FarmerTy

I got cyano when I first started using about 1 year ago but then after dosing a bacteria source, it slowly went away. Like everyone said above, just make sure you feed your coral, don't let phosphate get too low, and add more and more biopellets slowly. -Ty

I uploaded some tank pics. I'll work on uploading a youtube video or two of the tank and providing a link when I get back in town.

The comments at the bottom cracked me up.

+1

New sand... I'd trash the old stuff, except save a scoop or two to seed your new tank. Just my 2 cents.

Chase is a great guy. Nice seahorse setup too... I envy anyone with a tank in their room... nothing like laying down and staring at your tank. Nice meeting you Chase and thanks for the great stuff. Let me know how those frags do in your tank. -Ty

Interested in the pH probes and module. You got PM. -Ty

The short video is like 100mb. Is that going to be okay? I'd upload the longer video but that's really huge.

I have a really short video of my tank, where should I send?

+1 I had a nano tank (12 gallon) and the heater didn't turn on until October but ran off and on until February. This was in a house away from windows, however, I don't run my heat very often in the house. The small body of water changes temp really fast so the heater is def good insurance. Give it a 6-8 degree sudden drop in a couple of hours and consider your corals nuked. Also, have you read up at all about cycling your tank? Did you buy live rock? Add any bacteria starter doses? I think the main difference from starting a predator tank versus a coral tank is the cycling of the system. With the predator tank, its just fish. So, as long as your salinity and temperature are correct, you're solid. Then all you have to do is have the appropriate filtering devices in place to remove the biological load and add some water changes, and you're good to go. With a coral system (particularly a nano) you have live rock and water changes as your main combatants against your biological load. Even if the live rock has already been cured and good to go, either way you would have to wait to finish your cycle before adding corals and fish, unless you dose some kind of bacteria head-start stuff (e.g. Dr. Tim's). I may have missed that you've already cycled your tank (typically 1-3 months) but if you haven't yet, expect a cycle to be hitting you soon if you just set up your tank. You'll probably get a ammonia spike and higher levels of nitrites/nitrates and phosphates while your system is balancing out, which usually results in some type of algae growth or cyano. The conditions in your tank may be detrimental to the inhabitants of your tank which is why you usually leave the tank empty with just the liverock and sand until the cycle is complete. The main reason I mention any of this is to prepare you in case you start noticing algal growth and your corals looking really ticked off.. then you may have an answer as to why. Also, seems like you're still shopping around for that perfect piece of liverock to be the centerpiece of your tank. When you add the new large piece of liverock to your system, it will cause another cycle in your tank. To avoid that, most people aim to have all their liverock in their system at the start and allow it all to cycle first, before putting anything in the tank. These were the same stepping stones that I tripped on when I first started and wanted to share in case it helps. This hobby is such a rewarding one that I don't want anybody new starting out with a frustrating experience and be turned off by the whole thing. If you have any questions, ask away as you'll get some pretty good responses from the club. If you already know everything I said above, then ignore and maybe it'll help someone else who is reading your post. Good luck! -Ty

Hey, welcome to the club! You live pretty close to me so just hit me up if you are needing any help. -Ty

Sorry to see you go man. You were a wealth of good information on the board. Hopefully you'll be back one day. -Ty

I remember Mitch because we talked about it after we both got a piece of the same colony from the guy selling. They are not Tubb's blue for sure but they are pretty in their own right. I have them in my tank right by my actual Tubb's blue. Sorry, no pic. Nah, it wasn't. I'm not really sure who I got these from.

Supposedly it is as easy as donning some polarized sunglasses and looking for the honeycombed effect on the glass. If it is honeycombed, then it is tempered. As I have read, not experienced myself so don't quote me. Nice grab btw, I was asking the owner of that exact tank if they would sell without the stand, but they wouldn't so I passed. Definitely liked the dimensions on that one! -Ty

Looking good Reefninja! Keep us updated!

Actually, that might be smaller than what I am looking for. I will take the ballast though. Can you PM me a paypal address and I can pay you and we can figure out pickup later? Thanks! -Ty

I'll take the sump as long as it's less than 12" wide. I didn't see dimensions. Also, the ballasts, how many of them are they and are you selling them $45/piece or $45 for all. Thanks! -Ty

Is this the new Sally the Sea Hare? If so, I'd like to have her next to chomp some stuff down in my tank. Let me know. -Ty

Thanks for Sharing Brett. I'm sure you saved a bunch of money for a lot of people with your trial and error documentation. This is a good reminder for me to swap out my GFO, it's been awhile! Great example of the combination of technology (GFO) and biology (crabs and seahare) to aid in getting rid of nuisance algae. I would be be hesitant myself to take the GFO offline. The biopellets in my experience really focus on removing the nitrates more than the phosphates, with nitrates being the limiting factor for bacteria growth. The GFO will remove the remainder of the phosphate once that nitrate limiting factor has been reached. So, in my experience, it's best to use them in tandem. Everytime I try to remove the GFO, bad things happen and the biopellets can't keep up with the phosphate production in my tank. But, each tank is different so you may not have that problem. Oh, forgot to mention, the tank looks fantastic! -Ty

Definitely like all the negative space in your tank. I'm not a big bare-bottom fan but that is pretty sweet looking with your aquascaping.

I have had it where peristaltic pump tubing needed to be replaced it developed a small crack over time and lost suction I did not notice till week later when corals were not looking good and my alk dropped to 5dkh. I have now switched to ca reactor I love it. In theory if you don't have nitrates or phosphate issue you should never need to do water change as all the trace minerals are being replenished from the ca reactor media while two part you still will need to do a water change to replenish what trace minerals are absorbed by the corals. If you switched to full balling method then you are truly replacing all what the corals need Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Besides sucking out detritus in my sump once and one time I treated for cyano, I have not done a water change in the past 1.5 yrs. That's 50 gallons in the last 1.5 years on a system with 150 gallons total volume. If I had the same regiment as I did with my nano (20% every 2 weeks), I would have used roughly 1200 gallons and eight 5-gallon buckets of salt up to this point!!! My back is already hurting just at the thought. On the flip side, I still have 2/3rds a bucket of salt sitting in my garage I bought 1.5 years ago. Of course I pay on the other end (calcium reactor, dosing) but pulling out a pipette and a bottle of trace elements or replacing my reactor media sounds better than lifting those buckets anyday! -Ty