My 1st 55 gal reef build

[daney90]

Thanks. Ill try to do 8hrs a day and see what happens.

 

[daney90]

Ok so what I thought was a coraline is not was not really a coraline algae. It's a red slime algae. I'm looking closely at my tank right now and I have some red algae growth on the sand too and it has ese tiny hair like structure..

 

[Animal-Chin]

Ha i got red slime right after my diatom bloom in my 55 whrn i set it up. I used red slime remover and it worked awesome and never came back. Red slime is actually a bacteria so clean up crews dont usually consume it. What you're going through is normal tank stuff so dont get frustrated. Check out the thead in this forum where the guy just built a massive 2000 gallon tank, he has red slime in his new pictures too...

 

[daney90]

Awesome! I'll look into that algae remover. Is that bad for you tank though? I know people have been saying that they don't wanna put chemicals on their tank... Also, the growth is just starting but should I just use that remover ASAP?

 

[Animal-Chin]

I didnt have any ill effects from it. Fish and coral were all fine. It makes your skimmer go nuts though so id put it in on a friday, let it sit for a day then turn the skimmer on saturday when you can be there to empty the cup every 30 minutes (assuming you work mon-fri). Ive read peoples thoughts on here as well with people warning against it but i had great results and would recomend.

 

[Sniperhank]

The thing about red slime remover is that it consumes the oxygen in the tank. Right on the instructions it states to use an airstone or something else to increase oxygen intake into the system because of this. I've used it once as well, but you can still easily solve the issue by siphoning out the cyano and addressing the cause, usually too many nutrients and/or not enough flow in the system.

 

[daney90]

For feeding I feed my fish what they can consume for 2-3 mins and thrw out the rest if I prepared a lot lol!!! And as for my water flow I have 2 power heads rated 800gph each on both sides of the tank and I also have some flow from the return which is 500gph at 0 ft.

 

[Sniperhank]

In my 55 reef I have 7 fish. I rinse half of a cube of mysis or blood worm (as I alternate them when feeding) and dump it in. No issues in regards to algae blooms or cyano outbreaks. I only feed twice a week.

 

[daney90]

Wow!! I like the idea of feeding twice a week what kind of fish do you have? Are they all adult size? Maybe I'm feeding my fish too much. I have a small hippo tang about 3 inches (will give him to a friend soon ) a flame angel, 1 clown and a goby. I feed them everyday with brine shrimp and I put nori for the tang and the angel.

 

[jjamontan]

I feed every day about half a cube and I have 5 fish 2 shrimp and a ton of snails

 

[Sniperhank]

I have 2 clowns, 1 coral beauty, 1 indigo dottyback, 1 green mandarin, 1 lawnmower blenny, and 1 pj cardinal.

 

[daney90]

ll try feeding every other day for my clown and orange spotted goby. As for my tang and flame angel I would still hang a nori everyday. I put 3x2 nori and its finish within 3 hrs.

Do I have to feed my snails, crabs? I have 15 nassarius, 10 astrea and 1 hermit

 

[Beengirl]

ll try feeding every other day for my clown and orange spotted goby. As for my tang and flame angel I would still hang a nori everyday. I put 3x2 nori and its finish within 3 hrs.

Do I have to feed my snails, crabs? I have 15 nassarius, 10 astrea and 1 hermit

Don't need to feed them. The whole point of them is that they scavenge and eat the leftover food.

 

[daney90]

I bought an orange spotted goby (with the purple lining on his belly) because the owner's son Of the lfs said that's the one cleans your sand. It's been almost 3 weeks now and he's just sitting there and do nothin. Is this their normal behavior? Do I need a fish that cleans my sand?

 

[LaWoWee]

By nature the orange spotted by is not a true sand sifter. It will only sift sand to create burrows. In nature they have a symbiotic relationship with pistol shrimps and will act as a scout while the shrimp makes a burrow for them to occupy. You might see it sift sand through its gills once in a while but not often. Diamond watchmans, tiger watchmans, sleeper heads, and twin spots are the true sifters. My diamond watchman takes mouthfuls of sand all day long. Downside is it will drop sand on corals that are place on the sand and supposedly it can wipe out Bacteria colonies In the sand. IMO, if you have a sandbed thicker than 3" and your tank and live rock are fully established, then you should not have a problem.

 

[daney90]

For my 55gal tank I only have 40lbs of aragonite sand and its a more like 2 inch so I think I'm good then I heard someone said snails do a lot more than hermits but right now I only have 1 scarlet hermit. Do I need to add more?

 

[jjamontan]

I have around 50 snails in my 55.

 

[LaWoWee]

I like to keep astrea snails in mine. Theyre long lived, hardy and eat hair algae. Hermits will scavenge anything that sinks to the bottom. Just be aware that if you add both. Hermits might kill the snails and steal the shells

 

[daney90]

Wow 50 snails!! I think I need to add more then lol!!! I only have 15 right nassarius as of now.

Yes there's only one type of Hermit that doesn't kill others to take out their shell and that is the scarlet hermit I read that on the magazine

 

[Animal-Chin]

I just bought 5 mid sized turbo snails anf within a week my hermits had killed, eaten and moved in...lol. I was not impressed...lol