Where can I find a good mentor

[A Little Blue]

Some gobies aren’t spotlight divas. I see my Circus Goby twice a month an avarage. He’s like a squatter avoiding eviction. Super cryptic fish. Love him and hate him at the same time. 

[ECLS Reefer]

Well, J Edgar Hoover as we call ours, used to come sit and stare at us disapprovingly and watch us at all times, no matter where we went. He followed us in the tank. Now he won’t come out. Or if he doesn’t rarely, it’s to poke his head up out of the crack between rocks and stare at me like he hates me. And it’s been since I installed that light. Yesterday it didn’t work correctly and my husband couldn’t figure out how to get it back on the timed cycle so he just turned it fully on, and when I came home I found J Edgar basking on the rocks. So I guess he’s a beach bum, and not into blue light or red light.

[Oldsalt01]

API master is a good start kit. What they don’t tell you is the phosphate test is a high-range test so your phosphate levels may be higher than you think. Salifert or Red Sea make excellent low-range kits. My old eyes have trouble reading the color charts, so I invested in a Hanna Ultra-low Range Phosphorus Checker and am so glad I did. They can be a bit daunting at first, but once you get the process down you can be sure of accurate readings. Your tank is new enough not to worry too much about Phosphates right now but it will become more important in a couple of months. We want pics of your tank!!!!!

[ECLS Reefer]

2 hours ago, Oldsalt01 said:

API master is a good start kit. What they don’t tell you is the phosphate test is a high-range test so your phosphate levels may be higher than you think. Salifert or Red Sea make excellent low-range kits. My old eyes have trouble reading the color charts, so I invested in a Hanna Ultra-low Range Phosphorus Checker and am so glad I did. They can be a bit daunting at first, but once you get the process down you can be sure of accurate readings. Your tank is new enough not to worry too much about Phosphates right now but it will become more important in a couple of months. We want pics of your tank!!!!!

Same here with the color chart reads! I thought I had pretty good eyes, but I have trouble a lot of times deciding what I'm looking at on the API charts. I'll have to look into other brands of test kits-I've only ever worked with API. I've used them for years with my koi pond testing too. As for the pictures, I'm still moving stuff around in the tank, trying to figure out where I want them and what makes it easiest to clean. Or even makes it look like an actual reef. It was due for a clean today so I adjusted some stuff and I actually looks like a legitamate reef, I think. It's very blue but the fish turned out nice. 

[deetu]

20 hours ago, Nursecop818 said:

Thank you for saying it’s clean! But I thought you had to keep them super spotless? Especially the little tanks. Being in the Houston area with the stupid weather here my koi pond goes from needing a heater to having an algae bloom every other day so I live in fear of that in this little tank. The koi can handle such shenanigans, but I don’t know about this system. 

My thought was if you are keeping it too clean, you will be causing a continual new tank syndrome effect.

Take a look at pictures of established tanks where you can see the sand on the side.  The one you pulled about the macro and pink coraline in Fluval Evo Owners thread is a good example.  You can see that the sand has stuff growing in it, not perfectly clean.  Yes, you need to do sand cleaning once in a while but that is also where good bacteria grows.

 

Having sand moving snails like Nassarrias is also good since they will eat the extra food and stuff.  They are really cool to watch since they come out from under the sand as soon as they smell food and can flip themselves back over if they fall on their backs.

 

The red macro in that picture looks more like red graciliana then dragon which is usually available since it is sold as food for herbivores.  Mine is growing like crazy and keeps my nitrates down... I'd give you some if I lived closer

I know I definitely overfeed and fight hair algae but that is my choice but no nitrates .

 

Side note...Koi don't need heat, they are very adaptable.  Heaters are mostly to keep the pond from freezing and not allowing the gasses from disintegrating leaves to escape.  Here in NJ, I would keep a spot with the pump draining into one area.  This would keep the water moving so didn't freeze over and didn't have any problems after doing that.  Before knowing that trick, I didn't get to clean out the leaves before the freeze and lost a bunch of my babies one particularly bad winter.  (I even had one goldfish swim into the skimmer and freeze solid.  It swam out once it thawed )

For algae blooms, try planting something in the area where the sun is shining on it the most.  I don't know if they grow there or not but a nice butterfly bush will block a lot of sun and are really pretty. 

