Novice needs tank advice

[jcabral125]

Hello everyone so clearly by the title I’m new to the hobby and need some help. A little backstory first I took over this tank from my former roommate that moved and didn’t take the tank with him. Before I took over the tank it had been broken down to be moved and set back up 2 times but the tank is about 6 months old. There are 2 clowns, skunk shrimp, emerald crab, couple snails and hermits. The tank is 15 gal I have bio balls and chemipure blue filter, one flu all sea cp1 pump, coral life seascape led, there used to be a skimmer but I took it off. I’ve been taking care of the tank for about 3 months now and have begun to run into what are either diatoms or Cyanobacteria. I have also never been able to get any nitrate, nitrite, ammonia, or phosphate which is the initial reason why I took off the skimmer. I have tried cutting down my light time, feeding the fish less (feeding them about 1cm cube of mysis shrimp), using a baster to turn the sand, cleaned some rock with 3% peroxide, moved rocks for better flow, and now going on day 2 of dosing the tank with dr Tim’s one and only. Seems whatever the problem in its still about the same. Is my tank cycling? Should get a qt tank and take out my fish and let the tank sit with no lighting for a bit? Any help or advice is appreciated.

 

[Queen City Corals]

Hey jcabral125, to answer your main question no I don't believe your tank is cycling it is however what is commonly called the ugly stage when there are a lot of nuisance algaes and bacterias. I think that the reason you have no nitrate, nitrite, ammonia, and phosphate is most likely because the algae is absorbing it all before it can accumulate in the water column. I am not very familiar with your light but from the pictures it appears to be very white, white light contains the spectrum that algae love and I would recommend turning the white off completely and only running blue light for about 4 hours a day if you have no coral. Where do you get your saltwater and freshwater from, are you using RO-DI, if so are you buying it from a store? If your water is not RO-DI or is from a store that may have old filters this could be adding silicates to your tank which is usually the primary source of nutrients for things like diatoms and cyano. If you are able to determine that your water is clean then I would perform 4-6 water changes over the course of two weeks or until your problem goes away. I would change 2 and a half gallons and after scraping off the rocks siphon out as much of the cyano or diatoms out as you can. I would also recommend adding the protein skimmer back on in order to try and remove some of the nutrients before the diatoms or cyano can absorb them.

 

[jcabral125]

Hey jcabral125, to answer your main question no I don't believe your tank is cycling it is however what is commonly called the ugly stage when there are a lot of nuisance algaes and bacterias. I think that the reason you have no nitrate, nitrite, ammonia, and phosphate is most likely because the algae is absorbing it all before it can accumulate in the water column. I am not very familiar with your light but from the pictures it appears to be very white, white light contains the spectrum that algae love and I would recommend turning the white off completely and only running blue light for about 4 hours a day if you have no coral. Where do you get your saltwater and freshwater from, are you using RO-DI, if so are you buying it from a store? If your water is not RO-DI or is from a store that may have old filters this could be adding silicates to your tank which is usually the primary source of nutrients for things like diatoms and cyano. If you are able to determine that your water is clean then I would perform 4-6 water changes over the course of two weeks or until your problem goes away. I would change 2 and a half gallons and after scraping off the rocks siphon out as much of the cyano or diatoms out as you can. I would also recommend adding the protein skimmer back on in order to try and remove some of the nutrients before the diatoms or cyano can absorb them.

Thanks for the response I’ll make sure no white light is on for a bit. I get my salt and rodi water from my lfs my most recent water change I didn’t though because the store is a bit away so I made my own salt water with ro water from Whole Foods. I’ll start doing the more frequent water changes on Monday so I can keep using water from the fish store. I appreciate the help. I’m not sure if everyone’s introduction is like this but I just want the lil guys to be living a good life in the tank haha

 

[Gedxin]

Welcome to R2R! I'd also recommend considering taking out your chemipure blue as that is a phosphate remover. Replace with a standard carbon mesh bag.

 

[jcabral125]

Thanks for the response I’ll make sure no white light is on for a bit. I get my salt and rodi water from my lfs my most recent water change I didn’t though because the store is a bit away so I made my own salt water with ro water from Whole Foods. I’ll start doing the more frequent water changes on Monday so I can keep using water from the fish store. I appreciate the help. I’m not sure if everyone’s introduction is like this but I just want the lil guys to be living a good life in the tank haha

Update on tank. Been about a week now applied all your advice. Whether it was cyano or diatoms I turned down my lights dramatically. Only run white lighting for about an hour a day the rest of the day the rgb is set to blue. Also doing 2 gal water changes every 2 days. All parameters are looking good and I actually got a notoriety reading for the first time of .25 ppm! I know I need to keep that from raising but it was nice to get a reading. Haven’t put the skimmer back on, still thinking about it though. Really appreciate the advice and help!

 

[jcabral125]

Hey jcabral125, to answer your main question no I don't believe your tank is cycling it is however what is commonly called the ugly stage when there are a lot of nuisance algaes and bacterias. I think that the reason you have no nitrate, nitrite, ammonia, and phosphate is most likely because the algae is absorbing it all before it can accumulate in the water column. I am not very familiar with your light but from the pictures it appears to be very white, white light contains the spectrum that algae love and I would recommend turning the white off completely and only running blue light for about 4 hours a day if you have no coral. Where do you get your saltwater and freshwater from, are you using RO-DI, if so are you buying it from a store? If your water is not RO-DI or is from a store that may have old filters this could be adding silicates to your tank which is usually the primary source of nutrients for things like diatoms and cyano. If you are able to determine that your water is clean then I would perform 4-6 water changes over the course of two weeks or until your problem goes away. I would change 2 and a half gallons and after scraping off the rocks siphon out as much of the cyano or diatoms out as you can. I would also recommend adding the protein skimmer back on in order to try and remove some of the nutrients before the diatoms or cyano can absorb them.

Update on tank. Been about a week now applied all your advice. Whether it was cyano or diatoms I turned down my lights dramatically. Only run white lighting for about an hour a day the rest of the day the rgb is set to blue. Also doing 2 gal water changes every 2 days. All parameters are looking good and I actually got a notoriety reading for the first time of .25 ppm! I know I need to keep that from raising but it was nice to get a reading. Haven’t put the skimmer back on, still thinking about it though. Really appreciate the advice and help!