Can't wait til I can say the same with my 8 week old tank. The acryllic is literally covered in brown algae within 5 or 6 hours of being cleaned. Nitrate looks fine though. I haven't tested for phosphate. I did a 40% water change at the weekend - I know it's probably too much but I was careful with the temp and salinity was spot on. Plan is to keep it at 25% every two weeks or 10% every week, depending on my mood. Haven't bothered with a protein skimmer yet either as it looks a lot of messing about to do it in the BioCube 14.
Wondering if I should shorten the length of time the lights are on a bit...I have them programmed to be on 11.30 until 9.30pm and the Moonlights are on the rest of the time. It's not directly in a window either. Let me know if you've got any suggestions or if I need to splash out on another test kit.
Also have nudged the temperature up a few degrees to see if it helps with the Ich on my two fish - False Perc & Catalunia Goby.
Yeah, film algae can be a real pain. The good thing is, as far as algae goes, it could be MUCH worse. Are the snails you got eating it at all? If not, you may want to check with the LFS on a variety that will.
While strictly speaking a PO4 test kit isn't a necessity, it IS a good thing to have. Are you running carbon or phosphate remover in any of the filtration chambers? If not you may want to throw in a bag of carbon, and maybe some phosphate remover if the levels turn out to be high. I know I see a pretty good reduction in film algae on my 120 at home when I change out the carbon.
You could probably get away with 8 hours of lights, or you could go 3 days with no lights at all to help out with starving out the algae. If you go that route, you;ll want to do a water change on the last day to remove whatever nutrients were returned to the water by the algae.
I know raising the temp can help speed up the ich lifecycle, but I have no practical experience there. Sorry...
Thanks - I'll shorten the light cycle too. The snails are definitly making an impact in certain areas of the tank I can see a difference. I got 3 Bumblebee snails yesterday - probably not going to do too much but I thought looked great for a Nano - they are runing through the sand, and seem to clear a trail on the glass so doing something. What about Red Legged Hermits - Good algae eaters or do they introduce any problems, especially with the 5 little Blue legged Hermits I've already got roaming around or wouldn't you bother...?
Also of course being in the LFS & having sticky fingers, I couldn't resist that Torch Coral too. Was wonderig if my False Perc might actually treat it as an Anenome and move in but no sign of it happening yet.
Must get the camera out again and see if I can get some bigger size pictures posted on my own project thread. Appreciate the assistance.
I am enjoying the tank. Any recommendations for a good online source for Zoas ?
Hermits (mine at least) seem to eat more detritus than algae, although they do pick at it from time to time. If you can find some Mexican turbo snails, they will really mow through the algae.
My clowns hosted in a hammer for a while, which is in the same family as the torch. Of course even after I added my anemone, it was 6 months before they decided to live in it, so you never know.
I've gotten a lot of zoa frags locally, but have ordered from ebay as well as the buying/selling forum on Reef Central. Fraggle Reef also has a great reputation with members here and elsewhere. Our club sometimes does buys from Reefer Madness, and they have sent us some really nice zoas as well.
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I do ~20% water change in my nano weekly and it seems to stay happy. Comparatively I change ~10% in my 54 with a skimmer and a sump that holds 10+ gallons.
Thanks guys for the advice. I've numbered the next few questions with some questions within each to answer - told you I was an Engineer by trade...
1. My previous experience has all been with freshwater not reef tanks but I'm happy doing 20% water change every week - sounds sensible to me. Whilst I think the BioCube is supposed to be a 14 gallon tank, with the sand and LR I've got in it, I'm sure it's nearer to only holding 10 gallons if that sounds reasonable if I added 15 pounds of LR ?
2. How big do Mexican Turbo Snails get in comparison to my Asteas ?
3. I had a question about the effectiveness or any risk associated with adding a Red Legged Hermit crab along with the current occupants which include 5 Blue Legged - any problems forseen and how big do they get to ??
