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Fluval Evo 13.5 First Nano......


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Possibly but unlikely... In previous tanks I've done water changed with TDS as high as 20 with no issue.

 

Get your phosphate and nitrate tested again, these two grow algae. You're not going to have readings of 0 and still have algae.

 

Most phosphate test kits don't go low enough, see if your LFS will test it for you in a hanna kit (or local reefers).

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26 minutes ago, Frag Factory said:

Possibly but unlikely... In previous tanks I've done water changed with TDS as high as 20 with no issue.

 

Get your phosphate and nitrate tested again, these two grow algae. You're not going to have readings of 0 and still have algae.

 

Most phosphate test kits don't go low enough, see if your LFS will test it for you in a hanna kit (or local reefers).

Yeah I'm using the phosphate test that came in the API Master Reef test kit.  I'd almost guarantee my mom and pop store up town wont have anything better to test with, but I can check with my local Petco maybe.  And isn't phosgaurd and the chemipure eilite supposed to remove phosphates as well?  I've been keeping those changed out per the package instructions as well.

 

I was kind of wondering if its something with the rock in the tank?  It was dead dry rock from a previous marine tank that had been sitting in a box for a few years.  I just hosed them off really good and let them dry in the sun before I put them in the tank at the beginning.  Didn't really try any kind of disinfecting process.

 

 

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I don't know if the local petco will have anything better, might be worth getting a high sensitivity kit or looking for a specialise saltwater LFS.

 

You need a LOT of phosphate remover to actually remove phosphate completely. It's not that efficient and the chance of it removing phosphate faster than you adding them in (through food) is low.

 

It's possible the rock still had detritus in the surface etc. The way to find out would again need a high sensitivity test kit.

 

I would start manually removing as much algae as you can, cut down light and food and increase water changes.

 

Also don't forget your tank is young, it's unlikely to have matured properly yet.

 

If you have a skimmer you might want to look at nopox or similar also.

 

Hope this helps.

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On ‎12‎/‎11‎/‎2018 at 9:24 PM, Frag Factory said:

I don't know if the local petco will have anything better, might be worth getting a high sensitivity kit or looking for a specialise saltwater LFS.

 

You need a LOT of phosphate remover to actually remove phosphate completely. It's not that efficient and the chance of it removing phosphate faster than you adding them in (through food) is low.

 

It's possible the rock still had detritus in the surface etc. The way to find out would again need a high sensitivity test kit.

 

I would start manually removing as much algae as you can, cut down light and food and increase water changes.

 

Also don't forget your tank is young, it's unlikely to have matured properly yet.

 

If you have a skimmer you might want to look at nopox or similar also.

 

Hope this helps.

Yeah I'd love to get one of the high sensitivity test kits, but it looks like they are a couple hundred bucks or so???  Yikes lol

 

I used to have a 75 gal marine tank as well.  I remember it going through a similar phase during the first year or so before finally clearing up.  And I was even using my own RODI water at that time which I made sure was always 0 ppm. 

 

I have been using chemiclean when the cyano gets really bad and it works great, but I know its just treating the symptom and not the real problem.

 

I am not running a skimmer at the moment.  Debating on getting one.  I have my tank set up in my kitchen where we spend a lot of time and want to keep it as quiet as possible.  Right now it is basically silent.

 

Thanks for the replies.  I'm gonna keep up with 50% water changes once a week and try to cut back on the lights a little and see how that goes.

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I would like to chime in to this situation if its okay:

 

Stop scraping the glass; get more snails - astrea are IMO the most efficient (1-2 snails/gallon total - introducing approx 4 at a time). Scraping causes algal die-off which returns their chemical composition to the water column providing food for living algae - your best chance is competition.

 

Which brings me to getting rid of the chemical filtration and putting some chaetomorpha into the filter compartment illuminated from the side on a reverse cycle. You should never want to remove a nutrient completely. Chemical control is too specific for general use IMO - especially in small tanks, you're asking to throw nutrient ratios out of whack; the chaeto will consume excess macro and micro/untraceable elements - the same stuff that's fueling the simpler life-forms. Fill any other available filter compartment area with rock rubble. You don't need a skimmer.

