Lots of ?'s/pics critique my tank!

[ReefDreamz]

Hi everyone,

Im in the process of cycling (I think I'm still cycling) and I have a few ?'s

You can see my equipment below.

1.) Skimming. I run the aqua c remora only about 8 hours a day (while I am at work bc the microbubbles are ugly). When the live rock first went in, the skimmer went crazy producing thick white foam for about a day. Since then I have gotten about 1 mL of nasty brown water a day (barley anything) no matter if I set the cup up high or down low. Does this sound right?

2.) Cycle. This is my main concern. The rock is TBS rock so I expected a quick cycle since it was shipped in water and nothing died. I put the TBS rock and sand in 10 days ago and have been testing for ammonia (salifert), nitrite (salifert), and nitrate (instant ocean) since then. So far I have not seen any ammonia the test says less then .25 everytime. Nitrite has been 0.1-.25 ppm, and nitrate is and has been 10 or less. So my question is am I done cycling? have I even began cycling?, should I do a water change (how much)? The life on the rocks is thriving.

3.) Algae. A lot of things have grown on the rock since it was first introduced but the main thing is the calurpa this is growing a lot and also some hair algae, and some type of red hair algae. Its not growing out of control but it is spreading. Is this some sort of sign of something bad or is it fine?

4.) What to run in my fluval. Yes I have a canister filter javascript:smilie('') I am only using it to move water and run carbon. But I also want to run Phosban. Can I run phosban in a fluval?? Can I run phosban and carbon together in a fluval and if so whats the best way to arrange them??

5.) I have this nasty film on the water surface I dont know if its dust or slime or what but it looks bad. I have the outlet of my fluval pointed up at the surface but this just makes a "hole" in the film. Is there anything else I can do about this?

Some pics of the tank. These were taken about five days ago things look different now since more life has come out of the rocks.

Cloudy Tank
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http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s...z/100_0241.jpg[/IMG]
Full Tank Shot
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http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s...z/100_0242.jpg[/IMG]
Right Side
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http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s...z/100_0259.jpg[/IMG]
Left Side
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http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s...z/100_0257.jpg[/IMG]
Gargonian
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http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s...z/100_0252.jpg[/IMG]

Thanks for any advice.
-Cody

[kenny77]

you should add corals until cyclig is done. that purple brush is beautifull but if you are still cycling it might not survive.

you know when you ae done cycling when ammonia, nitrite are at 0ppm. nitrate at this stage will go up. I think you might be on the last stage. will still have to keep testing.

for the slime in the water surface you need ti skim the surface. you have and over flow? also how many gallon you have for turn over. you should have 15X . maybe you have very low turn over and even when you have your return pointing upward the water in teh surface is not being skimmed buy the over flow like it should.


so far it look go. but I will be consern in how long the purple brush have been there during the cycle. gorgonian are strong corals but purple brush is one of the delicate one.
just my 2 cent

[ReefDreamz]

Everything you see growing on the rock came on the rock. I didnt purchase or add anything yet. As for my ammonia levels I am using salifert test kits and they dont really tell you if its 0ppm, the lowest reading is <.25 so I guess I will know when my cycle is done when my nitrite is 0 ppm. The skimmer is an aquac remora thats powered by a maxi 1200 which is submerged about 5" below the water line so theres really no way to actually suck the surface water into the skimmer. As for flow right now I have a tunze 6045 (1200 gph) and a maxi 900 plus the return from the fluval. I ordered two maxi 1200's and a red sea wavemaster pro which is coming on monday so that should greatly increase the flow. Thanks for the compliment Kenny.

[jer77]

It is possible not to have a cycle happen at all, infact this is the best way to do it. With TBS rock, it has been delivered in water to preserve the life and bacteria in it. So the rock probably didn't need to cure, so there probably was a very small or no cycle in your tank. So I think your almost good to go. Whenever the ammonia and nitrites are zero, then you can add a fish. You can add corals when the nitrates are near or at zero. For the life on the rocks now I'd advise you to do 20% weekly water changes to ensure it survives. This may lengthen the time it takes for the rest of the cycle to finish, but it will help the life on the rocks.

I'm not to sure on the remora, I have never owned one and don't know much about them. Why are you only running it 8 hrs a day? Because of microbubbles? The skimmer might still be breaking in, or there might not be a lot of junk for it to collect.

