SLS C130 Tank

Hi Everyone, I've been wanting to get back into SW tanks for some time now. About 6 months back I ran across the Red Sea tanks and I liked what I saw. Well just this past weekend I happened to stumble across a C130 on my local Craigslist for a very fair value. I went to pick it up and found out that the owner was getting out totally. He was giving me everything he had in the tank, live rock w/ coral, 1 Starry Blenny, that we couldnt find when he pulled out his other fish, reactor, Aqua C skimmer, wave maker, and a lot more. So I stopped at the local LFS and picked up some SW (that they said has already went thru its cycle), so I could get it back up and running after I cleaned it.

I was able to get it running that same day. I did pick up new live sand, since the stuff he had need to to be cleaned badly, and I didnt want to let the rock and fish sit in a bucket longer than it had to. Here are the pics of the tank after 1 day of running. It was still a little cloudy.

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Its been running for about 5 days now, and as each day passes the tank looks better and better. I will get some pics soon, because the lights shut off for the night. We installed new bulbs in the hood as the old ones were very old. So we only run the lights for 6 hours at a time this first week. If you think we can run them longer just let me know. I just didnt want to burn the coral with the brighter lights.

I seem to find more green star polyps showing themselves and the coral on top has shed and is starting to get some very brilliant color. By the way can someone tell me what that coral is on top? The Starry Blenny is very shy when we come around the tank and it shoots into the nearest hiding spot. If we watch from a distance, it will come out and hang out on the rocks. I also have another rock with what look like the green star polyps, but they are only maroon in color, and slightly smaller.

Im wanting to add a clean up crew to the tank, but Im unsure of when would be a good time to introduce them. I also want to pick up a few more pieces of live rock, but Im not sure if I can just add that into the tank or if I have to cure it first.

All in all, Im very happy with the tank and Im excited to share my pics and experience! Im just hoping for no major cycle changes that may take out most of the tank.
 
So here are some pictures of the tank and also my very shy Blenny. He just didnt want to show his full self until I walked away. IMG_20160624_171231742_HDR.jpg IMG_20160624_171239909_HDR.jpg IMG_20160624_172133578_HDR.jpg IMG_20160624_172314224_HDR.jpg

Can someone please tell me about some mysterious stuff in my tank. Im wondering about the yellow stuff that is in the mix with the green star polyps of the first pic? As well as the blue stuff right above the red bubble algae in the below pic and also the green stringy stuff in the last pic. I know the bubble algae should go, and on my next water change Im going to pull that rock out and get rid of it, but if I need to try to clean the other stuff, please let me know. Thank you
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The tank is doing very well. I have a small diatom outbreak in my tank right now. The sand is turning brown and I have some red slime on one of my rocks. My water has been dang near perfect. My PH is at 8.0 and I cant seem to get that to rise up a couple of points. I dont think that is a huge deal, because all of the inhabitants are very happy.

I did pick up 4 corals (flower pot, blue xenia, zoa, and a pom pom xenia) and 2 cardinals for the tank. They are all very happy looking. My sinularia, I moved to the bottom of the tank and it seems to be much happier there. So happy I guess that its growing another stem quite rapidly.

The cardinals made my blenny come out and be a friendly little guy now. It will just hang out on a rock and watch us watch him. We also noticed we appear to be 2 Fancy Red Serpent Stars, that have started to show themselves. Among a couple of different baby snails, that are so small we dont know what they are yet.

The one question I do have about the C130 tank and for those of you that have them. How often do you have to add make up water? I seem to have to add about 1 gallon every 4 days with it. I checked to see if it was leaking somewhere and its not.

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mtsully71

Well-Known Member
SLS, your tank appears healthy at the moment. If you have not added CUC go ahead and do so. Liveaquaria has good descriptions of CUC you can add, get a little variety. Most reefers change at least 25% every month, hard to really say what to do, but for example when I had one I would change 7-8 gallons every 2 weeks, I am big on tank husbandry.