 

Stop disturbing the sand bed; it is your largest bio-filter. Just let the flow shape it and work with that; sorry I know it's a little frustrating. Try piling rubble into hollows to cull the digging. This includes vacuuming it.

 

Lower your salinity .001 daily to 1.021 and then slowly bring it back up to 1.024 - pH, temperature and salinity have the last say when it comes to nutrient availability. Large micro-organism cultures do not adjust well to environment shifts and will have to re-approach balancing consumption throughout the population based on available nutrient ratios; this will slow their ability to reproduce down hardcore, and your advanced life will become more tolerant to circumstance as a benefit.

 

Culture and dose live phytoplankton - same reason as to why chaeto would help, plus more benefits.

 

Reducing the light is not critical. There was a previous suggestion to put more coral in; I agree.

 

I don't think you need precision test kits - they are awesome, but it is obvious to me that your diatoms are keeping things unreadable - save the tests for larger problems like unwarranted senescence. The algae is thriving; that is not bad, it is good; now redirect the available nutrients to other photosynthetic competitors.

 

Keep up with >50% water changes weekly and reduce to >10% as things clear up.

 

Feed minimally whenever you see brown algae.

 

This is absolutely normal; this is the tank balancing what you cannot see; just let it do it and do water changes whenever it asks (watch nitrate).

 

A handful of nassarius and/or tongan nassarius snails will keep cyanobacteria from establishing well.

 

Regarding small ammonia fluctuations without nitrite fluctuations upon system changes: this suggests that the system is cycled and is supporting such a sufficient bacteria population that it is demonstratively converting nitrite to nitrate faster than the conversion of ammonia to nitrite. This is definitely a good sign. Ammonium only becomes toxic when temperature or pH is fluctuating too quick and it is is converted to ammonia hydroxide. Your test kit is actually acid-converting the ammonium in the water to ammonia hydroxide, so really all forms of readable "ammonia" in a cycled setup is just harmless NH4 prior to becoming nitrate. Nitrite, however is toxic at anything over 0 - I would watch strictly for nitrite after additions and be ready to simply change out some water.

 

I think everything is looking very promising still - great job with the vids - the silicone repair looks good - just keep the ninja stuff outside lol - looking forward to the updates

 

EDIT: somehow read over the part where you pulled out half of the sediment and put in larger grain stuff; Yes, the ammonium influx was from removing half of the bacteria colony and leaving the other half to convert the excrete from the same (or increased in this case?) bioload and repopulate. I think that was risky, but overall a good idea to physically stabilize the bed, provide more surface area for bacteria, and allow the pistol to build his underground base more efficiently - it was awesome that nitrites didn't collect - suggests the tank can take some more bioload (snails). If you're not too attached to the watchman, you could attempt pairing the shrimp with a different goby. You were able to get that emerald crab out, right? Sorry if this was a lot, just wanted to catch up.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 12/14/2018 at 4:03 AM, Wonderboy said:

I would like to chime in to this situation if its okay:

 

Stop scraping the glass; get more snails - astrea are IMO the most efficient (1-2 snails/gallon total - introducing approx 4 at a time). Scraping causes algal die-off which returns their chemical composition to the water column providing food for living algae - your best chance is competition.

 

Which brings me to getting rid of the chemical filtration and putting some chaetomorpha into the filter compartment illuminated from the side on a reverse cycle. You should never want to remove a nutrient completely. Chemical control is too specific for general use IMO - especially in small tanks, you're asking to throw nutrient ratios out of whack; the chaeto will consume excess macro and micro/untraceable elements - the same stuff that's fueling the simpler life-forms. Fill any other available filter compartment area with rock rubble. You don't need a skimmer.

 

Stop disturbing the sand bed; it is your largest bio-filter. Just let the flow shape it and work with that; sorry I know it's a little frustrating. Try piling rubble into hollows to cull the digging. This includes vacuuming it.

