LFS

[fishguy242]

when you say dirty tanks what do you mean
a.

higher than most with nitrates in the 30 range ,PO4 in the .10 range .
agree ,cancel ,spend the money on what you need, test kits.

 

[3429810]

So should I cancel the guy who wants to come to my house, add sand and good bacteria for $350?

You might want to stay away from that lfs. That seems a bit insane to me that you are having no issues that would be fixed by what they suggested yet they are happy to milk you for $350. Also for $350 that’s like a 40lb bag of sand plus 50-100lbs off rock lol, they are ripping you off. Seems a little predatory towards new comers and if they need to do that you should question what else they are trying to rip you off on. This forum will be able to help you exponentially more than they will. Good call checking here before committing to that.

 

[Uroplatus]

You might want to stay away from that lfs. That seems a bit insane to me that you are having no issues that would be fixed by what they suggested yet they are happy to milk you for $350. Also for $350 that’s like a 40lb bag of sand plus 50-100lbs off rock lol, they are ripping you off. Seems a little predatory towards new comers and if they need to do that you should question what else they are trying to rip you off on. This forum will be able to help you exponentially more than they will. Good call checking here before committing to that.

They weren’t even giving him rock, just a 40lb bag of sand and a bottle of bacteria

 

[Dburr1014]

Yes, using rodi. I tested at my LFS. Just curious, do the dinoflagellates go away on their own?

Dino will not go away on the own, that's the bad news.
The good news is your tank is young and we will help you fix it as your tank matures.

Please post any testing by you or the LFS.

 

[brandon429]

1025


for sure don't take any more counsel from the lfs they're 100% wrong.


also critical: do not cherry pick ideas from this post and combine as experiments on your nano. Pick one person here, one person, and let them advise/work your tank remotely for the win. You can do that either live time here in posts or by chat where 1/1 stops all that crazy lfs advice. its not that their advice was trivial wrong, it was directly misleading you down a worse path.


I've matured a nano or two, guess what time it is


time to clean your new tank for the first time. never add cycling bacteria to this reef again, because its cycled.


you need to learn hands on guiding to make the tank shine, not any form of test and response (you're not using test kits that give correct readings)

the dinos will get worse if you leave them in. they'll get better if you remove them, a fork in the road happens right now and that forks is hands off vs hands on reefing. choose the hands off, testing with approximation test mode, and you'll be responding to invasions for the next eight months.


choose the hands on path, the no testing-all-action cleaning and control path, and we could have you stocked with corals doing well in a month.

wait to add fish until you've read about, and chosen a disease prevention protocol from the fish disease forum.

 

[fish farmer]

Where did you get the rock from?

Just wondering if that is where your high phosphates might be coming from.

 

[Little c big D]

What test kit was used for po4. I think that's the most important part? And who ran the test. The 50$ Hanna tester will pay out more in the long run than the sand

 

[YOYOYOReefer]

Step #1 move tank away from window, no matter what you will always fight algae if you put it in direct sunlight.
or get room darkening window treatments. Step 2 figure out your phosphate source. Its either bad replacement water, in your sand, in your rocks or both rocks and sand, would suggest removing all sand to eliminate it as a source.

 

[newtohobby1025]

higher than most with nitrates in the 30 range ,PO4 in the .10 range .
agree ,cancel ,spend the money on what you need, test kits.

What’s the best test kits ?

 

[Little c big D]

What’s the best test kits ?

Hanna for phosphate!

 

[fishguy242]

not really well versed in testing, salifert would be my recommendation.

 

[brandon429]

you shouldn't be testing for anything but salinity and temp for about six months straight, if you want to win vs choose the highly extended constant invasion path. your phosphate isn't bad. you are about to react to a parameter that isn't bad, and bring in complete gha or dinos devastation.

do you want off this path

common weekly water changes and quality feeding are what will make your tank bloom with new corals added, and keeps params in check

that's decent rock above you have the makings for a packed nano reef like every tank on nano-reef.com but not if you start with phosphate testing this fast, you'll have a pure invasion challenge coming up.

do you want to clean your tank up and make it shine by today, input some corals, make them grow without being invaded as you study fish disease preps the next few weeks? if not that's fine, its your tank. but you are aligned for the win if you seize it correctly.

you are heading down the path of hyperfocus vs managing the macro, be warned. you have a way to reef oppositely and have true fun with corals, not having to make excuses for how the tank looks to any viewers. currently they're getting excuses because the lfs is misleading you.

some window light is good for corals. using the win mode you don't have to relocate your tank. I like when sunlight hits my reef for half the year, its good for corals and I have to clean the glass more often (oh no)

 

[YOYOYOReefer]

i would also hazard a guess that this tanks temp swings with it being in a window, if not certainly the potential for that should be considered.

