Thank you and a few beginner questions

[thishobbyistooexpensive]

Hello first and foremost thank you for all the help I have gotten from reading this forum as a guest

 

My current set-up is a 60L x 40T x 30W (cm) coming to approximately 19 gallons.

 

The tank have cycled completely 2 months ago and I have slowly accumulated:

 

1 x lawnmower blenny

2 x ocellaris clowns (babies less than 1 inch)

1 x purple striped dottyback

 

1 x Hammer Coral

1 x Frogspawn

1 x Polyp Coral

1 x Bubble Coral

1 x Flowerpot Coral (<-- LFS told me this was easy )

a bunch of mushrooms (came on 1 rock) and cleaning inverts

 

Routine:

Corals are target fed with 1 ML reef snow (brightwell) + crushed brine shrimp diluted with tank water every 2 days

Fish fed every 2 days with NLS Thera or Frozen Brine or Hikari Marine S

Weakly cleaning: 20% water change after blasting sand/live rock with turkey baster

 

My questions are:

 

1. I do weekly water change of about 20%, I can maintain a low phosphate level but I can't seem to get nitrates below 20. What should I do?

(I run a canister filter filled with 500 ML purigen and 500 ML matrixcarbon)

 

2. My clowns seem to eat very little in comparison to the dottyback, I have tried frozen and pellets to no avail, how do I get them to eat more? I am worried because they look kind of bony.

 

3. I am using a Jebao WP-10 flow and it feels like its too strong even on the lowest settings for the soft corals. I tried aiming the wavemaker at a rock for sometime but surface agitation decreased to a point that a layer of oil started forming on the surface, what should I do?

(Note I also have an Eheim 350 classic for filtration but flow seems negligible in comparison to the wavemaker)

 

Thank you!

[pgrVII]

Tank sounds good so far. The canister filter may be the source of your nitrates on top of the 4 fish in a young tank. The canister filters are good but you should clean them out thoroughly on a regular basis from what I understand as lots of waste has a tendency to just accumulate and sit in it,leading to a nitrate spike.

Hope this helps and post pics!

You can also aim the wavemaker towards the glass and let the flow bounce off it to circulate through the rocks and what not.

[Astinus]

to NR

I Do not run a Canister, but, PGR knows his stuff. Sound advice to me.

 

+1 PICS

[Clown79]

Welcome

 

The set up sounds good, whats your water source?

 

your nitrates are high because the bioload is too much for 19g.

 

The tank was maxed out with the 2 clowns. With all those fish, you will have a hard time getting nitrates to stay down.

 

Watch the dottyback with the clowns. Dotty's can be very aggressive fish.

 

The filter could be an issue. Those are known to increase nitrates if not cleaned out at every water change. You may want to consider switching to an hob filter.

 

I only feed my fish small pellets 1x a day, frozen food 1 -2x a week and small amounts that is gone in a minute. My corals are fed 1x a week. You may be over feeding the tank adding more nutrients to it.

 

Mysis shrimp is better than brine, try tht with the clowns, they love it. They may not be going at the food due to the dotty, there could be dominance issues.

 

To lower nitrates with a high bioload will be a bit of work.

 

Canister filter needs cleaning every water change, any filter floss should be changed 1-2 x a week

 

I would vacuum your sand bed lightly every waterchange to remove any waste and excess food-don't vacuum if you have a deep sand bed

 

Blowing the rocks - you do that already:)

 

You will need to do additional water changes in between the regular ones to lower the nitrates but to keep them low:

 

Low bioload, less feeding

[pgrVII]

Welcome

 

The set up sounds good, whats your water source?

 

your nitrates are high because the bioload is too much for 19g.

 

The tank was maxed out with the 2 clowns. With all those fish, you will have a hard time getting nitrates to stay down.

 

Watch the dottyback with the clowns. Dotty's can be very aggressive fish.

 

The filter could be an issue. Those are known to increase nitrates if not cleaned out at every water change. You may want to consider switching to an hob filter.

 

I only feed my fish small pellets 1x a day, frozen food 1 -2x a week and small amounts that is gone in a minute. My corals are fed 1x a week. You may be over feeding the tank adding more nutrients to it.

 

Mysis shrimp is better than brine, try tht with the clowns, they love it. They may not be going at the food due to the dotty, there could be dominance issues.

 

To lower nitrates with a high bioload will be a bit of work.

 

Canister filter needs cleaning every water change, any filter floss should be changed 1-2 x a week

 

I would vacuum your sand bed lightly every waterchange to remove any waste and excess food-don't vacuum if you have a deep sand bed

 

Blowing the rocks - you do that already:)

 

You will need to do additional water changes in between the regular ones to lower the nitrates but to keep them low:

 

Low bioload, less feeding

All true. I run a 25 gallon with a sixline and 2 clowns,and to me that's pretty much the acceptable bio load limit for my tank size.

