Dave's 20g glass box 🎉 Water Box 20 IS STILL GOING.......

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

1 minute ago, StinkyBunny said:

Nope, 3 days is all it takes. I mix mine the day before I do ship outs and use it within 24 hours.

Thanks Stinky .. I wanted to make like 20 gallons, but if it's gonna precipitate out then i'll just mix it the day before and not let it sit.

[kimberbee]

BRS did a video testing a few salts when stored before using. I don't remember exactly what brands they tested. 

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

9 minutes ago, kimberbee said:

BRS did a video testing a few salts when stored before using. I don't remember exactly what brands they tested. 

I'll have to look back. I do remember seeing something on keeping salts. Thanks for the reminder

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

Looking at the tank with  lights off last night and I saw bubble algae...….. wtf I'm at a loss. I try so hard to keep this tank clean, but it's starting to make me mad. Coral growth is good, but so is algae growth and now I've got bubble algae in the mix. They are super small and with the lights on I don't even notice it. I was looking last night with a flashlight to see if I could see any of the pods I seeded a while back and didn't see a single one. I feed the tank phyto everyday so I would think the pods would still be there. This is suuuuper frustrating.

 

ok carry on rants over.

Ohh and I'm pretty sure my emerald crab is dead . I thought it was a molt, looked like a molt but I haven't seen the crab so i'm guessing he has moved on to the big tank in the sky.

 

Edit: I guess the plus side of all this is that I have never had cyano or dinos

[Ratvan]

2 minutes ago, DSFIRSTSLTWATER said:

Looking at the tank with  lights off last night and I saw bubble algae...….. wtf I'm at a loss. I try so hard to keep this tank clean, but it's starting to make me mad. Coral growth is good, but so is algae growth and now I've got bubble algae in the mix. They are super small and with the lights on I don't even notice it. I was looking last night with a flashlight to see if I could see any of the pods I seeded a while back and didn't see a single one. I feed the tank phyto everyday so I would think the pods would still be there. This is suuuuper frustrating.

 

ok carry on rants over.

Ohh and I'm pretty sure my emerald crab is dead . I thought it was a molt, looked like a molt but I haven't seen the crab so i'm guessing he has moved on to the big tank in the sky.

You are well on your way to becoming like my LFS. Get 50% coral 50% bubble algae at the moment. Probably came in on a frag

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

1 minute ago, Ratvan said:

You are well on your way to becoming like my LFS. Get 50% coral 50% bubble algae at the moment. Probably came in on a frag

Maybe.. I used most of the rock out of my old 20 so it's possible it was on the old rock. All frags I get I take off the plugs they come on and glue them to brand new ones. Helps keep shit out of the tank. I probably had it in the old tank. It's so small I never noticed it.

[mitten_reef]

5 hours ago, DSFIRSTSLTWATER said:

Maybe.. I used most of the rock out of my old 20 so it's possible it was on the old rock. All frags I get I take off the plugs they come on and glue them to brand new ones. Helps keep shit out of the tank. I probably had it in the old tank. It's so small I never noticed it.

Hopefully it wasn’t from me 😬. I have a few popped up every now a again too. And I mean a few, never more than 2-3 bubbles at any given time in my tank. I keep a box of toothpicks next to the tank. When I see one, I keep an eye on it. When big enough I remove the rock and toothpicked it out. If it’s buried deep, I just chip the rock a bit. Then rinse the rock really well before putting back in. Once i hit the same spots/areas a few time, it seems to be rooted out, so to speak.  

 

Edited November 6, 2019 by mitten_reef
chip the rock, not chop

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

1 minute ago, mitten_reef said:

Hopefully it wasn’t from me 😬. I have a few popped up every now a again too. And I mean a few, never more than 2-3 bubbles at any given time in my tank. I keep a box of toothpicks next to the tank. When I see one, I keep an eye on it. When big enough I remove the rock and toothpicked it out. If it’s buried deep, I just chop the rock a bit. Then rinse the rock really well before putting back in. Once i hit the same spots/areas a few time, it seems to be rooted out, so to speak.  

 

Nah not you . I'm sure it's been in there. I know sometimes we freak out over things like this and honestly, if I hadn't had the light off and was checking it out with a flash light, I would have never seen it. It's probably fine. I just know where to look for it now. It's on my old rock so it was probably on it when I moved everything. This has to be " new tank syndrome" since the tank is only a few months old. It's just annoying..... this time around I made sure I had enough things to eat algae, maybe I have to add more? Probably going to order more pods and whatever else I can find. 

On a side note, those corals are doing so well. The zoas seem to have more orange then when I got them so that's good right??

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

Ok update.........

 

 

I didn't loose any corals. A couple are still pissed off but i think they'll live. I did a water change tonight, sucked, blew and stirred algae around and tried to get as much as I could out. 

