Advice wanted!

AaronOwens · 11/09/2016, 05:50 PM

Hey all! I have had this tank set up for around 10-12 months now and everything is looking great! Just a few things !

- My Coraline has only just begun growing (As seen in picture below) - It was super slow at first, but now it's noticeably different every single day!Is this normal??

- Now I haven't done a water param test to back this up (Making this post in a boring uni lecture), but I've noticed that my sand is getting a tiny bit brown about a week after a water change which is new and never happens?? The only livestock I have is 2 Clowns, 2x hermits (More on the way, waiting for LFS) , 2 turbo snails , 5 peppermint shrimp & corals include maybe 20 mushies which are reproducing RAPIDLY, a 'brain coral' (?) & a torch! My filtration includes a sump, located under the tank which goes through a filter sock, protein skimmer, live rock + chaeto and returns to the tank.. Is this adequate? or should I be looking at some more!?

I just want to make sure my water Params are PERFECT before i start adding more coral & fish as I do not want anything to suffer at all, although the clowns are super happy & quite piggy lol..

P.s as a side note, I have this snail / slug looking things that breed on the class of the tank .. they litter the glass with eggs and it's kind of hard to get off.. any ideas?

skiingfast · 11/09/2016, 07:14 PM

You may have a lot of calcium encouraging the coralline growth.

Snail eggs on the glass is normal. Do you have a picture of them, it may not be from the turbo snails.

Do you have good flow over the sand to keep things from growing on it?

thegrun · 11/09/2016, 08:44 PM

Some algae and diatom growth is to be expected. What are your phosphate and nitrate levels?

AaronOwens · 11/10/2016, 03:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thegrun

Some algae and diatom growth is to be expected. What are your phosphate and nitrate levels?

Haven't actually got a phosphate kit but last time i checked my nitrates they were 0-5ppm.. will do another test and let you know!

AaronOwens · 11/10/2016, 03:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by skiingfast

You may have a lot of calcium encouraging the coralline growth.

Snail eggs on the glass is normal. Do you have a picture of them, it may not be from the turbo snails.

Do you have good flow over the sand to keep things from growing on it?

Not enough flow to flast the sand around, but enough to blow the torch gently which resides on the sand, it just seems funny how all of a sudden the sand went a little brown??

chrisfont23 · 11/10/2016, 06:55 AM

Everything that you posted seems like normal tank maturation to me.

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pisanoal · 11/10/2016, 11:49 AM

Looks like good progress. The brown on the sand is likely diatoms and will get better with time. Are you vacuuming the sandbed with water changes? Sometimes I will get a light diatom bloom after doing that as it disturbs some of the bacterial populations.

The slug/snail like things sound like stomatella snails, although they wont lay eggs on the glass. They will climb to the top of a rock and spew reproductive stuff into the water. Its actually really cool to watch. They look like a slug with a half shell on top.

Sk8r · 11/10/2016, 11:54 AM

JUst did a post on water testing that may help you. Coralline depends on calcium and magnesium availability at a proper alkalinity. That post explains it.

11/10/2016, 11:54 AM	#8
Sk8r RC Mod Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Spokane WA Posts: 34,628 Blog Entries: 55	JUst did a post on water testing that may help you. Coralline depends on calcium and magnesium availability at a proper alkalinity. That post explains it. __________________ Sk8r Salinity 1.024-6; alkalinity 8.3-9.3 on KH scale; calcium 420; magnesium 1300, temp 78-80, nitrate .2. Ammonia 0. No filters: lps tank. Alk and cal won't rise if mg is low. Current Tank Info: 105g AquaVim wedge, yellow tang, sailfin blenny,royal gramma, ocellaris clown pair, yellow watchman, 100 microceriths, 25 tiny hermits, a 4" conch, 1" nassarius, recovering from 2 year hiatus with daily water change of 10%.

11/09/2016, 07:14 PM	#2
skiingfast Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2016 Posts: 217	You may have a lot of calcium encouraging the coralline growth. Snail eggs on the glass is normal. Do you have a picture of them, it may not be from the turbo snails. Do you have good flow over the sand to keep things from growing on it?

11/09/2016, 08:44 PM	#3
thegrun Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Garden Grove, Ca Posts: 17,023	Some algae and diatom growth is to be expected. What are your phosphate and nitrate levels?

11/10/2016, 06:55 AM	#6
chrisfont23 Reef Monster Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: Long Island Posts: 1,343	Everything that you posted seems like normal tank maturation to me. Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

11/10/2016, 11:49 AM	#7
pisanoal Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2014 Posts: 705	Looks like good progress. The brown on the sand is likely diatoms and will get better with time. Are you vacuuming the sandbed with water changes? Sometimes I will get a light diatom bloom after doing that as it disturbs some of the bacterial populations. The slug/snail like things sound like stomatella snails, although they wont lay eggs on the glass. They will climb to the top of a rock and spew reproductive stuff into the water. Its actually really cool to watch. They look like a slug with a half shell on top.