It looks like you have softies, so that is more forgiving. In your case 3-4 gallons every 2 weeks should be fine. Keep you skimmer at an optimal skimming rate and you should be fine. You can always use a toothbrush on the rock for some light scrubbings of cyno or whatnot. Lights 8-10 per day with your T5's should be plenty. Flow looks good.

With a tank your size, good water changes should keep your tank numbers stable and within range, do not chase them. Keep in mind, control of your phosphates and nitrates will contribute to a healthy tank

welcome to the reef family :thumber2:
 
Well I thought the tank was doing good. Today I came home from work and the water is cloudy. I tested the basics, everything was in range except for my nitrites are between 5-10 ppm. The fish are hiding and some of the coral's are not showing themselves. Yesterday I moved a rock that had that redish slime on it, which also had what looks like air bubbles trapped under it. I released some of the air bubbles, which now Im thinking was actually spores. Although I dont know. I have some red slime remover, but Im not sure if I should use that. Does anyone have any thoughts?
 

Oxylebius

Well-Known Member
With nitrites at 5-10, I'd say you had an ammonia spike and now you are having a nitrite spike. What caused the ammonia spike? Did something die in the tank?

Redish slime, do you mean red cyanobacteria? Red cyano gives off bubbles. This is normal for it. That is not the cause for the cloudy tank. Are you sure they were spores? Sounds like bubbles if it is cyanobacteria.

As for the cloudy water, there are a number of causes. Did you do anything else to the tank in the days leading up to the cloudy water, other then move the rock that had the redish slime on it?

Cloudy water can be caused by something died in the tank and is decaying, from algae spores (algae bloom), bacteria bloom, among other items. Here is a good website to read: http://www.marineaquariumservice.com/cloudy-marine-aquarium-water/

Based on the nitrite spike, I'd go with something has died and is decaying in the tank. And since your tank is still young and is establishing, a mini cycle has occurred and a bacteria bloom may have happened.

What to do about it? Look for something dead and take it out. Do a larger water change ~30-40%. If things don't get better or your testing shows high numbers then you can do a second water change at 20%.

Since you have live critters in the tank, you don't want the ammonia or nitrite levels to get too high.
 

Oxylebius

Well-Known Member
Can someone please tell me about some mysterious stuff in my tank. Im wondering about the yellow stuff that is in the mix with the green star polyps of the first pic?

Sponge. Good filter feeder.

As well as the blue stuff right above the red bubble algae in the below pic and also the green stringy stuff in the last pic.

Sponge. Good filter feeder

I know the bubble algae should go, and on my next water change Im going to pull that rock out and get rid of it, but if I need to try to clean the other stuff, please let me know. Thank you

Algae. Go ahead and harvest it out when you harvest the bubble algae. Look for a nice mix of snails in your clean up crew that would eat it. A turbo snail or two may work well here: Turbo fluctuosa, Astraea tecta, and Turbo castanea.
 
With nitrites at 5-10, I'd say you had an ammonia spike and now you are having a nitrite spike. What caused the ammonia spike? Did something die in the tank?

Redish slime, do you mean red cyanobacteria? Red cyano gives off bubbles. This is normal for it. That is not the cause for the cloudy tank. Are you sure they were spores? Sounds like bubbles if it is cyanobacteria.

As for the cloudy water, there are a number of causes. Did you do anything else to the tank in the days leading up to the cloudy water, other then move the rock that had the redish slime on it?

Cloudy water can be caused by something died in the tank and is decaying, from algae spores (algae bloom), bacteria bloom, among other items. Here is a good website to read: http://www.marineaquariumservice.com/cloudy-marine-aquarium-water/

Based on the nitrite spike, I'd go with something has died and is decaying in the tank. And since your tank is still young and is establishing, a mini cycle has occurred and a bacteria bloom may have happened.

What to do about it? Look for something dead and take it out. Do a larger water change ~30-40%. If things don't get better or your testing shows high numbers then you can do a second water change at 20%.