I actually tested and my results are........................drum roll please

 

1.026 salinity

5 nitrate

0 (best i could tell)

7.5 alk

 

That's all I tested so hopefully that's enough.

 

salifert for everthing but alk... hanna for that

 

So with these results, one could only guess that the algae is using up P04?? I changed out the carbon and added some purigen to the carbon. I just don't get it... should I get the P04 up? I'm so utterly confused at what it going on. Should I keep changing water every other day, should i say #### it and not change water for a couple weeks, do i just throw the god damn thing out the front door? I feel like it's ground hog day and I feel like a noob. I mean i guess I am, haven't been doing this long, but i feel I'm pretty good at it... I mean i can grow the shit out of algae so that has to be good for something right 🤔😂

 

Ok that is all for now. I'm gonna mull this over and see what ya'll think... Throw it out the front door?

[jack1978]

3 minutes ago, DSFIRSTSLTWATER said:

Ok update.........

 

 

I didn't loose any corals. A couple are still pissed off but i think they'll live. I did a water change tonight, sucked, blew and stirred algae around and tried to get as much as I could out. 

I actually tested and my results are........................drum roll please

 

1.026 salinity

5 nitrate

0 (best i could tell)

7.5 alk

 

That's all I tested so hopefully that's enough.

 

salifert for everthing but alk... hanna for that

 

So with these results, one could only guess that the algae is using up P04?? I changed out the carbon and added some purigen to the carbon. I just don't get it... should I get the P04 up? I'm so utterly confused at what it going on. Should I keep changing water every other day, should i say #### it and not change water for a couple weeks, do i just throw the god damn thing out the front door? I feel like it's ground hog day and I feel like a noob. I mean i guess I am, haven't been doing this long, but i feel I'm pretty good at it... I mean i can grow the shit out of algae so that has to be good for something right 🤔😂

 

Ok that is all for now. I'm gonna mull this over and see what ya'll think... Throw it out the front door?

Just keep with your routine, consistent water changes.  Keep your cleanup crew numbers up and get a couple emerald crabs.  I got some bubble algae in on frags at some point in a totally clean tank (I acid dipped all my dry rock) and the shit exploded.  A couple emerald crabs later, not a single bubble.  Been bubble free for months  ..... and do more water changes.  

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

Just now, jack1978 said:

Just keep with your routine, consistent water changes.  Keep your cleanup crew numbers up and get a couple emerald crabs.  I got some bubble algae in on frags at some point in a totally clean tank (I acid dipped all my dry rock) and the shit exploded.  A couple emerald crabs later, not a single bubble.  Been bubble free for months  ..... and do more water changes.  

My emerald died and I noticed little tiny bubble algae spots. I'm not overly concerned with that. Its the god damn hair algae. How many damn snails do I need in this thing? 😕

I've been reading so much and I'm doing everything. If the rock was leaching p04 I should be able to test for it right??

[WV Reefer]

12 minutes ago, DSFIRSTSLTWATER said:

 

. If the rock was leaching p04 I should be able to test for it right??

The algae is using it up. 

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

Well good news is the corals are colorful so I must have enough for them to color up and nitrates are low enough to not brown out the sps. I just have to find balance and it's super frustrating trying to get it in balance. I never though I'd have this much trouble. Either in the old tank and I never thought i'd get it in this tank. I figured I had worked out all the problems.. guess not. Oh well, tank looks like the ocean so i can't be that mad I guess. 

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

2 minutes ago, WV Reefer said:

The algae is using it up. 

So what really has me thinking is why on earth did everyone of my corals get pissed with the chemipure??

I found my phosguard...wonder if i could try that for a few days? Wonder if it'll piss everything off...

 

[Wonderboy]

 

6 minutes ago, DSFIRSTSLTWATER said:

I found my phosguard...wonder if i could try that for a few days?

Noooooo do what @jack1978 says

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

7 minutes ago, Wonderboy said:

 

Noooooo do what @jack1978 says

lol well by that response, I'm gonna not use that at all then. I wonder if i get a couple turbo snails? That's one snail I've never had and they seem to be good. Think it'll mow the longer algae down? 

 

I have an idea... I'll let you guys know how it turns out. Thanks you guys and WV 🤗

[mitten_reef]

don't worry about algae, get a turbo snail or two (the big mexican turbos), they'll eat all that in days.  IME, they eat everything, even things that the trochus or astrea won't touch too.   

 

water change - twice a week if you have to.  the test will always give you a false positive (or is it negative?) when algae is absorbing the N and P.  that's why testing for N and P seems useless to me.

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

8 minutes ago, mitten_reef said:

don't worry about algae, get a turbo snail or two (the big mexican turbos), they'll eat all that in days.  IME, they eat everything, even things that the trochus or astrea won't touch too.   

