20 Gallon long

luvsalth20 · Dec 2, 2014

After months of enjoying everyone's tanks on this forum. I decided to take the plunge and start with a small 20 gallon aquarium. It's been years since I've had a salt water setup and the thought of starting one was rather unnerving. For filtration I went with a marine land canister filter C-360 that I purchased from Petsmart for $80. Approximately one month ago I filled the tank and it took me roughly one week just to get the salinity between .023 and .025. Once there, I purchased a couple of pieces of live rock and waited for the tank to cycle. What I got was nice case of Red Cyanobacteria. Another trip to lfs to pick up some Chemiclean and two days and a water change later and the tank looked good. I had some old rock from my previous salt setup that was in my fresh water tanks that I wanted to use as well so I set up a 5 gallon bucket with salt water and air stone and cured the rock for a couple of weeks before adding that to the tank as well.

My daughter who is a fan of the reality show Tanked on Animal Planet could no understand why we couldn't just buy fish and load the tank up. After all that's what they do on Tanked. We purchased a cleaning crew that consists of a few snails and crabs and just to appease my daughter a spider crab and a yellow tail damsel. I figured if they died it wouldn't be so bad. The tank appears to be doing well. I've been taking water samples to the lfs for testing and the levels appear in line.

NobleSun27 · Dec 3, 2014

Already have some Green hair Algae I see, I wouldn't add anything else till that's gone. One way I have gotten rid of GHA is just soaking the rock in a hydrogen peroxide bath for about 5 min and used a tooth brush to get it off. Jut mix up water and peroxide.
then add some more snails yay!! I would say add a tang but its too small of a tank but you could get a lawnmower blenny they are pretty cool and helped me when I had GHA.

luvsalth20 · Dec 3, 2014

Believe or not I actually bought the rock with the algae because my daughter was anxious to get something in the tank. I was hoping someone could give me some advise on how to clean the algae. Someone also told me to place the rock in a separate tank in the dark for a few days. The H2O2 mix is it 50/50?

zoacrazy42 · Dec 3, 2014

I like the crab. U know what kind ?

luvsalth20 · Dec 3, 2014

It's an arrow crab purchased at Petco

EW_Fish · Dec 3, 2014

If the rock came with it and your system doesn't have enough nutrients then it should go away on its own. Hydrogen Peroxide has been know to be toxic at high levels and I would suggest soaking the whole rock in it enless you rinse it well enough. But great start my first tank was also a 20L

luvsalth20 · Dec 3, 2014

Thank you

Vanessa O. · Dec 4, 2014

I like your tank so far!

luvsalth20 · Dec 4, 2014

Thank you Vanessa.

LetItReef · Dec 4, 2014

A good size tank.

NobleSun27 · Dec 4, 2014

The ratio for h202 is more likeke 1:5. And yes you should rinse your rock with RO water before you add it back to the tank. You would probably have to dump a whole bottle in the tank for it to be toxic.

luvsalth20 · Dec 4, 2014

luvsalth20 · Dec 7, 2014

Just a quick update. I did a 20% water change yesterday and here are the current parameters:
PH 7.8
Ammonia between .25 - .5
Nitrite 1.0 ppm
Nitrate between 5.0 10ppm
Phosphate .25
Temp. 77 degrees

I placed a phosguard phosphate remover in the canister today that will stay in for 4 days. Scrubbed the roc with a toothbrush, rinsed and placed the rock back in the aquarium. If after the four days I can't remove the balance of the green hair algae then I will proceed with the Hydrogen peroxide cleanse.

Wags · Dec 7, 2014

If it were me I wouldn't jump to H2O2 yet. Your going to kill all the beneficial on that rock and set your cycle back. Plus if its a nutrient issue the GHA will come back. I would let it grow and harvest it. Easy way to remove the nutrients. Your tank will eventually balance out.

Mr. D · Dec 7, 2014

Wags said:
If it were me I wouldn't jump to H2O2 yet. Your going to kill all the beneficial on that rock and set your cycle back. Plus if its a nutrient issue the GHA will come back. I would let it grow and harvest it. Easy way to remove the nutrients. Your tank will eventually balance out.

I agree with this. Maybe using a tooth brush every so often, but other wise just wait. Your tank will balance out and algae will be more moderate. This has been my approach with my tanks. I've tried other methods of removal (chemical), but just waiting and cleaning it out by hand has always worked the best.