Rookie reefer, need help!

Pistol Peet · Oct 12, 2020

80sixx said:
Hi so I am new to reef tanking, I have a 11 gallon nano, and everything had been going smooth for about 2 1/2 months. I added to juvenile clown fish and one emerald crab to help with the clean up, I have 5 corals inside all softies. I have been checking my chemistry every Sunday and recording the numbers, everything is within normal parameters. Doing a 20% water change as well on sundays. Feeding the fish every 2 days with only about 3-4 bites each of frozen food. Now the issue I’m having is I’m getting red sand and during the time my light is on for about 8 hours. Checked phosphates they are normal levels, changed the water didn’t help. Changed the lighting spectrum didn’t help. I’m out of ideas and could use the communities help. Thank you

Welcome to the community. From the sounds of it without knowing exact flow and parameters sounds like some cyanocobalamin bacteria is starting to take hold placing power heads strategically can help with this a great deal beforecit gets to bad i would also siphon it out with your water changes. T o try and get a head start on being rid it. Also your tank is still pretty new and has a bunch of changes going on in it different types of bacteria fighting for realistate still. You can also try cutting back on how many hours a day your lights run this will also help until your tank matures. Most in important thing to do at this point would be to just keep up your scheduled water changes and cleaning. It will start to sort its self out as the tank matures keeping your water changes ,cleaning and parameters in line as you have been doing. It can take a while for a saltwater tank to balance out.

Kaljaxias · Oct 12, 2020

80sixx said:
Thank you all for the comments. Instead of replying to each individual I will post the answers to questions now. Yes I read up on cyano and I’m sure that’s it but I have tried to fix it by monitoring parameters and doing a water change as well as cleaning my filters and the sand spoiler alert it came back haha . I am not using tap water at all, i have RODI for top up and salt water for changes. My parameters are as follows: this past Sunday was last check up( nitrates: 0 to 5ppm, phosphates: .10ppm, PH of 8 ) for flow I have one Sicce voyager nano 270gph, and temp is at 77.4 temp controlled by a ink bird. Sorry for the bad picks I don’t have filters for my phone yet.

I’m at this exact spot as well with my RS350. They are just Diatoms aka Ugly Stage lol. I turkey basted my rock and vacuumed the gravel with 20% water change and looks great. My tank was a bit more ugly lol, Oh I also bought a clean up crew consisting of various snails and such. Reef Cleaners website will customize a package for you, highly recommend, John Maloney is who I worked with (owner?). Anyway, do not fret over your tank, completely normal my friend Welcome to the group

Dom · Oct 12, 2020

80sixx said:
Hi so I am new to reef tanking, I have a 11 gallon nano, and everything had been going smooth for about 2 1/2 months. I added to juvenile clown fish and one emerald crab to help with the clean up, I have 5 corals inside all softies. I have been checking my chemistry every Sunday and recording the numbers, everything is within normal parameters. Doing a 20% water change as well on sundays. Feeding the fish every 2 days with only about 3-4 bites each of frozen food. Now the issue I’m having is I’m getting red sand and during the time my light is on for about 8 hours. Checked phosphates they are normal levels, changed the water didn’t help. Changed the lighting spectrum didn’t help. I’m out of ideas and could use the communities help. Thank you

Hello and welcome to the forum.

It sounds like you are diligent in your husbandry, and weekly water changes will go a long way in maintaining element levels essential to a healthy tank.

I would suggest the following:

1. When doing water changes, test a water sample BEFORE your water change and then again 24 hours after. Record these numbers. It will be helpful in calculating the consumption rate of different elements (think calcium). This will also allow you to decide if weekly water changes are enough.

2. Post you ACTUAL water chemistry numbers. Saying that your numbers are within "normal levels" is nice, but in my opinion, there are no blanket normal levels. As I see it, what is normal for a given tank depends on what you are keeping in it.