[ECLS Reefer]

18 minutes ago, deetu said:

My thought was if you are keeping it too clean, you will be causing a continual new tank syndrome effect.

Take a look at pictures of established tanks where you can see the sand on the side.  The one you pulled about the macro and pink coraline in Fluval Evo Owners thread is a good example.  You can see that the sand has stuff growing in it, not perfectly clean.  Yes, you need to do sand cleaning once in a while but that is also where good bacteria grows.

 

Having sand moving snails like Nassarrias is also good since they will eat the extra food and stuff.  They are really cool to watch since they come out from under the sand as soon as they smell food and can flip themselves back over if they fall on their backs.

 

The red macro in that picture looks more like red graciliana then dragon which is usually available since it is sold as food for herbivores.  Mine is growing like crazy and keeps my nitrates down... I'd give you some if I lived closer

I know I definitely overfeed and fight hair algae but that is my choice but no nitrates .

 

Side note...Koi don't need heat, they are very adaptable.  Heaters are mostly to keep the pond from freezing and not allowing the gasses from disintegrating leaves to escape.  Here in NJ, I would keep a spot with the pump draining into one area.  This would keep the water moving so didn't freeze over and didn't have any problems after doing that.  Before knowing that trick, I didn't get to clean out the leaves before the freeze and lost a bunch of my babies one particularly bad winter.  (I even had one goldfish swim into the skimmer and freeze solid.  It swam out once it thawed )

For algae blooms, try planting something in the area where the sun is shining on it the most.  I don't know if they grow there or not but a nice butterfly bush will block a lot of sun and are really pretty. 

I think I'm going to try putting some coralline algae in the tank-the pictures I've seen on here make it look colorful, and everything I've read seems to say it helps as well. I was under the impression I couldn't put anymore types of live stock, of any kind but corals in this tank due to the size and nitrate burden. The LFS people always give me the side eye when I come in and look at their stock because they know what size tank I have. There are a couple of good sized bristle worms in there too that hide out with the snapping shrimp, but I've noticed that they don't clean the sand too well. But you're saying I need to leave stuff alone for a while... let bacteria grow.... sit on my hands 🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️ I'm not sure I have the will power. Also, I have shopped around for other types of macro algae and literally have not been able to find ANY dragon's breath in stock, anywhere. Only food grade algae. So I was nervous to put that in there, and decided to just try the coralline for now.

 

As for my koi, the pond is super shallow, and has no deep spots. We built it above ground with a liner because of the way the sprinkler plumbing ran in the area we put the pond, and didn't want to cap and break lines. At any rate, we lost a fish this year to cold because of the nutty weather Houston has had this winter. I didn't have a choice on the heater for the cold this year, for the purpose of gas exchange. As soon as I put it in, the rest of the fish put on weight and now look like big fat whales. If only the salties were as easily pleased.

[Clown79]

21 hours ago, Nursecop818 said:

Holy cow yes! The amount of information and videos and opinions is vast!! I have found it hard to find a good answer to anything because there’s so many. 

 

Thank you you all for your welcoming advice! So for tonight, since I’m exhausted from work, I’m gonna actually restrain myself from either testing the water or changing it. Everyone looks pretty happy now that I’m home to check on them. I did come home to find that my hubs put microbacter 7 “just one capful” in the tank, while I was gone. That would be the first ever “dose” of that. I hope that wasn’t a bad thing. 

 

Also— why does my black oacellaris rub his face in the hairy mushroom coral? It’s not going to eat him whole like I saw on someone else’s horrible post is it? That was the stuff nightmares are made of 😬😬, and I’m pretty sure I’d have a difficult time explaining that “facts of life” speech to my 9 year old whose tank this is supposed to be. Very lightly defined- I do all the work on this tank and research. It’s my tank in all but name.

Lol. 

He's just getting friendly with it. His/her instincts for hosting are kicking in.

 

I've never seen a clown eat a coral, I have seen mine suck on the frogspawn which was funny.

