Nano Beginner - Need Help

[rlm]

Hello all - I just setup a new Fluval Edge 12 Gallon with Salwater 3 days ago. I plan to add more lighting to the tank in the future. I am new to the saltwater world. 3 days ago I added 10lbs of live sand, a heater and set temp to 78, premixed saltwater from PetCo and 9lbs live rock. The live rock came from my local LFS that was cured, but does not have Coraline Algae on it. My LFS sold me a pair of B-Ionic Buffer System bottles to give to the Live Rock daily. I've been adding 3ml a day of each bottle. Am I going to the right way of helping my Live Rock grow coralline algae? I was also thinking of buy a live rock with coralline algae already to help the process as well?

I tested the water yesterday with my Test kit and Amonia level was 0, Nitrate and Nitrite was normal. PH was at 8.0. Am I testing to early? I read somewhere that the amonia level can go up eventually and come back down to 0 if everything is going well. I don't have any livestock in the tank. I want to add a cleaning crew eventually. How long should I wait for that?

Also I notice a small green plant on the back side of the plant, see pic number 3. Can anyway let me know what this is?

I plan to add a nano circulation pump 425gph today to help remove some of the sand from the live rock. any tips or ideas? thanks.

 

[aznt1217]

The plant looks like leftover Chaeto.

You're worrying too much. Don't dose anything in the tank. Coralline will develop as the tank ages. You need a little more live rock than that...

You may be testing too early. Add more rock, chill out, and give it some time. Test like 1-2 weeks in. Nitrate, Nitrite, and Ammonia should be 0 once it's cycled. If there's nitrate, that's fine just do a water change after.

Watch out for salt creep getting on the stock light. Clean up crew is fine half week into the cycle. Don't go nuts.

 

[rlm]

The plant looks like leftover Chaeto.

You're worrying too much. Don't dose anything in the tank. Coralline will develop as the tank ages. You need a little more live rock than that...

You may be testing too early. Add more rock, chill out, and give it some time. Test like 1-2 weeks in. Nitrate, Nitrite, and Ammonia should be 0 once it's cycled. If there's nitrate, that's fine just do a water change after.

Watch out for salt creep getting on the stock light. Clean up crew is fine half week into the cycle. Don't go nuts.

Thanks so much aznt1217. I will take your advise. I guess I am over-scared of doing something wrong. I am going to buy some more rock this week.

 

[dherrera83]

Nice little setup man, i dot something similar. Mine is the fluval chi 5.5g. If you planing on adding coral then you will need to upgrade the light and your salt (not sure how good the petco salt is since i havent heard of anyone on here using it). I used a par 38 led on my tank. If you look at the pic on my signature you will see.

Your off to a good start and as stated before you will need more flow and rock. You can try putting together small pieces of LR to make a nice center piece with a bunch of little caves. Glue them together with a two part epoxy putty.

 

[rlm]

Nice little setup man, i dot something similar. Mine is the fluval chi 5.5g. If you planing on adding coral then you will need to upgrade the light and your salt (not sure how good the petco salt is since i havent heard of anyone on here using it). I used a par 38 led on my tank. If you look at the pic on my signature you will see.

Your off to a good start and as stated before you will need more flow and rock. You can try putting together small pieces of LR to make a nice center piece with a bunch of little caves. Glue them together with a two part epoxy putty.

Thanks. Now that I look at the pics, I definitely need to add more rocks, to make some caves. I plan to make my own saltwater eventually.

 

[dherrera83]

a koralia nano pump would be perfect...

 

[basiab]

You won't know if you cycled without testing. You have to put something in the tank that will generate ammonia like a piece of shrimp. Then you should see some ammonia register. Then as it goes down you should see nitrites rising. When that starts to go down you should see nitrates rising. Your cycle is done when ammonia and nitrites are back to zero. Then add some small hermits and see if they stay alive. Feed them fish food but not more than what they can eat in a few minutes. If they stay alive for a couple weeks you can then buy one fish. In the mean time read a lot.

 

[rlm]

You won't know if you cycled without testing. You have to put something in the tank that will generate ammonia like a piece of shrimp. Then you should see some ammonia register. Then as it goes down you should see nitrites rising. When that starts to go down you should see nitrates rising. Your cycle is done when ammonia and nitrites are back to zero. Then add some small hermits and see if they stay alive. Feed them fish food but not more than what they can eat in a few minutes. If they stay alive for a couple weeks you can then buy one fish. In the mean time read a lot.

