29 gallon: R.E.E.F Tank

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

Bump

[Tamberav]

Update your 1st post with a list of your equipment and list of fish and corals ect... Idk what you have anymore.

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

yeah we need a better list now

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

53 minutes ago, Tamberav said:

Update your 1st post with a list of your equipment and list of fish and corals ect... Idk what you have anymore.

Ok, give me a little bit and I’ll get that for you.

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

Ok, so I have

a viparspectra 160w led light hung above my tank

a aquaclear 20 to 50 gallons filter

a cheap heater from my LFS, it cost 25 bucks

2 800gph wavemakers made my sunsun

that protein skimmer that I sent you a picture of 

and that’s all the equipment 

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

So update, I stopped by my LFS today and picked up a cleaner shrimp and a pencushion urchin to help me with the hair algae that a taking over. The urchin is so small and cute. He’s like maybe an inch

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

I need some help, my stunner chalice isn’t looking so good. Everything else seems fine. Why could this be happening? A small piece of him broke off that looked dead, and he has white parts along the edges of him?

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

Also my dragon favia is either doing the same thing, or he’s beginning to grow a new head. He has a straight line of what looks like bone or something on the edge of his head?

[SliceGolfer]

The Chalice looks damaged, or is starting to lose color due to placement. Chalices are not a high light intensity coral. The Dragon Soul Favia looks irritated by the algae growing on its base.

 

I will echo what’s already been said before. Spend less time buying corals or livestock. Spend more time on tank husbandry and getting the tank stable. Clean all 4 sides of the glass. Scrub and siphon your live rock. Stir and vacuum the substrate. Work towards stability and stop making drastic changes. 

 

When you get a new coral, put it on the bottom of your tank for at least two weeks and hands off. Let it acclimate. It needs to get used to your tank. 

 

This is is a hobby of patience. The only thing that happens quickly is disaster. Constant changes, tweaking, poking, and thinking you must take immediate action is making your ecosystem unstable. Try going an entire week with your hands out of the tank and not making any changes, except for changing your mechanical pre-filtration pads.

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

9 minutes ago, SliceGolfer said:

The Chalice looks damaged, or is starting to lose color due to placement. Chalices are not a high light intensity coral. The Dragon Soul Favia looks irritated by the algae growing on its base.

 

I will echo what’s already been said before. Spend less time buying corals or livestock. Spend more time on tank husbandry and getting the tank stable. Clean all 4 sides of the glass. Scrub and siphon your live rock. Stir and vacuum the substrate. Work towards stability and stop making drastic changes. 

 

When you get a new coral, put it on the bottom of your tank for at least two weeks and hands off. Let it acclimate. It needs to get used to your tank. 

 

This is is a hobby of patience. The only thing that happens quickly is disaster. Constant changes, tweaking, poking, and thinking you must take immediate action is making your ecosystem unstable. Try going an entire week with your hands out of the tank and not making any changes, except for changing your mechanical pre-filtration pads.

I moved the chalice to a lower light area. I got the algae off of the favia. The only reason I got those two things was bc my clean up crew is really horrible. I do everything that you said, but it just grows back. I stopped getting coral until my tank is stable enough for it. I’ve had the chalice for quite a while and my favia I got a month ago. I’ll try to go an entire week without doing anything, but what if I need to clean algae off the glass or something?

[SliceGolfer]

3 minutes ago, EthanPhillyCheesesteak said:

I’ll try to go an entire week without doing anything, but what if I need to clean algae off the glass or something?

That’s exactly the changes everyone is suggesting you do 👍

 

Right now, the only changes you should focus on is cleaning the glass, clean the substrate, take a clean turkey blaster and blow off the rocks, vacuum and do water changes to help your tank stabilize. Do not buy livestock. Do not keep moving corals around.

 

After you work on getting the tank clean and stable, kick back and watch your tank. Look at it and find the things going right. Spend less time looking at things and thinking something is bad or wrong. Plan in your head, or draw on a notepad how you want your tank to look. Plan out your changes, and not make impulsive ones.

 

I can tell you want to be successful. Part of success is patience and learning. Being patient isn’t fun, so take that energy and put it towards learning. Here’s a suggestion - go on YouTube and look up FishofHex, Inappropriate Reefer, Mad Hatters Reef, Billy Pipes, and Bulk Reef Supply. There is a lot of good information there. These guys have experienced the same issues and failures. They’re sharing what they’ve learned so you can be better. And some of them are quite entertaining to watch.

