First Post, have some questions..

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litylshue

New Member
OK I am new to this whole aquarium thing but so far I am loving it. I have had a 12g nanocube for a little over a month now.

From what I can tell the tank has cycled, I just put a shrimp in there yesterday and a small soft coral in there tonight.

I run the lights about 3 hours a day and changed 20% of the water at the one month mark.

I was also told that I should remove the filtering crap in the back and replace it with live rock because live rock works as a natural filter and work better, so I did that also. I probably have 20lbs of live rock in there now, is that enough? too much?

last question is I see some brown/dark green algae growing, what is that? is it good or bad?

I am holding off on fish until I know everything is safe, not looking to kill them.

Also I am adding a few pics of what I have and a pic of the algae... Thanks in advance for the help!!
-Nathan
 

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dragon79

New Member
hey welcome aboard! From what I can see in the pics, your tank is going through some normal algae diatom blooms. They'll die in a month, or depending on how fast your cycle in particular goes for you. Get a test kit at your LFS and test the water parameters. You need to get a good refractometer to get an accurate reading of salinity and specific gravity. (important and more so even more as you have a shrimp in there) Shrimps are sensitive to salinity changes, and it could very much kill the guy if your parameters are out of whack. (high salinity, high nitrite, levels of ammonia....that kind of thing) To help out with the algae growin in there, you could add some snails and hermits in there to start chewing up everything in there. (the smaller the better, as they are hard workers when the hermits are small). Be sure to keep us posted with your tank as it comes along.
 
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reefman23

New Member
welcome to the site! Trust me, this is the most freindly and informative site on the web. you have come to the right place. we all love seeing pics, it is great to see tanks mature. good luck.
 
Dickie52

Dickie52

New Member
Nathan,
Welcome aboard and from what I have seen here so far, there is a lot of good advice!

Like dragon79 mentioned, get a good test kit and a refractor, both will be worth their weight in gold.

One month seems like a long time to someone just setting up a new tank, but in saltwater you have to learn to take things slow and let nature take it course. Yes it does look like a normal diatom bloom and it will go away in a few weeks, but remember it will prolly get worse for awhile. That is why it is good advice to add a clean up crew as one of your first additions.

They will also help control the red slime and the hair algae that is going to hit your tank next!
 
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litylshue

New Member
awsome guys thanks for all the advice, looks like Ill be heading to the store tomorrow for a few more things.

Would it be safe to get a couple fish or should i test the water and make sure everything is in limits before? I've already killed 2 damsels, which is what I was told is normal for the tank to cylce, but I still don't want to kill anything else lol.

Again guys thanks for the help, Ive been reading posts on here for the past month but just got around to joingin tonight, looks like I made the right choice!!
 
skipm

skipm

Moderator
Staff member
Welcome to the board!!! I wouldn't add any fish just yet, go ahead with the clean up crew first and add fish later. You will only want to add a couple of fish due to the size of the tank and I would add them one at a time if possible to allow the tank to restabilize from the additional bioload. I would also recommend that you post about a fish you are not sure about before buying it and you will get alot of advice as to whether it is a suitable fish for your tank. Good luck, Skip
 
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incysor

New Member
Until you can either test the water, or have it tested at the LFS I wouldn't put any fish in the tank. When you do, I'd only put one in, then wait a couple weeks before adding another. The tank will need time to adjust to changes in ammonia production, (fish waste). Putting several in at once is a good way to throw the parameters out of whack.

B
 
Dickie52

Dickie52

New Member
litylshue said:
I've already killed 2 damsels, which is what I was told is normal for the tank to cylce
Click to expand...
If there was enough ammonia to kill two damsels in less than a month, then I would be sure to get the water tested before adding anything else. Next time you are going to cycle a tank, just use a shrimp from the supermarket, rather than a live fish. It is much more humane and works just as well.
 
leaffish75

leaffish75

New Member
You could also bump up the light cycle to. 3 hours is a little short in my opion. I run a 8 hour cycle on my tank.
 
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litylshue

New Member
ok well I just tested the water, everything is 100% good except the nitrate.

The nitrate is reading "safe" but I would rather have it "ideal".

I also just got 3 snails an 2 hermits so that should take care of some of that algae.

How long should I wait before I get fish and how can I lower the nitrates slightly?

Thanks again guys you've been a major help!
 
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litylshue

New Member
PS: what should I feed the shrimp? The guy at the store told me he'll eat just about anything but I should just use the fihs food, is this true?
 
Babycakes

Babycakes

New Member
brown algae is part of the cycle, i think it's brown algae, cyano, and the hair algae?

i copied this from Garf.org
REEF ALGAE CONTROL CENTRAL
IF YOUR REEF AQUARIUM IS LESS THAN FOUR MONTHS OLD AND THE MAIN PROBLEM ALGAE IS A LIGHT RED BROWN DUSTING ON THE GLASS AND ROCKS - YOUR REEF HAS A DIATOM BLOOM. DIATOM ALGAE CONTROL

IF YOUR REEF AQUARIUM IS MORE THAN FOUR MONTHS OLD AND THE MAIN PROBLEM ALGAE IS A LIGHT GREEN FILM GROWNING ON THE GLASS AND ROCKS - YOUR REEF HAS A GREEN ALGAE BLOOM. GREEN ALGAE CONTROL

IF YOUR REEF AQUARIUM IS MORE THAN FOUR MONTHS OLD AND THE MAIN PROBLEM ALGAE IS A DARK PURPLE RED SLIME ON THE GLASS AND ROCKS - YOUR REEF HAS A CYANOBACTERIA BLOOM. RED SLIME ALGAE CONTROL

IF YOUR REEF AQUARIUM IS MORE THAN FOUR MONTHS OLD AND THE MAIN PROBLEM ALGAE IS A DARK GREEN HAIR ON CORALS AND ROCKS - YOUR REEF HAS A HAIR ALGAE BLOOM. HAIR ALGAE CONTROL

IF YOUR REEF AQUARIUM IS MORE THAN SIX MONTHS OLD AND THE MAIN ALGAE IS LIGHT PINK AND PURPLE SPOTS ON THE GLASS AND ROCKS - YOUR REEF HAS CORALINE ALGAE .

for fish, i would wait till the 2 month mark? by then you should be more knowledgeable about your tank and it's workings.
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/cate ... CatId=2124
there's a link to some good suggestions and info for nano tank fishes :)
 
Babycakes

Babycakes

New Member
oh yeah a fuge is basically an area for liverock, live sand, and macroalgae (like chaeto, halimeda, prolifera etc) it's a refugium, a seperate area from the tank that serves as a environment for additional nutrient control and sanctuary for inverts and fish that can't be in the main display.
http://saltaquarium.about.com/cs/aquari ... 041400.htm

many people put additional live rock in their fuge for add. filtration and also plants(macroalgae) to help control phosphates and nitrate levels :mrgreen:
 
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