 

water change - twice a week if you have to.  the test will always give you a false positive (or is it negative?) when algae is absorbing the N and P.  that's why testing for N and P seems useless to me.

Yeah i feel the same way about testing. Algae just looks like shit. I'm browsing reef cleaners now to see what he has. I want to try macro but I killed it the last time i got it lol. I hear gha will out compete macros so I've steered clear for the time being. My only think about doing a water change so much is i don't wanna shoot the nutrients down to a dangerous level. What about heavy feeding during the multiple water changes? This way there are nutrients going in so I'm not driving the numbers to nothing......

 

Well I'm thinking if i place an order with john, I'm gonna grab a mexican turbo, lettuce nudibranch, maybe a zebra turbo? along with a snail pack.. Gonna load this bitch up with herbivores.

[mitten_reef]

here's what I think might be a good sequence of things to try, others may disagree:

start with  getting a couple of mexican turbo snails.  don't go overboard with these guys, they do eat a lot and they eat fast.  

if you want other CUC varieties in the same order, go for it.  the more the merrier.

if after a week or two with new CUCs, you see no dent in GHA (which I doubt), start doing larger (20-30%) wc or doing wc twice (15-20%) a week. this will help if your rocks are indeed leaching.

I won't worry about the dropping nutrient yet, clearly there's enough to fuel algae growth - just be sure to feed your tank like you normally do.  don't wanna cut anything off cold-turkey.

hopefully, with the added CUC, you'll only be on the extra wc for a week or two.  

 

oh, don't try to tweak things by using chemical media, that tends to not end well.  that's when you easily get into nutrient imbalance.  

 

 

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

1 minute ago, mitten_reef said:

here's what I think might be a good sequence of things to try, others may disagree:

start with  getting a couple of mexican turbo snails.  don't go overboard with these guys, they do eat a lot and they eat fast.  

if you want other CUC varieties in the same order, go for it.  the more the merrier.

if after a week or two with new CUCs, you see no dent in GHA (which I doubt), start doing larger (20-30%) wc or doing wc twice (15-20%) a week. this will help if your rocks are indeed leaching.

I won't worry about the dropping nutrient yet, clearly there's enough to fuel algae growth - just be sure to feed your tank like you normally do.  don't wanna cut anything off cold-turkey.

hopefully, with the added CUC, you'll only be on the extra wc for a week or two.  

 

oh, don't try to tweak things by using chemical media, that tends to not end well.  that's when you easily get into nutrient imbalance.  

 

 

sweet thanks man. I'll try that out. I may just hit up LFS and see if they have an turbos. I'm going to crab at least two emeralds to hit the bubble spots. I'll let everyone know what happens. Worst case i still have the same algae 🤷‍♂️

[spectra]

If the snails dont do it get an urchin..........................I had algae growing in my 100 that no one would eat................both tangs and snails would not touch it.............tossed in a black spined one and it took care of everything...........it lives in my sump now with some rock just in case............

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

4 minutes ago, spectra said:

If the snails dont do it get an urchin..........................I had algae growing in my 100 that no one would eat................both tangs and snails would not touch it.............tossed in a black spined one and it took care of everything...........it lives in my sump now with some rock just in case............

I though urchins aren't good for a small tank? I mean at this point i'd be willing to give anything a shot.

 

Side note, I finally saw a worm in the tank last night. I didn't think I had any in there. I also found at least 3 limpets. Still haven't seen a single pod which really pisses me off. I spent a bunch for two different pods and I haven't seen a single one. I dose the tank with live phytoplankton every night and still nothing.

[Ratvan]

17 minutes ago, DSFIRSTSLTWATER said:

I though urchins aren't good for a small tank? I mean at this point i'd be willing to give anything a shot.

 

Side note, I finally saw a worm in the tank last night. I didn't think I had any in there. I also found at least 3 limpets. Still haven't seen a single pod which really pisses me off. I spent a bunch for two different pods and I haven't seen a single one. I dose the tank with live phytoplankton every night and still nothing.

Depends on type of urchin i believe, Tuxedo's can do well in 20's.  Could always spot feed algae sheets once its done the job

Plus something to aquascape for you 😉 

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

3 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

Depends on type of urchin i believe, Tuxedo's can do well in 20's.  Could always spot feed algae sheets once its done the job

Plus something to aquascape for you 😉 

I'm gonna hit up the lfs today. See what they say. I'm pretty sure I've seen urchins in the store so I may ask them if I could buy it and return it once i'm free of algae.

[WV Reefer]

5 minutes ago, DSFIRSTSLTWATER said:

I'm gonna hit up the lfs today. See what they say. I'm pretty sure I've seen urchins in the store so I may ask them if I could buy it and return it once i'm free of algae.

Dave, Dave, Dave......

 

you are the clean up crew and you’ve been slacking. Get in there and get it out.