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

1 minute ago, SliceGolfer said:

That’s exactly the changes everyone is suggesting you do 👍

 

Right now, the only changes you should focus on is cleaning the glass, clean the substrate, take a clean turkey blaster and blow off the rocks, vacuum and do water changes to help your tank stabilize. Do not buy livestock. Do not keep moving corals around.

 

After you work on getting the tank clean and stable, kick back and watch your tank. Look at it and find the things going right. Spend less time looking at things and thinking something is bad or wrong. Plan in your head, or draw on a notepad how you want your tank to look. Plan out your changes, and not make impulsive ones.

 

I can tell you want to be successful. Part of success is patience and learning. Being patient isn’t fun, so take that energy and put it towards learning. Here’s a suggestion - go on YouTube and look up FishofHex, Inappropriate Reefer, Mad Hatters Reef, Billy Pipes, and Bulk Reef Supply. There is a lot of good information there. These guys have experienced the same issues and failures. They’re sharing what they’ve learned so you can be better. And some of them are quite entertaining to watch.

So I was thinking about buying some nassarius snails to help with the substrate. I shouldn’t buy anything? And thank you, I’ll look them up on YouTube.

[Tamberav]

You can clean algae off the glass without sticking your hands in. I really like the flipper: https://www.amazon.com/Flipper-Nano-Magnet-Cleaner-Inch/dp/B00MYHSD3I

 

The cleaner shrimp won't help your GHA. They just sit around waiting to pig out on fish food. They are mostly for ornamental purposes. 

 

My Mexican turbos eat GHA like crazy but they also make huge poops (huge snails) so you have to keep up on maintenance or the poop just fertilizes more GHA. 

 

Whatever eats algae... still poops... nutrients have to be removed somehow with maintenance. It is just easier to siphon out snail poop than scrub algae.

 

 

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

9 minutes ago, Tamberav said:

You can clean algae off the glass without sticking your hands in. I really like the flipper: https://www.amazon.com/Flipper-Nano-Magnet-Cleaner-Inch/dp/B00MYHSD3I

 

The cleaner shrimp won't help your GHA. They just sit around waiting to pig out on fish food. They are mostly for ornamental purposes. 

 

My Mexican turbos eat GHA like crazy but they also make huge poops (huge snails) so you have to keep up on maintenance or the poop just fertilizes more GHA. 

 

Whatever eats algae... still poops... nutrients have to be removed somehow with maintenance. It is just easier to siphon out snail poop than scrub algae.

 

Yea, I agree with that. The cleaner shrimp will clean my fish and corals if I’m correct tho right?

[Tamberav]

7 minutes ago, EthanPhillyCheesesteak said:

Yea, I agree with that. The cleaner shrimp will clean my fish and corals if I’m correct tho right?

No, it might annoy your small fish (since large fish like Tangs use the cleaners services but cleaners sometimes like to harass/annoy small fish when no big ones are available). They don't help with things like ich, maybe flukes or loose scales but again... small fish tend to not like this sort of attention. They will steal food from corals and make feeding LPS a pain sometimes.

 

They are cool looking though and I have a cleaner but they don't really do anything helpful. 

 

My current one doesn't annoy my fish thankfully. I have had ones in the past that were always trying to pester my fish and just greedy little butts.  

[SliceGolfer]

6 minutes ago, EthanPhillyCheesesteak said:

So I was thinking about buying some nassarius snails to help with the substrate

Nassarius snails burrow and live in the substrate, so you would need at least 1.5” of sand in your tank. I can’t tell from the photos how deep your sand is, but to be honest, a good gravel siphon or simply stirring a section of substrate while siphoning out while changing water will work better.

 

Another suggestion is create a written tank journal. Not what you post here on the forums, I mean old school pen and paper. Or a program on your computer like OneNote, Word, Notepad, etc. Or AquaticLog if you want to do it on a website or mobile app. Record how your tank is doing. Take note of tests, chart the ups and downs. Start to recognize patterns with your tank based on its water volume.

