My nano reef
 

quick question... i have a 10g nano tank and today i got 10lbs of cured live rock and 5g of already cycled water... now the other 5 gallons has been mixing for an hour with a maxi jet 600 and a heater. the salitnity is testing at 1.025 and temp is 76... can i pour the water in my tank now?

anyone?
 

anyone?

Yes you can pour the water in now. Because you have cycled water you might not get a cycle. Check Ammonia and nitrates for the next couple days and if they are at 0 then you can go from their. If not then wait until they both are at 0 or a very very small amount.

Is this a brand new set up? just rock and water, no live stock yet ? If so yes add the new water.

If you are checking the salinity with an hydrometer, get a good refractometer before you put any livestock in there. Because hydrometer are often way off and you could lose livestock from the wrong salinity.

A good refractometer cost around 25$ brand new on ebay.

my nano
 

well salinity is 1.023, ammonia 0, nitrates 3 so maybe the tank is cycled... gonna test thrpugh the weekend and if all is well might add a cleanup crew

pics!
 

Here is some shots. cloudy pic is from sunday, I used cured live rock and 5g of water from an established tank. Other pics are from today and yesterday, the white hitchhiker is supposedly a bleached strawberry anenome

what kind of lights do you have on?

96w coralife quad power compact

sorry i dont know how to rotate the pics of put them on the thread

I agree that swing needle hydrometers are useless but I think you could get by with a floating hydrometer.

that is a nice looking 10 gal with the rock. love the aqua scape. As long as you have cycled rock and you dont get the die off you can replace all the water. I have done this and SO has Doug who is a Moderator on here. along the levels are all normal and nothing is out to lunch.

tank looks nice but here comes green hair algea
 

So I've stocked some things in the tank:

3x hermit crabs
2x turbo snails (lazy bastards)
1x cleaner shrimp (just molted)
1x bangalli cardinal
3x small kenya trees
2x brown and orange zoas
1x green long tentacle polyps
1x really nice frogspawn
1x bumblebee snail (hitch hiker)
1x Strawberry anenome (hitch hiker)

Now the problems.... there is some sort of white fuzz growing underneath one of my live rocks... kinda looks like some sort of mold?!?! and green hair algea is starting to grow like crazy.... fat a$$ snails arent eating any of it and the 3 little hermits cant keep up. Water tests are as follows

PH: 8.2, NITRITES: 0 ppm, AMMONIA 0ppm, NITRATES: 0ppm, PHOS: 0ppm, CALCIUM 395ppm

Water is testing all clean, I need to give a quick vacumn on the next water change. Any tips for getting rid of the sh!t green hair algea? Also what do u guys think of the tank so far?

I don't know if Turbos will tackle the hair algae. I might try some more hermits. I have 12-15ish in my 26 gal. The most ravenous eater of hair algae is my cone shell hermit and my emerald crab. I've also noticed a reduction in hair algae since I got my fuge up and running. You could also try tweezers.

I like the aquascape, very nice.

Fuge
 

I've got a small fuge with some chaeto in it but Maybe I'll grab a couple more hermits and an emerald crab... My fuge doesn't flow fast enough it's like a half gallon

Something lurking
 

Last night while the night lights were on I noticed some white furry legs coming out of the bottom of the rock and they were fairly big any tips on how to find this thing? I put food infront of the hole and out came what looked like a crab?!?!? Arm and scooped it up... Whatever it is I can't ge a good view of it because it's dark and close to th sand bed

A 10 gallons aquarium is way too small for a banghai cardinal. Chances are he won't live very long.

If you have a lot of algae growing then your nitates and phosphates are surely not at zero. Put some GFO in there and that will help.

I would return the banghai and put some fish that are suited for a 10 gallons. A dartfish could work, and maybe one clownfish. You can't put too many fish in there because they might die from lack of oxygen especially if you have no sump and no skimmer.

Bangaii
 

Bangaii got sold and unless those test kits I bought are lying I tested again today and 0ppm straigt across and algea is being destroyed by turbos now all is good except the white hitchhiker maybe API reef and saltwater test kits are no good

NO3 and PO4 can read 0 even if they are present. The algae will use them up so the levels are not detectable by the test kits. Regular water changes should help take care of it.

Yep been changing 2.5 gallons every Wednesday seems to be working

That's probably better. Stability is always best with a nano as the parameters can swing so easily.

What did I get myself into?
 

Cyanobacteria sucks. Cant black out the tank cause the corals will die, and ive tried to suck it up but it grows fast. Almost all of it grows in behind the rockwork where I cant get anything in there. Ive got a small HOB for flow and a koralia 1 powerhead, maybe i should buy a small koralia nano powerhead and point it down in behind the rocks? The bigger powerhead is pointing upwards and to the center of the glass.
Seems like its all a dead spot in behind the rocks. Lots of frickin work on a nano tank... Plus I put some chemi-pure elite in the hob a couple weeks ago, rinsed it off on the last water change, and it spewed brown stuff all over the frickin place sand looks like sh!t. I sucked most of it out but wow what did I get myself into?!?!!?

New tanks are prone to cyano...after a year it should settle in nicely and cyano will come and go.

It'll all take time. Don't let it phase you right now.
The common thing to hear in this hobby is;
Nothing good ever happens fast in a saltwater tank.
Try moving your rockwork forward just a bit so you can get at the Cyano behind it.
Expect to have cycles over the next many months. It's normal with new tanks, regardless of the rock, sand or water you started with. The only thing you could have done differently is fully 'cook' the rock in a blacked-out rubbermaid, but you're past that now ( no, that doesn't mean boiling it ).
Keep using phosphate removers of some kind as you are, and maybe don't re-use it. It's not that costly in the long run with a tank your size.
Just stay focused on keeping it clean without going nuts on it. You have to let it mature some.
It will calm down, and then you'll love it :biggrin:

+1 on a refractometer. You mentioned 1.025, then 1.023.
1.026 is a good target. The key, more than anything, is stability, not the exact parameters.

Grrrrrrrrr
 

Cyano is taking over.... everything seems healthy but 3/4 of the sandbed is red and ive been sucking it out, changing the water with R/o water, using chemi pure elite and nothing is helping. Soon there will be no sand left to suck out. How ever the corals in my tank seem to be unaffected by it and look pretty healthy. The tank is only 2 months old so hopefully it will go away. Ive increased the flow by putting a maxi jet 600 power head and its like a wave pool in the tank. What else can I do?

5 months in
 

So everything is coming together. Ive set up a biocube 29 and a 33g long as well. Lots of $$$$ and patience. What u guys think?
Stock List: 2x ocellaris clowns (tank raised), skunk cleaner (douche), candy cane, assorted zoas-palys, strange anenome, green finger leather, kenya tree, red/purple/green mushrooms, gsp (clowns hosting) various hermits and snails. Sorry bout the crappy pics, blackberry sucks.

http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/...20724-1940.jpg

http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/...20724-1942.jpg

http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/...20724-1942.jpg
http://i1227.photobucket.com/albums/...20724-1942.jpg

Ooooh looks good! You're starting to get some nice coralline algae on the rocks, so that's good to see. This tank will look stunning in another 6 months time. Well done!

anenome
 

in the third picture, what type of anenome is this. its on the left hand side of my tank

bump
 

bump