Nope, you’re doing everything right. Just let nature take its course. You may just get a small bloom and then goes away.
By the way how is the flow in the tank? are all part of the tank getting flow?
Awesome, I kept wondering if I was doing everything right or not… there’s so much going on for something that appears to not have anything going on inside lol.
The flow in the tank is ok, needs to be better. I’m going to order (2) more power heads. I’ve got (1) 800gph power head on the left that points towards the top / water line, and I’ve got (1) 800gph power head on the right pointing straight out over the rock. There appears to be a decent amount of flow as sand moves here and there all around the tank, but I feel some area’s aren’t getting enough. Putting (2) more power heads in the middle both pointing slightly downward and away from each other should help a bit I think? >LOCO<
The filter return neck on the overflow doesn’t put out as much as a power head but it does supply some flow also.
Here’s a quote from Kaptken one of our well knowledge member about flow in the tank. Also, the thread where it started from.
http://delreefclub.org/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=28&topic=6999.0
“I like Toilet bowl swirlie! I point the power heads in the same clockwise or counter clockwise direction of the return nozzle. that way the whole tank turns and flows. at the NJRC first big frag swap, they had a speaker discuss tank flow, ad that is what he reccomended. a couple power heads, near the top will drag the water all the way to the bottom to swirl with it. thus keeping things clean and flushed behind the rock too. no dead spots.”
Think Tidy Bowl Man.
I was wondering how I would create flow behind the rocks… That solves that!
There a couple of good methods, but my way is to make a cave in the back and point a power head into it. I use the Koralias with the add-on nozzle. This concentrates the flow and blows everything out behind the rocks. It will blow all your sand to the front of the tank, but who cares about sand in a hidden cave.
Another method is to elevate the rocks off the sandbed using paving stones. I learned about it from this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xifweoA0N4Q
ps does anybody know how to embed video in this forum??
[quote=“bnelson, post:45, topic:6364”]
ps does anybody know how to embed video in this forum??[/quote]
Unfortunately the software we use does not support embedded video. Hopefully the next version will.
Update!!! 5/2/13…
My salinity is finally where it needs to be… 1.025. The small algae bloom I had went right away.
I do have a question though. The algae bloom appeared to be going away on its own, but then I added salt to bring the salinity up. Well the salinity came up to exacty where I need it, but the algae died off. I’m not sure if it died off naturally as it appeared to be anyway, or it could have died from adding the salt…
either way, Im not sure if my tank is cycled, is cycling, or needs to start over. Either way, what do you guys think I should do?
I’m thinking about assuming the cycle needs to be started from scratch now, and just adding a single raw shrimp to the tank to let it do its thing.
My opinion. It’s not because you added the salt, but your water finally got to where it suppose to be. What you mean by starting over again? Sounds to me your tank has cycled and you should be able to start slowly adding animals to your tank. Start with hardy animals first.
Well I guess since everything was perfect, water crystal clear, but no real signs of life other than that small algae bloom that went away… I was doubting if it had even cycled? I never saw spikes in nitrates etc… I don’t see anything growing on the glass…
I believe it maybe because you’ve added some sort of bacteria to this cycle to help boost the population of bacteria. That may be the reason why you don’t see the massive change in your cycle.
Back in the day before this bacteria booster stuff, one would use a cooked shrimp or a hardy fish to help with bacteria population and that would take some time to get to that point and I believe that is what you are waiting for it to happen.
I’m not a scientist or an expert, but with my experience with using this booster stuff I believe your tank is cycled.
That’s great! I’ll pick up some clown fish and give it a try. I wonder why everyone doesn’t use that dr Tim’s solution?
I did lots of reading before I set up my now gone 220g new tank. Dr. Tim’s product was rated best with good result, but it was hard to find around here only online and the price was double. I didn’t want to wait so I went with the second product which was the seachem brand and that work just as well in my opinion.
My suggestion is to add animals slowly. Read about the animal husbandry and compatibility before you purchase. Something small, colorful and cute does not mean it will get along with something else in the tank. Once you put it in the tank, 95% you will not be able to get it back out of the tank, especially if you have lots of rocks in the tank.
Well well what do we have here… some corraline?? I don’t really know what this is… i’m just hoping.
It looks bright green and purple… and its in a few other spots like behind the rocks at the back of the tank.
Can’t really tell in the pic, but it may be something else and not coralline algae. You would usually find coralline algae encrusted on rocks or glass but not on on the sand itself. Only things I find on the sand are red cyno or hair algae. Can you take a closer pic of it?
Looks like your first algae bloom
Well that would be my 2nd algae vbloom if that’s the case
Added a few fish! 2 cardinals, a clown, and a tang. I had the LFS check the water for me and they said I was good to go. I had already checked it myself too and I thought the same.
They seem happy. Wish I could speed up the base rock becoming live rock…
That’s a lot of fish to put in at once. You typically want to add 1-2 fish/month to allow the bacteria levels to increase. Since your cycle is over all the bacteria levels are balanced, but your overall population of nitrifying bacteria is low. Adding fish slowly allows the bacteria levels to increase without throwing off the balance. You will probably be fine if you dont feed to much for the first month or two. However I would mentally prepare for another algae bloom.
Also it is a lot easier to quarantine 1 or 2 fish at a time, if you are not quarantining you are really just playing russian roulette, you have to remember that fish stores are alway adding new stock some twice a week and many of those fish, coral and inverts are a couple of days from being wild collected their tanks are plumbed together so even if a fish has been there a couple weeks it could of been introduced to a disease or parasite yesterday.
[quote=“muggers, post:57, topic:6364”]
Added a few fish! 2 cardinals, a clown, and a tang. I had the LFS check the water for me and they said I was good to go. I had already checked it myself too and I thought the same.
They seem happy. Wish I could speed up the base rock becoming live rock…[/quote]
+1 that is alot of fish to add at one time. What type of tang did you get? I used Microbacter7 to speed my cycle up and every time I added any livestock I would dose a capful of it to prevent any ammonia/nitrite spikes.
Also, since you are finished cycling and you have no ammonia or nitrite, i’d say your base rock is live rock now.