The uglies? What? Help please!

[PrimaryQwilfish]

Hey Folks,

I've been absent awhile due to school life happening but have hit a stumbling block with my tank and could use some help.

My tank has been up a little over 3 months now, and has become chaos. Ammonia and nitrite are 0, nitrates stay around 5. I have a 32 gallon biocube that I started with dry rock and live sand. I have one flame hawkfish, 5 blue leg hermits, 2 trochus snails and 5 nassarius snails though they've been MIA. Corals are just GSP and pulsing xenia. Problem is - I have either dinoflagellates or cyano (and a little HA) growing over my tank and dont know what to do. Advice online is so crazy varied I dont think anyone really knows what to do.

Then I read some people saying all tanks go through an "uglies" phase that lasts for a variable time. This rusty slime keeps trying to grow over my coral and I am scared itll kill it. If I knew an "uglies" phase was coming I wouldn't have bought coral yet. Advice has been dose your tank with a million things or just keep siphoning and hoping for the best. I broke and started dosing peroxide but stopped cause I started seeing a lot of folks say to wait it out. I see so many gorgeous, clean aquariums and I just want that. I dont think I am over-feeding, I just give a few pellets for the hawkfish and he usually eats it all, sometimes I give a few extra for crabs.

I have a small coralife protein skimmer and I dont want a billion suggestions for tech, I live on a college budget and want a low maintenance tank. I'd really just like to know this is normal and will get better? And if so, how long. The slime covers my xenia and traps some closed. I am doing 5 gallon water changes consistently every week with RODI water that has 0 TDS. I use instant ocean salt. My blue lights are on from 8 am to 12 pm, my full lights are on from 1pm to 7pm so 6 hours.

Uhg, I am so stressed. I just want soft corals and like 2 more fish but am scared to do anything until this chills, but JESUS there are so many threads going every direction and contradicting things. Most say wait for nutrients to exhaust but how will they with crabs and fish and snails pooping constantly? Jeez the snails poop SO MUCH.

 

[ihavecrabs]

This is nothing to worry about. You are doing the right things, just wait it out.

Are you measuring alkalinity and phosphate by chance?

My tanks ugly phase looked a lot worse

 

[PrimaryQwilfish]

This is nothing to worry about. You are doing the right things, just wait it out.

Are you measuring alkalinity and phosphate by chance?

My tanks ugly phase looked a lot worse

Oh jeez, thanks. Hearing that helps. Trying to wait it out is rough after cycling lightless and finally starting! Ive felt like a terrible reefer cause I tried to do everything so meticulously starting out. How long was your ugly phase, and how bad?

I will admit, I don't have a phosphate or alk tester because I was told alk didnt matter for soft corals since they arnt making a skeleton, and that phospate kits are really inaccurate. I do have some Phosguard in my media basket.

 

[Alexreefer]

You are on the right track but if it keeps on persisting than think about doing the sand rinse method. Just did it and my tank looks so much cleaner. @brandon429 has helped me so much. Go to his thread and you will see me and my latest post in the tread on the difference rinsing my sand and rocks did. Hope you get through this.

 

[Hemmdog]

Oh jeez, thanks. Hearing that helps. Trying to wait it out is rough after cycling lightless and finally starting! Ive felt like a terrible reefer cause I tried to do everything so meticulously starting out. How long was your ugly phase, and how bad?

I will admit, I don't have a phosphate or alk tester because I was told alk didnt matter for soft corals since they arnt making a skeleton, and that phospate kits are really inaccurate. I do have some Phosguard in my media basket.

Alk cal and mag matter for a reef environment. Your snails, coral, coraline, everything needs stable macro element levels. If you don’t have a phosphate issue don’t run phosguard. Do not rinse your sand or rocks or anything crazy like that. Your building an ecosystem here, it needs to get a little gross before it gets better.

 

[Kvnsu]

Yes, you're going through the algae cycle. Cutting back white lights and siphoning your sand will help. more clean up crew would help as well!

 

[wesman42]

Alk cal and mag matter for a reef environment. Your snails, coral, coraline, everything needs stable macro element levels. If you don’t have a phosphate issue don’t run phosguard. Do not rinse your sand or rocks or anything crazy like that. Your building an ecosystem here, it needs to get a little gross before it gets better.

I'd go ahead and pull the phosguard as well.

 

[Jet Sled]

It looks good to me just the ugly tank stage. Patience and it will clear up. Dont feed to much and keep up on your husbandry and it will clear up. +1 on staying away from any phosphate removal media this early in the game I would just stick to filter floss and carbon if needed. Looks like ya got a shallow sand bed, so throw some filter floss in your media compartment and stir up the sand bed if ya want too then change out the floss a couple hours later to remove a lot of that gunk. Or you can siphon it out, but I always tend to loose sand when I do that.

