First Saltwater build

[nwayne567]

Ok so I have to wait all the way till I get the green hair algae before I add any type of clean up crew, corals, or fish??? I guess it just seems like a long time to wait. I would have thought that the cleanup crew would help eliminate the hair algae and the Cyanobacteria would still form with them in the tank. or am I missing something???

That's all the stuff that can happen. Very handy to have so you won't freak out when something happens.

but when I cycled my tank all I did was buy some salt water from the fish store, I bought some live rock from the fish store that they are cycling already and I got some live sand.

I didn't use any food or anything like that. The whole cycling process took about 3 weeks for me. Everyone's tank is different.

To know forsure get a tester and check ammonia, nitrite and nitrate, when your ammonia is at 0, and nitrite is at 0, and you have very little nitrate then your tank is cycled. Even after my readings were good, I went to my lfs to double check. And they gave me the green light on top of my testing results.

I added a coral and a fish and a small cleaning crew a couple of snails and hermits. The fish and coral thriving to this day. Some of the CUC have died..( my pistols shrimp loves shells-_-)

There are alot of different ways to cycle a tank, non of them are wrong, except adding a living animal when the tank is cycling-_- that's just ruthless. And then just be patient, add little by little!

 

[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!

I still recommend this approach,...and yes,..I quoted myself!!! [emoji12]

 

[BlueDevil]

I still recommend this approach,...and yes,..I quoted myself!!! [emoji12]

+1 to this. Especially since the tank is empty and the rocks don't have corals on them. I would have looked at it differently had the rocks had a lot of life/corals on them or if it was an established tank.

 

[saltrookie53]

ok after a good scrubbing, lowering the lights and adding a small CUC the hair algae appears to be on the retreat. Thank you all for the help. I will be getting a GFO reactor soon.

 

[saltrookie53]

new additions today. got bored and made a trip and spent money I probably shouldn't have.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

new additions today. got bored and made a trip and spent money I probably shouldn't have.

Woo hooo!
Coral will eat the same thing as algae and a gfo reactor
A fuge will too.

 

[saltrookie53]

 

[saltrookie53]

 

[saltrookie53]

can I have some help with ID

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Cyano.
Can you get a wide of the whole sump?

 

[saltrookie53]

 

[saltrookie53]

in the process of cleaning it first time I've been back home since knee surgery. been two weeks

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

in the process of cleaning it first time I've been back home since knee surgery. been two weeks

no sweat. Hope its healing up, try to take it easy. Its not bad. Its part of the new tank thing esp with dry rock.
The bio filter(bacteria) needs time to really penetrate the rock and that takes time. while thats happening other stuff will show up to eat that stuff. so this is not uncommon.
Me I dont do chems like cleaners. looks like you done good keeping detritus out with the sock, if theres any in the bottom prob get it out. Im not a fan of rubble in the sump for this reason.
you might want to look int some chato at this point and help pull out nutrients. might choke out the cyano by blocking the light too.

got any cyano or uglies in the dt?
how the no and the Po?

 

[saltrookie53]

Phosphate is not readable I have no fish in DT. So I'm not feeding anything other than corals at the moment.

 

[saltrookie53]

yes there is a little cyanobacteria in the DT. but not like the sump

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

yes there is a little cyanobacteria in the DT. but not like the sump

ok, sounds normal.
are you feeding aminos? that will feed the cyano too esp depending on whats in it.
what kinda food are you feeding.
if you have some bottled bacteria id use that too.

 

[saltrookie53]

phytoplankton and zooplankton.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

phytoplankton and zooplankton.

that explains the low Po.
look for citric acid, ascorbic acid(vitamin c) its good for corals and bacteria too. also the tiny tiny particles prob get past the sock a bit and hang out there.
as the tank matures the rock will suck it up not the cyano. imo

Do you have zoas? migh want to look into rotifers to spot feed them, baby mysis too. mostly just the juice.
I rolled my eyes at the kid on utube spot feeding the zoas with them but when I did it the popped babaies like crazy.
plus it will help bring you nutrients up to where the corals like them.
Jus make sure you don't bring bad algaes in with the frags, and burn it off them with fire(or peroxide and a tooth brush before they go in the tank. coral cyano algae all like the same food. I think the game is to just out compete the baddies and not introduce them to the system.

 

[CastAway]

phytoplankton and zooplankton.

Is it store bought, or from a hobbyist? Hobbyist reared phyto often has excess nutrients used to grow it in the first place, typically Fritz's F2 or some people even use Miracle Grow!

Cyano can live on practically anything! You might want to consider some in creased water movement in your sump.

 

[saltrookie53]

zoo was from petco. phytoplankton was from the aquarium