4..Good news is that the Ich seems to be improving since knocking up the temperature a few degrees - hope I can be sure that's gone from the fish for the time being - Do you know how long I should wait before thinking about adding another fish ? Nothing physically big - I want to keep the tank peaceful and look after the occupants I have - thinking of a Purple Firefish ?? When might it be safe as I've read you have to quarantine fish in a QT for 6 weeks - does that mean I shouldn't add another fish until Februrary assuming no further outbreaks on the current two occupants...???
5. Do you know of any clubs in Indiana ? Is there a society for instance with varous Chapters ?? - like Muskies Inc. has for fisherman....
6. I am finding it a bit hard to keep my Ca above 350 ppm. Do I need to get into Magnesium testing and additives ? Or is this stil just a bit too soon for things to have matured and settled down ??? Although I started off using Distilled, my last water change (40%) a week ago was Purified RO water which I bought by the Gallon from the Supermarket. My salinity has always been bang on 1.024. Are there any other reasons why the Red Sea Calcium Success doesn't seem to be making the impact I was expecting...????
I'll check out the resources you mention for the Zoas. Be really good to find some bright ones - I am a bit disappointed with the ones I got for $30 from the LFS. Bit plain...
Sorry for the miriad of questions but I want to avoid any disasters if possible - particularly any which may be inclined to happen fast...!
Cheers for your help !
Still need to get around to starting my own project tank thread so I can leave you alone for a while.
1) 10 gallons sounds about right. 15 pounds of rock would be fine. The rough guideline is 1-2 Lbs/gal.
2) Mine are roughly the size of a golf ball.
3) I'm not sure on the max size, but they get considerably larger than the blue legs. Mine have never been a problem, but all crabs are opportunistic feeders. Some people have problems with them, some don't. They also have a tendency to eat snails for their shells.
4) I would wait 6-8 weeks after the last sign of ich. A purple firefish would be a great choice. I love the way they look as well.
5) I'm not sure where they're based, but there's INDMAS - Indiana Marine Aquarium Society, and IRC - Indiana Reefers Club.
6) 350 really isn't bad, especially since there's probably not a real high demand for calcium in your tank. That being said, calcium, alkalinity and magnesium are all related. If one is out of whack, the others will be too.
I got word today one of our local club members was tearing down his tank and selling off his stuff to raise funds for an in-wall build. So I went over after work and picked up 20 pounds of LR, 2 Phosban reactors, and 3 liters of activated carbon. The LR spent a while out of water, so it will live in the sump of my 120 for a couple of weeks to be on the safe side, then it's going into the nano sump. The phosban reactors will go on the nano sump tomorrow. I've got plenty of carbon now, and a couple of us split a bulk order of GFO at the last meeting, so plenty of that as well. The cheato will be going in as well.
For some reason I'm getting somthing of a diatom bloom. I guess it's from adding the new tank and new sand. I'm not too worried about it, it should run it's course.
Now, I need to decide on what I want to do about lighting. I've been looking at the sunpod, but the 16" model only comes with a 14,000K 70 watt bulb. I could get the viper in a 150 watt for about the same price. Any thoughts from the peanut gallery?
I had been waiting to see how you were going to drill your tank. I admire your craftmanship and your chutzpah! I'm a bit squemish about drilling into my BioCube while it's running with livestock counting on me not to screw it up.
Thanks James. It really wasn't hard at all. I psyched myself out in my head, and even thought i had all the materials for a while, I was too nervous about trying it. It really was a snap though.
Bobby, the Sunpod only has a 70W 14K HQI bulb and moon lights. I guess that's why it's 14K. I'd really love to have a 150w 20K.
Phosban reactors are up and running. One full of carbon, the other with about 1 1/2" of Phosban. Had to add a little buffer to counteract the alk drop from the phosban. Unfortunately, I can no longer completely close the lid on the sump now, but oh well...
I didn't bring the cheato in today, because I'm treating my tank at home with chemiclean, and want to make sure I don't accidentally bring any cyano into the nano.
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