Ok, so I’m starting in on the beginning of month 4 after upgrading from my RSM130 to my new 60 cube and I’m encountering more of the “new tank” issues than I expected.
At about the 8-10 week point I had a major algae bloom pretty much over night. Its that brown snotty crap with what looks like a lot of bubble algae mixedin for good measure. After a lot.of dillegent WCs I’ve seen significant improvement (went from a snotty slime over EVERYTHING to at least 50-60% less, but it’s still annoannoying as hell.
I’ll round up some pics but what’s the consensus, diatomic and will dissapate over the next few weeks or so OR am I dealing with Dinoflagellates and have a much more arduous battle in front of me??
Second question…while doing my “larger” water change today my ADD kicked into overdrive and I decided to change up the rockscape. I’ve always had a fair amount of vermetids over the past year and a half but NEVER like this…they’re EVERYWERE. For example, the stalks on my frogspawn were literally covered with them. I’ve been snapping those little buggers off for the past two hours but are they really a major problem to worry about or just a personal petpeeve? What are some of y’alls experience with them and am I being overly cautious or making the right call spending the time to try to rid myself of them?
Thanks for the help!!!
John
The brown is probably just a part of the new tank syndrome. I wouldn’t worry too much about it. Question though - when you upgraded to the new tank, did you reuse the old sand? Disturbing a sand bed can and will often times release a sh*t ton of stored nutrients in to the tank and will result in an extended period of new tank syndrome.
As for the vermitids - they’re a matter of personal preference. I’ve yet to see they create any ill effects on other animals in the tank, they’re just unsightly (to some) -I personally get a kick out of watching them fish with their spider webs, but I’m a little odder than most.
John like i said last night i mix up some kalk paste thin enough to shoot through a small syringe into the opening of their tube. It hardens in the tube and away they go. I nprmally do it right after feeding,so i can find that ugly web
[quote=“Cdangel0, post:2, topic:7784”]
The brown is probably just a part of the new tank syndrome. I wouldn’t worry too much about it. Question though - when you upgraded to the new tank, did you reuse the old sand? Disturbing a sand bed can and will often times release a sh*t ton of stored nutrients in to the tank and will result in an extended period of new tank syndrome.
As for the vermitids - they’re a matter of personal preference. I’ve yet to see they create any ill effects on other animals in the tank, they’re just unsightly (to some) -I personally get a kick out of watching them fish with their spider webs, but I’m a little odder than most.[/quote]
I only used a few cups of the old sand and went with 90% new. I figured the LR held plenty of benefitial babacteria to seed the new tank. I also disn’t use live sand except for in the fuge (Hawaiian Black) because the type of black sand I wanted isn’t made in a live sand version.
My sand bed is also very shallow (1-2"). I just did a major water change last night in hopes of eliminating most of the existing algae and am setting up my GFO/Carnon reactor this evening in hopes of further reducing phosphates and nitrates. Right now I’m showing barely noticable levels of PO4 but I’m guessing those levels are inaccurate because of the amount of phosphates being consumed by the algae.
Now, the bigger question is where can I find the source of the problem. I’ve had a tendency to just treat symptoms versus causes in the past.
[quote=“beadlocked450r, post:3, topic:7784”]
John like i said last night i mix up some kalk paste thin enough to shoot through a small syringe into the opening of their tube. It hardens in the tube and away they go. I nprmally do it right after feeding,so i can find that ugly web[/quote]
Jason, most of the vermetids I have aren’t at the point where they’re shooting out their webs and are just the little nubs sticking out all over the place so it seemed a lot more efficient just breaking them off last night, especially since I was rescaping anyway. I def plan to use your trick in the future tho.
Btw, the corals are happy n healthy and looking great…thanks again!!
Good glad to hear it! Before i used kalk paste i useda steak knife to scrape them off