[deetu]

2 hours ago, Nursecop818 said:

I think I'm going to try putting some coralline algae in the tank-the pictures I've seen on here make it look colorful, and everything I've read seems to say it helps as well. I was under the impression I couldn't put anymore types of live stock, of any kind but corals in this tank due to the size and nitrate burden. The LFS people always give me the side eye when I come in and look at their stock because they know what size tank I have. There are a couple of good sized bristle worms in there too that hide out with the snapping shrimp, but I've noticed that they don't clean the sand too well. But you're saying I need to leave stuff alone for a while... let bacteria grow.... sit on my hands 🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️ I'm not sure I have the will power. Also, I have shopped around for other types of macro algae and literally have not been able to find ANY dragon's breath in stock, anywhere. Only food grade algae. So I was nervous to put that in there, and decided to just try the coralline for now.

 

As for my koi, the pond is super shallow, and has no deep spots. We built it above ground with a liner because of the way the sprinkler plumbing ran in the area we put the pond, and didn't want to cap and break lines. At any rate, we lost a fish this year to cold because of the nutty weather Houston has had this winter. I didn't have a choice on the heater for the cold this year, for the purpose of gas exchange. As soon as I put it in, the rest of the fish put on weight and now look like big fat whales. If only the salties were as easily pleased.

You can do it girl!!

10% weekly water change, don't dig into the sand, don't overfeed.

You didn't mention the bristle worms before.  Personally, those things weird me out...especially since they can get super big.

Snails are more a part of clean up crew then counted as livestock.  You were probably looking at fish and frags

Just so you know, Coraline is very slow growing.  Mine is growing on the fake anemone instead of my rock...except for the green coraline that I didn't want.

I snapped a quick picture for you... please ignore that hair algae...again, my choice.

The white blob climbing up the front wall is the nassarsaus. https://www.reefcleaners.org/aquarium-store/nassarius-vibex

There is another one in the left bottom corner.  I have about six in my 20x12 footprint.

That is my red graciliaria, which was being sold as food.  Dragon breath has a larger, flat leaf.  Once you get your tank under control, you can always bring it back to store if you don't want to keep it.  My fish store I got it from was thrilled when I harvested a bunch and brought it to them.

 

[Coinee]

Let me warn you before you get too much into corals...they're VERY addictive and the wallet HATES it LOL. They are so awesome and interesting though...

[ECLS Reefer]

20 minutes ago, deetu said:

You can do it girl!!

10% weekly water change, don't dig into the sand, don't overfeed.

You didn't mention the bristle worms before.  Personally, those things weird me out...especially since they can get super big.

Snails are more a part of clean up crew then counted as livestock.  You were probably looking at fish and frags

Just so you know, Coraline is very slow growing.  Mine is growing on the fake anemone instead of my rock...except for the green coraline that I didn't want.

I snapped a quick picture for you... please ignore that hair algae...again, my choice.

The white blob climbing up the front wall is the nassarsaus. https://www.reefcleaners.org/aquarium-store/nassarius-vibex

There is another one in the left bottom corner.  I have about six in my 20x12 footprint.

That is my red graciliaria, which was being sold as food.  Dragon breath has a larger, flat leaf.  Once you get your tank under control, you can always bring it back to store if you don't want to keep it.  My fish store I got it from was thrilled when I harvested a bunch and brought it to them.

 

If the green stuff one the rocks counts as coralline algae then I actually do have some already! It’s just hard to see under blue light. I have to turn the white all the way up to see what’s actually going on in my tank. The fish store people discouraged me from getting any algae at all- she was all “I’ve never had any algae in my Evo, ever.” So I backed off of buying any from her. And then I couldn’t find any on the internet except for the bottled purple coralline. 

 

The worms came with the rock and they weird me out as well. Thankfully they’re pretty small. I’ll have to think about the snail situation. I’m all about buying stuff the tank- it’s like a sickness at the moment 😳😳- but I’m not kidding when I say my husband is gonna take away my spending privileges soon 😢

[ECLS Reefer]

7 minutes ago, Coinee said:

Let me warn you before you get too much into corals...they're VERY addictive and the wallet HATES it LOL. They are so awesome and interesting though...

I’m already there 😭😭 your warning came too late!!! Honestly though, I just want one good thing that’s super bright and shows up across the room. I’m not sure where I’d put anything else. I’ve been saving a spot for a little hammer coral because I thought it looked pretty cool and would go with the rest of the softies. 

[deetu]

22 minutes ago, Nursecop818 said:

I’m all about buying stuff the tank- it’s like a sickness at the moment 😳😳- but I’m not kidding when I say my husband is gonna take away my spending privileges soon 😢

Understand that... was there myself at one point until I finally finished all the starter stuff.

