Aqueon Evolve 2 Soft Corals: First attempt at SW

[Mstefa1]

Looks like your settling in here just fine. Just take it slow, because nothing good happens fast in this hobby. How are you making out with all that algae?

[Horerczy]

Any ID on that zoa?

No clue.

 

Might not be named.

 

Certainly not a rockstar supernova though.

[mechishark7]

Looks like your settling in here just fine. Just take it slow, because nothing good happens fast in this hobby. How are you making out with all that algae?

The green stuff? Its definitely growing, any advice on how to get rid of it?

[Mstefa1]

The green stuff? Its definitely growing, any advice on how to get rid of it?

 

Algae is something that everyone deals with at some point... But I would never knowingly put rock or coral covered in algae in my tank. Your CUC will help but don't expect wonders. If it's just hair algae I'd remove the rock from the tank, dip in peroxide, rinse with saltwater then put back in your tank. Peroxide is pretty effective on hair algae however if this is the only rock in your tank it will have a dramatic impact on your beneficial bacteria.

[mechishark7]

Algae is something that everyone deals with at some point... But I would never knowingly put rock or coral covered in algae in my tank. Your CUC will help but don't expect wonders. If it's just hair algae I'd remove the rock from the tank, dip in peroxide, rinse with saltwater then put back in your tank. Peroxide is pretty effective on hair algae however if this is the only rock in your tank it will have a dramatic impact on your beneficial bacteria.

what if most of my zoas are glued to said rock?

[Horerczy]

With all those snails john sent I don't think his clean up crew will have a problem with demolishing it.

 

Still relying on a CUC for everything is never a good idea. Some members of the shrimp and Crab variety tend to ... diverge from the path desired of them.

[mechishark7]

hiding in with my CUC were about 5 hermit crabs, some blue legs, others idk what kind...will they help?

[Horerczy]

They should be helpful but watch them. They will canabalize each other in such a small space and eat the snails for larger shells.

 

They might try to steal food from corals or outright eat corals too but with softies I don't see them stealing anything but possibly harrasing the zoas. No need to run and rip them all out of the tank just be aware of what they can do.

[mechishark7]

Sounds good, I have been knocking them off the zoas when I find them perching on top of them.

 

So remember that time I said my new light was supposed to come in...well UPS lost it, so a new one was sent out and it should arrive tomorrow

It should shed some better light on my corals. Also, should I be feeding my corals? I only have zoas...

Algae is something that everyone deals with at some point... But I would never knowingly put rock or coral covered in algae in my tank. Your CUC will help but don't expect wonders. If it's just hair algae I'd remove the rock from the tank, dip in peroxide, rinse with saltwater then put back in your tank. Peroxide is pretty effective on hair algae however if this is the only rock in your tank it will have a dramatic impact on your beneficial bacteria.

also is this hydrogen peroxide your referring to, or is it actually called peroxide? if so where do I find it?

[Horerczy]

peroxide is hydrogen peroxide. you will find it next to bandaids at your local walmart usually or any pharmacy really.

 

If you want to feed zoas some phyto or reef chili might be good but with such a small volume of water it's important to remember that high water quality is more important than feeding for zoas.

 

They're more about filter feeding and photosynthesis than directly acquiring food anyways.

[mechishark7]

ok so no need to feed zoas, just my yellow clown goby, got it. Will the hydrogen peroxide kill the the zoas on my rock too?

[Horerczy]

Never tried it so I wouldn't know.

[Mstefa1]

ok so no need to feed zoas, just my yellow clown goby, got it. Will the hydrogen peroxide kill the the zoas on my rock too?

 

IME, no, but it will tick them off.

[mechishark7]

So I have a pistol shrimp in my Spec II, and I'm considering putting it in this tank. It is large though so I am kind of worried, but whatever kind of shrimp it is, its very docile. It has only snapped once after I did quite a bit of chasing it around with a pair of tweezers, but even since then its been real mellow. I am worried about the tiny yellow clown goby that I have in the tank.

ok to put it in this tank, or leave in the tank its currently in?

[Mstefa1]

It will be fine.

[mechishark7]

Ok cool.

 

I finally got the PAR38 I ordered a while back and it sure is bright!! It is half white half blue LEDs. I have noticed a new diatom bloom since setting it up, is that normal or is it something I should be worried about?

[mechishark7]

Pistol is in the tank! Made a huge mess digging out a burrow under the right rock, but haven't seen any other activity from him.

Ive noticed these small maroon colored growths all over my rocks that look like mushrooms you'd find in the forrest, something to be worried about?

[mechishark7]

Also diatoms are blooming like crazyyyy! Is this bad?!?

[Horerczy]

Well it's not good but it wont kill anything. Your CUC might take care of it but a water change is the only way to get the nutrients used out of the system unless you get a lot of macro.

[mechishark7]

So some updates,

 

I added a sexy anemone shrimp to the tank, whom as of two days ago I haven't seen a trace of. I did see what appeared to be part of a molted shell, so it might have molted and is hiding, but I have not seen it.

 

I dipped the rock with the green hair algae in hydrogen peroxide, straight hydrogen peroxide. It seems to be killing the GHA, but the part of the rock I dipped is now bleaching out and everything that was in the dip is now dead or dying. (see rock on right)

I added an astrea snail, when I thought the peroxide dip wasn't working.

 

I added a small anthelia frag, which is sitting on the bottom right now.

