Cleaning Mini tank :-)

[Qun77]

Hi there,

Need some advice; my tank bare bottom seems to be quite dirty even few days (as seen from the picture) and i have to use a sucker pump to get rid. Do you guys have this problem and how you clean them?

This is my spec;

Tank is 1.5 ft long

HOB filter for up to 10 gallon

Beamworks LED, 4 white and 2 blue

Small fan

Live rocks

1 normal clown, 2 black clown, 1 yellow tail damsel and 1 blue tang.

Feed them once a day.

Any feedback is appreciated.

Cheers

[jxlex]

I'm presuming your tank is fairly new? Finish cycling? Looks like algae to me, u can get the TLF nano mag to clean glass wall will detritus u just have to suck it up lor... Maybe consider a small wave maker to prevent dead spots ba...

[jxlex]

Sorry saw ur algae scrubber... U can consider some clean up crews like urchins, Astrae snails, turbo snails, abalone, etc should help with algae on the rocks... Good luck!

[Qun77]

Yeah its been more than 3 months.

Sorry to add i also got one hermit crab.. too much work for one guy?

[Qun77]

Maybe the HOB filter is not sufficient with the load that i have?

[jxlex]

Hard to tell cos I only noticed u do not have a skimmer... Haha... What u have in your hob? Any form of nutrient export? Bacteria dosing? Etc?

[Qun77]

My hob only got some bio pellets and sponge..

[rudy17]

get 2-3 turbo snails. they are probably the best cleaners in my opinion.

[Qun77]

Nice one, will visit lck this weekend

[azlindaza]

Any other choice of snail? When u going to lck?

[tjy]

Turbo snails are good!! Also why not consider upgrading your filtration system?

[Qun77]

Hey Azlindaza, did not go to lck last week.. usually is impromptu one..

Hey tjy, any suggestion for filtration system? Bigger hob?Or filter agent?

Cheers

[Evolutionz]

U can try the dolphin h-800. It's the biggest hang on filter I can find. 1020l/hr.. Big space compartment I fill the hob filter with a big handful of bio home plus, a dymax iq skimmer. 125ml of seachem purigen and 20g of rowaphos. That's the max I can go.

[tjy]

as bro evolutionz suggested, you may get that and fit in a dymax iq skimmer. If not, can consider canister? or put an overflow system to a mini sump tank (which is quite a bit of work and must have space for positioning the sump)

I'm using a 1.5ft tank as well, running on sump.

[Qun77]

Hey evolutionz, where to get biohome plus, seachem purigen and rowaphos? I would like to try fitting them into my current HOB filter.

Also, how do you fit in a skimmer in your HOB? Do you mind taking a picture and share? I have a external skimmer (not in use at the moment).

hihi tjy, space is limited Let me try using better filter agent on my current HOB and see the effect.

cheers

Qun77

[Royston]

Mst of the stuff you can get from C328 or Polyart both shop near each other. I did saw other places like AM & Ah Beng selling some of the things evo had mentioned but not all of them.

[Evolutionz]

Can take a look at my thread. Got show my filter.. www.sgreefclub.com/forum/topic/112100-budget-piconano-tank-possible/page-3 The iq skimmer is really slim and small so it can easily fit in my hob filter. The bio home goes in front of the wool cartridge and the rest at the back tgt with the skimmer. Like what others mentioned. C328 is a good place to get all this stuff.

[Qun77]

great stuff, thanks for the advice.

[reef garden]

Any updates on your tank? The problem with a bare bottom is anything that is not sucked into the filter sinks to the bottom. If there are dead zones with poor circulation, then the detritus and algae would surely be unsightly. You also have a blue tang that alone increases the bioload considerably. Unless you solve the flow and nutrient export issue, you will always be plagued with these problems.

[Qun77]

Hi reef garden,

Got the following;

1. Dolphin h-800

2. Seachem denitrate (nitrate removal) and Seagel (phosphate control)

3. Cheatos; have them in the tank, which in my CO's opinion, looks pretty good

Last but no least distilled water from Giant, changed 5% every 3 days with Redsea Coral salt mix.

Running it for the last two months...

[MarcoVan]

Hi reef garden,

Got the following;

1. Dolphin h-800

2. Seachem denitrate (nitrate removal) and Seagel (phosphate control)

3. Cheatos; have them in the tank, which in my CO's opinion, looks pretty good

Last but no least distilled water from Giant, changed 5% every 3 days with Redsea Coral salt mix.

Running it for the last two months...

Forget the seachem stuff. Last I read was that they are useless in removing phos and nitrate. Go with rowaphos for removal of phosphate. Nitrate can b removed by water changes and less feeding

[Qun77]

Cool, point noted.

[illumnae]

Phosguard is actually very effective in removing phosphate.