Questions from a Newbie

[i have crabs]

the air bubbles could be from low water in the rear chamber, i usally keep my water level alot higher than the max line, if the water level dosent help it could be that the water if flowing through the rear to fast causing micro bubles. first thing the cartrige in the first section remove it and dont buy a new one, i removed some of the bioballs and put a bag of carbon from a aquaclear 110 filter and a chunk of filterfloss on top under the black thing in the middle chamber, i also used a small slowdown valve from a phosban reactor to slow the water returning into the tank wich helped alot.
http://www.jlaquatics.com/phpstore/s...t_ID=tf-plmvbb
http://www.jlaquatics.com/phpstore/s...t_ID=pf-acr50c

for the algae issue try looking up cyano and see if its what you have, biocubes dont have skimmers on them so you have to be carefull on extra nutrients in the water i do a 5g waterchange every 2 weeks usally but i only have ever had 3-4 fish at at time dont feed extra food and if you can get ro/di water it will help alot

[Ian]

Thanks for the info.
It is confirmed as cyano and the tukey baster has become aquarium maintenance equipment. From what I have learned my tank is not fully cycled and I should not do any water changes until i is...is this correct?
I'm sure tomorrow will bring new questions so stay tuned

[motokorth]

When removing the bio balls and other things from the filtration do it slowly over time. Do not remove it all now or you may just get a spike from removing some of the bacteria thats there already.

[Ian]

SO I have the red slime under control now and my water is testing great. BUT I went out for about 5 hours yesterday and my pulsing xenia went from thriving to withered and flat... This is strange I've had it in the tank for a litle over 2 weeks and it has done great growth visible and all that I have read seems it wason its way to great things. Water tests revealed nothing.

Today no change in its state and still getting nice stable water readings

Ideas?

[Myka]

Originally Posted by Ian

Thanks for the info.
It is confirmed as cyano and the tukey baster has become aquarium maintenance equipment. From what I have learned my tank is not fully cycled and I should not do any water changes until i is...is this correct?
I'm sure tomorrow will bring new questions so stay tuned

What makes you believe that your tank isn't cycled yet? What are the actual readings for salinity, pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate?

You shouldn't have any fish in your tank until your aquarium is fully cycled, but you DO have fish in there, so to protect them you DO need to do waterchanges to keep the water at least semi-safe for the inhabitants. Depending on your parameters I can suggest a waterchange schedule for you.

It seems that you have rushed things much too fast with having fish AND a coral in your tank already. Take a deep breath, and SLOW DOWN. "Nothing good happens fast in a saltwater aquarium." Remember that. Bad things happen fast, good things happen slow.

[Monti-Man]

OKay we'll first thing first Nice to see someone from Rimbey i was raised there as we'll

Okay so did you add the rock and cycle the tank with the rock in it? Or how did you cycle it before you added the fish?

The idea of cycling is sand,water,rock and then wait for the cycle. Depending on where you get the rock from that could be a week to over month to cycle.
The fact that you are getting good readings is a good thing. But i guess like Myka said what are the actual numbers?

The cyano could be due to not enough flow. And in a biocube unless you have added more flow that will contribute to that problem.

What is the temp getting to in that tank?

Great board to get involved with lots of help here.

But Myka is right Sloooooow down. This is not a hobby for impatience

[Ian]

k so I will give you more info
I have about 25 pound of live rock that came straight out of anoher tank and had been cured there for quite some time ( a few months I believe) so it should be fine and It was never allowed to dry at all.
Once my sand and rock were in I allowed the tank to run that way for a couple weeks and added to it only after all the tests had been level and consistant for a few days in a row.

Temp consistant between 76-78
Ammonia 0
Nitrate 0-2.5 ppm
Nitrite 0
pH 8.2
salinity 1.021
These are what I have had since thursday last week.
I check all readings a minimun of twice daily since this setup is so new
As for Flow I added a Koralia 1 to the tank to give this a boost. Why i thought it had not completely cycled was based on advice givin in this thread.
I know I need to slow down and as that goes I can't even get to LFS for the next 2-3weeks so it is a given that I am stopped now
May have to start that bigger tank sooner than fall..........starting to jones
Monti---pm me your real name we may know each other....I grew up in Rimbey and moved back 7 years ago.

Anyhow keep giving advice I am listening
thanks

[sharuq1]

Your salinity is too low for inverts/corals. I would suggest a slow increase to 1.025. Also, xenia can be tempermental. I found that starting out the best way to know if I needed a waterchange (besides my regular weekly ones) was just by watching my xenia. If it looked off I did a wc, and voila it would bounce back.

[Marlin65]

2nd that

[Myka]

You should jack your salinity up to about 1.025-1.026 as reefs do better at that level. Yours is VERY low...almost hyposalinity. Make the change over about 1 week.

It sounds like your tank is cycled. Especially since you used well cured rock. However, your nitrate is SKYYYYYYYYYYYYY high for a reef if they ever pop up to 25 ppm!! How can you say 0-25 ppm? That's a HUGE gap. This may be why your Xenia is choked. Nitrate should NEVER be higher than 10 ppm in a reef, but you should aim to be under 2 ppm, and as close to 0 as possible. 0 is achievable. What are you running for filters? Protein skimmers? How big of waterchanges? How often?