New reef JBJ CF nano

[Newfiereefer]

Thanks for the ingo guys. If the reef store on the other side of town doesn't have the gel, I will go back to the bonding stck. The turbo snail is kinda big and I am afraid he will knock the top rocks down.
The Lfs I use sells live rock from Figi and aquacultured live rock from South Florida. I bought some of each. All of it is cured and I bring it home in a bucket if salt water. Also, another possible problem has developed. One of my rocks, live of course as that's all I buy, is turning white like someone is going in and painting them. It is the rock on the top. Any ideas?

I would say its ur turbo munchin on it , I had to move one of mine cause he was starting to strip one rock clean... I found after I had more of a algae growth on the tank he stopped doing that. Coraline may be hard but it's still algae , so the snails will eat it . This will also happen if the rock exposed to air for a prolonged period of time .
When my blue urchin moves over a rock I can see the path of " distruction " he has caused . But it usually grows back within the week. Maybe I am just lucky with my coraline growth

 

[AquaTricia]

Oh, ok. That's a shame, it was so pretty. The piece of aquacultured rock is very purple and red. The white sort of stands out next to it now.

 

[Grizz]

Sounds like one hungry turbo lol my urchins strip my rocks clean and they look stark white for a few day until the algae grows back

 

[theyoungaquariest]

I would try creating a base out of PVC pipe and then attach the rock to that. I find it works well and is a lot safer for my fish. Having a base also makes it easier to aquascape, IMO.
Good Luck!!

 

[AquaTricia]

fishypop22' I'm not that talented to build a base from PVC and my husband works out of town, so he can't help. I agree that it sounds like a great idea, but I couldn't do it alone.
Some other rock where that sneaky turbo snail has been are now turning white, too. Just have to be patient. There is a accumulation of various alga/cyano/diatoms all over the glass. Mr. Turbo snail is having a blast! Once again, it is requiring patience not to wipe it all off to make it look better. I would be denying food for some hungry snails and shrimps.

 

[AquaTricia]

I have another dumb question: should I do a water change now? I did one on day 3 or 4 to try to get rid of some of the particles floating in the water. is it time to do another, and how often during cycling? lots of green algae and brown diatoms on the glass. turbo snail going crazy!!

 

[Readingexcalibur]

I have another dumb question: should I do a water change now? I did one on day 3 or 4 to try to get rid of some of the particles floating in the water. is it time to do another, and how often during cycling? lots of green algae and brown diatoms on the glass. turbo snail going crazy!!

First of all, don't sell yourself short. I haven't heard a dumb question on the board yet, just dumb statements. Lol.

You don't water change to get rid of the particles, you water change to get rid of chemical and bi-product (nitrates, ect). Hairline and diatom are inevitable if the water you are changing with contains silica and phosphates. Diatom may eventually go away on its own if it is eating the remaining silica. I change at least 20% weekly in my jbj nano.

 

[Newfiereefer]

First of all, don't sell yourself short. I haven't heard a dumb question on the board yet, just dumb statements. Lol.

You don't water change to get rid of the particles, you water change to get rid of chemical and bi-product (nitrates, ect). Hairline and diatom are inevitable if the water you are changing with contains silica and phosphates. Diatom may eventually go away on its own if it is eating the remaining silica. I change at least 20% weekly in my jbj nano.

+ 1 for no dumb questions !
Since you have some CUC ( clean up crew ) a water change is only needed right now if the ammonia spikes, if you have particles floating around u can use a fine net to clean it out . Once the tank stabilizes the diatoms will go away and your turbo will munch on that until it dose.
For the cycling process the WC is used to help control the ammonia and nitrites , since both of these are needed to establish a biological filter , you do want it in the tank , but with levels that are not excessive . Once the biological filter is established then ammonia and nitrites should both be 0 and you should only see nitrates , at that point do a WC to drop nitrates as low as you can and your ready to start adding fish ( slowly ) since each fish adds to the biological load in the tank and your biological filter will need time to handle the additional bio load , rule of thumb is 1-2 fish a week , any more than that and you want to keep some " ammo- lock " on hand incase of a ammonia spike.