[pokerdobe]

It looks like you're in the Woodlands. I'm right down in Houston - feel free to message me if you ever have any questions. 

[Coinee]

32 minutes ago, Nursecop818 said:

I’m already there 😭😭 your warning came too late!!! Honestly though, I just want one good thing that’s super bright and shows up across the room. I’m not sure where I’d put anything else. I’ve been saving a spot for a little hammer coral because I thought it looked pretty cool and would go with the rest of the softies. 

Anything Euphyllia looks awesome! My frogspawn is almost neon green when I look at it from across my room under the lights! 

 

Some people kind of look down on soft corals but they are really awesome too. I love my Yuma, GSP and mushroom coral. Mushroom corals come in A LOT of different colours and some look amazing plus they're nearly impossible to kill. The one I have is like neon pinkish-orange and it looks sweet! 

 

I'm still new to the coral tank stuff but if I can pass 3 tips on to someone else who is new too:

 

1) Research your coral because their lighting and flow needs all vary. Lighting requirements are important because you don't want to kill your coral with light like I did with my first Candy Cane!

Also, some corals also contain toxins or have stingers (sweepers) you need to be aware of to prevent harm to other corals (or yourself! some stings can leave an itchy rash if you have sensitive skin). Also, if you go barehanded into your tank, make sure you wash your hands. Marine aquariums contain all sorts of harmful toxins and bacteria that can infect you.

 

2) Find local reefers! Seriously! I found the hobbyists in my city have tanks and corals that BLOW my local fish stores out of the water. They are super healthy and the prices are A LOT better. A lot of local reefers have connections and good advice too. I got introduced to a local group of reefers in my area that sell really nice frags and other equipment basically dirt cheap. 

 

3) Don't panic, even though these are sensitive ecosystems we have in our tanks, coral can handle mistakes and come back without problems. Sometimes there is no problem and a coral acts weird for no reason then acts normal again a few days later. This is where keeping a tank journal can help you since you can find potential correlations in tank changes vs problems that occurred. A simple spreadsheet can do this fine. When in doubt, post a question here 😉

 

[ECLS Reefer]

6 minutes ago, pokerdobe said:

It looks like you're in the Woodlands. I'm right down in Houston - feel free to message me if you ever have any questions. 

Oh hallelujah!! Someone close by! (Relatively, by Houston standards)

[ECLS Reefer]

7 minutes ago, Coinee said:

Anything Euphyllia looks awesome! My frogspawn is almost neon green when I look at it from across my room under the lights! 

 

Some people kind of look down on soft corals but they are really awesome too. I love my Yuma, GSP and mushroom coral. Mushroom corals come in A LOT of different colours and some look amazing plus they're nearly impossible to kill. The one I have is like neon pinkish-orange and it looks sweet! 

 

I'm still new to the coral tank stuff but if I can pass 3 tips on to someone else who is new too:

 

1) Research your coral because their lighting and flow needs all vary. Lighting requirements are important because you don't want to kill your coral with light like I did with my first Candy Cane!

Also, some corals also contain toxins or have stingers (sweepers) you need to be aware of to prevent harm to other corals (or yourself! some stings can leave an itchy rash if you have sensitive skin). Also, if you go barehanded into your tank, make sure you wash your hands. Marine aquariums contain all sorts of harmful toxins and bacteria that can infect you.

 

2) Find local reefers! Seriously! I found the hobbyists in my city have tanks and corals that BLOW my local fish stores out of the water. They are super healthy and the prices are A LOT better. A lot of local reefers have connections and good advice too. I got introduced to a local group of reefers in my area that sell really nice frags and other equipment basically dirt cheap. 

 

3) Don't panic, even though these are sensitive ecosystems we have in our tanks, coral can handle mistakes and come back without problems. Sometimes there is no problem and a coral acts weird for no reason then acts normal again a few days later. This is where keeping a tank journal can help you since you can find potential correlations in tank changes vs problems that occurred. A simple spreadsheet can do this fine. When in doubt, post a question here 😉

 

Thank you! I’ve been keeping a tank journal because there’s just too much to remember. Not to mention I fiddle with it a lot. I’m not entirely sure how to find the local reefers- I did a small search today and came up pretty empty. But I’m sure given time I’ll make connections. 

