Hi all new to reef2reef

[virtual reality]

Welcome to this place.

 

[hdsoftail1065]

Welcome to R2R!!!

 

[SPR1968]

Welcome to R2R and great tank!

 

[samnaz]

Welcome to r2r. Nice tank. And your dog is suuuuper cute!

 

[samnaz]

What’s your water source?

 

[cracker]

Hello & welcome! Your tank looks greatI! Would think maybe at 6 months & now your getting cyano etc says your tank is still growing & not all nice & stable yet. Good you got nitrates down. Did the drop happen real sudden? all I can suggest is patience & see what happens. I assure You your not the only one one here with the same probs. Consider checking out our "New to salt water " forum lot's of info & a good place to ask questions.
Have fun & Good luck !

 

[Clairestef]

Wow thanks you all for your welcomes and advice

Thanks samnaz he is cute and got very jealous when we got the tank and would just stand on the sofa in front as we would look in the tank for ages haha!

Water source is fresh from the sea as we are lucky enough to live right on the coast. Water changes again from the sea. I did some water tests on the water we collected to see whether these where high (as someone oddly mentioned that it might not be the best water to use in a marine tank) and the test come out spot on! Water top ups are Ro water

Cracker - no took a little while for the nitrates to come down and the phosphates just stay the same.
Do I need to get the nitrates down for the phosphate to come down? I can’t quite get the grips what parameters go with which or what ones are bad together.
Is there another way of raising calcium other than dosing it?

Also can I ask another question
On the back and side walls I want it to grow naturally and at the minute it is a bit brown and hairy it did have purple and green algae before, can this be a cause of the high water parameters? And how do you get the coralline algae to grow?

In the sump we did have a bit of seaweed or macro algae in the middle chamber but didn’t seem to grow we have a sea hare in there and he has munched through this, we also have about 4 pieces of live rock in there and crushed coral with live sand. What is the best things to have in the sump?

Sorry for the questions

 

[KJ]

Welcome to R2R!!!

 

[reef lover]

Welcome to r2r! Most grow chaeto in the sump. And corraline will.come with time soon youll be cursing it....

 

[Ruben's Reef]

 

[Bleigh]

Welcome! You will be so happy with that tank size. I think nitrates and phosphates will start coming down as the corals grow. You may want to post in a need help thread too in order to find out a little more about the zoas. I think there is even a thread dedicated to zoas... but I'm new around here too, so don't hold me to that.

 

[Clairestef]

I just come down to look at my tank and noticed that my banded coral shrimp (frank) was on the floor and when the fish were going near him he wasn’t trying to grab them I put the net in to try and catch him and he jumped back, so I filled up the quarantine tank and placed him in there now he has died
Not sure what has happened he only shed his skin 2 days ago and has been eating. Not sure how old he is we have had him 5 months and he was about 6cm do not small.
Just done more tests in a panic
Salt - 1.025
Nitrites - 0.omg
Ammonia - 0.0mg
Magnesium - 1200mg has gone down a lot
Calcium - 380mg
Nitrates - 25/50mg inbetween colours and has increased since last Friday
Phosphates 1.0mg still same
Copper 0.0mg
KH - 12dKh
PH - 9 in test but on apex reading 8.2
Going to do a water change later today

 

[Bleigh]

I just come down to look at my tank and noticed that my banded coral shrimp (frank) was on the floor and when the fish were going near him he wasn’t trying to grab them I put the net in to try and catch him and he jumped back, so I filled up the quarantine tank and placed him in there now he has died
Not sure what has happened he only shed his skin 2 days ago and has been eating. Not sure how old he is we have had him 5 months and he was about 6cm do not small.
Just done more tests in a panic
Salt - 1.025
Nitrites - 0.omg
Ammonia - 0.0mg
Magnesium - 1200mg has gone down a lot
Calcium - 380mg
Nitrates - 25/50mg inbetween colours and has increased since last Friday
Phosphates 1.0mg still same
Copper 0.0mg
KH - 12dKh
PH - 9 in test but on apex reading 8.2
Going to do a water change later today

Could see anything wrong with him? Other than the way he was acting?

 

[Clairestef]

Could see anything wrong with him? Other than the way he was acting?

No nothing unusual before hand just that he was on the floor, he doesn’t look like he has anything on him

 

[FishyFish]

Welcome to R2R! I just wanted to say that's a really nice looking tank you have there! Your aquascape looks great I was really surprised to read that you've only been in the hobby 6 months.

For the cyano, running the lights less will help a lot but if you have corals that might not be an option. My tank doesn't have any corals yet so I when I got cyano I was able to turn the lights down from 10 hours a day to only 4. A few weeks after that the cyano was almost completely gone. Make sure that you aren't overfeeding the tank too. I swear, one of the more difficult things in this hobby is making sure that you feed just the perfect amount of food...

Sorry to hear about your shrimp Do you have any other inverts and are they doing okay? Also, which brand of test kits are you using? Some brands are better than others, it's really important to use tests that you know you can rely on.

 

[Bleigh]

No nothing unusual before hand just that he was on the floor, he doesn’t look like he has anything on him

Hopefully it was a lifespan thing if everything else is going well. No telling how long he had been in the store before you brought him home. At least he got to live the last of his days in such a nice tank!

 

[Captain Quint]

I'm sorry. Sometimes the molt is pretty difficult for them and their tolerance is low and they occasionally succumb.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Nice to you posted your parameters. Looks like youre well on your way !!!

 

[Clairestef]

Welcome to R2R! I just wanted to say that's a really nice looking tank you have there! Your aquascape looks great I was really surprised to read that you've only been in the hobby 6 months.

For the cyano, running the lights less will help a lot but if you have corals that might not be an option. My tank doesn't have any corals yet so I when I got cyano I was able to turn the lights down from 10 hours a day to only 4. A few weeks after that the cyano was almost completely gone. Make sure that you aren't overfeeding the tank too. I swear, one of the more difficult things in this hobby is making sure that you feed just the perfect amount of food...

Sorry to hear about your shrimp Do you have any other inverts and are they doing okay? Also, which brand of test kits are you using? Some brands are better than others, it's really important to use tests that you know you can rely on.

Thank you I do however kept changing somethings but pretty happy with the aquascape at the minute.

I will try reducing the lights to less but not to much although I think ( or I have read) the corals can be okay with no light for a day as they are shipped like that.

I have hermit crabs red leg electric blue leg and Halloween’s and they are fine also have a fire shrimp (which I got at the same time as the banded coral shrimp) and a skunk cleaner shrimp and they are all doing okay. I’m hoping that it was his time and nothing we had done RIP FRANK

Test kit is the sera brief case kit not sure whether that’s good or not but did cost around £100.

Thanks

 

[FishyFish]

Yeah if your other inverts are doing okay it was probably just his time, I would keep an eye on them to be safe though. RIP Frank

Hmm I've never heard of those kits, I had to go look them up. Not sure of the quality on those but if they were more expensive they're probably fine. I love how they come in their own case! I've had a real struggle finding a case that would fit all of my test kits.