Help still! what’s going on?

[MartinM]

In a nano/pico, IME you really can’t beat 100% water changes weekly, or maybe twice weekly in your case. Mix a vat of about about 10 gallons in your case so you can keep changing from the same vat. Before you change a water take a turkey baster to everything and spray it off. If you don’t have any actual live sand/rock in the tank, I recommend introducing some, the natural fauna/flora will help create an ecosystem and help prevent any one species to take over and run rampant. Towards that end, also make sure to feed, that helps create the ecosystem. A lot of people try to feed less to starve algae, but it usually won’t work, everything else will starve first most often. If you don’t have snails In there, try adding three trochus, they eat most anything, even diatoms.

Oh, and don’t vacuum the gravel! You’re disrupting/destroying the ecocystem in the sand, and that ecosystem is going to prevent things like nuisance outbreaks. Don’t touch the sand, don’t stir it or anything. But add a few Florida ceriths for some activity. I’ve also noticed it seems like you don’t have sand, but more like crushed coral. This is not good for marine aquariums, the grain size is too large for a natural ecosystem to form. I recommend adding live sand with a grain size average of ~.125mm.

In summary:
- 100% water changes 1-2x a week, use NSW if you can get it.
- Keep your pH high, ~8.4 (obviously adjust slowly, no more than .1/hr)
- Add ~2-3 trochus and florida cerith snails
- If you don’t see pods, introduce some
- Feed daily (in a pico, broadcast feeding is fine) I recommend feeding a variety of sizes
- Don’t vacuum the sand
- Add some live rock and/or sand for increased biodiversity

The above is the strategy I’ve used for 25+ years. I feed very heavily (1 cubic inch of a variety of powdered foods per 200 liters per day, plus liquid plankton, phytoplankton, and liquid nutrients) and always use 100% live rock/sand. This has always created an ecosystem in my aquariums of all kinds of creatures (varieties of pods, tubeworms, coral [yes, new corals appearing on the rocks], tunicates, feather dusters, oysters, sponges, stuff I can’t identify, and lots of varieties of coralline and macro) plus what I add to assist (a variety of snails and a few small hermits). IMO most ecosystem imbalance problems (which is what’s occurring here) come from 1) not starting a tank with live rock/sand 2) not feeding enough and enough variety of sizes/types.

Hope this perspective helps

 

[Alphawolfxz3]

In a nano/pico, IME you really can’t beat 100% water changes weekly, or maybe twice weekly in your case. Mix a vat of about about 10 gallons in your case so you can keep changing from the same vat. Before you change a water take a turkey baster to everything and spray it off. If you don’t have any actual live sand/rock in the tank, I recommend introducing some, the natural fauna/flora will help create an ecosystem and help prevent any one species to take over and run rampant. Towards that end, also make sure to feed, that helps create the ecosystem. A lot of people try to feed less to starve algae, but it usually won’t work, everything else will starve first most often. If you don’t have snails In there, try adding three trochus, they eat most anything, even diatoms.

Oh, and don’t vacuum the gravel! You’re disrupting/destroying the ecocystem in the sand, and that ecosystem is going to prevent things like nuisance outbreaks. Don’t touch the sand, don’t stir it or anything. But add a few Florida ceriths for some activity. I’ve also noticed it seems like you don’t have sand, but more like crushed coral. This is not good for marine aquariums, the grain size is too large for a natural ecosystem to form. I recommend adding live sand with a grain size average of ~.125mm.

In summary:
- 100% water changes 1-2x a week, use NSW if you can get it.
- Keep your pH high, ~8.4 (obviously adjust slowly, no more than .1/hr)
- Add ~2-3 trochus and florida cerith snails
- If you don’t see pods, introduce some
- Feed daily (in a pico, broadcast feeding is fine) I recommend feeding a variety of sizes
- Don’t vacuum the sand
- Add some live rock and/or sand for increased biodiversity

The above is the strategy I’ve used for 25+ years. I feed very heavily (1 cubic inch of a variety of powdered foods per 200 liters per day, plus liquid plankton, phytoplankton, and liquid nutrients) and always use 100% live rock/sand. This has always created an ecosystem in my aquariums of all kinds of creatures (varieties of pods, tubeworms, coral [yes, new corals appearing on the rocks], tunicates, feather dusters, oysters, sponges, stuff I can’t identify, and lots of varieties of coralline and macro) plus what I add to assist (a variety of snails and a few small hermits). IMO most ecosystem imbalance problems (which is what’s occurring here) come from 1) not starting a tank with live rock/sand 2) not feeding enough and enough variety of sizes/types.

Hope this perspective helps

Ya I have live rock when I started the tank and I also had some keto from my LFS that I ended takeing out. I put the crushed coral in to help with the ph balance because I don’t have the opportunity to get the ph above 7.8 with no good fresh air in the room. I don’t have to do water changes every week for I cannot build NO3 in my tank just phosphates so I’m trying to control that. I have to pick the top of the “sand” bed to get up the diano algae that is covering the bottom. I got the algae because I accidentally striped all the nutrients of of the water in my already low nutrients tank with some GFO and am now working on getting it back up and trying to control the Dino algae I think I will put in a sand bed I do like it more than the crushed coral look

 

[MartinM]

Ah, I see. Well crushed coral won’t dissolve enough to keep the pH where you need it. I totally understand the know pH battle. Check your alkalinity, if it’s low, use an alkalinity + pH buffer. I have to add this every day. In a pico, your coralline growth could drop the alkalinity enough to affect the ph in hours. You could also try adding an air stone, I’ve had good kick with that. Also a dosing pump or an IV dropper to drip in a buffer solution could help. I bet once you’re able to keep the pH up the problems will mostly go away!

 

[Alphawolfxz3]

Ah, I see. Well crushed coral won’t dissolve enough to keep the pH where you need it. I totally understand the know pH battle. Check your alkalinity, if it’s low, use an alkalinity + pH buffer. I have to add this every day. In a pico, your coralline growth could drop the alkalinity enough to affect the ph in hours. You could also try adding an air stone, I’ve had good kick with that. Also a dosing pump or an IV dropper to drip in a buffer solution could help. I bet once you’re able to keep the pH up the problems will mostly go away!

Ya. I have a air pump running a stone into this tank along with dissing a ph buffer in my ATO but I agree with the crushed coral I was just trying to use it to bring up the ph.

 

[Alphawolfxz3]

Ah, I see. Well crushed coral won’t dissolve enough to keep the pH where you need it. I totally understand the know pH battle. Check your alkalinity, if it’s low, use an alkalinity + pH buffer. I have to add this every day. In a pico, your coralline growth could drop the alkalinity enough to affect the ph in hours. You could also try adding an air stone, I’ve had good kick with that. Also a dosing pump or an IV dropper to drip in a buffer solution could help. I bet once you’re able to keep the pH up the problems will mostly go away!

So I just bought sand and put in the live sand and also took out the rock and coral and brushed the algae as well as I could off the rock and coral. Is there anything else I would be doing?

 

[Alphawolfxz3]

@MartinM what do you have as a clean up crew in your pico tank or what would you put in a 2 gallon pico?

 

[MartinM]

I’d go with 2-3 trochus snails, 2-3 Florida ceriths and a small emerald crab, and if you don't already have pods visible, add some, that’ll help a lot.