Whats next? 3 weeks old tank ...

[Reefcan]

I really appreciated your advices, learnd a lot from you guys.
Moldrik: Its seems your tank has been running for 2 months, and you've not add any coral? So how long do you think we have to wait? How can we tell the tank is stable?
Myka: I tested phosphate(0), nitrate(0), PH(7.8-8.0), KH, calcium weekly, shows nothing wrong there. Is my test kit not accurate enough? Its a "Reef Master Test Kit" from API.
When I went to the LFS, they tested water for me (2 weeks later when tank was build by the guy who sold me the system), and told me to pick up some fish and coral, said it would be OK. I bought couple gobies and snails. After another week, I went back the LFS for the algae problem, they sold me a sea hare and 2 urchins, eventhough I don't like them, they looks sososo ugly! but the guy said they will take care of the algae. I'm not blaming them, but don't feel right.
The sea hare died lastnight......

[DJ_drew]

first things first
like the other guys said
theres too jmuch stuff in the tank for a tank thats only 3 weeks old
you should hav let your tank run at least 3-4 weekswith just the LR and then tested it no matter what.
there will always be a cycle small or large especiallywhen you put LR in a tank unless you moved the water with it that theLRwas inbefore hand
next thing you need to tell us is what kind of filtration you are using because if you're not filtering with anything thats a bad thing as well
lol
slow and steady wins the race with this hobby
ive had my tank up for about 7 months and i still dont have corals in mine
and with the kids wanting to see fish in there you might just hve to disregard them if you wanto have a sucessful tank
with every fish quarantining them is the best idea to make sure the fish are ok.
let us know what kind of filter you have and what kind of basic setup you have, and the test results would be a big advantage to us helping you out
it takes alot of patience with this, i learned that the hard way!

Drew

[tang daddy]

What drew and everyone on here has said is correct slow and steady wins the race.....

I am always one to give out the advice but not eat it when it comes to a new tank. I started my new tank 50g 1.5 months ago with water from my 120g and the rock was from a store it had been there for a long time which essentially was like they cooked it for me, no lights were ever on the vats so there was hardly anything growing on it. Before I brought the rock home I shook it well and dunked and swished the pieces till I was really tired. I then put the rock and my tank water together and left it for 8 days. After this I checked the params and did a wc.

I then started to add some of my corals from my 120g like zoas, fungia plates, and candycane. A week after I added a few more corals were added, all seemed good and then some algae started sprouting.

I added a few turbo snails and they cleaned most of the stuff up the rest I pulled out with my hand(being pricked with a diadema urchin and not having great success with a seahare surviving I only use turbo snails).

A few days later I got cyano bacteria, this was probally because of the heavy feeding to my lps corals, no skimmer, low flow, and new tank syndrome. New tanks always get a cyano stage but this was pretty out of control and instead of using a chemical to get rid of it I used sugar.

A week after and a mix of wc and ramping the flow the cyano is completely gone and the algae is no where to be seen. It seems like the tank cycled pretty fast for me because I had introduced water from a seeded tank which already had the bacteria established. Plus shaking the rock got rid of some of the nutrients built up in it.

My fairly new tank is awesome, I still havent added any fish in it and probally wont for another 2 months because the fish I want to put in is fairly expensive and I want to make sure the tank is seeded with lots of pods and life and fairly conditioned. All corals are doing great with the weekly feedings but I may change that to bi weekly.

The reason why I posted such a decent amount of info is to let you know what stages will happen in your tank. Do not be worried about the algae, instead of increasing the bio load why not do some weeding, wc and see if the algae starts to get less. If you go and add more fish you will likely have to feed abit more which may feed the algae more aswell. If you need something to tie you over get some zoas or a cheap mushroom something easy to keep and also tie you over for abit. hope this was somewhat helpfull.

cheers

[Reefcan]

Originally Posted by DJ_drew

first things first
like the other guys said
theres too jmuch stuff in the tank for a tank thats only 3 weeks old
you should hav let your tank run at least 3-4 weekswith just the LR and then tested it no matter what.
there will always be a cycle small or large especiallywhen you put LR in a tank unless you moved the water with it that theLRwas inbefore hand
next thing you need to tell us is what kind of filtration you are using because if you're not filtering with anything thats a bad thing as well
lol
slow and steady wins the race with this hobby
ive had my tank up for about 7 months and i still dont have corals in mine
and with the kids wanting to see fish in there you might just hve to disregard them if you wanto have a sucessful tank
with every fish quarantining them is the best idea to make sure the fish are ok.
let us know what kind of filter you have and what kind of basic setup you have, and the test results would be a big advantage to us helping you out
it takes alot of patience with this, i learned that the hard way!

Drew

Here is what I have:
95 Gal reef ready tank
30 gal sump
super skimmer
Outer Orbit 250WX2 MH HQI/T5X4 48"
2 power heads, and something else like return pump and heater.