Hi everyone,
This is a newbie here, although I've been around tanks and caught fish since a young lad.
After some time of thinking about it, I decided to put together my "cube" tank about 5 weeks ago.
I used Red Sea Live Reef Base Argonite substrate, which turned the entire tank into "milk" for about three days.
My father, who ran an awesome outdoor saltwater pond for many years, but which sadly which crashed some time ago, after a flood, helped me out by
supplying me with old coral skeletons as the base rock for the tank (unfortunately not live rock).
I used saltwater from the Port Alfred river (Kowie River), which had stood for 2 weeks prior to starting the tank.
The cube has an overflow which runs through two drip trays filled with fine shell fragments, before entering a submerged 'wet' tray,
again filled with fine shell fragments.
From there the water is plumbed down to the sump.
I added oyster shells into the first compartment of my sump, to reduce splash as the water drops down into the sump.
The next compartment is dedicated to the skimmer, which is home built and works "ok'ish", but I think I'm gonna have to buy in a good unit.
I then have two compartments acting as 'mini' tanks, as refuge, before the water reaches the final compartment where its pumped back to
the main tank.
Two weeks ago, I was given some violet zoanthids, columnar zoanthids and two smallish unknown brown brain corals, which,
although the tank had not yet fully cycled, I just had to add. They seem to be doing well.
The green algae had started to appear on the rocks, so I added some turbo snails and they seem to be controlling this well.
I'm now in week five and have added some smallish rocks with coraline algae on them, to try get this going on my bare display tank 'rocks'.
The brown slimy algae has just started appearing a few days ago, which is a bit of a concern, as I don't know if this is part of
the tanks cycle, or a water quality issue.
I have test kits for Nitrite, Phosphate, salinity and PH and thus far the readings have been strangely stable, with no spikes, so am bit
unsure whether the tank is really going through it's 'cycle'.
Readings have been holding constant at:
Temp: Stable 25 degrees
Nitrite: 0
Phosphate: 0.1
Ph: 8.2
Salinity: 1.024
I would appreciate anyone's thoughts on the brown algae and whether the tank has actually cylced or not. Also, any thought on the setup and suggestions welcome.
I've added a few pics also.
Thanks and keep up the good work everyone
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This is a newbie here, although I've been around tanks and caught fish since a young lad.
After some time of thinking about it, I decided to put together my "cube" tank about 5 weeks ago.
I used Red Sea Live Reef Base Argonite substrate, which turned the entire tank into "milk" for about three days.
My father, who ran an awesome outdoor saltwater pond for many years, but which sadly which crashed some time ago, after a flood, helped me out by
supplying me with old coral skeletons as the base rock for the tank (unfortunately not live rock).
I used saltwater from the Port Alfred river (Kowie River), which had stood for 2 weeks prior to starting the tank.
The cube has an overflow which runs through two drip trays filled with fine shell fragments, before entering a submerged 'wet' tray,
again filled with fine shell fragments.
From there the water is plumbed down to the sump.
I added oyster shells into the first compartment of my sump, to reduce splash as the water drops down into the sump.
The next compartment is dedicated to the skimmer, which is home built and works "ok'ish", but I think I'm gonna have to buy in a good unit.
I then have two compartments acting as 'mini' tanks, as refuge, before the water reaches the final compartment where its pumped back to
the main tank.
Two weeks ago, I was given some violet zoanthids, columnar zoanthids and two smallish unknown brown brain corals, which,
although the tank had not yet fully cycled, I just had to add. They seem to be doing well.
The green algae had started to appear on the rocks, so I added some turbo snails and they seem to be controlling this well.
I'm now in week five and have added some smallish rocks with coraline algae on them, to try get this going on my bare display tank 'rocks'.
The brown slimy algae has just started appearing a few days ago, which is a bit of a concern, as I don't know if this is part of
the tanks cycle, or a water quality issue.
I have test kits for Nitrite, Phosphate, salinity and PH and thus far the readings have been strangely stable, with no spikes, so am bit
unsure whether the tank is really going through it's 'cycle'.
Readings have been holding constant at:
Temp: Stable 25 degrees
Nitrite: 0
Phosphate: 0.1
Ph: 8.2
Salinity: 1.024
I would appreciate anyone's thoughts on the brown algae and whether the tank has actually cylced or not. Also, any thought on the setup and suggestions welcome.
I've added a few pics also.
Thanks and keep up the good work everyone
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