themselves. Nerites and trochus are good and narsarius for the sand bed.

A good way to learn is to visit other members build threads and read/skim thru. Check out others in the member forum with your size tank and set up as well.

agree with the hanna nitrate tester--high range. I thought with API I had low no3 but ended up being double what I thought it was.

Good luck!!

 

[haigyfish]

I have over 1000 gallons in 6 different tanks. Once they were cycled I never added more bacteria. There is no reason to add more bacteria unless you have something go really wrong which is unlikely. In my experience HOB filters don’t really get the job done, so regular water changes as others have said will be important.
An easy upgrade would be to add a canister filter like a Fluval. I run an FX6 on three of my tanks. Would be way to big for yours, but they make smaller ones.
Not something you have to jump on right now, but without a sump, it is a way to get more mechanical filtration and a way to be able to use other media like Seachem Matrix, Phosguard etc.

Saw on another thread of yours about your parameters and you quoted nitrite at 0. This is good, but you don’t need to test nitrite ever again after the tank is cycled. You also don’t need to test for ammonia as it is highly unlikely that you would ever have an ammonia spike, unless you do a drastic cleaning of your tank. I saw someone else recommended siphon cleaning your sand, and as they said, do only a small area each time. Maybe a 1/4 or so. Many different bacteria grow in the sand bed, especially anaerobic, when you disturb the sand bed it stirs them and exposes them to oxygen which can cause them problems. This is why you never vacuum your entire sand bed, or stir it up at one time.

As your tank gets established it will (not may) go through the ugly stage. Possibly starting with diatoms (brownish coloration on your rocks and sand, Cyanobacteria (red or green slime algae. This is natural and should pass with patience and water changes. With no corals and fish only you can turn off your lights for a few days and it will help as at least Cyano is photosynthetic.

What you want to focus on now is nitrates. By focus I don’t mean chasing numbers (you will see this often referred to on this site) test for nitrate weekly right before water change. Super high nitrates can be harmful to fish long term, but unlike ammonia, it won’t kill them outright. Nitrates in a fish only tank can be kept between 20-40ppm in a reef should be between 5-10. Nitrates are like fertilizer to algae and can lead to Green Hair Algae (GHA). So there is nothing wrong with keeping a fish only tank lower than 20 but you also don’t want to run at 0 as it will lead to other issues. I would suggest a Hanna HI782 High Range tester. More expensive up front, but you don’t have to decide what color your test is. It reads it and gives you a number.
More than likely you will see GHA within the next few weeks. Along with keeping your nitrates lower, a Clean Up Crew (CUC) will be beneficial for controlling it. You don’t want to get them too soon as they can starve with nothing to eat, but 2-3 snails I like turbo and astria, but there are many other choices. Turbos will die if they get upside down like a turtle, that is the only downside for them. They also get bigger, but won’t be a problem in a 30. I have emerald crabs also, without corals they are perfectly fine, some say they will harm some corals, so far I haven’t experienced that but just so you know. These crabs do a great job on GHA. I don’t have a single strand in my 210g reef, but it does grow in my refugium and Frag tank in the sump. This means that it is present, but my tank
mates keep it cleaned up. On that note, all invertebrates will die from copper exposure, so this means if you want shrimp, crabs, corals etc you cannot treat for ich or other parasites in you Display Tank DT. You need to have a small Quarantine Tank QT to treat for parasites and other ailments when you get new fish.

so much more as well. Feel free to reach out with questions.

Very helpful I can’t begin to thank you for the advice I will be asking more if I need the help! Thank you

 

[haigyfish]

I have over 1000 gallons in 6 different tanks. Once they were cycled I never added more bacteria. There is no reason to add more bacteria unless you have something go really wrong which is unlikely. In my experience HOB filters don’t really get the job done, so regular water changes as others have said will be important.
An easy upgrade would be to add a canister filter like a Fluval. I run an FX6 on three of my tanks. Would be way to big for yours, but they make smaller ones.
Not something you have to jump on right now, but without a sump, it is a way to get more mechanical filtration and a way to be able to use other media like Seachem Matrix, Phosguard etc.

Saw on another thread of yours about your parameters and you quoted nitrite at 0. This is good, but you don’t need to test nitrite ever again after the tank is cycled. You also don’t need to test for ammonia as it is highly unlikely that you would ever have an ammonia spike, unless you do a drastic cleaning of your tank. I saw someone else recommended siphon cleaning your sand, and as they said, do only a small area each time. Maybe a 1/4 or so. Many different bacteria grow in the sand bed, especially anaerobic, when you disturb the sand bed it stirs them and exposes them to oxygen which can cause them problems. This is why you never vacuum your entire sand bed, or stir it up at one time.

As your tank gets established it will (not may) go through the ugly stage. Possibly starting with diatoms (brownish coloration on your rocks and sand, Cyanobacteria (red or green slime algae. This is natural and should pass with patience and water changes. With no corals and fish only you can turn off your lights for a few days and it will help as at least Cyano is photosynthetic.

