First Saltwater build

[saltrookie53]

it had came loose during all my finally plumbing.. had problems with the overflow being very loud and I guess with working on it during the leak test it worked it's way loose. but all good now just had to move my entertainment center down the wall two feet to get to it.

that was a beast to move by myself.

 

[BlueDevil]

Glad you got it sorted out

 

[saltrookie53]

crap forgot to post water parameters. This was a water change that I got from a friend. 90 gallons... it's nice to know people with big tanks.


ph- 7.8

ammonia- 0

nitrite- 0

nitrate- 80 ppm

salinity - 1.020

 

[saltrookie53]

noticed I have hair algae growing on two of my three live rock that I got.

 

[saltrookie53]

have no idea what this is but it wasn't on that rock when I started the tank up....

 

[saltrookie53]

ok is there a way to speed up the Diatoms or is it just a slow process? I believe that they are forming on some of my live rock and the sand bed. Two ocean revive T247, running 50 percent 9 hours a day. also running the blue at 50 for nine hours.

 

[Mark75]

Prepare yourself for an ugly tank for the next couple of months,...every tank goes through it! Limit nutrients the best you can and it will pass, in months not days. [emoji16]

My tank is 6 months old and it has just settled down. I had diatoms/bacterial blooms/cyano.

The only thing I would be proactive about is the more invasive macro algae such as bubble/hair/bryopsis, remove these before they get a foothold.

Some people will recommend not running your light or lowering the intensity but I like to blast the tank with light right from the get go and run the tank out of algae fuel before I stock it.

 

[CastAway]

+1 on the lighting. Not running your light during the cycle just means more transitioning and changes once you do turn it on, prolonging the process. JMO

Someone will surely jump in and correct me.

 

[saltrookie53]

ok. so now it's turn the lights up to 100 and sit back and watch the show. I get a little natural light coming in thw window for a few hours during the day. but for not I will turn thw lights to 100 and 12 hours a day. pictures to come in a bit still debating on getting out of bed or saying screw it and going back to sleep

 

[saltrookie53]

 

[Mark75]

Do you have any livestock in the tank @saltrookie53 ?

 

[saltrookie53]

other than live rock. No.

 

[Mark75]

While the tank is void of animals I would do two things that will save you a lot of headaches down the road.

1.) I would remove the rock and give it a 1/10 water/acid bath and then run it a few days in freshwater dosing lanthanum chloride(pool cleaner) to remove phosphates.

2.) While the rock is out of the tank I would clean the sand bed until you can stir it as much as you want and it not cloud the water,...and by stir I mean really stir it up! Use both hands and fluff the entire sand bed, you should only get sand particles in the water column, no cloud.

This will set you back a week but you will be rewarded in the long run. That patch of hair algae in a tank that nothing has been added spells trouble, nip it in the bud!

 

[cameronh]

I really don't think all that is necessary, I can see where mark is coming from in this case but it can also be beaten. When my brother in law moved, he moved the tank also, about a month later it had a massive crash, and I do mean massive. Green hair algae EVERYWHERE, cyano the whole nine. He simply let it sit while doing water changes as need, as the levels were where they needed to be he added two yellow tangs that made quick work of the gha and upped his magnesium to nuke the cyano. 2 months later it's a full blown nice looking reef tank again. Nothing was removed /cleaned from the tank.

 

[saltrookie53]

I had thought of adding a partial clean up crew to help with the hair algae and the Diatoms. but everyone keeps saying just let it do its thing. so I'm kind of at a loss as to what to do. I know I can do a black out on my tank. but it seems that all that does is prolong the full cycle of the tank. I had also thought of dosing purple up to see if that would help. do to the fact there is nothing on the tank other than 3 LIVE Rock.

 

[CastAway]

I think what's happening is exactly what's supposed to be happening.

It takes t i m e.

#ReefSquad

 

[dbl]

I would agree with Jeff here. It seems really premature to remove rock at this point. As someone said earlier, you have to accept the ugly tank stage that comes with a new tank. It's simply part of the process. I personally fought diatoms for nearly 9 months and I started out with completely clean, acid washed rock. It's different for every system. I would suggest giving it some time and let it do it's thing. Just my opinion.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I do agree the ugly phase Is normal. The gha I would pull out. My favorite method. Tooth brush. or Pot scrubber brush. If you want to be sure its gone you can scrub it in a very light peroxide solution. 10ml in 2 gal of ro. I use a similarly light amount on incoming frags.

 

[rayn]

Let it run its coarse. Pull out what you can and run some phosphate media in a reactor.

Patience in this hobby is a must, hurting anything is just asking for more trouble down the road.

Uglies always come before the beauty.

 

[melypr1985]

I agree as well. Typical ugly phase. It will pass and a clean up crew will get anything that tries to hang on past that.