Low Nutrients in New Tank?

[Mark Goode]

I feel I should know the answer to this, but searching the forums has only confused me I'm afraid. My tank is only in its seventh week, and is currently going through what I assume is the brown diatom ugly stage. Nothing too bad, just unsightly.

My water tests today showed no detectable ammonia (Salifert), 5 nitrates (Salifert) and no detectable phosphates (Elos HR). I've read about all the horrible things that can invade your tank if the nutrients are too low, but I dunno if that applies to new tanks.

My tank is a Red Sea 525, about 120 UK gallons including sump, less rock. I have a 5 stage RO/DI unit and use Red Sea blue bucket for salinity around 34 - 35 PPT. I do 10% weekly water changes, and have been since ammonia zeroed at around week 3. I used Caribsea dry rock, and Caribsea live sand (wet). I have a Red Sea Skimmer 600 and a Reef Mat 1200.

My livestock currently is :
One Spot Foxface (2"- 2 1/2")
Royal Gramma (2")
2 Spotted Cardinals (1")
Common Clown (3/4")
2 Fire Shrimp (1" - 1 1/2")
2 Blue Knuckle Hermits
2 Orange Leg Hermits
2 small Red Leg hermits (not seen for a while, possibly eaten)
12 snails (Bumblebee, Orange Marble and Nassirius)

So, should I:
1) Not worry, do nothing
2) Feed more
3) Buy more fish
4) Turn off skimmer & Reefmat
5) Dose with chemicals
6) Panic

Thanks for your help.

 

[KrisReef]

Panic, that’s what I would do.

Uglies are normal especially for dry rock starts, imo. The development of an ecosystem in a tank is the replication of what takes a few years to happen in the natural world after a nuclear war. The term used is succession, and in time your tank will move towards a more established stable climax community with less ugliness and more coral and fishes to look at instead of the panic ridden post apocalyptic dead rock re-emerging living reef that you have described.
fewer water changes might allow your nutrients to rise to levels that improve green hair algae conditions so that community can thrive. Later still the corralline algae will grow and keeping the glass scraped clean will be your challenge. Eventually these things will be things of the past. Panicking for each one will allow you to focus on this hobby and ironically that can make a person happier. The news of wars, inflation, invading armies and diaper shortages will be forgotten and this is why our hobby helps reef keepers to be among the happiest people on the planet, imo.

 

[Mark Goode]

One week on, and I'm not happy with the way things are going. Ammonia has gone from none detectable to detectable, albeit still low (<0.15 according to Salifert). Not a lot, but it's a move in the wrong direction. I'll monitor it for a few days, I don't want to do a water change yet because I still have 5 nitrates and no detectable phosphates.

I also have a slight bacteria bloom. Not the dense soup that some people get, but an annoying haze that makes the water look dirty.

And my sump smells like Scarborough at low tide (without the fish & chip shops, obviously).

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

One week on, and I'm not happy with the way things are going. Ammonia has gone from none detectable to detectable, albeit still low (<0.15 according to Salifert). Not a lot, but it's a move in the wrong direction. I'll monitor it for a few days, I don't want to do a water change yet because I still have 5 nitrates and no detectable phosphates.

I also have a slight bacteria bloom. Not the dense soup that some people get, but an annoying haze that makes the water look dirty.

And my sump smells like Scarborough at low tide (without the fish & chip shops, obviously).

5 fish in 7 weeks is very fast, the system cannot adjust that fast, need to slow down a little.

 

[Mark Goode]

5 fish in 7 weeks is very fast, the system cannot adjust that fast, need to slow down a little.

They're very small fish though. I thought they would mature as the tank matures. Perhaps I was wrong.

 

[Mark Goode]

Update: whatever caused that little jump in ammonia seems to have gone (or at least the ammonia has). Can't find anything dead, and I can't see anything missing. May have been a snail I suppose. Bloom has gone too, the tank is clear again.

I'll test daily for a while in case it happens again.

Edit: The stink was the skimmer.