Thanks for the tips I will consider this. I am noticing that the live rock is growing some coralline algae now, only about 30 percent is covered. I am going to buy some more live rock this weekend and see if i can add a shrimp next weekend.

 

[skene]

the live rock is growing some coralline algae now,

It probably had small traces of coraline on it... but coraline does not grow like that. Where it is noticable within a few days. It will develop over weeks and months provided the tank has proper lighting and water conditions.

 

[rlm]

a koralia nano pump would be perfect...

Finally bought a Koralia Nano Pump 425gph, it's working great. I tested the water today using the saltwater kit and everything looks normal, PH was around 8.4. I have the Nano pump at position at the top of the tank, should I lower it to closer to the rock? i just don't want sand kicking everywhere.






I haven't done a water change yet, it's been about 5 days.

I want to buy some more live rock, but it's snowing very hard outside.

 

[Koyfam16]

Nice looking set up so far. I too ventured into a mini setup. I have the Fluval Edge.

Once you add more rocks and create a nice landscape, it will look even better. Don't think you need to do a water change yet since all your levels are 0. Your tank has probably not yet cycled. Once you add a piece of shrimp, that should kick off the cycle. After which, you should monitor the levels of ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. Once the first two levels drop and nitrate goes up a water change should be done.

What do you plan on keeping?

Edge.

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

I tested the water today using the saltwater kit and everything looks normal

...

I haven't done a water change yet, it's been about 5 days.

Not sure what you mean by everything looks normal. Do you mean all values are zero. If so, everything is not normal which also correspond to the pic unless you have cleaned the glass.

During a PROPER CYCLE, ammonia rise, then nitrite rise while ammonia start to go down, then nitrate rises and nitrite and ammonia go down. By the end, all 3 values can be zero but don't have to. as long as nitrite and ammonia is zero, we considered it cycled. You should start to see some form of algae or diatom. In 5 days, there should be some brown color stuff sticking to your rock or glass. Your pic show the tank to be crystal clear.

Also as mentioned earlier, if you do see some reddish growth on the rock, it's unlikely to be coraline algae, they are most likely cyano or other nuisance algae.

You don't need to dose the 2 part solutions until start to put corals in. Right now will be just a waste. Think of the 2 part as food for corals in a sense.

 

[rlm]

Not sure what you mean by everything looks normal. Do you mean all values are zero. If so, everything is not normal which also correspond to the pic unless you have cleaned the glass.

During a PROPER CYCLE, ammonia rise, then nitrite rise while ammonia start to go down, then nitrate rises and nitrite and ammonia go down. By the end, all 3 values can be zero but don't have to. as long as nitrite and ammonia is zero, we considered it cycled. You should start to see some form of algae or diatom. In 5 days, there should be some brown color stuff sticking to your rock or glass. Your pic show the tank to be crystal clear.

Also as mentioned earlier, if you do see some reddish growth on the rock, it's unlikely to be coraline algae, they are most likely cyano or other nuisance algae.

You don't need to dose the 2 part solutions until start to put corals in. Right now will be just a waste. Think of the 2 part as food for corals in a sense.

Thanks for the tips. Should I add a shrimp to the tank to start/help with the cycle? I am going to buy more rocks to make the landscape better. I wonder why my LFS guy told me to add the buffer system after the 2nd day the rock has been in the tank? The rock is looking more brownish now, I am going to post some HQ pics on Monday, left my SD card at work. Thanks again.

 

[KnowledgeG.O.D.]

By shrimp they mean a dead shrimp. The decomposition of it is going to kick start your cycle. Right now your live rock will do it but slowly because of the die off it produces. BTW where did you get that 12 gal system? I have only seen it in fauna. I thought the original fluval would make a great QT tank but i herd its hard to clean and get stuff and the such.

 

[james2011]

Fluval Edge 46L Marine Tank

Hi,

I have the same tank and I'm in the process of doing the same thing as you. It's nice to find someone with the same tank, as not many people have these yet. I have already converted my old 23L fluval, 2 years ago, so this is a new challenge. I am still waiting for a few things before i get started.

