Newbie here needing help

[natalieyork3]

We started a 16 gal Bio Cube (video attached below) about 3 months ago. We lost her fav tonight. I believe it’s called the Banggai cardinalfish. The past month, this brown algae looking stuff keeps floating and growing in the rocks. The filter is being changed weekly because it’s stays nasty. We have called and visited the Aquatic Cove where we bought the fish, water, etc. they say the water test are all good. Told us to be patient. They also said it could be the amount of blue light and white light but couldn’t give me the correct time frames they should be under so I could program the bio cube settings. Then they said the brown algae is normal being a new tank and all. At what point does this disappear or what do we do? If you stick your arm in the water, it’s brown to pull it out but under the surface looks somewhat normal. We also started a 32 gal for us and not andded any fish inside until we get the smaller one correct. The rock has brown on it so I’m trying tj get ahead before losing anything else or adding corals. Thank you for your help

 

[WalkerLovesTheOcean]

First, get those plastic decorations out. Cheap plastic will leach things into the water overtime.

Do you have any things to create flow in the water? Your Water looks very stagnant which is not good at all.

Please list your parameters. Just because your LFS days they're good does not mean they are.

 

[Uncle99]

3 months gets you in the middle of the ugly stage whereas the bad guy stuff is more than the good guy stuff.

The good guy stuff (micro-organisms) are slow to populate and various diversities take more time.

Using only RODI water, stabilizing your chemistry, and ensuring nitrate and phosphate stay at normal levels, adding pods once and a weekly hit of live phyto will build a group of micro processors you can’t mostly see, but, go a huge way to keeping rocks and sand clean.

I’d get some tests kits so you can easily manage water chemistry and make corrections where necessary as during the early months, chemistry is all over the place.

Your job is to ensure stability in all seven parameters and the more you do that, the less time it takes to create a diverse population of “cleaners”.

It’s a bit of a leap of faith as almost all can’t be seen by eye, just, one day, the sand stays white without any help from you.

Water chemistry and stability!

 

[GoWatchChalice]

Brown algae did kill animals by depriving oxygen when they die and rot massively. They only need somewhat low light and nutrition to flare. You cannot starve them to death by stop feeding as your fish will die first. Limit feeding or lighting only works for prevention not treatment.

For treatment, best way is not clean crew animals as they eat little but poop a lot. Scrape the algae and fishnet them out, wash rocks, change water, then start to control feeding and lighting.

For lighting issue, the algae really like white color even though only 20% level. Make the white minimal and use a lot of blue color.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

The tank looks stagnant, you need powerheads for water movement, we are replicating the ocean. The water surface is flat and building up debris which will cut the oxygen exchange. You should have at least one powerhead pointing at the water surface to agitate it and help to oxygenate the water.

Salt is a corrosive material that will eat away at plastic decorations, and the chemicals will dissolve into the water.

I suspect overfeeding and under filtering.

I get the feeling you put the tank together without any research, but this is a research heavy hobby.

 

[natalieyork3]

First, get those plastic decorations out. Cheap plastic will leach things into the water overtime.

Do you have any things to create flow in the water? Your Water looks very stagnant which is not good at all.

Please list your parameters. Just because your LFS days they're good does not mean they are.

Plastic is now out! We even ask those guys if it’s safe until we put corals in . We were told to let fish stabilize a couple months before adding corals.
High Range PH 7.8,
Ammonia, Nitrate are all 0 ppm. We are using the salt water mix that the Aquatic Cove mix at the store and I can’t remember the name of water they mix to top off if it evaporates. There is one area at the top that provides water flow. I had it pointing down and now have it towards the center. Tj a j you for taking the time to help

 

[natalieyork3]

Brown algae did kill animals by depriving oxygen when they die and rot massively. They only need somewhat low light and nutrition to flare. You cannot starve them to death by stop feeding as your fish will die first. Limit feeding or lighting only works for prevention not treatment.

For treatment, best way is not clean crew animals as they eat little but poop a lot. Scrape the algae and fishnet them out, wash rocks, change water, then start to control feeding and lighting.

For lighting issue, the algae really like white color even though only 20% level. Make the white minimal and use a lot of blue color.

We have been feeding them a thumb size per 2 fish of this food every evening. Changed water and they have mostly blue light. 3 hrs of white light. Thank you for helping us

 

[Reginald Reefer III]

Ammonia is not 0. That's pushing >0.25ppm. ANY shade of green is a reaction of ammonia.

