Brittany's teeny tiny reef!

Beautiful! I've been thinking about getting a fighting conch. How do you like yours? Do they knock things over? Reef safe? Do they just eat algae?

reefnoob said:

Beautiful! I've been thinking about getting a fighting conch. How do you like yours? Do they knock things over? Reef safe? Do they just eat algae?

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The fighting conch is awesome! I wouldn't really recommend putting them in anything smaller than 30g unless you know they will have enough to eat. These guys are powerhouses when it comes to keeping the sand clean. Yes they are reef safe and stay on the sandbed so they don't really knock anything over.

Those air bubbles are signs of an impending algae outbreak. That's why you see your tank clean and everything, you'll see those bubbles then the algae comes back. I believe, but don't quote me on it, the bubbles are co2 bubbles created by the photosynthesis process.

Great looking pics Brittany. Good luck with that algae.

beeguiles said:

Phosphate is one test I don't have :( when I took it to the Lfs a couple months ago it was .02 I think? High I think. Which could have been from me over feeding and not rinsing my frozen food before feeding it or from my water source which is tap. The algae isn't a huge deal to me as long as I can keep it at bay.

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You have a very nice setup and some very nice palys there. 0.02 phosphate is low (.2 is high). A phosphate test kit is a nice investment - you can test your change water to see if thats the problem. The air bubble are often from bacteria growth (and also algae) - check to see if you have cyano problem (but usually thats on the substrate first).

Love the mandarin and the clown goby!

Everything looks great! You'll get a hold on that algae soon :) Algae liked to grow in my ten gallon as well. I think if I try another full blown nano tank, I will go ahead and use a skimmer somehow.

Thanks guys! I've been pondering the algae problem and trying to think of things that have changed within the tank that could be causing more algae to grow. I've come up with excess phosphate from not rinsing frozen foods and feeding too much frozen food and also I took off my aqua clear 70 that I was running carbon and a sponge in bc I didn't think it was nessisary. So I've been rinsing the food very very well and only putting in a small amount at a time until I see it all get eaten. Also I put the filter back on and a fresh bag of carbon. The very next day the tank was as clear as I've seen it in a long time. I don't have any sponge in there bc I ran out. But I plan to put just a small sponge in there to catch detritus that I am going to blow off the rocks once a week and then of course ill rinse the sponge right after. And also I'm either going to run a poly pad or purigen in the filter to remover excess nutrients such as phosphate. So far with just the carbon and rinsing of the food there has been a darastic decrease of algae in the tank. And of course my fighting conch is always munching away :)

Glad to hear you're getting a handle on the algae problem :)

Just a few pics I took yesterday

Awesome pics, looking very nice!!

Great Pic's Brit love that Duncan shot :D

Wow <--- Pretty much says it all :)

Everything is looking good, and nice growth on that monti! How far above the tank do you have your two par38s mounted?

FishyReef said:

Everything is looking good, and nice growth on that monti! How far above the tank do you have your two par38s mounted?

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The par38s are about I would say 7-8 inch above the water. I'm not looking at it right now so could be less or more by a half inch or so. I had them about 10in up but the zoos on the bottom were reaching up so Iowered them a little.

Can you guys believe this tank has been up and running for a year and a few months! Wow I haven't realized its been that long. And Oliver my green spotted mandarin has been with me for a little over a year now :) I wonder how old he actually is. He was pretty small when I got him so he can't be over two years. Just neat to think about. :)

beeguiles said:

Can you guys believe this tank has been up and running for a year and a few months! Wow I haven't realized its been that long. And Oliver my green spotted mandarin has been with me for a little over a year now :) I wonder how old he actually is. He was pretty small when I got him so he can't be over two years. Just neat to think about. :)

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Indeed its awesome my pencel urchin clown fish and tub nem are nearly 3 years in my care next to my mushrooms I got when I first started my reef 3 1/2 years ago.

Where did you get your duncan from? And how much was it? How much has it grown? It looks amazing!

Hey guys, I figured I should update since it's been ages.

This tank has been giving me troubles forever now. First it was cloudy for the longest time when first set up. Then it was good for a while and now the past few months it's been covered in aiptasia and algae. I decided I was going to take down the whole tank since it causes me so much grief. I rehomed my springeri dottyback and put the clown goby in my 93g. Pulled all the live rock out to let it sit out and dry and sold all my corals. And then it was time to find Oliver a home. It should have been easy right? A mandarin that eats only frozen... Well I wanted To make sure he went to a good home so I was picky. I finally found a home and plans fell through three times so I decided that's a sign to keep him and the tank up. I have not thrown in the towel! I have dry rock left over from when I first set it up so I used all new dry rock and siphoned the sand really good and now the tank is looking good! With less fish and less feeding the algae is under control and the aiptasia mostly left with the old live rock. I did spot some teeny ones in the sand so when I see them I just carefully scoop them out. I got myself two peppermint shrimp also (that hopefully eat aiptasia) if they don't they are still cute :) and two turbo snails to finish off the algae on the back glass. Also I noticed my Nass snails laid eggs on the glass! I got to actually watch them mating. It was strange yet fascinating! Anyways enough of my rambling. Hopefully I have a couple new picture to show :) I do have to restock with corals so it looks like a newly set up tank again.