The algae growing is just a sign of high nitrates and phosphates. The nitrates are normal for the end of a cycle. You should get a phosphate test kit too. What kind of water did you use to fill the tank? Nitrate and phosphate problems can be solved mainly with weekly water changes with RO/DI water. A DSB can also help reduce nitrates. Phosban is also good to reduce phosphates.

Along the lines of phosban, yes you can run it in a canister filter. I'm sure you can run both carbon and phosban together too and I don't think it matters in the arrangement.

About the film on the water's surface, this is usually solved by what Kenny said about surface skimming with an overflow. Since you don't have any surface skimming then I'd point as many powerheads as you can at the surface to break up the film and to oxygenate the water.

Your tank looks great so far, and I love the purple gorgonian too!

[kenny77]

I think jer77 said what ever I left behing. but so far I think you tank is doing good.

what are you planing to have in your tank?

[ReefDreamz]

Yo thanks Jer for all the great info! Ya I dont have an overflow or a refugium for that matter but I could see how that would eliminate the film. As for water I use just plain RO without the DI to initially fill the tank and for water changes and top off (via a kent aquadose). I will take your adivice on the water changes starting tomorrow. And yes I only run the skimmer 8 hours bc of the microbubbles, they are ugly and when im home looking at the tank I dont want to see them. But if I leave it on 24/7 or 8 hours/day it makes the same amount of skimmate. Kenny I've only gotten half of my rock so far so first more rock and a cleanup crew from TBS. For fish I think I want 2 firefish, either 2 black and white clowns or 1 maroon clown, a flame angel or a lemonpeel angel, a midas blenny, 1 or 2 cardinal fish, and a mandarin goby would be sweet. For corals I want to start with a frogspawn and see how that goes. I havent even begun to start testing my calcium and alk levels but I do have both kalk mix and B-ionic for when I do start that. Jer I was thinking of getting some kent micro-vert to feed all the filter feeders on the rock. Do you think I should do that now or wait until the 2nd part of the package is in place and done cycling?

[jer77]

OK, well an RO/DI filter is considered better than just an RO filter or a few reasons. First and most importantly you should find out whether your tap water has chlorine or chloramine in it. This is because chloramine will add ammonia to your tap water as opposed to just chlorine and ammonia can pass through the RO membrane to some extent. Silicic acid can also pass through RO membranes at diferent percentages depending on the type of membrane. Silica can cause nuisance algae growth. Also CO2 and hydrogen sulfide can also pass through RO membranes. So you might consider an RO/DI filter, but its not entirely necessary.

I'm not sure why the remora makes so many microbubbles. I don't think it should be that way. It might be that its just breaking in. As for its performance, the only way to mod the skimmer is to get a pump with more head pressure like a mag3.5. There is a solution for the surface skimming and the microbubbles. AquaC does sell a surface skimming/bubble trap box:

http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merch...ory_Code=AquaC

You should have the skimmer on all day long, so maybe this will help with that.

About the TBS rock the second shipment is usually the better of the two if I remember correctly. As for fish just start out with one that is peaceful and hardy like a percula or a cardinal.

For the coral I'd wait until your out of the algae phase which will happen soon and your nitrates and phosphates are near or at zero. Get a calcium and alkalinity test kit and test when your cycles done.

You could get some phytoplankton and dose a little now to feed the filter feeders. I wouldn't go crazy with it though because they are feeding off of the excess nutrients in your tank already.

Good luck!

[Old Yeller]

The pics look nice, nice rock work

[drummereef]

1. Run the skimmer 24/7 regardless of micro bubbles. They will subside as the skimmer breaks in.

2. You might have a shorter cycle than expected because of how cured the live rock was when you set the tank up. Continue testing to be sure.

3. TBS rock comes with a lot of life, including macro, on their rock. If it were me I'd pick off as much as possible to limit it spreading. Some like the look of it, your choice. During the cycle you will most likely see a diatom bloom followed by a hair algae bloom. Those will pass.

4. Carbon and Phosban are both fine in the canister. No problem.

5. Sounds like you need more flow. Add up all the gph of the powerheads in your tank and make sure its at least 20x the display volume. If not, you need more flow. Point the Nanostream towards the surface of the water to get the aggitation going. It will be your best bet for breaking up the gunk on there.


I would highly suggest a DI stage on your RO unit. www.thefilterguys.biz have an add-on DI for like 36 bucks. Adding any excess nutrients like phosphates from the water source will do nothing for the algae problem but make it worse. After the DI stage your water should be 0 tds. Pure.

