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Innovative Marine Aquariums

Luke's 20 Gallon Simple Reef Tank


Luke78

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Thanks. I did get some trochus snails today because I had the opportunity to go to the lfs, but I didn’t get a cleaner because I would have been impulse buying and I don’t know much about them. I did pick up a cool bamboo shrimp for my freshwater tank though. I’ve been looking for one for so long.

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Day 17

 

Parameters:

Ammonia:0

Nitrite:0

Nitrate:10

 

The new trochus snails are doing fine and are eating. The cloudiness is still there, but today it has gotten slightly better and I hope that it continues to get better. The first fish that I plan to buy are a pair of ocellaris  clownfish and I will pick them up once the cloudiness goes away. Hopefully, waiting for the cloudiness to go away will further help the stability of the system and make it more stable for when I buy the fish.

image1 (5).jpeg

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Some of your 'cloudiness' may in fact be algae on the glass, you've certainly got plenty going. Don't worry about the algae, it's typical for a new tank. You can put in some chaeto to help outcompete it (which I suggest anyway, it's copepod breeding grounds to compensate for your minimal rock and no sand), but it should ease up pretty well on its own.

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8 hours ago, Tired said:

Some of your 'cloudiness' may in fact be algae on the glass, you've certainly got plenty going.

Are you referring to the algae on the bottom of the tank? The sides are clean. I am thinking about making a chaeto reactor to help sort-of make up for my lack of a refugium. Should I just put it in my main display?

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You can sure just put the chaeto into your display, tucked up behind something to hide it a little. Or a clear HOB filter full of chaeto with a light over it, plenty of people do mini fuges.

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I would probably wrap it around this reactor (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GYG54O6/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=fishtankproje-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B00GYG54O6&linkId=31c6e936b63e4127978a39d407424a23#customerReviews) and see how it does. I have read that chaeto prefers the 6000-6500k lighting spectrum and the lights that I would be using are 6000k.

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Day 18

 

Parameters will be tested weekly at this point because they have been consistent so far. The trochus snails aren’t as active as I would like, but they are still eating and moving occasionally. The nerite snail and the naussarius snails are doing great. I blacked out the lights the other day and it seemed to help a lot with the cloudiness. I will do a 3 day blackout and see if the clarity improves. 

93CE5FB7-AA94-45F6-9A8A-1D3683B3F911.jpeg

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Day 23

11139746_image1(6).thumb.jpeg.21899cdef028d9f4c4897a78e66aecc2.jpeg

The blackout fixed the cloudiness while the lights were out, but today when I turned the lights back on, the cloudiness came back worse than ever. I guess I will let nature do its thing and run a routine lighting schedule since a blackout clearly did nothing. I am not going to put any more livestock into the tank until the clarity improves drastically, because I do not want to risk anything. Also, the trochus snails are moving much more often and seem to have adapted well to their new conditions.

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Day 24

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Today, the water looks like an absolute nightmare and is probably twice as bad as it was yesterday. The water has a slight yellow/brown tint to it yesterday, but now it is obvious. I can hardly see the back glass. It's really discouraging, but I'm just hoping that everything will turn out to be fine even though it looks like a sewer right now. The snails don't seem to be bothered by the cloudiness and are as active as they have ever been. I doubt that it will be suitable for fish or coral for at least a month or two.

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Oh, yep, you've got a bloom of something. It's not hurting your snails because it's not harmful, it's just microorganisms. 

 

I'd throw in a big handful of chaeto or the like. Something to outcompete the bloom and increase biodiversity a little. See if you can get some rock covered in algae to add, as well.

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1 hour ago, Tired said:

Oh, yep, you've got a bloom of something. It's not hurting your snails because it's not harmful, it's just microorganisms. 

 

I'd throw in a big handful of chaeto or the like. Something to outcompete the bloom and increase biodiversity a little. See if you can get some rock covered in algae to add, as well.

I agree that adding some sort of macroalgae would help with your algal bloom. That or you could just wait it out. With no energy inputs (like fish food etc.) the amount of nutrients in the system is finite. The nuisance algae should disappear once all those nutrients are consumed.

 

I know it's discouraging, but what you're experiencing is totally normal, so don't be too down. With time your water will naturally clear. 😊 

 

Edit: regular water changes will also help to control the amount of nutrients in your tank. What's your current water change schedule like?

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Here's what I would do - during water change time, pour a bunch of that water through three coffee filters and collect it in clean containers to keep in the fridge. Like previously stated, these algal blooms are normal - nothing to fret about, but I see a bunch of free isochrysis. I would only change the water only when it becomes very difficult to see the rock and details on it - there is a risk of oxygen acidification if left completely to itself and it gets too dense. I'm sure that it would clear up quicker with a sand bed, but, again, as stated, it eventually will. Also, If you harvest some phyto now, you have the option to start up a couple cultures when you have time in the future.

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26 minutes ago, billygoat said:

Edit: regular water changes will also help to control the amount of nutrients in your tank. What's your current water change schedule like?

As of now, it is 10% per week

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1 hour ago, Tired said:

I'd throw in a big handful of chaeto or the like. Something to outcompete the bloom and increase biodiversity a little. See if you can get some rock covered in algae to add, as well.

I will see if I can pick up some chaeto or possibly some more rock this weekend.

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16 minutes ago, Wonderboy said:

Here's what I would do - during water change time, pour a bunch of that water through three coffee filters and collect it in clean containers to keep in the fridge. Like previously stated, these algal blooms are normal - nothing to fret about, but I see a bunch of free isochrysis.

Why would I store the water? What can it be used for? Also, what is isochrysis and what is it used for?

Sorry for all of the questions.

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What you want to store is the isochrysis, the floating algae, because that's phytoplankton. You can feed it to corals and pods. You'll want to look up something like "storing isochrysis algae" for a good method, but keeping it is a pretty good idea.

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4 hours ago, Luke78 said:

Sorry for all of the questions.

That's okay - this is the place for all of the questions lol - also, know that you do not have to do what I or anyone recommends as it's all just collaborative speculation - and besides, even my practices can/should be questionable. Like @Tired stated, it's not uncommon for phyto to be cultured by some hobbyists and dosed daily or weekly into their systems to sustain pod and other micro-organism populations; I do this myself. When I see blooms, I ask myself how can I utilize it - be it for providing food for more CUC, or maybe it's something worth culturing for later? I have started many tanks up, maybe too many, and have learned to get excited when I see algae growing, no matter what kind - they are all signs of the system balancing itself; they are also all signs of consistent nitrate production which leads into another point: your cycle is definitely done, you can add fish and coral - actually this current environment is prime for both. Again, ask as many questions as necessary. I am hoping that you don't feel discouraged anymore, you're doing a great job so far and everything is on track!

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