Since you have live critters in the tank, you don't want the ammonia or nitrite levels to get too high.

Thanks for the help Oxy!

I was wondering if that red slime was Cyano. It was definitely bubbles that came out, but I wasnt sure if in those bubbles was spores. I think the cause of the cloudy water is a diatom die off. The sand is looking more white than brown now. Of course I dont know if that is the case, but all of my inhabitants are alive and healthy. All my corals have come back out and appear to be happy, the fish are cruising around like nothing was wrong. Although there is still some cloudiness in the tank.
 
SLS, your tank appears healthy at the moment. If you have not added CUC go ahead and do so. Liveaquaria has good descriptions of CUC you can add, get a little variety. Most reefers change at least 25% every month, hard to really say what to do, but for example when I had one I would change 7-8 gallons every 2 weeks, I am big on tank husbandry.

It looks like you have softies, so that is more forgiving. In your case 3-4 gallons every 2 weeks should be fine. Keep you skimmer at an optimal skimming rate and you should be fine. You can always use a toothbrush on the rock for some light scrubbings of cyno or whatnot. Lights 8-10 per day with your T5's should be plenty. Flow looks good.

With a tank your size, good water changes should keep your tank numbers stable and within range, do not chase them. Keep in mind, control of your phosphates and nitrates will contribute to a healthy tank

welcome to the reef family :thumber2:

I do have a small CUC in my tank. I have 2 nassarius, 3 trochus, 2 margarita snails, 2 fancy red serpent stars (which actually just showed themselves recently, and I have no idea where they came from) and 1 emerald crab. I went to the liveaquaria site and I have to say Im surprised with what they recommend for a CUC. They say for a tank my size (30 gallon) and just the basic, I should have 10 scarlet reef hermits, 15 dwarf blue leg hermits, 15 turbo's, 10 nassarius. That seems like a lot and it only increases if you go to the deluxe group.

We have been reading on what each type of snail, shrimp, crab, etc... is reef friendly and that site is great for the info. We are just unsure of how many and what we should be buying. We purchased the above CUC, to help with the items we have in the tank.

The one we have been wondering about is a Sand Sifter Star. Good/Bad/Other?? We would like something to help clean up the sand. Any good recommendations for that?
 

Oxylebius

Well-Known Member
I went to the liveaquaria site and I have to say Im surprised with what they recommend for a CUC. They say for a tank my size (30 gallon) and just the basic, I should have 10 scarlet reef hermits, 15 dwarf blue leg hermits, 15 turbo's, 10 nassarius. That seems like a lot and it only increases if you go to the deluxe group.

For a 30g tank: way too many turbos IMHO. I'd cut that list in half and keep it to two turbos.

I always recommend having an amount of cuc based on the needs of your tank. Right now my tank does well with 2 cleaner shrimp, 5 nassarius snails, one fighting conch, one hermit and one Astraea turbo snail (66gallons). My tank is well established and doesn't get much of any algae growth except for film algae on the glass. The shrimp, hermit, conch, and nassarius are for eating any food that fall to the sand bed. The Astraea for the glass.

When tanks are young there is much more algal growth (usually for a year) and in the second year of the tank the algal growth dies down as the tank matures. Since there is more algae issues in the first year many lfs and online vendors want to sell you a large amount of cuc.

It is good to have a mix of different types of cuc. But, you don't necessarily need a whole bunch until you start to have algae issues.

We have been reading on what each type of snail, shrimp, crab, etc... is reef friendly and that site is great for the info. We are just unsure of how many and what we should be buying. We purchased the above CUC, to help with the items we have in the tank.

I recommend starting off with a few of a variety based on the size of your tank. The mix is up to you and what algae issues you are having.

If you have too much cuc and not enough algae for them to eat, they will start to die off. And then you can be stuck with decaying cuc back behind your rocks causing ammonia issues, etc.... Again, I recommend starting off with a smaller amount of cuc and then buy more as you see algae issues arise. You can target the cuc you buy based on the algae issues you have. Liveaquaria and many other sites will let you know the preferences of what the cuc like to eat.

