Am I doing something wrong here?

daryl213 · Oct 18, 2022

So my tank has been running for about close to 3 months now and I’ve been seeing everyone else’s post on here that they have all these worms, crabs etc etc popping in out of no where but for some odd reason nothing like that are popping up for me at all just my snails, hermits, 2 clowns, diamond goby and bi color blenny… but nothing else is growing or popping out of no where is this a good thing or is my tank unstable?

Parameters:

Salinity: 1.027
PH: 8.23
Nitrite: 0.047ppm= 0
Ammonia: NH3 only= 0.0123= 0
Nitrate: 4.13

Lavey29 · Oct 18, 2022

daryl213 said:
So my tank has been running for about close to 3 months now and I’ve been seeing everyone else’s post on here that they have all these worms, crabs etc etc popping in out of no where but for some odd reason nothing like that are popping up for me at all just my snails, hermits, 2 clowns, diamond goby and bi color blenny… but nothing else is growing or popping out of no where is this a good thing or is my tank unstable?

Parameters:

Salinity: 1.027
PH: 8.23
Nitrite: 0.047ppm= 0
Ammonia: NH3 only= 0.0123= 0
Nitrate: 4.13

You can seed your tank with copepods or they will eventually show up as hitchikers. The various things you talk about typically show up as hitchikers on corals. Some are good some are bad. a 3 month old tank will not have much microfauna or biodiversity yet but you should be focused on keeping parameters as stable as possible in good zones. Weekly water changes. Avoid adding any harsh chemicals as you work through the ugly phases the first year. Other then pods, I have not added any microfauna to my tank yet it just shows up but I am almost 2 years old now too.

d2mini · Oct 18, 2022

A tank started with dry rock will not have anything in it to pop out. It has to be put in the tank either on purpose or inadvertently, like coming in on a coral frag and you didn't dip it.

daryl213 · Oct 18, 2022

Lavey29 said:
You can seed your tank with copepods or they will eventually show up as hitchikers. The various things you talk about typically show up as hitchikers on corals. Some are good some are bad. a 3 month old tank will not have much microfauna or biodiversity yet but you should be focused on keeping parameters as stable as possible in good zones. Weekly water changes. Avoid adding any harsh chemicals as you work through the ugly phases the first year. Other then pods, I have not added any microfauna to my tank yet it just shows up but I am almost 2 years old now too.

Okay awesome thank you for that response! That is good to know thank you again!

daryl213 · Oct 18, 2022

d2mini said:
A tank started with dry rock will not have anything in it to pop out. It has to be put in the tank either on purpose or inadvertently, like coming in on a coral frag and you didn't dip it.

Okay awesome thank you! I was just feeling left out from everyone else getting cool extra animals lol

Lavey29 · Oct 18, 2022

daryl213 said:
Okay awesome thank you for that response! That is good to know thank you again!

No problem, just keep it simple the first year. A few easy corals and just work on learning the hobby. Weekly water changes will take care of most everything but you can add some good bacteria like PNS probio and dosing phytoplankton can feed your microfauna to help the population increase.