 

My tank for example - it’s an IM20. With live rock, reactor, baskets and such, I know I have 14 gallons of water. I know my filter pads last 3 days max. I know my tank consumes 4ml of Alk supplement daily. I know 1ml of liquid soda ash raises my DKH by 0.1 points. I know I have to clean my glass every 3rd day. The journal helps with this. It helps you plan changes, recognize right from wrong. And you can always refer to it. Your written log tells a story. It’s your North Star, it’s factual, let it be your guide.

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

5 minutes ago, SliceGolfer said:

Nassarius snails burrow and live in the substrate, so you would need at least 1.5” of sand in your tank. I can’t tell from the photos how deep your sand is, but to be honest, a good gravel siphon or simply stirring a section of substrate while siphoning out while changing water will work better.

 

Another suggestion is create a written tank journal. Not what you post here on the forums, I mean old school pen and paper. Or a program on your computer like OneNote, Word, Notepad, etc. Or AquaticLog if you want to do it on a website or mobile app. Record how your tank is doing. Take note of tests, chart the ups and downs. Start to recognize patterns with your tank based on its water volume.

 

My tank for example - it’s an IM20. With live rock, reactor, baskets and such, I know I have 14 gallons of water. I know my filter pads last 3 days max. I know my tank consumes 4ml of Alk supplement daily. I know 1ml of liquid soda ash raises my DKH by 0.1 points. I know I have to clean my glass every 3rd day. The journal helps with this. It helps you plan changes, recognize right from wrong. And you can always refer to it. Your written log tells a story. It’s your North Star, it’s factual, let it be your guide.

Thanks, that’s a good idea. I’ll use word on my computer for it. 

7 minutes ago, Tamberav said:

No, it might annoy your small fish (since large fish like Tangs use the cleaners services but cleaners sometimes like to harass/annoy small fish when no big ones are available). They don't help with things like ich, maybe flukes or loose scales but again... small fish tend to not like this sort of attention. They will steal food from corals and make feeding LPS a pain sometimes.

 

They are cool looking though and I have a cleaner but they don't really do anything helpful. 

 

My current one doesn't annoy my fish thankfully. I have had ones in the past that were always trying to pester my fish and just greedy little butts.  

Dang, now it feels like a waste of money. Could’ve bought so many more useful things with 30 bucks

[Tamberav]

13 minutes ago, EthanPhillyCheesesteak said:

Thanks, that’s a good idea. I’ll use word on my computer for it. 

Dang, now it feels like a waste of money. Could’ve bought so many more useful things with 30 bucks

Well... good news is... they don't add much to the bioload like a fish would so you can enjoy looking at him. 

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

37 minutes ago, Tamberav said:

Well... good news is... they don't add much to the bioload like a fish would so you can enjoy looking at him. 

Yea, I guess that’s a plus

Does he eat any detris or algae at all?

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

I think that one of my acans is beginning to split. There’s a little mouth right here, but it’s hard to see.

[jedimasterben]

Acans (actually now are Micromussa, not Acanthastrea) do not split, they 'mound' and produce new skeleton and tissue surrounding existing polyps.

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

3 hours ago, jedimasterben said:

Acans (actually now are Micromussa, not Acanthastrea) do not split, they 'mound' and produce new skeleton and tissue surrounding existing polyps.

Then what the heck is this? It’s literally a little tiny mouth?

[Tamberav]

5 hours ago, EthanPhillyCheesesteak said:

Yea, I guess that’s a plus

Does he eat any detris or algae at all?

Nope...they seem to like meaty stuff although mine would eat nori. They will dig around and try and find fish food....even if it means the food is in the acans mouth....so keep an eye on him when feeding corals  😛

[jedimasterben]

9 hours ago, EthanPhillyCheesesteak said:

Then what the heck is this? It’s literally a little tiny mouth?

The pic you posted with the arrow doesn't point to anything that can be seen with that resolution. 🤷‍♀️

 

[kimberbee]

5 minutes ago, jedimasterben said:

The pic you posted with the arrow doesn't point to anything that can be seen with that resolution. 🤷‍♀️

 

It's probably a false mouth. I'm surprised you didn't know that. Just like butterflies have false eyes to confuse birds, some corals have false mouths to confuse scavengers. Like @Tamberav said, shrimp will try to pull food out of the mouths of corals, but with a false mouth, they will pick the wrong mouth and won't get the food.