Ugly Phase

[AnthonyQ]

Hi all,

I have been going through the ugly Phase for about 2 weeks now, I have added 4 hermit crabs and 1 shrimp, which are making a bit of progress with the cleanup, but I think I will get a few turbo snails to add for cleanup aswell.

My water parameters are all good, so I added 2 small clowns and a small cluster of toad stool mushrooms.

I don't plan on adding anymore coral or fish for a month or two, but I am just wondering if I need to adjust anything to reduce the browning, I'm currently dosing redsea NO3:PO4-X daily as per the recommended dosage. Is this advisable?

Any other tips would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

First of all welcome.
It would be good to list your actual parameters and the test kits you are using.
Did you start with a sterile environment? Is the mushrooms the only that you introduced biome to your tank or did you use live rock from the ocean or someone else’s tank.
To get rid of the ugly's you have to have them out competed with other biome.

 

[Tahoe61]

We need specific numerical chemistry values. Age of system, lighting....

 

[AnthonyQ]

First of all welcome.
It would be good to list your actual parameters and the test kits you are using.
Did you start with a sterile environment? Is the mushrooms the only that you introduced biome to your tank or did you use live rock from the ocean or someone else’s tank.
To get rid of the ugly's you have to have them out competed with other biome.

Many thanks,

Its a new tank so I washed it down using RO water, I used a large live rock which was from an aquarium in a marine aquarium shop. The other rocks were dry but porous and designed for marine aquariums.

I then used a red sea starter kit, where I cycled the tank for 3.5 weeks until the ammonia, nitrates and nitrites were stable, so around 3 weeks in I added some cleanup crew and the mushroom and 2 clowns today.

I have been changing 20% of the water once every week.

 

[AnthonyQ]

We need specific numerical chemistry values. Age of system, lighting....

System is about 5 weeks old, so very new.
Lighting at the moment is a 55 par LED light from a tropical fish tank. But I have ordered a fluval led reef light online which I am waiting to be delivered next week.

Ammonia = 0.05 ppm
KH = 11
Nitrates = 5 ppm
Nitrites = 0.1 ppm

Test kit I am using is the JBL Aquatest

 

[AnthonyQ]

We need specific numerical chemistry values. Age of system, lighting....

System is about 5 weeks old, so very new.
Lighting at the moment is a 55 par LED light from a tropical fish tank. But I have ordered a fluval led reef light online which I am waiting to be delivered next week.

Ammonia = 0.05 ppm
KH = 11
Nitrates = 5 ppm
Nitrites = 0.1 ppm

Test kit I am using is the JBL Aquatest

This is the light I have ordered; https://www.seahorseaquariums.com/Fluval-Reef-4-LED-59w-Bluetooth-Mesh-110cm

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

KH is a bit high. You should not have any detectable ammonia or nitrite readings. But I do not know the accuracy of that test kit. What is your Po4? Maybe get some more live rock from your LFS.

 

[Boehmtown]

More inverts. The snail tank is never dirty

 

[Wbreef]

It could benefit you a ton to change your spectrum to more blue as opposed to white which can fuel a lot of the new tank algae’s.

With there being a bit of detectable ammonia and nitrite, the cycle may have not been 100% complete.

Not to worry. Just avoid making any big changes to combat it. I think the blue spectrum and maybe weekly 10-20% water changes will solve the majority of your problems.

 

[AnthonyQ]

KH is a bit high. You should not have any detectable ammonia or nitrite readings. But I do not know the accuracy of that test kit. What is your Po4? Maybe get some more live rock from your LFS.

Yeah I thought that, based on the instructions from the red sea start kit I got, bit I assumed it was because of the salt mix I got, which states kh12 on the bucket.

 

[AnthonyQ]

More inverts. The snail tank is never dirty

Hi, thanks for the comment, what do you mean exactly?

 

[AnthonyQ]

It could benefit you a ton to change your spectrum to more blue as opposed to white which can fuel a lot of the new tank algae’s.

With there being a bit of detectable ammonia and nitrite, the cycle may have not been 100% complete.

Not to worry. Just avoid making any big changes to combat it. I think the blue spectrum and maybe weekly 10-20% water changes will solve the majority of your problems.