 

Lower your salinity .001 daily to 1.021 and then slowly bring it back up to 1.024 - pH, temperature and salinity have the last say when it comes to nutrient availability. Large micro-organism cultures do not adjust well to environment shifts and will have to re-approach balancing consumption throughout the population based on available nutrient ratios; this will slow their ability to reproduce down hardcore, and your advanced life will become more tolerant to circumstance as a benefit.

 

Culture and dose live phytoplankton - same reason as to why chaeto would help, plus more benefits.

 

Reducing the light is not critical. There was a previous suggestion to put more coral in; I agree.

 

I don't think you need precision test kits - they are awesome, but it is obvious to me that your diatoms are keeping things unreadable - save the tests for larger problems like unwarranted senescence. The algae is thriving; that is not bad, it is good; now redirect the available nutrients to other photosynthetic competitors.

 

Keep up with >50% water changes weekly and reduce to >10% as things clear up.

 

Feed minimally whenever you see brown algae.

 

This is absolutely normal; this is the tank balancing what you cannot see; just let it do it and do water changes whenever it asks (watch nitrate).

 

A handful of nassarius and/or tongan nassarius snails will keep cyanobacteria from establishing well.

 

Regarding small ammonia fluctuations without nitrite fluctuations upon system changes: this suggests that the system is cycled and is supporting such a sufficient bacteria population that it is demonstratively converting nitrite to nitrate faster than the conversion of ammonia to nitrite. This is definitely a good sign. Ammonium only becomes toxic when temperature or pH is fluctuating too quick and it is is converted to ammonia hydroxide. Your test kit is actually acid-converting the ammonium in the water to ammonia hydroxide, so really all forms of readable "ammonia" in a cycled setup is just harmless NH4 prior to becoming nitrate. Nitrite, however is toxic at anything over 0 - I would watch strictly for nitrite after additions and be ready to simply change out some water.

 

I think everything is looking very promising still - great job with the vids - the silicone repair looks good - just keep the ninja stuff outside lol - looking forward to the updates

 

EDIT: somehow read over the part where you pulled out half of the sediment and put in larger grain stuff; Yes, the ammonium influx was from removing half of the bacteria colony and leaving the other half to convert the excrete from the same (or increased in this case?) bioload and repopulate. I think that was risky, but overall a good idea to physically stabilize the bed, provide more surface area for bacteria, and allow the pistol to build his underground base more efficiently - it was awesome that nitrites didn't collect - suggests the tank can take some more bioload (snails). If you're not too attached to the watchman, you could attempt pairing the shrimp with a different goby. You were able to get that emerald crab out, right? Sorry if this was a lot, just wanted to catch up.

Thanks for all the info.  Yeah it’s a lot to wrap my head around but I appreciate it none the less.  I have not removed the emerald crab but I probably need to.  I’ve caught it picking around the base of the pulsing Xenia a couple times and had to move it.

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UPDATE: pics below

 

Well, the stock pump went out a couple days ago.  Not too upset since I was planning on upgrading anyway.  The stock pump worked ok, but pulled very little considerable flow through the filtration system IMO.  

I wanted to get it replaced ASAP so I went to the local petco and bought the smallest Hydor pump I could find (185 gph).  I had to turn it at an angle to get it to fit in the tank and even then it’s a very tight fit. Had to cut down the return hose as well but everything works now and the flow is MUCH better than the stock pump.  Plus I have two power heads in the tank as well, so lack of water movement shouldn’t be an issue moving forward.

 

the algae situation seems to be slowing down.  It’s still there but not growing nearly as fast.  I’m still having to vacuum up a little blue cyano off the bed every water change (weekly) but it’s not growing as fast as it was either.  

 

The corals seem seem to be doing well except the Xenia.  It shrank considerably and the biggest stalk stopped pulsing altogether before my emerald crab plucked it off. (Really need to get rid of that guy) The smaller head of Xenia is still pulsing but yeah it’s not as big as it was in the store.  Not sure if there’s anything I can do to help it??  

 

Water parameters are all testing good.  

 

Calcium: 440

phosphate: 0

ammonia, nitrite, and nitrates are all reading zero.

ph: 8.4

 

 

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