How Dirty, How Fast?

[Penguin Reef]

We all love to see a freshly cleaned glass with crystal clear water after a water change but lets be real, nano tanks get Dirty and Fast....

Well at least my skimmer-less nano does.

 

Lets see those Before Water Change Pics of all the nasty stuff before it gets siphoned out. When and How much water do you guys change out? Are you running a skimmer? Heavy or light feedings?

 

Here is my 8 Gallon JBJ, 4 days after a 1 Gallon Water Change. I feed light, mysis shrimp every other day and reef roids once a week.

 

 

 

 

[billygoat]

Cool idea! I'm happy to share, and now's the perfect time: it's been 7 days since I cleaned the glass and 6 days since my last water change, so this is basically as dirty as the tank ever gets. The system is an 18 gallon Cobalt C-Vue with softies and gorgonians. I don't use a skimmer, but I do have a small refugium in the rear chambers. Water changes are 2 or so gallons (about 15% total volume) once weekly. Feeding is fairly light, just flakes or pellets once daily for the fish and my single NPS coral, and some planktonic foods once a week for the gorgonians.

 

A noticeable amount of film algae populates my glass over the course of the week, especially on the right-hand side. This algal growth becomes visible 1-2 days after a water change, and slowly gets thicker as the week goes on.

 

 

 

 

[mitten_reef]

Interesting topic, following. I just scraped my glass Saturday night, but no water change yet.  Maybe tonight.  
I have been going 2+ weeks for water changes and glass scrapes, sometimes longer.  Will report back with photos when the glass needs scraping next time if I remember. 
the tank is IM30L, and a water change is a 5-gallon bucket. 

[Clown79]

I'll get a pic tmw when lights are on. I haven't done a waterchange in almost 2 weeks, I haven't cleaned the glass yet on the 20g, 1 time in the lagoon. 

 

I do a small waterchange every 2 weeks. About 3g.

 

I clean the glass 1 time a week sometimes not at all.

 

My sand stays pretty clean in between in the lagoon, I get some algae in the 20g.

 

Change floss 1-2 times a week.

 

No skimmer, no fuge. Just waterchanges, carbon, floss. 

 

I feed my fish 2 times a day. Frozen every other day. 

Phyto dose 1-2 times a week, reef roids 1-2 times a week in my lagoon, 1 time a week in my 20g. 

 

Last waterchanges was March 4th

 

 

First 3 pics is lagoon. Sand isn't dirty, that's just the colour of the shells. Glass hasn't been cleaned in 5 days

 

 

Last 2 pics is 20g. 

Glass hasn't been cleaned in over a week.

[Penguin Reef]

@ Clown79 holy starfish!!! i've never seen that many asterina's in a reef tank before. Beautiful tanks man, im guessing your glass doesn't get dirty much because of the amount of inverts you have.

[Clown79]

6 hours ago, Penguin Reef said:

@ Clown79 holy starfish!!! i've never seen that many asterina's in a reef tank before. Beautiful tanks man, im guessing your glass doesn't get dirty much because of the amount of inverts you have.

Thank you 😊

 

It depends, some weeks it's a bit more than others.

 

I used to have more asterina and they do help alot. They keep the macro clean too. 

 

Since trying to go more natural, things have balanced out nicely.

[Tamberav]

People removing those stars as pest don't even know their secret cleaning powers. I love those guys. 

[IHaveADegreeInMarineBioBut]

28 minutes ago, Tamberav said:

People removing those stars as pest don't even know their secret cleaning powers. I love those guys. 

I love them and agree they're a great CUC, but I definitely found one munching on new zoa heads :-( so i've just been trying to control the population. 

[Tamberav]

17 minutes ago, IHaveADegreeInMarineBioBut said:

I love them and agree they're a great CUC, but I definitely found one munching on new zoa heads 😞 so i've just been trying to control the population. 

There are many different types of those stars. I had one munch a zoa many years ago. I have a lot of them right now without them touching zoas. My wrasse seem to keep their population in check as I have a small number now.... whereas in in my 20g I had hundreds.