Ebslinger
Active Member
Well, it's happened. After a short 25 year hiatus, I set up a new, some would say nano, reef tank.
Everything was going fine... dry rock, bagged live sand... Fresh RO/DI water and quality salt... Oh, it was a thing a beauty. All clean and beautiful. Ok, maybe a little to white and bright, but no biggie.
I let the tank cycle... waited and waited. Months without the lights on. Waiting and Waiting. My wife asking me if we are ever going to have any fish... In fact, her trips into my office to see the dark tank became comical, she would enter, glance at the tank and then leave with an eye-roll and a scoff of derision.
All the while, feeling like a mad scientist, I conducted water test after water test... When NH3/NH4 levels would drop below my self imposed threshold, I would add more Ammonium Chloride. Nitrite and Nitrate tests would be done almost daily, this persisted on and on... I started to have nightmares of college chemistry all over again. I thought those had passed years ago.
Well, time passed, lights came on, hardy corals added...
I have a tank of ugly... Corals are happy, but they're surrounded by a sea of green and brown algae. As far as the eye can see, and it can see pretty far in a nano reef tank, there is ugly...
And you know what? I couldn't be happier!
I know this phase will end, as it always does with a new reef tank. I am just happy knowing that all the biological processes are working.
Weekly water changes, and more water tests tell me everything is fine.
I guess it's finally time to get that cleaning crew set up.
I wonder, is this when most people quit the hobby? Does anyone else just accept this phase and plan for it? Your thoughts would be appreciated.
Everything was going fine... dry rock, bagged live sand... Fresh RO/DI water and quality salt... Oh, it was a thing a beauty. All clean and beautiful. Ok, maybe a little to white and bright, but no biggie.
I let the tank cycle... waited and waited. Months without the lights on. Waiting and Waiting. My wife asking me if we are ever going to have any fish... In fact, her trips into my office to see the dark tank became comical, she would enter, glance at the tank and then leave with an eye-roll and a scoff of derision.
All the while, feeling like a mad scientist, I conducted water test after water test... When NH3/NH4 levels would drop below my self imposed threshold, I would add more Ammonium Chloride. Nitrite and Nitrate tests would be done almost daily, this persisted on and on... I started to have nightmares of college chemistry all over again. I thought those had passed years ago.
Well, time passed, lights came on, hardy corals added...
I have a tank of ugly... Corals are happy, but they're surrounded by a sea of green and brown algae. As far as the eye can see, and it can see pretty far in a nano reef tank, there is ugly...
And you know what? I couldn't be happier!
I know this phase will end, as it always does with a new reef tank. I am just happy knowing that all the biological processes are working.
Weekly water changes, and more water tests tell me everything is fine.
I guess it's finally time to get that cleaning crew set up.
I wonder, is this when most people quit the hobby? Does anyone else just accept this phase and plan for it? Your thoughts would be appreciated.