What you want to focus on now is nitrates. By focus I don’t mean chasing numbers (you will see this often referred to on this site) test for nitrate weekly right before water change. Super high nitrates can be harmful to fish long term, but unlike ammonia, it won’t kill them outright. Nitrates in a fish only tank can be kept between 20-40ppm in a reef should be between 5-10. Nitrates are like fertilizer to algae and can lead to Green Hair Algae (GHA). So there is nothing wrong with keeping a fish only tank lower than 20 but you also don’t want to run at 0 as it will lead to other issues. I would suggest a Hanna HI782 High Range tester. More expensive up front, but you don’t have to decide what color your test is. It reads it and gives you a number.
More than likely you will see GHA within the next few weeks. Along with keeping your nitrates lower, a Clean Up Crew (CUC) will be beneficial for controlling it. You don’t want to get them too soon as they can starve with nothing to eat, but 2-3 snails I like turbo and astria, but there are many other choices. Turbos will die if they get upside down like a turtle, that is the only downside for them. They also get bigger, but won’t be a problem in a 30. I have emerald crabs also, without corals they are perfectly fine, some say they will harm some corals, so far I haven’t experienced that but just so you know. These crabs do a great job on GHA. I don’t have a single strand in my 210g reef, but it does grow in my refugium and Frag tank in the sump. This means that it is present, but my tank
mates keep it cleaned up. On that note, all invertebrates will die from copper exposure, so this means if you want shrimp, crabs, corals etc you cannot treat for ich or other parasites in you Display Tank DT. You need to have a small Quarantine Tank QT to treat for parasites and other ailments when you get new fish.

so much more as well. Feel free to reach out with questions.

Hey man I just did a 5 gallon water change and salinity was 1.026 water temp was 78.8. My tank is 1.024 and 79.5. I gradually siphoned 1/5 the sand bed and added the new salt water. My salt levels are about 1.025-26. Any steps I take next or just monitor until next water change!

appreciate all the information you provided

 

[HankstankXXL750]

Hey man I just did a 5 gallon water change and salinity was 1.026 water temp was 78.8. My tank is 1.024 and 79.5. I gradually siphoned 1/5 the sand bed and added the new salt water. My salt levels are about 1.025-26. Any steps I take next or just monitor until next water change!

appreciate all the information you provided

Plan for your next water change in 1 week. I don’t change water weekly as I have larger tanks and they are pretty stable so I change more to add back trace elements for the reefs. However on my new angels tank I am changing weekly. I do it in the same day. Have an alarm in my phone for every Wednesday at 8:00 PM. Consistence doesn’t happen by accident.
Vacuuming the sand 1/5 is perfect. However looking at your tank and what has been said it is brand new with no fish. You don’t need to start cleaning the sand bed until it starts to get dirty. Probably a couple weeks after you add fish. My Angel tank just entered the ugly stage. Hoping to avoid GHA by controlling nitrates but I have Cyanobacteria right now. I siphon it off the sand and rocks when I do water changes, but at this early stage in the process I am not too worried as it should go away as the tank stabilizes.
Your white rock is going to turn brown with diatoms, then maybe grow GHA. This is natural, can be avoided to some extent if you add a clean up crew at the right time. Too early they starve, after the GHA gets long some won’t touch it. Most newbies post in panic when this happens. Don’t fret, but reach out and we will guide you as best we can. I thought I new a lot when I joined R2R because one of my fish got sick and someone recommended it. I feel like a newbie compared to many members, and I had tanks for 10+ years in the 90’s.

 

[haigyfish]

Plan for your next water change in 1 week. I don’t change water weekly as I have larger tanks and they are pretty stable so I change more to add back trace elements for the reefs. However on my new angels tank I am changing weekly. I do it in the same day. Have an alarm in my phone for every Wednesday at 8:00 PM. Consistence doesn’t happen by accident.
Vacuuming the sand 1/5 is perfect. However looking at your tank and what has been said it is brand new with no fish. You don’t need to start cleaning the sand bed until it starts to get dirty. Probably a couple weeks after you add fish. My Angel tank just entered the ugly stage. Hoping to avoid GHA by controlling nitrates but I have Cyanobacteria right now. I siphon it off the sand and rocks when I do water changes, but at this early stage in the process I am not too worried as it should go away as the tank stabilizes.
Your white rock is going to turn brown with diatoms, then maybe grow GHA. This is natural, can be avoided to some extent if you add a clean up crew at the right time. Too early they starve, after the GHA gets long some won’t touch it. Most newbies post in panic when this happens. Don’t fret, but reach out and we will guide you as best we can. I thought I new a lot when I joined R2R because one of my fish got sick and someone recommended it. I feel like a newbie compared to many members, and I had tanks for 10+ years in the 90’s.

Nice I will reach out if I need it and excited for the fish currently I have 2 chromis in the tank and TBEY are thriving. I have nassarius snails 2 and 1 trochus looking to add a stronger clean up crew but I do want corals in the future