3 months in, no uglies?

[Aeiyr]

As title states, tank is 3 months old. IM 14g peninsula. Cycled resonably quickly the fiest month, it's now been about two months since that. I haven't had what I expected to be the ugly phase yet and I'm kinda wondering why?

I'll post pictures, but the only thing I've had was diatoms after the cycle, and now a dark brownish slightly green coloration on the rocks. It's not slimey, not fuzzy, just, green coloring. Heck it's probably just still diatoms but it's only on the parts of rock directly under lights, none of the areas under overhangs have it.

Inhabitants are as follows (and yes, I'm overstocked on inverts, Dr. Reefs made an error and sent me 10 of everything I ordered on CuC instead of the small team I ordered)

2x Mocha Clowns.
7x scarlet hermits
1x white speckled hermit (he was an accidental mix in with scarlets he'll be leaving when I get corals but for now I'll keep him, he's amusing)
Approx 8 blue legged hermits
7 or 8 nassarius snails.
7 astrea snails.

Tank parameters are:

pH: 8.0
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10-20ppm

Test kit is red sea marine care kit. I can't test for phosphate, cal, or mag yet.

I am adding some macro algae as soon as the order arrives. With my skimmer I can't do a refugium in the back chamber, so I'm putting some decorative macros in the DT. Mermaids fan, shaving brush, and two portions of Gracilaria Hayi to help me with nitrates, as I've had a hard time trying to keep the overabundance of inverts fed, so I've overdone it a bit. I don't have it in me to let them starve off to a smaller population.

Kinda wanting to know where my uglies are so I can address them if needed, as I wanted to get my first soft and lps corals in around two to three months from now.

 

[Reefer Matt]

It looks like you found the missing link some reefers miss, imo. Most tanks get diatoms, but some get the "uglies" (algae) en masse because their cleanup crew is small or non existent. I'd keep up on maintenance and enjoy the tank!

 

[Aeiyr]

It looks like you found the missing link some reefers miss, imo. Most tanks get diatoms, but some get the "uglies" (algae) en masse because their cleanup crew is small or non existent. I'd keep up on maintenance and enjoy the tank!

Lol, I guess so! Any idea what's on my rocks? It looks like maybe just darker more stubborn diatoms? I guess the oversized CuC is just making sure nothing can even start, lol. There's your secret guys!

I've been having a heck of a time with high nitrates. My test kit caps out at 50, and doing three 50% water changes through a week with a day in between each finally brought me back down to between 10-20ppm on the test. Will the macro algae I ordered put a dent in this or is this going to be mostly an exercise in restraint of feeding on my part? In the last week and a half I've taken to feeding the two clowns a third cube of frozen mysis with a few drops of selcon to avoid feeding too much.

 

[Reefer Matt]

It looks like normal maturity of the rock taking place to me. They don't stay white for long. Could be the start of coraline. What test kit are you using?

 

[Aeiyr]

It looks like normal maturity of the rock taking place to me. They don't stay white for long. Could be the start of coraline. What test kit are you using?

Red sea marine multi test kit. Tests for NH3/NH4, NO3, NO2, pH, and KH.

 

[Reefer Matt]

Red sea marine multi test kit. Tests for NH3/NH4, NO3, NO2, pH, and KH.

Sorry, I see you posted that already. I'd verify with a backup for nitrate. Maybe salifert. But I wouldn't stress too much, as the tank looks good. Is your skimmer pulling out a good amount?

 

[Aeiyr]

Sorry, I see you posted that already. I'd verify with a backup for nitrate. Maybe salifert. But I wouldn't stress too much, as the tank looks good. Is your skimmer pulling out a good amount?

Some days it does and some days it doesn't. I was struggling to get pH to balance out, so I got a huge length of silicon tubing to run its airline out a window. Since then it's been microbubble city so that's fun. I would say I'm emptying it every 3 days or so. The color isn't very dark. It ranges from a slightly tan color to a dark apple juice color other times. Doesn't smell gross either, it smells more briney than anything.

Does the salifert nitrate test have a higher range? The work I had to do to drop the nitrates was nuts. I'm wondering if some of the nassarius died under the sandbed. I have a badge for ammonia, no spikes, but the nitrates just creep up insanely fast for me. Way more than a 20% wc I was doing weekly would bring back down.

 

[Reefer Matt]

Some days it does and some days it doesn't. I was struggling to get pH to balance out, so I got a huge length of silicon tubing to run its airline out a window. Since then it's been microbubble city so that's fun. I would say I'm emptying it every 3 days or so. The color isn't very dark. It ranges from a slightly tan color to a dark apple juice color other times. Doesn't smell gross either, it smells more briney than anything.

Does the salifert nitrate test have a higher range? The work I had to do to drop the nitrates was nuts. I'm wondering if some of the nassarius died under the sandbed. I have a badge for ammonia, no spikes, but the nitrates just creep up insanely fast for me. Way more than a 20% wc I was doing weekly would bring back down.

Unless your ph is under 7.8, I wouldn't chase it. I would work on getting the skimmer properly tuned to pull out a good skimmate. This will remove a lot of organics before they break down into nitrate. I don't remember the range of the Salifert test, as I use the Hanna HR one now. I just prefer a number over colors, as it is easier for me to see.

 

[Aeiyr]

Unless your ph is under 7.8, I wouldn't chase it. I would work on getting the skimmer properly tuned to pull out a good skimmate. This will remove a lot of organics before they break down into nitrate. I don't remember the range of the Salifert test, as I use the Hanna HR one now. I just prefer a number over colors, as it is easier for me to see.

I too would drastically prefer numbers over colors. I'd really like to invest in the Hanna checkers, currently saving money for their marine master checker that checks everything (9 tests?) on one device. It costs the same as if I were to buy each of the little checkers individually. Plus it logs past results which is a feature I'd really enjoy.

As for pH it's less that I was chasing it and more trying to stabilize it. It would tank down to 7.6 for days in a row during heatwave when I could only have the AC on with the windows closed. Since I ran the airline out its been rocksteady at 8 and I'm happy with that, I won't be touching Sps for years anyways. I'm guessing the length of tubing is having a drag effect on the air coming in, similar to a twist style air restrictor and that's causing bubbles to escape. I can't use the mount that came with the skimmer (icecapp k1 nano) so adjusting hight kind sucks with it. Maybe I'll stick something under the pump to lift it.