21 Gallon Red Sea Maxx

[Braun036]

Hello

 

well I am excited to say that I have upgraded my 8 gallon to a 21 gallon.  Gives me a little more room. I wish I would have gone a little bigger. But it is a beautiful tank and I am very pleased with it. It has been running for about 2 months and about a month ago I moved everything over from my 8. I would have waited longer but I had two issues one my stand could not hold both tanks for much longer, and my  torch was starting piss off some of the other corals. As the tank was just to over grown. About two weeks into the move I noticed that I was getting brown diatoms like crazy which looked absolutely horrible. I would to share with you that over the past three days I have been dosing 6 Ml of 3%  hydrogen peroxide and that has really killed off the diatoms. Which brings me to my next question why did I get them in the first place? I didn’t really get them like this when I first started my 8 gallon. 

 

My numbers look great. 

PH=8.2

 Ammonia=0

 Nitrite=0

Nirate=5 or less 

 Magnesium=1350

 Calcium =460

 Alkalinity=8.6

 Phosphates=0 

 

if you have any any advice or tips please let me know. 

Day one of  hydrogen peroxide dosing 

Day two of Hydrogen peroxide

[Braun036]

And I will post day three when I get home from work. Truly amazing on fast that worked and no it does not seem to have affect anything in the tank. I have a hammer, torch, two frogspawns, Duncan, green star polyps , one clown fish, one yellow goby, one  domino damsel that I used to help cycle the tank in the first month which I can’t get the bastard out, and 4 snails. All seem to be very happy. 

Front view of the tank 

[Braun036]

And I am running an AI Prime 

[Nart]

If you added new rocks and sand, then that would've caused the bloom. New rock and sand contain silicates that will start the diatom bloom.

As quickly as the diatoms appear, they also exhaust themselves out pretty quickly too after consuming the silicates in the water.

 

Typically I do nothing except my normal weekly water changes and let it work itself out. Unless the diatoms are bothering my corals, I won't scrub or anything. Usually my banded trochus snails will go to town on the diatoms.

 

[Braun036]

Okay yes I did use all new sand and all new rock. Which makes total sense.  Thank you. Also I am new to using a protein skimmer when should I turn the protein skimmer on what the tank being so new it wasn’t skimming anything so I just shut it off

[Nart]

You can run it for a few hours a day, but I don't think there will be much to skim.

[Braun036]

Okay I will try that. Thanks for all your help 

[Braun036]

Good morning well last night was a pretty exciting night for my fish tank. I added a Golden  Australian torch, and  elegant  coral and a blue clam last night. Very exciting stuff I can’t wait for everything to wake up.  But for now please take a look 

[Braun036]

Well everything is awake and pretty open now. I have to say I think the tank looks amazing but at the same time it looks crowded I am not sure if I need to move some things around or what 

 

[Braun036]

 I am hoping that elegant does not bother my frogspawns

[Nart]

Very nice garden of euphylias.

Also, nice pick up on the clam. What kind is it?

[HarryPotter]

Very new tank for a clam, best of luck. 

[ThisPlaceIsAPrison]

This tank is beautiful.  I am getting ready to dip my toe into SW as I have ordered the Fluval Evo Xii 13.5.  I really like the reef you set up and I hope you don't mind me doing so but I saved your image as a guide for when I hit my LFS for live rock this week.  I like the expanded "u / c" shape you have going.

 

*Quick follow up question, did you place the sand bed down first and then rock, or vice versa?

[Braun036]

Yes I would agree with on pretty new tank for a clam. I hope it goes well.  The guys at my LFS said it should be okay as long as I keep everything pretty stable. We should see how things go.  

 

 

 

Thank you I really appreciate you comments. I put the sand down first. 

[Braun036]

does anyone else test their water daily and do a water change every 3 to 4 days even though the water is good? 

[Braun036]

That is my Schedule because I had a smaller tank and I was always afraid something would go wrong and I wouldn’t have much time to fix it now that it is a bigger tank do you think I need to continue with that regiment

[Braun036]

 

[Braun036]

I wish there was a way a way to get rid of these diatoms. They are driving me crazy. I know I was talking about using  hydrogen peroxide and yes it does work but I just do not like using that in my tank. I do a water a change and the next morning it is back.  So I am not use if I need to just let it run it’s coarse.  I test my water daily and everything is right on the money. 

[Braun036]

Just added a small yellow tang to my reef 

[Braun036]

 

[Braun036]

I hope everyone had a nice thanksgiving. I was wondering what you guys use to test your water?

[Braun036]

Okay I need some advice quickly please. Some how my salt is through the roof. 0.29 I need some help on safety bringing it back back to 0.25. I have no idea how this even happened. As of now everything in the tank is still doing okay. But I need this to come down. Thank you 

[HarryPotter]

2 minutes ago, Braun036 said:

Okay I need some advice quickly please. Some how my salt is through the roof. 0.29 I need some help on safety bringing it back back to 0.25. I have no idea how this even happened. As of now everything in the tank is still doing okay. But I need this to come down. Thank you 

 

Your tang dead yet? 

 

I hate people that ignore all advice and do shit like add tangs to a 20 gallon. 

[MainelyReefer]

On 11/13/2017 at 8:20 AM, ThisPlaceIsAPrison said:

*Quick follow up question, did you place the sand bed down first and then rock, or vice versa?

You always put rock down first, the creatures we put into our tanks have a tendency to move the sand bed, as this shifts if your rocks are not supported underneath by the glass your rockwork could tumble and damage corals or even break a pane of glass.  May I suggest finding inspiration from tanks with more maturity and validity behind their methodology via proven success.

@Braun036 the diatoms are a totally normal phase of a tank maturing, in the next year you will likely go through multiple algae/pest issues that will be resolved by good husbandry and time.  The tang is a sketchy addition and will be  in that tank short term at best.  The salinity can only go up by adding improperly mixed water or topping off with salt(did you add the water from the LFS when you got the tang and then not top off until it was needed,concentrating the salt from the bag into your tank?).  The tank looks great though! Those torches are awesome but I would watch out with that guy on the right he seems to be throwing some longer sweepers. For testing salinity the Milwaukee MA887 seawater refractometer is my go to, Hanna checkers are a great way to test calcium/alk but otherwise I rarely test other stuff. To correct salinity I would remove a cup of water from the tank once a day and replace it with fresh RODI until the desired salinity is reached.  That should be gradual enough as not to shock anything worse than it already may be.  Reef Slow= Reef Grow, Reef Fast= Reef Crash those words helped me two years ago, sorry if I sound like an ass I can tell your putting effort in and don't want to see you fail when the mistakes you are making have been made and well documented by others so can be completely avoided.

[Braun036]

22 hours ago, HarryPotter said:

 

Your tang dead yet? 

 

I hate people that ignore all advice and do shit like add tangs to a 20 gallon. 

No the tang and the clam iare doing really well thanks asking though.