Boomer's IM 20G Nano

boomeraudio · Jan 27, 2020

1.27.20 Monday Update:

Parameters are normal. The coral acclimated great and the shrimp is out and about regularly now. He springs into action when I feed and gets really excited.

The substrate and rocks have brown on them, looks like diatoms. I thought the clean up crew would take care of it but hasn't seemed to. Any ideas? Should I just stir up the substrate?

Any feedback welcome!

Nick Steele · Jan 27, 2020

Cleanup crew can only do so much. Im going through the same thing at the moment and it’s part of a new tank and will finish it’s course over time.

TheShrimpNibbler · Jan 28, 2020

boomeraudio said:
1.27.20 Monday Update:

Parameters are normal. The coral acclimated great and the shrimp is out and about regularly now. He springs into action when I feed and gets really excited.

The substrate and rocks have brown on them, looks like diatoms. I thought the clean up crew would take care of it but hasn't seemed to. Any ideas? Should I just stir up the substrate?

Any feedback welcome!

Looking good! In regards to the diatoms, I wouldn’t bother stirring the sand bed. They’ll come right back, so you might as well just let them go ahead on their own.

boomeraudio · Jan 28, 2020

Nick Steele said:
Cleanup crew can only do so much. Im going through the same thing at the moment and it’s part of a new tank and will finish it’s course over time.

TheShrimpNibbler said:
Looking good! In regards to the diatoms, I wouldn’t bother stirring the sand bed. They’ll come right back, so you might as well just let them go ahead on their own.

Thanks for the advice!

My Zoas aren't opening fully day 3 in the tank. After acclimation and for a full 48 hours they were opening fully. Now they don't seem to be happy and I'm not sure why.

I've read that Zoas like nitrates and my water parameters yesterday showed 0. Should I start dosing reef roids more than once every other day? What would you recommend?

Nick Steele · Jan 28, 2020

My zoas were opened within 2 hrs of being in tank. I added my hermit cuc and they got crawled on and closed for over a week. Starting to open now.

boomeraudio · Jan 28, 2020

Nick Steele said:
My zoas were opened within 2 hrs of being in tank. I added my hermit cuc and they got crawled on and closed for over a week. Starting to open now.

Yeah my guess is the cleaner shrimp or a snail went on them in the middle of the night...hoping they open again soon.

Acroporaguy · Jan 28, 2020

JBKReef said:
Yes 100% every time. I have had to stop using floss/socks because of it.

Did you ever resolve the issue? It's happening to me even when there is no media in the baskets. The ATO is set up correctly

boomeraudio · Jan 28, 2020

Joshthebox said:
Did you ever resolve the issue? It's happening to me even when there is no media in the baskets. The ATO is set up correctly

Ever thought about switching to bio-balls from MarinePure? Do you have a sock as well?

Just trying to compare to my setup because I have the same ATO and its functioning properly.

Acroporaguy · Jan 28, 2020

boomeraudio said:
Ever thought about switching to bio-balls from MarinePure? Do you have a sock as well?

Just trying to compare to my setup because I have the same ATO and its functioning properly.

That's exactly what i'm using lol. It's really porous, so water movement shouldn't be restricted. Great stuff. Maybe something is wrong with my tank :-/ I've tried 2 different ATOs and the same thing happens.

JBKReef · Jan 28, 2020

Joshthebox said:
Did you ever resolve the issue? It's happening to me even when there is no media in the baskets. The ATO is set up correctly

which ATO are you using? I never got the Tunze 3155 tuned and eventually gave up and used the duetto to great success

boomeraudio · Jan 31, 2020

JBKReef said:
which ATO are you using? I never got the Tunze 3155 tuned and eventually gave up and used the duetto to great success

The duetto is doing great for me also - agreed.

boomeraudio · Feb 1, 2020

Some of my zoas still aren't opening - they opened at first and now are closed up. You can see in the pic that 4 of the 6 are WIDE open and they are all in the same general area. Are they getting too much light? Not enough light? It's been about 5 days now.

Nick Steele · Feb 2, 2020

I believe not enough light and they stretch so I don’t think that. I don’t know what too much light looks like though.

How is the flow? Maybe move a frag to a more exposed area and give it a few days?

Mine looked like yours for a day or two before being fully opened again.

Acroporaguy · Feb 4, 2020

JBKReef said:
which ATO are you using? I never got the Tunze 3155 tuned and eventually gave up and used the duetto to great success

First i tried the smart micro ATO, and now the duetto. Still seeing the issue

boomeraudio · Feb 4, 2020

Tank Update 2.4.20 -

Woke up yesterday morning to discover that my cleaner shrimp molted! I was a little nervous that it was dead at first but then I saw him cruising around the tank. Pretty neat!

I tested my levels yesterday and noticed that everything was elevated so I did a 5 gallon water change. I tested the tank about 24 hours later with the following results:

Salinity: 1.025
Temp: 75.8 degrees
PH: 8.0
Ammonia: .5 ppm
Nitrite: .25 ppm
Nitrate: 7.5 ppm

How long does it take for the levels to come down after a water change? Should I do another change if I don't see improvement by tomorrow?

The good news is that the zoas are finally opening fully (see pic). They are pretty incredible, love the colors. Sorry for the blue pics, have to get an orange filter for the phone.

reef-rc · Feb 4, 2020

I like your choice of AIO. I can relate

.

I noticed you keep the water temperature relatively cooler than most; I assumed that's intentional.

With a relatively new tank, you may see spikes and so being proactive (i.e. water change) is good. I did not see if u used any starting bacteria. Maybe i missed it.

boomeraudio · Feb 5, 2020

reef-rc said:
I like your choice of AIO. I can relate .

I noticed you keep the water temperature relatively cooler than most; I assumed that's intentional.

With a relatively new tank, you may see spikes and so being proactive (i.e. water change) is good. I did not see if u used any starting bacteria. Maybe i missed it.

Testing again today and will do another water change if the levels are still high. I did use Dr. Tim's nitrifying bacteria to start the tank.

I ran into an issue with a significant amount of temperature spikes in the beginning and then found stability at 75 degrees. I just raised it up to 76.4 degrees overnight and everything seems happy still!

Issue I'm running into now is cloudiness of the water and microbubbles from the nero5. Never had them before and I just cleaned it this past weekend. Could be from cleaning? Can't seem to eliminate them.

reef-rc · Feb 5, 2020

Your nero5 seems low enough to not have generated the microbubbles from those pics I saw. I wonder if the bubbles are coming from the return pump. i don't see any skimmer so that can't be. Do you have any filter or something in the 3rd chamber before the return pump to help reduce the water flow from generating bubbles that could then escape into the tank?

boomeraudio · Feb 6, 2020

reef-rc said:
Your nero5 seems low enough to not have generated the microbubbles from those pics I saw. I wonder if the bubbles are coming from the return pump. i don't see any skimmer so that can't be. Do you have any filter or something in the 3rd chamber before the return pump to help reduce the water flow from generating bubbles that could then escape into the tank?

Nothing that seems to be leaking air into the tank which is odd.

The other thing I'm fighting is what looks like diatoms EVERYWHERE AGH. Not sure how to combat this. Will they eventually go away?

TheShrimpNibbler · Feb 6, 2020

boomeraudio said:
Nothing that seems to be leaking air into the tank which is odd.

The other thing I'm fighting is what looks like diatoms EVERYWHERE AGH. Not sure how to combat this. Will they eventually go away?

Don’t waste your time fighting diatoms. They go away on their own pretty quickly,