[Matteo]

I wouldn't say two clowns max out a 19 gallon...that is a bit far

[pgrVII]

I wouldn't say two clowns max out a 19 gallon...that is a bit far

Agreed but,there's a blenny and dotty back as well,I mean as long as you're good with water changing and proper maintenance routinely the system will catch up and handle business,but,you will have a bit less time I if you lax up on it for whatever life reasons going on. Just food for thought really.

[Matteo]

Agreed but,there's a blenny and dotty back as well,I mean as long as you're good with water changing and proper maintenance routinely the system will catch up and handle business,but,you will have a bit less time I if you lax up on it for whatever life reasons going on. Just food for thought really.

totes my goats bro, totes my goats

[Clown79]

I'm offering advice and most ppl have always stated low bioload= low nutrient tank.

 

 

a tank with a high bioload will have high nitrates unless one is willing to do multiple water changes a week or export nutrience with other means, then they can keep them down but if you want to stick to a lower maintenance tank, having less fish will provide that.

[thishobbyistooexpensive]

Thank you for all the replies, it seems that I have too many fishes

 

Tank sounds good so far. The canister filter may be the source of your nitrates on top of the 4 fish in a young tank. The canister filters are good but you should clean them out thoroughly on a regular basis from what I understand as lots of waste has a tendency to just accumulate and sit in it,leading to a nitrate spike.
Hope this helps and post pics!
You can also aim the wavemaker towards the glass and let the flow bounce off it to circulate through the rocks and what not.

 

That perhaps is the main reason for the nitrate build up, I do not wash the filter pad every week.

Is changing to an Eheim professional worth it? It seems a lot easier to maintain.

 

I did that before pointing the wave maker to the glass to reduce flow but I found that the water flow does not help keep detritus suspended.

 

Welcome

The set up sounds good, whats your water source?

your nitrates are high because the bioload is too much for 19g.

The tank was maxed out with the 2 clowns. With all those fish, you will have a hard time getting nitrates to stay down.

Watch the dottyback with the clowns. Dotty's can be very aggressive fish.

The filter could be an issue. Those are known to increase nitrates if not cleaned out at every water change. You may want to consider switching to an hob filter.

I only feed my fish small pellets 1x a day, frozen food 1 -2x a week and small amounts that is gone in a minute. My corals are fed 1x a week. You may be over feeding the tank adding more nutrients to it.

Mysis shrimp is better than brine, try tht with the clowns, they love it. They may not be going at the food due to the dotty, there could be dominance issues.

To lower nitrates with a high bioload will be a bit of work.

Canister filter needs cleaning every water change, any filter floss should be changed 1-2 x a week

I would vacuum your sand bed lightly every waterchange to remove any waste and excess food-don't vacuum if you have a deep sand bed

Blowing the rocks - you do that already:)

You will need to do additional water changes in between the regular ones to lower the nitrates but to keep them low:

Low bioload, less feeding

 

My water source is distilled water, don't have access to RO/DI unit or RO/DI water. And the salt i use is H2Ocean.

 

I will try to feed less, though I always try to vacuum uneaten food I have no way of knowing how much of it ends up in the filter pads or in between rocks.

 

Hmnn actually it seems I was told wrong. Since I live in Indonesia the language barrier is a big issue. I have not been feeding my fishes mysis or brine. It turns out I have been feeding them Acetes.

 

From wikipedia: Acetes is a genus of small, krill-like prawns. Several of its species are important for the production of shrimp paste in South East Asia, including Acetes japonicus, which is the world's most heavily fished species of wild shrimp or prawn in terms of total tonnage.

 

The more you know

 

I do vacuum the sand bed that I can access. How deep would you say is too deep to vacuum mine is about 1.5 to 2 inches.

[pgrVII]

Honestly I would switch to a hang on back filter over a canister as far as running a reef goes,easier to maintain and easy to customize to your liking. The aqua clears are the overall choice for a great hang on back filter in a reef.

[thishobbyistooexpensive]

Honestly I would switch to a hang on back filter over a canister as far as running a reef goes,easier to maintain and easy to customize to your liking. The aqua clears are the overall choice for a great hang on back filter in a reef.

 

I wanted a good HOB filter, but in Indonesia you are limited to Jebo or some very cheap ones (<10 bucks) so I was not sure of the quality.

 

If the canister is giving me too much of a headache I am thinking of a DIY sump, with a HOB outlet. But then again HOB outlets get siphoning issues when the power goes out

[HarryPotter]

 

I wanted a good HOB filter, but in Indonesia you are limited to Jebo or some very cheap ones (<10 bucks) so I was not sure of the quality.

 

If the canister is giving me too much of a headache I am thinking of a DIY sump, with a HOB outlet. But then again HOB outlets get siphoning issues when the power goes out

Not all HOB overflow outlets have an issue

 

Most actually are perfectly fine with an outage!

[ReeferBrian]

I agree, MAYBE,but I've been know to be wrong but I agree that you could possibly be overstocked,over feeding or your filtration should be changed out for a hob filter,I know you said your choices are limited so that could be frustrating.