nate's reef
Community Member
- Joined
- Jul 1, 2017
- Messages
- 32
- Reaction score
- 8
- What state or country do you live in
- New Hampshire
Hello everyone,
This is my first saltwater tank but third fish tank under my care (the other 2 are still up and thriving). I have a region specific 55 gallon African cichlid set up and a 55 gallon planted tank I help my fiancee with. I wanted to try something a little different and liked the trade offs between a smaller tank vs a larger one. While it leaves little room for error, I do not mind spending money on equipment since I can easily get something oversized and functional for a reasonable price. I am looking for any advice on how I am doing so far, what I should have done differently, and what I can do in the future. I did thorough research before making any decisions, but I would like the opinions of people who are successfully keeping tanks (you guys.)
I have a standard 10 gallon tank with 21 Lbs of cured live rock I got from the pet store display tank. I am using an Aquaclear 70 HOB filter rated for 300GPH that houses my aquaticlife Skimate 30 gallon protein skimmer. Next to the skimmer I have a full bag of Chemipure Blue rated for 35 Gallons for 4 months and will change this biannually (recommendations??); above the chemipure and still beside the skimmer is Seachem's Phosphogaurd, which is supposed to absorb phosphates. I have about 30 gallons worth of that secured in "The Bag" and is well below the waterline in the HOB. I am running a dry skim and filling my cup with thick brown liquid every 5 days. My only mechanical filtration is a cut piece of filter foam over the outlet of my skimmer to prevent micro bubbles in my tank.
I use an RO Buddie 50 GPD RO unit with a DI attachment. I mix 10 Gallons at a time and match my salinity with a $30 refractometer from amazon.I have separate RO water for top offs. Both are heated and agitated by a 500 GPH powerhead in a 10 gallon Rubbermaid Brute foodsafe trashcan. I do not have a TDS meter, however everyone has said they produce 0 TDS and i plan on following regular replacement and minamal usage for a 10 gallon. I do throw out my water after 7 days.
My lighting is a generic led panel sold under the name EUPHOTICA. It is a 16" 165w (16.5w per gallon lol) dimmable LED supposedly producing light from the 10,000k to 20,000k range. It does go to nearly daylight and an extremely fluorescent blue so this may be accurate but i have no real light meter. i have the light suspended 4" from the top of my homemade "invisible window screen". I run it at about 60% of full power for blue, and 40% full power for the 10K bulbs. My blue light comes on and shuts off 1 hour before and after my tank lights. My lights run 12 hours total, 10 hours of photosynthetic light.
I let my tank run with rocks and only filter floss in the HOB for 7 days with lights on and tested. Amonia moderately high, ~1 ppm, rest of nitrate cycle nonexistent for 7 days; no phosphate, ~450 calcium, 12 degrees KH. 1.025-1.026 salinity. temperature 79.5-80.4 per day. Noticed many bristle worms, 1 aspistasia which turned to 3, and diatoms. Had considered biostarter and added at this point. Day 8, 1 day after biostart tank tested 0 ammonia, 0 nitrate, 10 ppm nitrite. Added 1 cleaner shrimp. no water change and did not feed shrimp. Next day (9) everything tested 0, phosphate 0 and regular calcium and salinity. retested after battering the nitrate bottle and using my FW as a control, still 0 for SW, FW tested as expected (20 ppm if your curious). I used the marine nitrate test in both my SW and FW test. Removed floss and added skimmer.
Day 10 Diatoms died, hair algae present. Added 3 red leg hermits, 2 of the snails that cannot right themselves (forget the name) and another slightly larger snail that will reach about 1.5". Fed shrimp ~ 1/20th of a small, low quality shrimp wafer. Consumed entire thing immediately. Hermits removed ~40% of hair algae.
Day 11 about 20% of original hair algae present in tank. New growth about equivalent to 30% of original in weight, however about half of that is present on the glass. Still all 0 for testing. Skimmer now producing yellow foam. Counted 7 Bristle worms, maybe 200+ copepods. Thought shrimp died but it molted.
Day 12 added 1 Purple Firefish. Immediately hid in cave after 30 min acclimation. was bothered by cleaner shrimps offers for cleaning. Still 0. Fed fire fish 1/20th of a marine cuisine cubed shrimp and he came out and ate, shrimp swam in water and picked off some. Maybe 5-6 tiny shrimp in total.
Day 13 algea situation unchanged, about 30% of previous, many copepods, and many bristle worms. Will continue unchanged with daily feedings of ~6 tiny shrimp, using a full frozen food cube in about 20 days. Saw cleaner shrimp on fire fish and both seemed happy.