 

[Reginald Reefer III]

Also - way too much food for a couple of fish. Especially a thumb sized amount of frozen every day. I would switch to something much lighter and not so dense as what you are feeding.

 

[Reginald Reefer III]

What substrate are you using? It's extremely deep and looks >2" deep. Lots of anaerobic bacteria that will cause nasty ammonia/nitrate spikes. What cleanup crew do you have in this tank?

 

[natalieyork3]

The tank looks stagnant, you need powerheads for water movement, we are replicating the ocean. The water surface is flat and building up debris which will cut the oxygen exchange. You should have at least one powerhead pointing at the water surface to agitate it and help to oxygenate the water.

Salt is a corrosive material that will eat away at plastic decorations, and the chemicals will dissolve into the water.

I suspect overfeeding and under filtering.

I get the feeling you put the tank together without any research, but this is a research heavy hobby.

The tank looks stagnant, you need powerheads for water movement, we are replicating the ocean. The water surface is flat and building up debris which will cut the oxygen exchange. You should have at least one powerhead pointing at the water surface to agitate it and help to oxygenate the water.

Salt is a corrosive material that will eat away at plastic decorations, and the chemicals will dissolve into the water.

I suspect overfeeding and under filtering.

I get the feeling you put the tank together without any research, but this is a research heavy hobby.

We have the one water flow at the top but I had it pointing down so it’s now up. Plastic plant is out too. We even questioned the guys at the cove about that.
Unfortunately we have been reading about this for almost a year before putting all this expense and trying it. I have read and talked to so many people and everyone has a different opinion of how to start and what to use. We always said in the OR, see one, do one, teach one so I’m giving it my best shot. I heard I would get solid info here instead of folks working in the store that may or may not know. Thank you for your patience and helping. My grand daughter is 3 and loves fish. Her wheelchair roles up eye to eye and she sees Nemo lol. Shes still not saying many words but she can say fish. But that big clownfish can be a jerk to the others.

 

[BristleWormHater]

You need more flow. Also something you can fix right now is, Aim those return nozzles up! You need surface agitation(a good ripple at the surface of the water). This was one of my first mistakes in this hobby it results in a lack of oxygen in the tank and lower ph. Very easy fix though. Here's some good reference photos.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

That is a return nozzle, it will benefit the tank to add at least one additional powerhead to help move more water, 2 is always better IMO. More water flow pushes more water through the filtration system, and also removes dead flow spots that algae love to grow in.

 

[natalieyork3]

Ammonia is not 0. That's pushing >0.25ppm. ANY shade of green is a reaction of ammonia.

What substrate are you using? It's extremely deep and looks >2" deep. Lots of anaerobic bacteria that will cause nasty ammonia/nitrate spikes. What cleanup crew do you have in this tank?

My pic must have a bad lighting. I see what you’re seeing. We used the ARAG-ALIVE Carib-Sea Black sand. We have 4 small snails and one big snail. Guess I need to take some if that out

 

[natalieyork3]

You need more flow. Also something you can fix right now is, Aim those return nozzles up! You need surface agitation(a good ripple at the surface of the water). This was one of my first mistakes in this hobby it results in a lack of oxygen in the tank and lower ph. Very easy fix though. Here's some good reference photos.

Thank you!! I’ve had them pointing down

 

[BristleWormHater]

My pic must have a bad lighting. I see what you’re seeing. We used the ARAG-ALIVE Carib-Sea Black sand. We have 4 small snails and one big snail. Guess I need to take some if that out

If you take it out, do a at least 50% water change, when you take it out you will disturb that aforementioned anaerobic bacteria and release hydrogen sulfide into the water it could kill your fish. Alternatively you could a conch and some cerith snails to clean the the sandbed for you.

 

[AetherealKnight]

As other have said you need a powerhead, you can find them on Amazon as cheap as $16. And maybe get a aquarium magnet scraper, so it won’t look dirty and you can see your fish

 

[natalieyork3]

If you take it out, do a at least 50% water change, when you take it out you will disturb that aforementioned anaerobic bacteria and release hydrogen sulfide into the water it could kill your fish. Alternatively you could a conch and some cerith snails to clean the the sandbed for you.

Would you recommend leaving the sand?

 

[AetherealKnight]

Also for your new tank, try investing in a skimmer, this will help reduce waste if you don’t have one already.

 

[natalieyork3]

I have learned more in the last day on here than I have at any visit to our cove store. I have a 32 gal bio cube that has water, live sand and rock but no fish yet.