Caveats:
1) Crabs are omnivores and will eat algae and other meaty foods. Reefsafe only goes so far with them. They can target your snails if they want a new shell. Buy extra shells the size that the hermits are and place in the tank for them. They will start to change in and out of shells pretty regularly.
2) Both snails and crabs will have preferences on food. Just because it is mentioned that it eats cyanobacteria, doesn't mean that it will every time cyano pops up in your tank. If there are other foods that it likes, it will eat those other foods first.
3) I'm sure there is more caveats, I just can't think of them right now...

The one we have been wondering about is a Sand Sifter Star. Good/Bad/Other?? We would like something to help clean up the sand. Any good recommendations for that?

For sand sifters the nassarius snails are good. The fighting conch is also a good choice. The shrimps will eat leftover food that falls to the sand that your fish don't eat. Better to be eaten then left to decay.

As for the stars: Tiny brittle stars are great to get into rock crevices. Be careful of some of the larger stars, some will eat fish, especially as fish sleep at night. Read up on any start before your purchase it.
 
Just thought I would update. The cloudiness has cleared up slightly, but there is a lot of particles floating around which makes it still look cloudy. The water tests show everything is good and in range. Is this still an algae bloom going on?

Also I believe I have a murder in my tank. I've lost 2 snails, 1 Trochus and 1 Margarita. I caught one of my Nassarius snails going to town on the Trochus. This morning all snails were accounted for, when I got home from work I had a Margarita completely empty. Neither of these snails showed any signs of being sick. This didnt start until we picked up 2 more Nassarius last weekend. Are the Nassarius known to eat other snails?

One other thing Ive been wondering. Those of you that have a Red Sea C130 tank, were are you aiming the main return pump. I've got mine aimed towards the center of the tank, and slightly down. Just curious is all.
 
I was able to get the water to clear up a little more by aiming my return pump at the surface and then aiming my 2 power heads towards the surface and crossing each other. The film on the surface of the water has gone away, but I still have small floaters in the tank. They aren't micro bubbles, but what actually look like sediment or something similar.

All of the corals are still very happy along with the fish. Ive found 2 bristle worms (red/blue/red)bodies. From my research they are not fire worms thank gosh. They usually come out at feeding time to try and snag some mysis. The Coralline is starting to grown on some of my bare rocks.

We did pick up a Emerald Crab to try and help out with some of the bubble algae, but it only hides under the rock and we have only seen it stick its claws out to eat. It actually moved off of the rock we put it on which is the one with the bubble algae.

Now for the bad in the tank. We are getting a fuzzy green algae growth that covers some of the rocks. I think the worst and not sure what it is (google was no help). In the live sand and on the bottom layer of the sand is green (like algae). Just on top of that is a small pink/purple layer the color of Coralline. My live sand is about 2.5" thick and this is from the bottom up to about 1" of the surface of the live sand... Thoughts as to what is happening to my live sand?
 
@straightlinespeed
How's it going? It has been awhile. Did you get the algae figured out?

Sorry for not replying, life got busy.

I have gotten it under control and its getting better. I got more of a CUC and most of the green hair algae is gone. There only have a few locations that are a little bit tighter to access for them, but they are getting it. I think overall I have 2 rocks that are a little bit fuzzy, but most are nice and clean. I have a small Cyano spot (size of a 50 cent piece) on one of my rocks that I thought was getting better, but as of yesterday it looked like it was getting thicker.

I also had some die off, which spiked my tank so I was battling that as well. I did find my quarter size emerald crab dead, but I cant believe that would had given me an ammonia spike like I had.

The corals are looking very healthy and my 7 head Duncan, is starting to grow 2 more heads. I did pick up a Diamond Goby to clean up the sand bed and it has been busy. Only down side is he sure stirs up the sand and just when the water starts to clear out Poof its all full of floaters again.

I'll throw up a pic of the tank today, when the lights come back on.
 
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