 

[brandon429]

you need to grab the link to this post and send it to your lfs either by email or as a facebook direct message and ask them why they were about to charge 350$ for nine dollars of bottle bac and perhaps thirty dollars of sand.

the visit to your house is worth 300$ for consultation?

press them on those costs

were those costs/hourly posted on their website or did they customize that charge to you based on your time in the hobby

don't bust them publicly on their page for trying to steal from you, you'll need their parts and water preps in the future. guide them to self assessment they're harming the hobby. they can read us saying they were about to rip you off.

 

[Dburr1014]

you shouldn't be testing for anything but salinity and temp for about six months straight, if you want to win vs choose the highly extended constant invasion path. your phosphate isn't bad. you are about to react to a parameter that isn't bad, and bring in complete gha or dinos devastation.

do you want off this path

common weekly water changes and quality feeding are what will make your tank bloom with new corals added, and keeps params in check

that's decent rock above you have the makings for a packed nano reef like every tank on nano-reef.com but not if you start with phosphate testing this fast, you'll have a pure invasion challenge coming up.

do you want to clean your tank up and make it shine by today, input some corals, make them grow without being invaded as you study fish disease preps the next few weeks? if not that's fine, its your tank. but you are aligned for the win if you seize it correctly.

you are heading down the path of hyperfocus vs managing the macro, be warned. you have a way to reef oppositely and have true fun with corals, not having to make excuses for how the tank looks to any viewers. currently they're getting excuses because the lfs is misleading you.

some window light is good for corals. using the win mode you don't have to relocate your tank. I like when sunlight hits my reef for half the year, its good for corals and I have to clean the glass more often (oh no)

I 100% agree.
I only wanted to know what parameters were for a base line.
3.0 phosphate is really not a horrible number in the grand scheme of things but you certainly DO NOT want to over-correct and bottom it out.
I disagree to remove the sand bed. I sure it was new with the tank. That is not the source.
Do syphone out the dinos, get as much out as you can.
Shut off the lights for now. You don't have coral.

 

[Tuffyyyyy]

This really doesn't look that bad. Cover your window to not allow in additional light, or else you're always going to have algae issues. Do some ordinary water changes, and don't feed the fish a ton. Also looks like you could use some powerheads in there to keep the flow going, I don't think I saw one in the pictures you sent.

You also have too much rock in there. Nothing you need to change now, but you're not going to have a lot of room for corals to grow later on down the road.

Lastly, take some time and watch a well researched & edited youtube series on keeping a reef. This is a pretty simple hobby, I promise, but there is a decent learning curve to it. At a minimum I would watch the BRS 5-minute series (linked below) just to understand everything.

 

[3429810]

They weren’t even giving him rock, just a 40lb bag of sand and a bottle of bacteria

Must have been tired when I was reading that this morning lol. Somehow thought I read the guy was bringing rock. much worse then. Blows my mind how predatory some of the stories I see on here are. I’m very lucky I guess to have my lfs then candy corals and FragBox near by.

lots of good tips OP and Brandon is very knowledgeable with a solid track record on here. Best of luck.

 

[Just John]

Just a quick note, when people say to start dealing with the dino issue, that means right away. If you wait until next week it may be much worse.

This paper may help. It's not just for use with microscope pics. Read the details for each one.

 

[newtohobby1025]

I appreciate everyone getting back to me.I’m not sure how to respond to everyone. The rock I got was from some who’s entire basement is filled with tanks, so he told me it was aquacultured. He helped set up my tank. I guess the Hannah test kit is the way to go. It seems I really need to get those diatoms on the sand under control.

 

[workhz]

PO4 in the .10 range .

0.10 is dirty?