 

I added a maroon clownfish, about 1". I know, I'll get heat for this because he/she will grow way too big for the tank, blah, blah...but I'm graduating and moving in May, so he/she ("Nelson") will be moved to a larger tank when I move.

I picked up some miscellaneous, what I thought are some kind of mushrooms. The orange one kinda looks like some kind of anemone? Or is it just a mushroom too?

Also visible in this pic is the brown algae that I'm constantly dealing with, anyone know what it is or how to get rid of it? I've been leaving my tank light on for 8 hours a day.

 

Does anyone know what this red stuff is? Its covering the left rock and its a maroon color.

[Mstefa1]

Don't worry about bleaching the rock - coralline will grow over it making it look good. Your at your limit with fish, I wouldn't add anymore. Slow down and continue your weekly water changes. Diatoms go away on their own after silicate is used up in new sand. Maybe its a brown algae other than diatoms, hard to tell.

[blue-sun]

Any updates on this thread? I recently impulse bought this same Aqueon Evolve 2G tank with the intent of setting it up as a saltwater tank. I'm new to the SW hobby, but I have had experience in freshwater with a 75g tank for fish and plants and a 15G for shrimp and plants.

 

We also purchased 2 pounds of live rock and about 1.5 pounds of live sand from the local fish stores. I also had a Tetra submergible heater that we had in an old 5G tank that we started with a few years ago.

I live in "the country" so our water is basically municipal well water, very hard. I plan on purchasing saltwater from a local reef store, since the tank is small, the 5G bucket we purchased to set this tank up should last us a while.

So I put the water, the sand and the rocks in the tank and it's been sitting for a few days now. I checked the levels yesterday and everything seemed in order, the salinity appeared around 1.020 (I purchased a cheap floating thermometor/hydromemter (www.petco.com/product/9183/Petco-Aquarium-Hydrometer-with-Thermometer.aspx).

 

Since the water, rocks and sand all came from cycled tanks (in theory) I shouldn't have to wait a terribly long time for the cycle to finish and start adding something to the tank. Cleaner shrimp? A CUC like the one that was posted a few pages back? Maybe some soft coral (still need to research more on those)

Maintenance question:

What water change amount/frequency should I follow? A cup or 2 every few days? 10% every week? Top it off as I see it evaporate?

I know very little about the saltwater aquarium, so I plan on doing tons of reading in the next few days, but any specific links are appreciated.

Any help is appreciated, thanks in advance.

[mechishark7]

Any updates on this thread? I recently impulse bought this same Aqueon Evolve 2G tank with the intent of setting it up as a saltwater tank. I'm new to the SW hobby, but I have had experience in freshwater with a 75g tank for fish and plants and a 15G for shrimp and plants.

 

We also purchased 2 pounds of live rock and about 1.5 pounds of live sand from the local fish stores. I also had a Tetra submergible heater that we had in an old 5G tank that we started with a few years ago.

 

I live in "the country" so our water is basically municipal well water, very hard. I plan on purchasing saltwater from a local reef store, since the tank is small, the 5G bucket we purchased to set this tank up should last us a while.

 

So I put the water, the sand and the rocks in the tank and it's been sitting for a few days now. I checked the levels yesterday and everything seemed in order, the salinity appeared around 1.020 (I purchased a cheap floating thermometor/hydromemter (www.petco.com/product/9183/Petco-Aquarium-Hydrometer-with-Thermometer.aspx).

 

Since the water, rocks and sand all came from cycled tanks (in theory) I shouldn't have to wait a terribly long time for the cycle to finish and start adding something to the tank. Cleaner shrimp? A CUC like the one that was posted a few pages back? Maybe some soft coral (still need to research more on those)

 

Maintenance question:

 

What water change amount/frequency should I follow? A cup or 2 every few days? 10% every week? Top it off as I see it evaporate?

 

I know very little about the saltwater aquarium, so I plan on doing tons of reading in the next few days, but any specific links are appreciated.

 

Any help is appreciated, thanks in advance.

Unfortunately this tank is no longer running, brought it home from college and moved everything in it to a 5 gallon then some stuff died and i moved it all to a Fluval spec 2 where it is now.

 

The biggest thing I think, and others would agree, is that for a tank this small to do huge water changes, I do about a 90% water change (as much as I can vacuum out) every week.

 

With so little volume, its harder to accurately measure levels in the tank and it allows bad levels to build up rather quickly so an easy way to prevent that is to do as large a water change as you can every week.

 

Not saying I'm an expert, I'm still a newb with this stuff but thats what I have seen a majority of people doing with tanks this small.

[blue-sun]

Hmm, huge water changes? Doesn't that negate the cycling of the water? Wouldn't that be more of a shock to the bio-system inside the tank? So the Fluval Spec 2 is also a 2 gallon tank, correct? So are you doing 90% change weekly in that tank?

[mechishark7]

Hmm, huge water changes? Doesn't that negate the cycling of the water? Wouldn't that be more of a shock to the bio-system inside the tank? So the Fluval Spec 2 is also a 2 gallon tank, correct? So are you doing 90% change weekly in that tank?

 

http://www.nano-reef.com/featured/_/2014/dafil-r89

Words Of Wisdom

• Water changes are excellent for such a small tank!
• Call me Lucky, but I don't believe it when people say that "pico tanks are most difficult".
• Keep reading, never stop learning!
• Did I mentioned that water changes are excellent?