[jimrawr]

You need the Remora Surface Skimmer. It will get rid of the film at the top, and also get rid of most of the micro bubbles.

[Criminal#58369]

Fixed your pics, they were not showing:

Cloudy Tank

Full Tank Shot

Right Side

Left Side

Gargonian

[uscharalph]

Patience is the key.

[scubaD]

I like what you did with the egg crate. Holes for the light I presume. Are they covered with glass or just open or what is going on there? And does it work? Of course if a fish jumps out the hole onto the crate they could flip out or flip in just as easily. Or cook under the MH. Hmmm. Interesting none the less.

[techigirl78]

I'm not sure if I would start with the frogspawn as your first coral. Usually people start with polyps, mushrooms, leathers, etc. These tend to be pretty forgiving. If you are looking for something easy to start out, I'd probably go that route.

[Dan9]

I'm not sure if you already know this or not but there is a local forum called upstate reef society (URS). There is a lot of local reefers in the area. Here is the link,
http://reefcentral.com/forums/forumd...e=&forumid=117
Tank is loooking good also.

[ReefDreamz]

Hey everyone thanks for the great responses. Jer I just purchased the skimming box, it looks like exactly what I need plus I think it will look better than the maxi just hanging there. I also purchased this DI canister http://www.marineandreef.com/products/CorRO76008.jpg bc I have a coralife RO so I though I would stick with coralife for the DI. So I have about 40 gallons of fresh saltwater for water changes mixed up right now (RO water only) should I toss it when the DI comes and make a fresh batch with RO/DI? Drummereef I was told to let the calurpa grow becasue it is using up nutrients that may be used up by other undesirable algaes like hair algae in its absence. What do you think trim it or leave it? Criminal thanks for fixing my pics I dont really know why they didnt show up. scubaD Yes the holes are for the light and are not covered with glass its just the egg crate on top of the tank.
-Cody

[Sparty00]

I keep seeing people mention that the skimmer has to break in, how long does this usually take for a skimmer to break-in?

[Shagsbeard]

I'd add some base rock to your existing rock. It's cheap, doesn't create a cycle, and you'll want more more rock in there eventually.

[ReefDreamz]

Hey Shagsbeard, the rock I have is only half of what I bought from TBS. They send it in 2 shipments, the first one to cycle the tank and the second has more life on it. In total I'll have 80lbs of rock in my 46g. Sparty I have no idea how long it takes to break in a skimmer but mines been running for maybe 2 months and it still produces lots of microbubbles so hopefully the skimming box will help.
-Cody

[Abynum1]

Originally posted by Shagsbeard
I'd add some base rock to your existing rock. It's cheap, doesn't create a cycle, and you'll want more more rock in there eventually.

Lol, That IS his base rock, wait until you see the other half.

[motlot77]

Originally posted by Sparty00
I keep seeing people mention that the skimmer has to break in, how long does this usually take for a skimmer to break-in?

i have the same skimmer and it was going for 2 months running 24/7 and still had microbubbles. i put the surface skimmer on and it works great.

just be sure to clean the little filter at the bottom of the box weekly since it will gunk up and water will flow up back over the return box. some people take it out altogether and throw in lr rubble.

[ReefDreamz]

Check out what I spotted last night. Anyone have any idea what kind it is?

[rustybucket145]

that would be a brittle starfish. good hitchiker

You REALLY need to be running that skimmer 24/7. It takes them a while just to get going good so if you think about it you are only getting a couple of hours a day of good skimming. If the bubbles are a problem consider adding a small filter pad to the overflow portion of the skimmer.

Also you really are going to need to skim the surface of the water. I understand that your pump is 5 inches below the water line but all you have to do is get an overflow box. Think about this.... say you had a square (or round) tupperware container that was similar in shape to a tea pitcher (tall) simply put the pump inside of the pitcher, insert it into the tank and sink the pitcher until water overflowed into it and supplied the pump. You are also going to want to drill a few holes below the surface in case you were to loose water someday.

Other than that everything else looks good to me. Turn the skimmer on and leave it on!!! and everything will be fine

[ReefDreamz]

Hey Rusty I just ordered this http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merch...ory_Code=AquaC I think it will solve the problem.

[sage_commander]

Originally posted by ReefDreamz
-- the rock I have is only half of what I bought from TBS. They send it in 2 shipments, the first one to cycle the tank and the second has more life on it.
-Cody

Do they always do it that way? I'm planning to order from TBS (not quite that much tho), but I don't want to have to make two trips to the airport for this.