I'm Not Sure What This Is, and Neither is My LFS

[MotherofAnimals]

Hello, Nano-Reef community. 

 

I hope you are well. 

 

My one month-old tank has these strange green spots on the live rocks that I don't know how to interpret. These green spots have been growing the past three weeks, and I'm not quite sure what it is. It doesn't come off when scrubbed; it isn't slimy or gross feeling. It honestly feels like it's a part of the rock. My tank is a FOWLR. The live rock came from a LFS in 2019, so it's a few years old. Here are some details about my tank. I don't know if they're essential to helping me figure out what's going on, but I thought the more information, the better. 

• API Saltwater Master and Reef Master Kit for parameter testing 
• Milwaukee Salinity reader. 
• Tank temperature is 80 (the UV light on my Sensen 408B raises the temperature 2-degrees)
• Light: XR15 at 50% on the “radiant color” program with a one-hour custom 10k-14k spectrum (100 UV, 100 blue, and 100 white). Light is on for 5.5 hours
• The filter is a Sensen 408B
• Wavemaker is an MP10 on Reef crest mode 
• Live Stock: 3 Asteria snails, 3 Nassarius Snails, two peppermint shrimp, two red leg hermit crabs, two clownfish. 

 

Any help would be very appreciative as I'm a little concerned about what's happening. It could just be regular ugly phase stuff, but I want to be sure lol. 

[Matteo]

Pretty sure its just green Coraline algae. Is your lfs a petco? 😅

[Reefkid88]

I second that,don't worry about it.

[MotherofAnimals]

2 hours ago, Matteo said:

Pretty sure its just green Coraline algae. Is your lfs a petco? 😅

I’m embarrassed but yes, yes it is a Petco lol. 
 

Thank you for answering. I feel a lot better now. I thought coralline only came in purple! Lol

[Matteo]

7 minutes ago, MotherofAnimals said:

I’m embarrassed but yes, yes it is a Petco lol. 
 

Thank you for answering. I feel a lot better now. I thought coralline only came in purple! Lol

Just FYI they don't really know anything except for what the petco manual tells them

[Tired]

That's not uglies, that's good. Coraline is a well-behaved algae. In other words, it won't run rampant all over the place. You want lots of well-behaved algae covering your rock, and right now, you have very little. Was it underneath a bunch of other rock? If it's been in the water a few years, it should have more growth. Unless somebody's been toothbrushing it on a regular basis or something. 

 

You need to get your phosphates up. You probably want a minimum of 0.03ppm, otherwise photosynthetic organisms will suffer and die, which interferes with establishing a healthy amount of beneficial algae. Even if you don't have any particular need to keep coral-smothering pest algae out, what with the lack of corals, mature rock looks way better than pale rock and will support much more biodiversity. Make sure you're feeding your clownfish a nice amount daily, preferably feed your peppermints nearly as often, and you should probably feed the hermits every few days until you have more algae. If that doesn't do the trick, reduce water changes. 

[MotherofAnimals]

3 hours ago, Tired said:

Was it underneath a bunch of other rock? If it's been in the water a few years, it should Have more growth.

It was under a bunch of rock at the LFS, and then it sat in a bucket with no light for close to a year before I used it again. These rocks came from my first tank attempt that went South last year, I added a bunch of baking soda to the tank to raise the pH in addition to using a refractometer for beer-making  🙈. Everything I drip acclimated died, and if it didn't die during that process, it wouldn't be very long after adding it to the tank before it died. It was very traumatizing. So broke the tank down and put the rocks in a bucket with saltwater. 

 

3 hours ago, Tired said:

You need to get your phosphates up. You probably want a minimum of 0.03ppm, otherwise photosynthetic organisms will suffer and die, which interferes with establishing a healthy amount of beneficial algae.

I've decided to stop doing water changes until it goes back up after this last water change. I got to 0.25 ppm 2-weeks ago. I thought it was odd that it's been at 0 all this time because I definitely am not stingy with the food.

3 hours ago, Tired said:

Make sure you're feeding your clownfish a nice amount daily, preferably feed your peppermints nearly as often, and you should probably feed the hermits every few days until you have more algae.

