2foot nano - taking the salt dive

[Ken_ng]

Dear reefers

As the title suggests, I've decided to take the plunge. Crossing the safe and comfortable freshwater to the the deep dangerous unknown of marine.

Tank: 60x30x36 low iron crystal no sump

Substrate: caribsea arag-alive sugar granule sand

Lights: R420r 120W 16000k

Wavemaker: Jebao wp25

Skimmer: not up yet! (I know I should have it!)

Tank is cycling with nothing except for live rocks.

Planning to keep some LPS, zoas, softies & a pair of true percs.

Once stabilized, maybe SPS? Haha

Thank you every reefer who has assisted me in one way or another. Especially those who replied me in my earlier thread.

Without the forum, I would have no knowledge, tips and equipments!

Also, special thanks to @hammy for taking time to bring me to ah Beng so that I could get my life rock!

Day 2 of tank.

The water level is low because my bloody filter is leaking! I need to get that sorted.

Otherwise, tough job but very rewarding.

Found this on one of the rocks, not sure if it's apistia but surely looks like it. Should I remove the rock? I read that it is a pest right?

Cheers!

[alexcyf]

Not very clear picture but it seems like an aiptasia. Since there's no livestock, you can take it out easily and remove it manually.

[reef garden]

Yes, it's an Aiptasia. You can't only remove it manually because any remnants can still grow into new ones. I usually take out the rock at this stage and remove it then use a lighter to burn it. All the best!

[AquaReefer]

Use a syringe, inject boiling hot water at it. Repeat 2-3 times, then reverse by pulling the syringe and suck it up.

[Admiraltian]

Nice looking nano. Awaiting more pics. Using hot water or u can use joe's juice if I have to get rid of aiptasia.

[xeneryx]

bro, you might wanna consider do away with the canister filter.

would suggest u get a overflow box and a sump tank.

canister filter might be a disaster for u in the future.

[Ken_ng]

Thank you everyone for the kind advice!

I will try and get that pest out.. Would burning the rock be detrimental to the tank in the future?

Yes I'm definitely planning on a sump tank. Maybe DIY my own using a 1ft cube or 1.5ft tank.

I have installed a prefilter stuffed with filter wool before my canister. I plan to wash that portion once a month or even more frequent.

Would that confit be okay?

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Ken_ng]

Was thinking of what corals it should keep. Would any reefers here be able to give some suggestions?

I'm looking at a colorful and vibrant setup. Consisting of zoas, softies and LPS.

Any recommendations please?

[braincoral]

Keep zoas Easy to maintain and not v $$

[vidextreme]

bro, you might wanna consider do away with the canister filter.

would suggest u get a overflow box and a sump tank.

canister filter might be a disaster for u in the future.

My 2 cents....

I personally do not agree with this. I used it before but two things you need to do using canister filters for saltwater tank.

First, don't use the canister filter as your mechanical filtration but a dedicated biological filtration compartment (BioHome, Arag-rocks, etc).

The reason for this is, you don't want to disturb the seeded bacteria every time you want to change the filter media.

To achieve this and secondly, you need to add either a small overflow box where you can place your mechanical filter media (filter mesh, etc) or have a pre-filter canister before it goes to the bio-dedicated canister filter.

Btw, overflow can also help you skim the surface of the tank which in saltwater typically has a oily-film floating (though you can fix this by adding more water movement).

[Ken_ng]

Yeah..I was thinking similar hence the prefilter before my canister.

Well I really hope that it would be sufficient with mender are husbandry of the tank..

I'm just added a dead prawn with its shell peeled to continue cycling the tank. I only added it 2 weeks after cycling as I was worried the initial die off from the rocks couple with a decomposting prawn may be too much for the tank to handle..

I've been adding microbacter7 on a daily basis..

Also set my lights to 6.5hours daily starting today..

Would that be too long? Worried about diatoms and nuisance algae..

I also spotted tonight after lights off a mite like creature.. I googled it and ppl were saying that it's Copepods but I'm not too sure..

Tried to get a picture of it but it was too fast..

[Admiraltian]

Bro, when cycling actually no need to on the lights cos no livestock yet. Be careful of the mite looking creature, if its a isopod, u need to catch & remove.

[vidextreme]

Yeah..I was thinking similar hence the prefilter before my canister.

Well I really hope that it would be sufficient with mender are husbandry of the tank..

I'm just added a dead prawn with its shell peeled to continue cycling the tank. I only added it 2 weeks after cycling as I was worried the initial die off from the rocks couple with a decomposting prawn may be too much for the tank to handle..

I've been adding microbacter7 on a daily basis..

Also set my lights to 6.5hours daily starting today..

Would that be too long? Worried about diatoms and nuisance algae..

I also spotted tonight after lights off a mite like creature.. I googled it and ppl were saying that it's Copepods but I'm not too sure..