 

[ihavecrabs]

Alk cal and mag matter for a reef environment. Your snails, coral, coraline, everything needs stable macro element levels. If you don’t have a phosphate issue don’t run phosguard. Do not rinse your sand or rocks or anything crazy like that. Your building an ecosystem here, it needs to get a little gross before it gets better.

I agree with this approach. Doesn't mean it is the only right answer but definitely the way most people have success.

My ugly phase was 4-5 months long

Lots of cyano, snotty look dino like stuff, algae.. they all need to compete and find their balance. Only then will you get better stability in general.

It'll happen, dont resist it. That'll only make it take longer.

Oh and I resisted!

 

[PrimaryQwilfish]

Alk cal and mag matter for a reef environment. Your snails, coral, coraline, everything needs stable macro element levels. If you don’t have a phosphate issue don’t run phosguard. Do not rinse your sand or rocks or anything crazy like that. Your building an ecosystem here, it needs to get a little gross before it gets better.

Forgive me, I know that all those things need macro elements, I just havnt measured alk cause I wasnt focused on SPS or LPS and I assumed my regular water changes would help keep it consistent for the other guys.

 

[PrimaryQwilfish]

Thanks to the above for advice on the phosguard. Should I be concerned for my other filter media? At the moment, I have filter floss and a large sponge under it for mechanical filtration, then phosguard, purigen, and carbon for chemical, and finally I have a bag of Matrix for nitrate removal.

Seeing folks say this is normal helps alot. I was really stressing. Also, I am trying to avoid overstocking CUC, I dont want them dying and am trying to only stock what I like in an acceptable amount.

 

[Hemmdog]

Forgive me, I know that all those things need macro elements, I just havnt measured alk cause I wasnt focused on SPS or LPS and I assumed my regular water changes would help keep it consistent for the other guys.

It most likely does. But without testing there is no way to know for sure.

 

[Hemmdog]

Thanks to the above for advice on the phosguard. Should I be concerned for my other filter media? At the moment, I have filter floss and a large sponge under it for mechanical filtration, then phosguard, purigen, and carbon for chemical, and finally I have a bag of Matrix for nitrate removal.

Seeing folks say this is normal helps alot. I was really stressing. Also, I am trying to avoid overstocking CUC, I dont want them dying and am trying to only stock what I like in an acceptable amount.

Yea that sounds perfect. If your nitrates get lower pull the purigen & carbon.

 

[PrimaryQwilfish]

It most likely does. But without testing there is no way to know for sure.

You are correct, and I should invest in a way to test it. Ive added an alk tester to my amazon wishlist for the future. Thanks for the advice!

 

[Hemmdog]

You are correct, and I should invest in a way to test it. Ive added an alk tester to my amazon wishlist for the future. Thanks for the advice!

Anytime! Here to help anytime !

 

[JPergamo]

Nah this isnt ugly. My tanks when I was starting out were UGLY. Lol. Just wait it out and monitor your parameters. And keep up with husbandry and it will mature in time

 

[brandon429]

All nano reef owners can opt out of the uglies phase permanently, before they ever come, we never ever have to wait to enjoy our investment only large tankers have to follow that rule

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/t...ead-aka-one-against-many.230281/#post-2681445

If you're serious about fixing your tank that method will fix it overnight we show.

One of the strangest reefing inactions we see is to post that thread and track the current thread and watch the aquarist hold on to the cyano until the summer time but if you're really serious that's a fix that happens before Sunday LOL


There's a reason out of all the recommends so far only one thread has actual fixes in place... curing cyano is really challenging unless you're doing it the right way then you can collect wins for pages

Parameter measures do not matter we show, simple cleaning is all it takes

Never ever use chemi clean or any remover med, that leaves the cause in place and doesn't fix the problem

The reason you have cyano in your tank is because it's a universal reef associate, and because you have a sand bed that would cloud if we disturbed it... cyano feed is there. We'd remedy that mighty fast

 

[Jinko]

Every tank is different and it takes a while to dial things in.
Keep at it, your tank is still new.

I would say that trying to keep stable alk, cal and mag is important though as its giving you a base line, although soft coral may not need calcium they still require mag and alk will help to buffer pH.

If cyano is a problem try to add some red slime remover, some will say you should target the cause not the problem (which is true of course) but I have found that cyano is introduced into your tank, if you can get rid of it chemically it normally stays away unless you reintroduce it again.

 

[PrimaryQwilfish]

Thanks for all the responses, it definitely made me feel a bit better. Would adding a dose of chemiclean be bad to remove the cyano or should I just wait it out. I keep battling the slime trying to cover my GSP and it sticks to my xenia flowers. Just did a water change and changed filter floss today.