IM20 - retuning to hobby, starting from ground 0

[hahahohol]

Week #8 update:
So far, corals are doing fantastic. I got a leather today (center-top), still haven’t opened. And the diatoms are not as furious as before.

So, it has been almost 2 months… and I still haven’t done a single water change (not even after cycling). My API test was showing 0 nitrate (garbage). I got a new test kit that shows 10mg/l of nitrate.


Question…
1. What should my nitrate reading be? I’d like to keep softies & some LPS.
2. Would you say it’s ready for 10% WC?

More updates coming soon…

 

[hahahohol]

4 months update:
It has been a while since I wrote. But here’s a “brief” update of where things are at.

The Good:
Tank is running stable. I still have a pair of clowns, a pair of pajama cardinalfish, a fire goby, pistol shrimp (always hiding), and CuC. But the most exciting part (which is what I enjoy about the hobby the most) is corals. Local reefers were sharing a bunch of frags with me lately. I now have frogspawn, mushrooms, reccordias, leathers, xenia, & gsp. They all seem to be doing fine.

The Bad:
My second YWG went missing. I can’t find him anywhere. Not in the back chaimbers, nor on the floor… can he be hiding under the rock with the pistol shrimp for a couple of months? I doubt it, but I don’t want to disturb the rockwork.

The green candy-cane coral died from brown jelly disease. IDK what triggered it. My frogspawn is doing fine though.

Also, I still don’t have any coraline growth. Perhaps my Magnesium test result IS accurate (600ppm) and part of the issue. What Magnesium product would you recommend?

The Ugly:
Algae. My tank is being overtaken by Ulva (sea lettuce). Astea snail, emerald & 3 hermit crabs seem to enjoy it, but they and don’t do much, tbh. I remove it by hand a lot, but that doesn’t do much either. I’m thinking of Hydrogen Peroxide dosing (1ml/10gal), but concerned about pistol shrimp. I know that spraying H2O2 on rock works (I tried before I had corals), but I can’t remove rock out of water. Any suggestions? Will taxido, tailspot belenny take care of it? Should I try dwarf angel? …we need a nano Tang, asap! Lol
My nitrates are 0! And they were 10ppm before Ulva outbreak.

But tbh, I prefer Ulva over GHA 100%. Grateful that I don’t have any GHA. Seriously!

More updates coming “soon”

 

[DatsoonDave]

So, this is not my first rodeo, but after a 6yr break it feels like I’m relearning everything from scratch. Kid’s are older and I feel safer returning to the hobby (hopefully no one will feed my fish play dough this time lol).
Anyway, I’m excited to share this journey with y’all especially that I’ll get to go back and look at the progress myself (hopefully).

Long story short, I got a chance to pick up used 20g IM tank with a bunch of goodies while we were on family vacation:

• Innovative Marine Nuvo 20 gallon tank
• DC Mighty Jet Return pump (526 GPH)
• Red Sea LED RL50
• Tunze Osmilator ATO
• Jabeo 01-10 wavemaker (new in box)
• eShopps nano skimmers
• Intank Floss holder

Everything was super clean and I got a really good deal on it, I think.

Question…
What container should I use for ATO water?

More updates coming soon…

I use that skimmer on my 20 Im. It's pretty darn solid.