Tried to get a picture of it but it was too fast..

I almost forgot... welcome to the saltwater world!

If you are using live rocks, there's no need to use dead prawns, the biological stuff in the LR will be enough. But I can see you're in the right track by dosing the good bacteria. May I know what's your current biological media? I hope they're not bio balls. Some may argue, but I go against them not because they're bad but rather too small in it's bio load capacity compare to more porous media (Bacteria King, BioHome, etc)

Diatoms are normal in the first few days of tank. So don't worry. Typically, they will show on rocks and sand... then those on rocks will disappear... then those on the sand. They will reappear every once in a while with phosphate, silicate, and nitrate spikes

Regarding nuance algae, well that surprise is still ahead of you (even on my tanks), but diligence and patience is key to prevent this.

About the aiptasia, don't just stand there and kill the buggers! (I hate them so much, sorry for the outburst)

Back to the dead prawn technique, the reason why I'm against this approach it's because it's an old technology and frankly obsolete. Before bacteria dosing was available, the only way to drive the cycle is to add something decaying in the tank and pray that the good bacteria dominates your tank and seed themselves on your media. But with all of the awesome progress with bio filtration technology, like Microbacter7 and the likes, there's no need for this old approach. Drastic increase of ammonia(coming from decaying stuff) may even back fire and even slowdown tank's cycle. You can ask around with some of fellow reefers here what's their experience with adding prawn(of course some maybe good, but there's a chance to be bad). Some will remember an early bacteria bloom and clouds the tank which some may argue is safe, but I don't think the same can be said by living organisms and nice critters on the live rock that you might want to retain. Just something to think about, living a dead fish to decay with a tank that cannot handle the bio load (like early cycle tanks), what happens?

In my experience, I kick started a few tanks already and cycling can be done within a week using purely dosing bacteria and LR.

IMO, you can remove the prawn and keep on dosing bacteria. You might consider dosing carbon source (Reef Fuel if your confident with Brightwell), but my advise you do this slowly.

Btw bro, you have the perfect substrate. And your lights are no less than awesome!

[Ken_ng]

Hi bro admiraltian & vidextreme!

Thank you for taking time to giving me advice! It definitely is more reassuring to know that I'm doing some things right..

After I added the dead prawn yesterday I woke up to a cloudy tank this morning..

Suspecting it is bacteria bloom. I will remove the prawn later today and monitor my water parameters..

Yup I have reef fuel as well just that I haven't started dosing it yet because in the instructions, they cautioned against using it without a skimmer!

I will set my skimmer up tonight.. Been reluctant as I was worried that the skimmer might overflow!

I'm running an entire canister filled with biohomme plus and seachem denitrate. As for chemical filtration, I've got a bag of seachem carbon and purigen.. Planning to replace it with Algone once the tank has completely cycled.

How does an isopod look like and how to catch it since it moves so quickly! Plus it's so small.. I was watching that mite like thing and it was burrowing into the little holes of the rocks..

Also spotted a couple of snails. Do I need to remove them as well?

Once more thank you for all the kind advices and pointers!

[vidextreme]

That's good you have BioHome Plus and Seachem Denitrate in the canister, that's exactly my previous setup was. It never failed me.

How many trays does your canister filter have? I would advise your bio filtration stuff must be on the tray that you most seldom disturb. That being said, the carbon and purigen would be best to be placed on the upper trays for easy access.

The reason why Reef Fuel or any carbon source is said to over flow skimmers is because your jump starting the bacteria colonies. Some bacteria will generate film and these will cause skimmer to go crazy. But no need to worry, it's part of the tank balancing itself. You might hold off dosing it if you still have a cloudy tank at the end of the day (just as I suspected, because of this dreaded prawn technique).

First off, lose the prawn. You might try to reduce the dosage of Microbacter up until the cloudiness clears. If it doesn't clear at the end of the day. Check for ammonia.

Try to sniff the tank. If you smell an earthy scent, that's good. If you don't smell anything that's good too. If you smell rotten eggs smell, that's still good (that's hydrogen sulfide/sulfur dioxide coming from the sulfur cycle which is under-rated by most reefers) but don't sniff it again, not because it smells bad but because it's toxic...not kidding, here . If you smell just something plain o' rotten, then that's the time to panic.

Panic... means the tank needs a closer observation. Cloudiness of tank must not last (or at least should drastically reduced) more that 2 days. If it does...unfortunately, tank might need to restart, or at least need a drastic water change.

To check if your good bacteria are working, take a stick and slowly plow a small section of your sand bed. If you see medium to large amount of bubbles, that's very good. That's a mixture of sulfur gas and nitrogen. That means, the nitrogen cycle bacteria are in place and they are working hard to balance your tank.