Also as reading said if your source water contains silica and phosphates then you will get hair algae and diatoms ( also mostly like pineapple sponges ) I don't get diatoms anymore since I have sponges eating up silicates , but soon I need a lawnmower blenny for my hair algae.

 

[AquaTricia]

After the cycle completes, do you add fishes or corals next? Everyone I talk to says only to get softies. Can anyone recommend some colorful, easy care ones that I should be able to find here. My desires for fish are captive clownfish, captive bangaii (probably spelled wrong) cardinal and a royal gramma. One of each. What do you think?

 

[Newfiereefer]

Any rock I would add at this point would be cured live rock. Are you saying that I can't add even use cured live rock now? And, what would be the definition of dry rock? I know when I started my cichlids tanks, I was told to get this rock the lfs said was from the desert and to boil it before puting it into the tank. Is that what we're talking about? Please excuse my ignorance as the books don't talk about all this. I need the experts. Thanks again.

I've add live rock to my tank with no issues. I've added 20 lb with no problems what do ever , a LFS I know will take base rock and add it in with the live rock he has purchased and cured and leave it for a few weeks before selling it.
I'm not sure if this is why I didn't have any problems but I haven't had any ammonia spikes at all .... I could be just lucky

 

[Newfiereefer]

After the cycle completes, do you add fishes or corals next? Everyone I talk to says only to get softies. Can anyone recommend some colorful, easy care ones that I should be able to find here. My desires for fish are captive clownfish, captive bangaii (probably spelled wrong) cardinal and a royal gramma. One of each. What do you think?

That is a good stock list, as for easy care corals.
Mushrooms are awesome I love them , zoa's are real nice and easy to care for. Those were my starter corals .
Green star polyps are nice as well but grow fast

 

[AquaTricia]

Sounds good. Those are the ones I had in mind as well. Would a torch coral "upset the AppleCart"?

 

[AquaTricia]

I went to our largest reef store today with a water sample and he says my tank is cycled. He has some very nice, porous live rock, so I picked up 2.6 lbs of it and resculpted my tank, giving it many more overhangs, nooks and crannies, and a huge cave where the peppermint shrimp stay when th lights are on. I also brought home a small piece of green star polyp, a very small multi-colored zooanthid, a gorgeous orangey red mushroom and three red banded trochus snails. The owner of the store told me to call him if anything happened. I almost called him when the superglue for underwater stuff stuck me to the green star polyp. I finally got it loose, then glued two fingers together. I'm so coordinated. Used nail polish remover (some old stuff with acetone in it) and I am free of the glue.

 

[Grizz]

Pics or it didnt happen Sounds like you found a keeper (LFS)

 

[AquaTricia]

Thanks. I hope so, it sure is a long way away, but I felt so comfortable there. I will try to post pics this weekend. Lights are out on the tank tonight.

 

[Newfiereefer]

Thanks. I hope so, it sure is a long way away, but I felt so comfortable there. I will try to post pics this weekend. Lights are out on the tank tonight.

I drive about 1 hour for a fish store with a good selection and prices , the one in town do not get a lot of corals and not a large selection of fish for the cost ... So the extra in gas is not to bad.

 

[AquaTricia]

Yes, it's a long way, and my old Lfs has corals and sw fish, nothing is captive bred. This new place is 50% captive bred and they do their own fragging. It's a big, well lit, comfortable place. I will be doing most of my business there.

 

[AquaTricia]

Need help again. White sand is turning red. There is almost no white showing. Very little red on rocks and very, very little on glass. Green algae on glass. Also, i bought two snails the Lfs said were olive pit, but the pictures I looked up make them look more like cowries. Since I put them in 12 days ago and they buried themselves in the sand, I haven't seen them. I was going to put on some gloves and stir the sand around to see if I can find them, but with all the sand turning red, I don't know if that would be a good idea. Anyone?

 

[Grizz]

Is it red or red-ish brown? Red it could be Cyano, brown it may be Diatoms which are common in a new set up Pic will help us

 

[AquaTricia]

Ok Grizz. My husband did the pics for me before, so I'm struggling to figure out how to do this now. I'm using an iPad, took the pics with it and am now trying to move them to the thread. By the way, it's really red. Ok, I give up. Any idea how to transport pics from an iPad to the thread on the iPad?