Yeah I was starting to fear that I didn't allow enough time and was hoping for someone to confirm, so thanks for that.

Just wondering would there be any benefit of maybe doing a 10% change say twice a week until things stabilise, or what do you think?

Hopefully I will have the new light early this week aswell

 

[Wbreef]

It could benefit you a ton to change your spectrum to more blue as opposed to white which can fuel a lot of the new tank algae’s.

With there being a bit of detectable ammonia and nitrite, the cycle may have not been 100% complete.

Not to worry. Just avoid making any big changes to combat it. I think the blue spectrum and maybe weekly 10-20% water changes will solve the majority of your problems.

I think your problems aren’t as bad as you may see them. It looks like your tank is going through all of the normal processes that new tanks go through.

I would refrain from dosing the chemicals to combat it.

As for water changes, just do what you can repeat consistently. If it’s 10 percent twice a week, 15% once a week, just pick one and stick with it. Let the nutrients (nitrate / phosphate) fall into place with your consistent schedule so that you can develop a trend line. Dont like the numbers ? Easy, just tweak your schedule by a gallon or whatever and keep tracking that trend line.

Edit: ALSO , I’m not sure what your goal is for nutrients, but watch some tank tours on YouTube. There are gorgeous tanks that range from 0-50+ nitrates and 0-2.0+ phosphates. Dont chase numbers, chase consistency!

 

[Red_Beard]

Hi, thanks for the comment, what do you mean exactly?

Load up on snails. Astrea, turbos, ceriths, and trochus. They are the basis of your tank janitorial clean up crew (CUC). Any light that will sufficiently grow coral will grow algae, the cuc is your front line of defense. Eventually, most of your rock surfaces will mature through a few different stages to the point they stay fairly clean, but the glass and other parts of the tank will always grow algea that will need to be kept in check.

 

[AnthonyQ]

Thanks a million for the advice and for setting my mind straight with it.

I'll stop the dosing for now until the tank clears up and the water quality has improved.

Hopefully also the new light will make a difference.

Thanks for the tip, I'll have a good look at a few more videos for some more ideas.

Thanks again

 

[kevgib67]

The brown on the sand are diatoms that show up in new tanks. They are self limiting and when they finish off the last silicates they disappear. I you want to speed up the process start dosing copepods, they will consume them

 

[AnthonyQ]

Hi, thanks for the comment, what do you mean exactly?

Load up on snails. Astrea, turbos, ceriths, and trochus. They are the basis of your tank janitorial clean up crew (CUC). Any light that will sufficiently grow coral will grow algae, the cuc is your front line of defense. Eventually, most of your rock surfaces will mature through a few different stages to the point they stay fairly clean, but the glass and other parts of the tank will always grow algea that will need to be kept in check.

Perfect,

I have a few cleaners ordered up with my local fish shop, so will hopefully have them in a week or two once they come in.

Assume then as the tank matures and surfaces clear in the tank, that the algae cleaned from the glass would be mostly sufficient to sustain the cleaners?

 

[AnthonyQ]

The brown on the sand are diatoms that show up in new tanks. They are self limiting and when they finish off the last silicates they disappear. I you want to speed up the process start dosing copepods, they will consume them

Thanks for the advice, I will try and add to the cleanup crew and see how much of an impact they make on it first, but may revisit if it's not improving

 

[Red_Beard]

Perfect,

I have a few cleaners ordered up with my local fish shop, so will hopefully have them in a week or two once they come in.

Assume then as the tank matures and surfaces clear in the tank, that the algae cleaned from the glass would be mostly sufficient to sustain the cleaners?

Oh yeah, there will be plenty for them. I leave the back pane alone for them to eat too, they keep it pretty tidy.

 

[AnthonyQ]

Ok perfect, I'll try that aswell, as the back panel of tank is semi inaccessible with the rock against it.

Was watching tonight and the shrimp pulled a hermit crab out of its shell and killed him,

Hopefully won't have that issue with anymore of them, that hermit was particularly dosile, so assume he was sick going into the tank possibly and that's why the shrimp targeted him.

But definitely something to keep an eye on.

Must get moving on setting up a quarantine tank, as at the moment I have no way to remove anyone from the tank if there are issues like this.