29 gallon: R.E.E.F Tank

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

12 minutes ago, jedimasterben said:

Absolutely. This is why skimmers require a consistent water level to operate, well, consistently. If your water level is always changing, so will the water level inside the skimmer. If you don't have an ATO, I would recommend that be high up on the list of purchases.

Ok, I’ll look up on one

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

I’m concerned, I just looked at my tank, and one of my acan looks deflated and my water is a little milky. By milky I mean foggy. My other acan looks fine, but this one is really deflated. My lta is also upset. He is stretching and dug his bottom out of the sand. This is a picture of both acans. One looks fine, but the other does not. Also my lta. Everything else in the tank seems fine.

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

acans do that at times. Sometimes mine look pulled in then next they day they are open and puffy. They are silly animals sometimes. The nem, well it's just being a nem. 

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

4 minutes ago, DSFIRSTSLTWATER said:

acans do that at times. Sometimes mine look pulled in then next they day they are open and puffy. They are silly animals sometimes. The nem, well it's just being a nem. 

Oh ok, at first I was a little worried. 

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

What does a nem sting look like on a coral? Bc my Hollywood stunner has a few white spots on him, but otherwise he looks fine. I was thinking that it could’ve been a nem sting?

[Matteo]

3 hours ago, EthanPhillyCheesesteak said:

He said that I should probably get rid of my lta, and I really don’t want to do that. I really like him. I don’t have the money for another tank now, I was just talking about the future. I actually barely have any cyano now. Cyano is almost completely gone. My new problem is now green hair algae. 

I wouldn't care if you had all the money in the world. I care if you know what you're doing. Which you don't... 

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

9 minutes ago, OverCookedRock said:

I wouldn't care if you had all the money in the world. I care if you know what you're doing. Which you don't... 

I do know what I’m doing😠

At least a good bit of it

[mitten_reef]

3 minutes ago, EthanPhillyCheesesteak said:

I do know what I’m doing😠

At least a good bit of it

Uh, nope. Let’s settle with you know barely the basic of good tank keeping. Until you show us a week or longer worth of tank with no Cyano or crazy other issues, I won’t say you’ve proven you know much. 

But you’re getting somewhere with 14 pages of help. I’m glad you started to stay in your journal so people see the records of how things are progressing for you. 

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

3 minutes ago, mitten_reef said:

Uh, nope. Let’s settle with you know barely the basic of good tank keeping. Until you show us a week or longer worth of tank with no Cyano or crazy other issues, I won’t say you’ve proven you know much. 

But you’re getting somewhere with 14 pages of help. I’m glad you started to stay in your journal so people see the records of how things are progressing for you. 

Does hair algae count as a major issue?

I try to stay in the journal 

[StinkyBunny]

If you don't feed that doreensis anemone it WILL die. It's horribly bleached. Small pieces, smaller than 1cm square.

[mitten_reef]

3 minutes ago, EthanPhillyCheesesteak said:

Does hair algae count as a major issue?

I try to stay in the journal 

Idk man, ya gotta share pics when u say ur having problem(s) with something, anything. 

And yes, if you can’t identify the cause and fix it early, it can get out of control. The likely cause here is still excess nutrient in the tank. When the test reads nitrate as zero, it doesn’t always mean it is zero.  Algae can absorb nitrate fast, so if it keeps growing, you have nitrate, despite what the test says.

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

1 hour ago, StinkyBunny said:

If you don't feed that doreensis anemone it WILL die. It's horribly bleached. Small pieces, smaller than 1cm square.

What no, this one is not bleached. I got him like this and he has been like this for about a month and a half. It’s hard to see on camera, but he has a blue tint to him. When I bought him, my LFS just got him in. He readily accepts food and I feed him scallops 3 times a week. He eats every piece. 

He looks like this one 

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

1 hour ago, mitten_reef said:

Idk man, ya gotta share pics when u say ur having problem(s) with something, anything. 

And yes, if you can’t identify the cause and fix it early, it can get out of control. The likely cause here is still excess nutrient in the tank. When the test reads nitrate as zero, it doesn’t always mean it is zero.  Algae can absorb nitrate fast, so if it keeps growing, you have nitrate, despite what the test says.

Yea, I know I still have too much nutrients. But good news is that the cyano is leaving, but hair is replacing it😔

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

My nem has always been this way for the almost 2 months that I have had him. His tentacles also aren’t see through like a lot of bleached nems that I see.

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

Actually now that you mention it tho, his face is a little see through? Maybe your right? What should I do?

[jedimasterben]

11 minutes ago, EthanPhillyCheesesteak said:

What no, this one is not bleached. I got him like this and he has been like this for about a month and a half. It’s hard to see on camera, but he has a blue tint to him. When I bought him, my LFS just got him in. He readily accepts food and I feed him scallops 3 times a week. He eats every piece. 

