Almost ready to add stuff - Sugestions please

G

gonzo

[Hello all! My DAS tank with all the new live rock is finally in the final stages of curing. I figure I should be able to add a couple things in the next week or two. Given the fact that I only have 4- 48" VHOs what do you recomend a newbee start with. Also if anyone will have good newbee frags for sale in that time period please let me know.]
 
[Slowly acclimate your tank to the lighting you will probably get an algae out break of some sort. That will dictate your resp. Snails and hermitsat first in few weeks or more maybe a damsel or clownfish to acclimate the sand bed. You may start to see some good hair algae growth in which a surgeon fish (tang) is probably a good call particularly the yellow.

Some warnings damsels and clowns don't mix very well. There are exceptions to this rule however. Percs will band with an anemone though it is rather uncommon. I went with ocellaris or false perc though after reading Wilkerson's book Clownfishes I would have gone with Sebae (Clark's clownfish) as they bond with a wider variety of anemones naturally in the wild.

The yellow tang is probably the hardiest normal nonrare tang though, if used contemplate never keeping any other tangs with it. It can be agressive. Regal or blue tangs are not that hardy most others are rather exspensive???]
 
[You will most likely have an algae outbreak of some sort in a new tank no matter what you do with your lights. When it happens buy the cleanup critters you like that will do the job for what you have for an outbreak. Also make sure they are "reef safe" Most online vendors have this information on their sights about the different critters.

You seem to be more interested in what corals you can keep with your current lighting. I don't really know of any fish that are adversely affected by your current lighting. Of course your lights do eliminate SPS, clams and anything that is considered a "high" light animal. I would suggest that you first look around and see what you like then investigate requirements by asking and reading. Remember not to blindly believe a LFS salesperson unless you know that they are reputable. Most will probably give you accurate information but some will say anything to make a sale. There are quite a few softies that would probably do fine in your lights. You might have to put some of them high in your tank.

If you do plan on having fish use the same plan. Figure out what you like and investigate how hardy it is. A clown is usually a good first inhabitant. I would disagree that Percs hosting is "uncommon". I have heard that tank raised are sometimes more reluctant to host than a "wild caught", but my tank raised is hosting my rose.

I can guarantee one thing about any fish. No one can guarantee what a fish will or will not do.

Even a crummy picture is worth a thousand words.]



Edited By terry on 1076218176
 
[In the past two months I have seen more algea than in the last 17yrs of fresh water. I have seen a brown algea bloom, green algea bloom and am now in the final stages of what I hope is the last algea bloom (hair algea). I decided to keep the lights on during the curing process and just let things go wild, and boy did they ever go wild! It is truely insane how much more algea growth you have in saltwater tanks.
Next week Im going to start a steady course of large water changes using RO water. So hopefully by Thursday Ill have changed 200% of my tanks capacity. After that Ill get a good clean up crew in there to get rid of the remaining hair algea. I have noticed quite a reduction in growth these past two days. I can only assume that all that algea is slowly running itself out of food.
I am very interested in hearing about what corals would be good to start out with. I am a newbee so Im still easily impressed and feel like I should get hardy stuff at first. Fish will be secondary as I already have a fish only tank to entertain me.
As always thanks for the input and I look forward to hearing more.]
 
[Rick,

All that hair algae does not sound "normal" in a new setup. (Maybe others have experienced it but in my 10 years of reef keeping I never have.) Let me start by asking what kind of water did you first use to fill your tank? RO is definitely a must.

200% water change sounds really scary to me. You will be starting all over again in cycling your tank if you do that much!
:uhoh:
Instead, do do a water change after trying to pull/scrape as much of the hair algae off as possible. (Suck that stuff out of your tank as well but still keep it a smaller amount of water 10-15%)

The brown "algae" is actually diatoms forming and is completely normal for a new tank, and what you should be seeing. Be patient and it will go away on it's own.

As for corals don't add them until your hair algae has receeded. Then you can start with mushrooms, zoanthids, and polyps. If your tank conditions are correct you will not be able to kill them.
:cool grin:

Hope this helps.]
 
[Reefette,

For real? What I intended to do was four 50% water changes with Ro water. I didnt use Ro water initially although I should have and felt that by doing so I would be diluting any silicates. The live rock I bought from cody had quite a bit of vegitation on it. That might explain the hair algae. I dont really know. Im sure glad you told me about going through another cycle... I cant imagine going through that brown out again! It was really incredible how brown everything got.
My water perameters finally leveled out this weekend.. Im finally showing no nitrites and the actual clarity of the water is signifigantly better. The brown algae was replaced with green algae last week and it has steadily been going away since then. I think I might have percipitated the algae situation by leaving the lights on a full schedule... but I think that might have paid off in the long run as quite a bit of my rock is starting to color up again.

Oh... phosphates should not be a problem because I have been running kent phosphate remover but I have no way of testing for them.

P.S.
It just dawned on me that I now hold sometype of record for mis-spelling the word algae on a public forum... how humiliating :sniffle:]
 
[You probably did cause a lot of your problems by using tap water for initial setup. I agree you don't need to do the massive water changes, but it would not cause your tank to cycle again (unless you're talking about an algae cycle, it might encourage some new growth). The bacteria that processes your ammonia and nitritres is mostly not in the water it is on the surfaces. Any surface in your tank will grow bacteria glass, gravel, liverock, filter surfaces etc... and would not be greatly affected by water changes.]
 
[You never know about that phosphate remover stuff. It sometimes works sometimes not IMHO. By using tap water there could be other minerals working to your disadvantage to boost algae growth.

The thing that dissapoints me is that, yes Ammonia Detox and the like do seperate the Ammonia molecules from the Chlorine molecules (thus neutralizing the Chlorimines in the water and making the Ammonia undetectable) but unfortunately, doesn't remove anything else that can have a perverse effect on tanks.

From now on PLEASE use RO water. (LOL not like I'm trying to sell the stuff but it really does make a difference.) When you do your monthly water changes it should eventually decrease any additives/chemicals/minerals in your original tap water.

Good luck and I hope all goes well!]
 
[If that hair algae is not the coarse dark green stuff Turbo snails will graze it down like cows.]
 
[B&G very true. There are some others (more expensive but more exotic) like Tiger Cowries, Queen Conch, and Abalones too.]
 
[I added turbos yesterday at about 12:00. When the lights turned on today I almost fell over in shock! They have done an incredible amount of work in very little time. I would never had guessed that snails could consume that much in so little time. They are truely ravenous little beasts. I have encountered a strange anomaly however. Three of the smaller snails have decided that riding on the back of one of the big snails is fun and it seems thats all they are interested in doing. Any thoughts on what theses guys are up to? I separated them yesterday only to find them piggy backing again today?]
 
[Glad to hear that you've got some hungry snails! For some reason it seems common for turbos (in my experience) to piggy-back why, I have absolutely no idea. Maybe it's like kids they seem to like it maybe because it's a free ride?!
:laugh long:]
 
[Rather than changing out all your water with ro/di or eliminating all the algae at least at this point. Might I suggest increasing your light span a little, adding a phosphate reducer, and active carbon for a few days.

Reason you will burn the algae's nutrients while still having blooms... no nutirents; no algae. You should continue to run the active carbon even after you've stopped the phosphate reducers to catch any bad stuff the dead algae leaves behind.

If you switch water you will reduce the nutrients. In turn that will reduce the algae. However, soon as the nutrients pick back up new algae outbreak. This should eliminate at least for awhile some of that?]
 
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