Well I made my first mistake... how screwed am I?

[BombadBrad]

My 32 gallon tank has been up and running for about a month and a half. It has been stocked with 1 clownfish for 1 month and he is doing great. I had been running filter floss, marine pure gems, and chemipure blue very successfully. Once my nitrates hit zero, I've never seen them again. About a week and a half ago, I was buying supplies and couldnt find ChemiPure blue so I opted for Elite thinking it was about the same product. 1.5 week later I'm seeing something I think may be dinos. Upon further investigation, I have found that Chemi Pure Elite may have removed all of my phosphate which is great for starting dinos. Is there any chance this is just the ugly phase for me as I've been crystal clear so far? I have removed the Chemi Pure elite and am running purigen and carbon in its place. These pics are under white light and it looks mostly brown.

 

[Roca1357]

I would bet on the start of ugly phase. Just keep your routine going.

 

[BombadBrad]

I would bet on the start of ugly phase. Just keep your routine going.

Thank you for the response

 

[Tired]

Yeah, looks like the very beginning of the ugly phase.

You don't really want 0 nitrates, and you definitely don't want 0 phosphates. Your rock needs to mature, and part of that is it needs to grow a lot of algae on it. That can't happen without nutrients. You should probably take out the Purigen, too, and don't add it back unless you wind up with nutrient problems in the future.

Feed your fish daily, as much as they can eat in a few minutes. Feed any LPS corals and anemones once a week. Do enough water changes to keep your trace elements up and your nutrients from going sky-high, but don't do any more water changes than that. You need nutrients, or algae and corals will starve, and you're right that you can get dinos from 0 nutrients. Particularly in a very new tank with dry rock, where there's no competition for the dinos.

 

[BombadBrad]

Yeah, looks like the very beginning of the ugly phase.

You don't really want 0 nitrates, and you definitely don't want 0 phosphates. Your rock needs to mature, and part of that is it needs to grow a lot of algae on it. That can't happen without nutrients. You should probably take out the Purigen, too, and don't add it back unless you wind up with nutrient problems in the future.

Feed your fish daily, as much as they can eat in a few minutes. Feed any LPS corals and anemones once a week. Do enough water changes to keep your trace elements up and your nutrients from going sky-high, but don't do any more water changes than that. You need nutrients, or algae and corals will starve, and you're right that you can get dinos from 0 nutrients. Particularly in a very new tank with dry rock, where there's no competition for the dinos.

Yes, I have been concerned with the 0 nitrate readings. I really wanted to design an overkill filter system for this AIO to produce low maintenance long term but I fear I may have overdone it. I will be starting my first batch of QT fish tomorrow hopefully. This could take 1-2 months to add them to my DT though. Should I do anything else to introduce more Nitrates to my DT? Was actually planning on starting to feed my clown with some Nori sheets too and that may help replace some phosphates I took out on accident.

 

[131696]

You don't need none of that stuff in tank ,take it all out and feed that fish nitrates and phosphate will come back ,get that tank super dirty for 2 months then clean it and your set to go.don't make things so complicated,keeping a reef is simple . Need more reading .find a guy like coral euphoria sps on YouTube see how he does his tank and follow him and only him. If you go with Soft coral find a guy with that tank that's awesome and follow him and no one else. Your tank is so young let it get dirty.

 

[Tired]

I'm not sure clownfish eat nori. I've never heard of anyone intentionally giving it to them, at least.

Just feed your tank a normal amount, and don't do water changes until the nutrients start to get too high. For a lightly-stocked tank that's about to have a ton of algae growth, it might be awhile until you need a water change. That's fine. Water changes are to replace trace elements and remove nutrients, and if neither of those things needs to be done, neither do water changes.

For a low-maintenance tank, stock lightly and pick corals that like dirtier water. Softies, maybe some LPS and hardier SPS. If you get to a point where nutrients are getting too high, some chaeto can reduce them.

The only stuff that should be in your filter is filter floss and a bit of carbon. Only a little carbon! It removes toxins from the tank, but can also remove nutrients. Anything else in the filter compartment is for when something else needs to be removed.