What are these Dots in my sand ???

[H-TownMike]

I am going to assume this is Dino's? I'm not too sure I am also assuming the start of the ugly phase. Should I be vac'ing this out on a regular basis? Water changes are in progress because Nitrates are high right now. My tank is about 2 months old I have added copepods should I add more ? I currently have 2 saltwater mollies in the tank.
Parameters are as follows
Ph 7.8
Sal-1.026
Alk- 8.5
Phos-.54
Ca-460
Amon 0
Nitrites 1PPm
Nitrates 45

 

[Cichlid Dad]

Are you using a green light? Or is that the color of the water

 

[Troylee]

Not Dino’s… possibly diatoms but it’s very faint either way.

 

[H-TownMike]

Are you using a green light? Or is that the color of the water

I am actually using a yellow filter because it was too hard to see in all of the blue. I need to get a good orange filter but I dont have it yet.

 

[H-TownMike]

Not Dino’s… possibly diatoms but it’s very faint either way.

There isn't much in the tank as of yet but trying to get a head start on taking care of it.

 

[ChrisfromBrick]

Def start the water changes. Should help and also will help lower those nutrients

Nothing wrong with pods but unless you have a mandarin or other fish that requires pods, I wouldn't spend the money on more pods. Is there a good amount of live rock in there?

 

[H-TownMike]

Have you been doing water changes? Should help and also will help lower those nutrients a little.

Yes I just started the water changes at 20% (15 Gallons) next one due tomorrow. Aiming for Nitrates to be about 10 Phos to be about .1. I know the tank is still very new so I kinda expected this just trying to learn.

 

[stewy14]

if u have a fish, then I would aim for thats poop?

 

[KrisReef]

Yes I just started the water changes at 20% (15 Gallons) next one due tomorrow. Aiming for Nitrates to be about 10 Phos to be about .1. I know the tank is still very new so I kinda expected this just trying to learn.

You need to do a 75% W/C to get the parameters closer to these numbers. If you do 20% wc you will have to do many of them (4 or 5? too lazy to compute). since you only have 2 fish, do one major W/c and get your parameters in order to reduce the time algae and funk has to grow with the elevated P and NO3.

Also, the lights could be turned off most of the day to reduce algae growth.

 

[H-TownMike]

You need to do a 75% W/C to get the parameters closer to these numbers. If you do 20% wc you will have to do many of them (4 or 5? too lazy to compute). since you only have 2 fish, do one major W/c and get your parameters in order to reduce the time algae and funk has to grow with the elevated P and NO3.

Also, the lights could be turned off most of the day to reduce algae growth.

Unfortunately at this young stage of my saltwater venture my water storage and creation only limits me to about a 45% water change before I have to make more water. I have dropped my light cycle down to about 4 hours a day I can reduce it more if needed because in reality the lights are just for me at this point nothing in the tank that needs light.

 

[Troylee]

Unfortunately at this young stage of my saltwater venture my water storage and creation only limits me to about a 45% water change before I have to make more water. I have dropped my light cycle down to about 4 hours a day I can reduce it more if needed because in reality the lights are just for me at this point nothing in the tank that needs light.

You’ll be fine.. nitrates arent really that high to me personally.. stick with some 20-30% water changes weekly if you want.. I’ve seen and owned a tank with nitrates near 100 full of coral without any issues..

 

[H-TownMike]

Did a 30G water change this morning and did a vacuum on the sand turned my light schedule down to 4 hours a day. My parameters are looking somewhat better didn't bother checking checking Ca and Alk not that concerned with them at this point. I will wait till I get this under control to start checking those.


Ph 7.8
Sal- 1.027
Phos- 0.15
Nitrites 2
Nitrates -22.3