Before I got the clowns (one sadly passed away today 😢), I was feeding my crabs “Crab Cuisine” pellets every 2-3 days. The shrimp were stealing the pellets away from the crabs which was rather amusing, lol. So I figured they were extra hungry and I started feeding them “PE Mysis” pellets. Once I got the clowns, I have just been feeding the pellets two, sometimes three, times a day and frozen PE mysis shrimp once or twice a week. I'm looking for other foods to feed, so I'm very open to recommendations. 

[DevilDuck]

That sounds like a lot. I only feed my clowns/shrimp once a day, maybe twice some days, since they get some of the food I feed the corals and nems every 2-3 days.

[Tired]

If your nutrients aren't too high and your animals aren't overweight, it's not too much food. Most of the fish commonly available for our aquariums eat almost constantly, tiny bits throughout the day, so multiple small meals a day are ideal. 

 

 

[MotherofAnimals]

7 minutes ago, Tired said:

If your nutrients aren't too high and your animals aren't overweight, it's not too much food. Most of the fish commonly available for our aquariums eat almost constantly, tiny bits throughout the day, so multiple small meals a day are ideal. 

 

 

That's what I thought, so that's why I've been feeding what I have been. 

[DevilDuck]

Having live copepods in the tank helps too. Clowns are typically hunting them on the rockwork as snacks.

[MotherofAnimals]

50 minutes ago, DevilDuck said:

Having live copepods in the tank helps too. Clowns are typically hunting them on the rockwork as snacks.

I have been eyeing the kits over at Algae Barn 😻😻and I’m in love. I want to buy a kit once I get my sump up and running. 

Edited May 10, 2021 by MotherofAnimals
Corrected auto-correct lol

[Tired]

I would wait to get a kit until you have more algae, for the pods to eat. And since you don't have any corals that could be bothered, you should get some amphipods, too. They're great fish snacks, and decent detritivores. 

[banasophia]

I recommend Sustainable Aquatics Hatchery Diet 0.8 mm sinking pellets... all my fish love them aside from my diamond goby who prefers the medium sized sinking TDO Chroma Boost pellets that sink quickly to the sand to him before other fish can eat them. 

[banasophia]

15 hours ago, DevilDuck said:

That sounds like a lot. I only feed my clowns/shrimp once a day, maybe twice some days, since they get some of the food I feed the corals and nems every 2-3 days.

Agree... I would only feed once a day with only one pair of clownfish, especially in a new tank that may still be building up its biofilter.
 

Sorry you lost one of your fish. Are you sure your tank is cycled? I would double check the ammonia and nitrite. Any signs of disease? 

[MotherofAnimals]

40 minutes ago, banasophia said:

Agree... I would only feed once a day with only one pair of fish, especially in a new tank that may still be building up its biofilter.
 

Sorry you lost one of your fish. Are you sure your tank is cycled? I would double check the ammonia and nitrite. Any signs of disease? 

Thank you. Yes, it’s cycled. My tank processed 2ppm of ammonium chloride in 24-hours and ammonia has constantly been zero as has nitrite. My ammonia test kit is the API kit so 0 and 0.25 are synonymous to me which is why my ammonia says 0.25. LFS did confirm it as 0 though. 

 

 My boyfriend reminded me my tank is closer to two months old, and the inverts have occupied most of that time. My clownfish were purchased one week and four days ago. I checked the tank chemistry after my clownfish passed, and everything was normal. When I took my water sample in to get a refund for my fish, they told me my water was perfect. It's just that one fish that passed.

 

He was acting strange that day, and I took video and pictures to make a post here but just figured I was overreacting and wanted to wait to be sure I wasn't acting crazy. Looking back at the “Aquarium Cam” footage, he acted peculiar for a couple of days before passing. My other clown is currently quarantined, and I will be medicating her as a preventative measure following the Humble Fish method. 

Edited May 11, 2021 by MotherofAnimals
Clarification

[rough eye]

i still can't past the 5.5. hours of light a day. do a lot of people do that? algae needs light and produces oxygen when there's light. i have no idea if this is at all relevant and for all i know maybe lots of people have lights on for that short a duration.