Day 14:
I am here looking for advice, when should the algae be a concern? I will do my first coral, a GSP, on an island low in the front of my tank in about 6 more weeks if all is going well. The firefish has come out and swims around the tank, and my flow is adjusted so as to be as high as possible without blowing the fish around. I consider myself stocked completely aside from coral. I assume the nitrogen and phosphates are disappearing into the algae? My plan was to have my CUC consume this algae, and then defecate it into the water as ammonia where it will inevitably create more algae, however a good potion would be taken up by my skimmer and chemical filtration. This will continue until it naturally removes the algae. I would rather not go tearing it apart or adding chemicals but if it will be a continued issue i would like to know what i should do now. I will do 10% water changes once per week and top off evaporation daily with RODI water
This is my first saltwater tank but third fish tank under my care (the other 2 are still up and thriving). I have a region specific 55 gallon African cichlid set up and a 55 gallon planted tank I help my fiancee with. I wanted to try something a little different and liked the trade offs between a smaller tank vs a larger one. While it leaves little room for error, I do not mind spending money on equipment since I can easily get something oversized and functional for a reasonable price. I am looking for any advice on how I am doing so far, what I should have done differently, and what I can do in the future. I did thorough research before making any decisions, but I would like the opinions of people who are successfully keeping tanks (you guys.)
I have a standard 10 gallon tank with 21 Lbs of cured live rock I got from the pet store display tank. I am using an Aquaclear 70 HOB filter rated for 300GPH that houses my aquaticlife Skimate 30 gallon protein skimmer. Next to the skimmer I have a full bag of Chemipure Blue rated for 35 Gallons for 4 months and will change this biannually (recommendations??); above the chemipure and still beside the skimmer is Seachem's Phosphogaurd, which is supposed to absorb phosphates. I have about 30 gallons worth of that secured in "The Bag" and is well below the waterline in the HOB. I am running a dry skim and filling my cup with thick brown liquid every 5 days. My only mechanical filtration is a cut piece of filter foam over the outlet of my skimmer to prevent micro bubbles in my tank.
I use an RO Buddie 50 GPD RO unit with a DI attachment. I mix 10 Gallons at a time and match my salinity with a $30 refractometer from amazon.I have separate RO water for top offs. Both are heated and agitated by a 500 GPH powerhead in a 10 gallon Rubbermaid Brute foodsafe trashcan. I do not have a TDS meter, however everyone has said they produce 0 TDS and i plan on following regular replacement and minamal usage for a 10 gallon. I do throw out my water after 7 days.
My lighting is a generic led panel sold under the name EUPHOTICA. It is a 16" 165w (16.5w per gallon lol) dimmable LED supposedly producing light from the 10,000k to 20,000k range. It does go to nearly daylight and an extremely fluorescent blue so this may be accurate but i have no real light meter. i have the light suspended 4" from the top of my homemade "invisible window screen". I run it at about 60% of full power for blue, and 40% full power for the 10K bulbs. My blue light comes on and shuts off 1 hour before and after my tank lights. My lights run 12 hours total, 10 hours of photosynthetic light.
I let my tank run with rocks and only filter floss in the HOB for 7 days with lights on and tested. Amonia moderately high, ~1 ppm, rest of nitrate cycle nonexistent for 7 days; no phosphate, ~450 calcium, 12 degrees KH. 1.025-1.026 salinity. temperature 79.5-80.4 per day. Noticed many bristle worms, 1 aspistasia which turned to 3, and diatoms. Had considered biostarter and added at this point. Day 8, 1 day after biostart tank tested 0 ammonia, 0 nitrate, 10 ppm nitrite. Added 1 cleaner shrimp. no water change and did not feed shrimp. Next day (9) everything tested 0, phosphate 0 and regular calcium and salinity. retested after battering the nitrate bottle and using my FW as a control, still 0 for SW, FW tested as expected (20 ppm if your curious). I used the marine nitrate test in both my SW and FW test. Removed floss and added skimmer.
Day 10 Diatoms died, hair algae present. Added 3 red leg hermits, 2 of the snails that cannot right themselves (forget the name) and another slightly larger snail that will reach about 1.5". Fed shrimp ~ 1/20th of a small, low quality shrimp wafer. Consumed entire thing immediately. Hermits removed ~40% of hair algae.
Day 11 about 20% of original hair algae present in tank. New growth about equivalent to 30% of original in weight, however about half of that is present on the glass. Still all 0 for testing. Skimmer now producing yellow foam. Counted 7 Bristle worms, maybe 200+ copepods. Thought shrimp died but it molted.
Day 12 added 1 Purple Firefish. Immediately hid in cave after 30 min acclimation. was bothered by cleaner shrimps offers for cleaning. Still 0. Fed fire fish 1/20th of a marine cuisine cubed shrimp and he came out and ate, shrimp swam in water and picked off some. Maybe 5-6 tiny shrimp in total.
Day 13 algea situation unchanged, about 30% of previous, many copepods, and many bristle worms. Will continue unchanged with daily feedings of ~6 tiny shrimp, using a full frozen food cube in about 20 days. Saw cleaner shrimp on fire fish and both seemed happy.
Day 14:
I am here looking for advice, when should the algae be a concern? I will do my first coral, a GSP, on an island low in the front of my tank in about 6 more weeks if all is going well. The firefish has come out and swims around the tank, and my flow is adjusted so as to be as high as possible without blowing the fish around. I consider myself stocked completely aside from coral. I assume the nitrogen and phosphates are disappearing into the algae? My plan was to have my CUC consume this algae, and then defecate it into the water as ammonia where it will inevitably create more algae, however a good potion would be taken up by my skimmer and chemical filtration. This will continue until it naturally removes the algae. I would rather not go tearing it apart or adding chemicals but if it will be a continued issue i would like to know what i should do now. I will do 10% water changes once per week and top off evaporation daily with RODI water
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