I know that's a bit too much, but that's the bad and good thing about saltwater compare to fresh water... Freshwater tank is easy to start but high maintenance. Saltwater is hard to start but low maintenance if you got it right. In my experience, I don't even water change. Perfect for my laziness nature . (Thought to do this, it'll require a different approach than those who WC).

[Ken_ng]

Bro vidextreme

I'm currently running an eheim classic so there are no trays in the canister..

It's a whole column of biohomme and denitrate..

And right at the top after the fine filter wool I've got a bag of purigen and carbon..

Some updates:

Took out the prawn and did water test..

Ammonia: 4ppm

Nitrite: 0ppm

Nitrate: 10ppm

Did a little rescaping and 30% water change Going back a little to my freshwater roots lol..

FTS 2nd week

Planning to get a few more small rocks for the right side to get the balance and depth..

Thanks once more for all the gracious advice!

[vidextreme]

Good parameters, just what I expected. My guess is ammonia is just present due to residue of prawn. But with the 0 nitrite, that means nitrite eating bacteria is established by now.

Do a continuous dose of Microbacter7 and drop a bit of Reef Fuel this time. And I would dare guess by tomorrow or the next day ammonia would be zero.

Do you get bubbles when you plow the sand?

When ammonia is zero, you can introduce fish now. One or two should be a good start. But if you want to add more live rocks, you might hold on putting the fish at least allow the nutrients and decomposing stuff on the rock to be handled by the tank. You can also introduce your clean up crew (hermit crab and snails) as you add rocks.

You don't have to wait for nitrate to be zero. I read an article regarding this (forgot to book mark it) which disputes the idea that the cycle of a tank includes the nitrate zero due to it's unpredictable pattern. That article even goes on to say that complete cycling actually includes the maturity of a complete tank(with fish, corals, etc) and nitrate being stable to low is only attained, without any special means, not less than 2 years. This means cycling a tank to prepare to accept bio load, stops and means ready when nitrite is zero. Some reefers easy to conclude that stagnant growth of corals are due to elevated nitrate, which I do not agree and this article does not too. More about this in due time. (done too much ranting hehehe) In short this article is saying, ignore nitrate and be done with it.

For now, glad to be of help. Please update us on your progress.

[Ken_ng]

Dear reefers

Just a quick update.

Tested my water parameters today.

Ammonia - 0

Nitrite - 0

Nitrate - 20ppm

Phosphate - about 1-2ppm

I guess my tank is ready!

I added an organ pipe I got from a reefer here and thanks to bro "TNB", he gave me a red zoa polyp to try.

It's shut close super tightly now, hope it will open up soon.

I see some parts or it peeking out!

Facing some diatom problems now! Will be doing 50% water change this weekend and run my skimmer.

Cheers!

[Ken_ng]

Quick update.

Diatoms are slowing down and hope they will be gone soon.

The 2 astrea, 1 turbo and 3 bumblebee are doing a good job I must say.

I also got a peppermint shrimp. If you have aiptasia problem, please get this guy. The moment he entered the tank he pounced and yanked the entire aiptasia out! Amazing..

I got a good deal on a DIY sump. So I just learnt and constructed my own PVC overflow. Will put up some pictures once running. It has to pass leak test first.

Cheerios!

[Admiraltian]

Looking gd, when stocking up corals & fishes?

[Ken_ng]

Dear reefers and fellow seniors

Thank you very much for all the help!

Been quite a while since the last update as was busy converting my canisters into a sump.

Did the diy overflow and plumbings to my DT.

Got a very good deal for all the LPS from bro Hakusho here. Thank you very much.

Still having problems with diatoms but no other algae spotted.

Corals are opening up nicely one day after placing in tank.

FTS

Hoping to add more red/pink/purple corals just to have colour contrast.

Any suggestions?

Cheers!

[Patrick]

Nice tank bro. What's the yellow and purple? Color coral in front of tank?

[Ken_ng]

Nice tank bro. What's the yellow and purple? Color coral in front of tank?

Hi Patrick

Thanks!

If I identify it correctly, I think they are sun corals.

Look super nice but only opens up in the evening/night time.

[diki88]

Nice nano. But tbh i prefer ur 2nd aquascape, very clean, lots of negative space, nice minimalist zen-like look. Even u said u wanted to add something on the right which would satisfy the golden triangle rule of aquascaping. Moreover if u had kept to that scaping it would hv helpd in covering up the overflow on the left

[Ken_ng]

Nice nano. But tbh i prefer ur 2nd aquascape, very clean, lots of negative space, nice minimalist zen-like look. Even u said u wanted to add something on the right which would satisfy the golden triangle rule of aquascaping. Moreover if u had kept to that scaping it would hv helpd in covering up the overflow on the left

Thanks for the feedback bro! Yes I also think the previous one was better!

Maybe will do a rescape soon. Need to find time to do it. I have been reluctant to shift the rocks cause each time I do, sand goes flying everywhere!

But maybe it's time!!