Looking for advice

[Clownboy]

Aquapod 24G,
27# LR,
20# LS,
RO Water w/Instant Ocean
Heater between 78-80 Degrees

I have taken the bio balls out but I still have sponge filter and Ceramic media in there. I am in the 3rd week of the cycle process with brown algae on LR. Hoping for to start going away.

I want to do a mini reef with a few fish. A Clown, Royal Gramma, Yellow goby, and or maybe a Neon or purple Dottyback or Sixline Wrasse.

I will do weekly water changes. And will be adding "Purple up" and Trace Elements. Also a supplement to keep my PH at 8.3.

What should I add or take away? I want to work hard to make this a great and beautiful tank.

Please give any advice from experiance or knowledge that you have.

Thank you for any help!

[Woodstock]

Be very careful adding PurpleUp and buffers. They will alter your calcium and alkalinity. Such supplements should not be needed as both ca and alk (and trace elements) are supplied by regular water changes. If you choose to supplement, be sure to read the labels for the ingredients and test your water BEFORE and after adding them (if it adds calcium, check the calcium; if it adds a buffer, check the alkalinity, if it adds iodide, check the iodide, etc..... ). It is easy to get the water parameters out of whack adding them so be careful!! Use this chart to go by when testing:

REEF AQUARIUM WATER PARAMETERS

• Calcium380-450 ppm
• Alkalinity2.5-4 meq/L, 7-11 dKH, 125-200 ppm CaCO3 equivalents
• Salinity35 ppt, sg = 1.026
• Temperature76-83° F
• pH7.8-8.5 OK, 8.1-8.3 is better
• Magnesium1250-1350 ppm
• Phosphate< 0.03 ppm
• IodineControl not recommended
• Nitrate< 0.2 ppm
• Strontium5-15 ppm

Make sure you are adding a phosphate absorbing media (phosban or rowaphos are good) to help keep the po4 down and prevent algae blooms.

[fidojoe]

Just take is slow and be careful not to overload with fish.

The last 3 fish you listed to choose from are pretty aggressive, the dottybacks being a little more than the sixline, IME. The dottybacks will also not get along with the royal gramma. I would say stay with the sixline, as it can also help to maintain some of the unwanted critters that can appear on corals.

[Clownboy]

Thank you for the info. I have yet to add any supplements and I have the test kits for everything but the Iodine. I will go out and get a phosphate remover as well.

Thank you for the info on the fish. I was considering the Dottyback and the Six Line Wrasse for pest control. So I will stay clear of the Dottyback but I like the wrasse to control unwanted pest and to keep bristle worms in check.

Thank you for your help and please add any more information to help get my tank operating with top qaulity.

[Dragon Wrasse]

Let your tank fully cycle.....remember the smaller your water column the quicker your changes in water quality....I'm always tring to stay on top of my 5 gal.

[BoomerD]

That's a pretty small tank. You have a recommended max fish load of 5" adult length...Nano tanks are more sensitive to changing water conditions than larger tanks, and they will overload much more quickly, and when things go bad, it happens fast. I personally think you're aiming for too much fish load for that tank.

[magiccat]

HI
You may want to get a fish or two to help cycle the tank. Wait until week 5. Good luck!

[daveat]

no offense to magiccat but don't wait until week five, wait as long as you possibly can, once your nitrate,nitrite,and ammonia levels peak and then go down some people say you can add stuff, i waited until a little later,

you should also add stuff very slowly, fish loads change with conditions, some people can succesfully keep more fish than others.

be very careful adding the purple up, it is just a calcium additive, you can easily overdose since you don't have anything using ca in your system yet.

instead of dosing with additional trace elements try switching to a better quality salt such as Tropic Marin, it has all the trace elements you will need and as long as you do frequent water changes you will be adding in trace elements.

[Clownboy]

Thank you very much for all the help!!

I am in week 4 of my cycle and added a protein skimmer, Prosban, and Purigen to my filter. Someone said I may be overdoing it but I would rather be safe than sorry.

My Ammonia jumped up again to 2 or .2 (however it is measured, not high but it had already went back to 0) does anyone know why?

[Woodstock]

Strange... I know a skimmer nor phosban would have added ammonia but I have never used Purigen... my guess is that none of those had anything to do with an ammonia spike. Have any snails or fish died recently? Some salt mixes have ammonia in them too... did you perform a water change recently?

[Clownboy]

I have yet to put any fish or anything in there. I was waiting for the tank to cycle and because I had zeros on everything last week I was going to buy a few hermit crabs but after my check my ammonia and it had jumped up I decided to wait a while longer.

I did do about a 10% water change to get ready for my new hermit crabs.

I buy my water from the LFS, so it is RO water already mixed and tested using Instant Ocean as the salt mix.

I thought water changes were a good thing?

[BoomerD]

Water changes ARE a good thing, but not usually recommended during the initial cycle period. you NEED to have an ammonia spike, which will in turn become a nitrite spike to get the biological filter established. I recommend using a piece of dinner shrimp as the ammonia source, rather than live fish. It's cruel to the fish, and is much cheaper as well. You can just drop it in the tank and let it rot, or put in a mesh bag, piece of nylon panty hose/stocking, or even a container with lots of holes drilled in it. I always just let it sit on the bottom to rot, and let the bristleworms clean it up...