My 95 gallon tank

Ab_Bot · Apr 15, 2018

Hello,
New to the site and thought I would post my new tank.
I have had my tank up and running for 6 weeks.
4 weeks in I added 10 snails and one cleaner shrimp.
My tank is 95 gallons with a 20 gallon sump.
I added some chaeto in the sump about 2 weeks ago. So far I have had diatoms growing but not in crazy amounts, my cuc seems to get rid of it quite quickly.
My current parameters are
ammonia-0
nitrites-0
nitrates- 3ish- they were very high but the past two weeks I have done about 50 gallons worth of water changes. I want to it about .25
phosphates .02
calcium- 425
alkalinity- 8.4
Salinity- 1.025

I purchased 2 yellow prawn gobies 2 weeks ago but my LFS is holding them for me currently. I am picking them up this week to add to my qt I have set up right now but I am still debating how I am going to quarantine. I was thinking about doing the TTM, but I know that will only be useful for ich.

I also added some copepods from algae barn, might have been a little early to do that but I have phytoplankton I was feeding them, I would like a good copepod population and figured no harm in starting it early.

Think this is a feather duster growing on a snail, I thought it was kind of neat.

I also think I am starting to see hydroids in my tank, hopefully they don't become an issue..

I also think I may be getting the start of coralline algae, I hope!

I am hoping to update this thread as my tank progresses.

Thanks for reading and any suggestions to help a beginner is greatly appreciated

KJ · Apr 15, 2018

Looking good

sneub · Apr 15, 2018

Nice!

Ab_Bot · Apr 25, 2018

Thought I would do a quick update.

I have not added any new livestock since my first post. I did get a yellow prawn goby who has currently been in QT for 5 days now. He is doing well and eating a lot. I have decided to just watch the fish and not do any prophylactic treatments, I do have quick cure on hand though.

The past week I have noticed a pretty big increase in algae in my tank. Tonight I am seeing the start of cyanobacteria

. I definitely see some coralline growth but I am wondering what the green growth is? The last picture has a small green plant that just popped up. I couldn't get a great picture but was wondering if anyone could tell me what it is?

I think a big part of my problem with dino on the glass and my other algae is that I only have 10 snails right now. I am picking up more tomorrow but won't have them in my tank for 76 days because I plan on QTing them.

The biggest issue I am having right now is trying to get my water parameters stable. The past week I have done a 30 gallon water change, 15 gallons on the 21st and 15 gallons on the 24th.

Nitrates continue to be higher than I want. My good test kit only goes to 4ppm and its off the charts, the api test kit usually reads about 15-20 ppm.
Salinity- 1.025, have had issues with this before I bought a new refractometer
magnesium 4/23- 1243 tonight is 1275
Alkalinity 4/23- 7.6 tonight 10.4. don't understand the big jump here
Caclium 4/23- 400 tonight 395
Phosphates appear to be .03 consistently

Some of the variations could be user error but I think just testing often will help me to be more accurate. Any advice is appreciated

Thanks