[Coinee]

4 minutes ago, Nursecop818 said:

Thank you! I’ve been keeping a tank journal because there’s just too much to remember. Not to mention I fiddle with it a lot. I’m not entirely sure how to find the local reefers- I did a small search today and came up pretty empty. But I’m sure given time I’ll make connections. 

Facebook groups, word of mouth, etc. You could probably find people here that know of groups near you since you're in Texas. I live in a smaller city in Canada and I put an ad online on the Canadian equivalent to Craigslist and a local guy said he had some corals I was looking for so I went over to his place and we chatted for 30 minutes and he gave me a link to the local reefer's group here. 

[banasophia]

19 minutes ago, Nursecop818 said:

Thank you! I’ve been keeping a tank journal because there’s just too much to remember. Not to mention I fiddle with it a lot. I’m not entirely sure how to find the local reefers- I did a small search today and came up pretty empty. But I’m sure given time I’ll make connections. 

I found my local reefing group on Facebook... folks at your LFS can probably tell you what the local groups are called so you can find them. I talk to other patrons at the LFS to get info like that too.

[banasophia]

Personally, I would continue to turkey baste and either stir or siphon your sand during water changes so detritus doesn’t build up, to keep your sand looking nice, and to prevent gases from building up in the sandbed that could be released later if you stir it after a long time. 

 

Your tank is cycled, as evidenced by the fact that your ammonia and  nitrites are zero. I would get an ammonia badge though, personally... I think it’s good to have in a new tank just to keep an eye out for an unexpected ammonia spike in the event you overwhelm your biofilter. 

[Sancho]

Try this site...someone there may have some local clubs to look into 

https://marsh-reef.org/

[pokerdobe]

Look up Houston Reef Connection and Major League Reefers on Facebook. Those are the local active groups, 

 

The Marsh forums are mostly dead. Not too much activity. They mostly put on Reef Currents every year at the Sheraton and that's mostly it. 

[ECLS Reefer]

4 minutes ago, pokerdobe said:

Look up Houston Reef Connection and Major League Reefers on Facebook. Those are the local active groups, 

 

The Marsh forums are mostly dead. Not too much activity. They mostly put on Reef Currents every year at the Sheraton and that's mostly it. 

Good to know.

[Tamberav]

Your LFS is sounds kind of close minded. Nothing wrong with some pretty algae! Buy whatever you like as long as you can care for it. 

 

 

 

 

 

[pokerdobe]

3 hours ago, Nursecop818 said:

If the green stuff one the rocks counts as coralline algae then I actually do have some already! It’s just hard to see under blue light. I have to turn the white all the way up to see what’s actually going on in my tank. The fish store people discouraged me from getting any algae at all- she was all “I’ve never had any algae in my Evo, ever.” So I backed off of buying any from her. And then I couldn’t find any on the internet except for the bottled purple coralline. 

 

The worms came with the rock and they weird me out as well. Thankfully they’re pretty small. I’ll have to think about the snail situation. I’m all about buying stuff the tank- it’s like a sickness at the moment 😳😳- but I’m not kidding when I say my husband is gonna take away my spending privileges soon 😢

Which LFS is that? 

 

If you're looking for macros, I have ulva in my fuge. I'd also reach out to OLA as they occasionally get Ogo in as well. FJW and TAP also have chaeto and caulerpa. 

[ECLS Reefer]

1 hour ago, pokerdobe said:

Which LFS is that? 

 

If you're looking for macros, I have ulva in my fuge. I'd also reach out to OLA as they occasionally get Ogo in as well. FJW and TAP also have chaeto and caulerpa. 

I use a place on 242 for convenience, and their fish have always been good for me for the last five years. But since I started this venture, the lady that more or less runs the salt side of the shop has become a bit unfriendly and seems to be trying to patronize me. I know I don’t know anything. But I can for sure read, and I’m going to look stuff up since I don’t live at her feet to ask questions. I have to learn this somewhere if she won’t be my guru. She told me the day she discouraged algae to not take advice from hobbyists over fish store owners with many tanks. I get that she has a successful business with thousands of fish- but it would also stand to reason other people know as much as she does too. Anyway. The shop is conveniently located and the fish have always been healthy, prices reasonable. I can get water emergently. But it’s not super fun going there.