What lighting upgrade are you going with? The built in LEDs are nice, but obviously you will need more light. I am going to try Ecoxotic Pic Led strips. They are only 4-5" long and will fit inside the hood, maybe on the arm itself. I'm going to buy 3 strips.
2 x EcoPico LED Strip, 12K White/453nm Blue
1 x EcoPico LED Strip, 453nm Blue

Hopefully this plus the stock lighting should be enough for good corals.

I'm using:

? (heaters) 2 Fluval edge 25W heaters
? (substrate) Tropic Eden Deep Sea Aragasnow
? (powerhead) Koralia nano, thinking of using two?
? 10lbs of live rock
? (lighting) Ecoxotic Pico strips x 3 (plus stock LEDs)


Thanks

James

 

[james2011]

my substrate.

The built in LEDs.

The tank (moonlight setting)

 

[rlm]

Hi,

I have the same tank and I'm in the process of doing the same thing as you. It's nice to find someone with the same tank, as not many people have these yet. I have already converted my old 23L fluval, 2 years ago, so this is a new challenge. I am still waiting for a few things before i get started.

What lighting upgrade are you going with? The built in LEDs are nice, but obviously you will need more light. I am going to try Ecoxotic Pic Led strips. They are only 4-5" long and will fit inside the hood, maybe on the arm itself. I'm going to buy 3 strips.
2 x EcoPico LED Strip, 12K White/453nm Blue
1 x EcoPico LED Strip, 453nm Blue

Hopefully this plus the stock lighting should be enough for good corals.

I'm using:

? (heaters) 2 Fluval edge 25W heaters
? (substrate) Tropic Eden Deep Sea Aragasnow
? (powerhead) Koralia nano, thinking of using two?
? 10lbs of live rock
? (lighting) Ecoxotic Pico strips x 3 (plus stock LEDs)


Thanks

James

Nice to find another 12 Gallon user. I am using a 50 watt heater and a Koralia Nano 425gph. If you are going to do 2, I would sugest two 240gph. I added some more rock (marco rock) have about 12 lbs in total.

I am still debating on which lights to get. Either Flexible LEDS or DIY LED kit, such as http://www.rapidled.com/servlet/the-DIY-Retrofit-Kits/Categories

It's a DIY LED kit with heatsink, but I am debating on taking out the original module and add the DIY module. Still up in the air.

 

[rlm]

By shrimp they mean a dead shrimp. The decomposition of it is going to kick start your cycle. Right now your live rock will do it but slowly because of the die off it produces. BTW where did you get that 12 gal system? I have only seen it in fauna. I thought the original fluval would make a great QT tank but i herd its hard to clean and get stuff and the such.

Thanks for the tip. I found the fluval edge at my lfs here in Northern NJ. I was surprise to find it for a reasonable price. I must admit, the tank is beautiful, but the entry hole is so small it's so hard to manage the tank. You must have patience on setting up the tank, because of the limited entry top.

 

[james2011]

LED retrofit kit

Nice to find another 12 Gallon user. I am using a 50 watt heater and a Koralia Nano 425gph. If you are going to do 2, I would sugest two 240gph. I added some more rock (marco rock) have about 12 lbs in total.

I am still debating on which lights to get. Either Flexible LEDS or DIY LED kit, such as http://www.rapidled.com/servlet/the-DIY-Retrofit-Kits/Categories

It's a DIY LED kit with heatsink, but I am debating on taking out the original module and add the DIY module. Still up in the air.

Wow this is really good!
The heatsink is 12" long, will you cut this down to fit inside the hood?
I see they also produce small square heatsinks, maybe get 3White & 3Blue Crees on there?

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

Nice to find another 12 Gallon user. I am using a 50 watt heater and a Koralia Nano 425gph. If you are going to do 2, I would sugest two 240gph. I added some more rock (marco rock) have about 12 lbs in total.

I am still debating on which lights to get. Either Flexible LEDS or DIY LED kit, such as http://www.rapidled.com/servlet/the-DIY-Retrofit-Kits/Categories

It's a DIY LED kit with heatsink, but I am debating on taking out the original module and add the DIY module. Still up in the air.

This is not a good choice because you don't have a splash guard! You light will be have so much salt on them and die quickly. You need something with splash guard.

I have run testes on fixtures without splash guard vs. ones with them for over 3 years to see the log the difference.