He looks like this one 

You may not realize this, but photosynthetic animals are almost never clear or white. Your anemone is in poor health, still. Sometimes they can last days like this, sometimes months. Yours more than likely would be a darker tan color with greenish highlights. It will color up given excellent water quality, food, and plenty of time. But again, I would recommend sticking to just one in your setup.

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

58 minutes ago, jedimasterben said:

You may not realize this, but photosynthetic animals are almost never clear or white. Your anemone is in poor health, still. Sometimes they can last days like this, sometimes months. Yours more than likely would be a darker tan color with greenish highlights. It will color up given excellent water quality, food, and plenty of time. But again, I would recommend sticking to just one in your setup.

I’m not getting another nem. You all saw my water tests? They were fine? I feed him a lot and he eats a lot. He’s even growing new tentacles almost everyday? Everytime I look at him, he is growing more. And it’s been almost 2 months like this. He acts as healthy and happy as a clam. He’s very sticky also.

[jedimasterben]

10 hours ago, EthanPhillyCheesesteak said:

I’m not getting another nem. You all saw my water tests? They were fine? I feed him a lot and he eats a lot. He’s even growing new tentacles almost everyday? Everytime I look at him, he is growing more. And it’s been almost 2 months like this. He acts as healthy and happy as a clam. He’s very sticky also.

Water tests can look however you think 'fine' is, but that doesn't mean water quality is excellent. The API test kit also is not particularly accurate when testing saltwater. I personally trust them about as far as I can throw them 😁

 

Get one of these and stick in the water where algae won't grow on it. https://www.amazon.com/Seachem-001001-Ammonia-Alert/dp/B000255R5G

 

Beyond that, measuring salinity and nitrate are typically the only things you'll need to worry about. A good, simple test kit is Salifert. https://www.amazon.com/Salifert-Nitrate-No3-Test-Kit/dp/B001EHCDBW

 

As for the anemone, sticky is good. Continue to feed it high quality foods and keep water quality up and it can turn around. As it is right now, though, without intervention it would surely die.

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

1 hour ago, jedimasterben said:

Water tests can look however you think 'fine' is, but that doesn't mean water quality is excellent. The API test kit also is not particularly accurate when testing saltwater. I personally trust them about as far as I can throw them 😁

 

Get one of these and stick in the water where algae won't grow on it. https://www.amazon.com/Seachem-001001-Ammonia-Alert/dp/B000255R5G

 

Beyond that, measuring salinity and nitrate are typically the only things you'll need to worry about. A good, simple test kit is Salifert. https://www.amazon.com/Salifert-Nitrate-No3-Test-Kit/dp/B001EHCDBW

 

As for the anemone, sticky is good. Continue to feed it high quality foods and keep water quality up and it can turn around. As it is right now, though, without intervention it would surely die.

I feed it really well, and it definitely has gotten some color since I last got it. When I got it, it was all white, but now it’s starting to get tints of blue in the tentacles. 

I’ll look into getting one of those test kits🤦‍♂️. I have so much to buy🤦‍♂️😂

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

There not very much, so I can probably get that now

[jedimasterben]

54 minutes ago, EthanPhillyCheesesteak said:

I feed it really well, and it definitely has gotten some color since I last got it. When I got it, it was all white, but now it’s starting to get tints of blue in the tentacles. 

I’ll look into getting one of those test kits🤦‍♂️. I have so much to buy🤦‍♂️😂

Best thing to do is make a list and order it by importance. What all do you have planned?

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

Well I still need to get rodi water from my LFS, until I get the money for my own. A refractometer. A reef test kit so I can measure calcium and everything else. I usually just go to my LFS, but I would like my own. A nice wavemaker that I can control, but that’s probably not the most important. Anything that I’m forgetting? I feel like I’m forgetting something?

[jedimasterben]

19 minutes ago, EthanPhillyCheesesteak said:

Well I still need to get rodi water from my LFS, until I get the money for my own. A refractometer. A reef test kit so I can measure calcium and everything else. I usually just go to my LFS, but I would like my own. A nice wavemaker that I can control, but that’s probably not the most important. Anything that I’m forgetting? I feel like I’m forgetting something?

You don't need to be measuring calcium, alkalinity, or magnesium at this point. You don't have any stony corals, and until you have quite a few of them and water changes aren't keeping up with demand, they are simply unnecessary and can be at the bottom of the list. Also keep in mind that the reagents do expire, so if it's a while before that happens, you might need to rebuy them when that time comes.

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

Well I’ve had the saltwater test kit for about a year, maybe more.

Is there anything that I’m missing that I should get?