Newbie 10gal nano start up.

[tedlepplin]

hi twisted sorry its taken so long for me to come back to you..

been busy fighting my red slime outbreak, and its been a bit of a nightmare really.

I'd ordered extra powerheads but they took 5 days to get here as we had a bank holiday w/e. By the time they arrived the slime went into overdrive and was pretty much covering most of the sand and growing in patches on the rocks.

vacuming it up wasnt working so good, but i did find i could almost peel/roll it gently into a ball to one corner then get in in a net only problem is it kept creeping back.

got the 2x 300l'h's down just last weekend, so got them in there pretty sharpish, and i can finally say it looks like the slime is in recession, but i'm far from out of the woods there's still a alot of it in there. big clean up planned for today followed with a 25% w/c........ and hopefully i'll see things getting back to normal.

[tedlepplin]

is leads me on to a question about skimming.

What is the best type of skimmate to collect?

I can run my skimmer on full bubble output and the cup will fill in 12 hours, and its a light brown but relitivly watery. I can slow it so it fills in just over 24 hours with similar results.

If I slow it down a bit, i collect really dark brown sort of sludgey type stuff, and this will take maybe 4-5 days to fill what is maybe a pint in the collection cup...

so I guess the question is too quick will waste s/w but how slow should I set it, should i aim to collect more volume of skimmate thats medium tea colour but watery, or aim for slower skimming and and pull much darker skimmate but take longer to do it?

[twisted]

from what i've learned, skimmers not only take out bad stuff, they also take out essential elements. when skimming thick sludge there is less of the good stuff taken out. the more watery it is, the more good stuff like iodine,mag...is taken out. i have 2 skimmers and have them set for sludge. hopefully someone will correct me if im wrong on what i told you but im pretty sure thicker is the way to go.
cyano is a sign of high nutrients. alot of times this is caused by overfeeding or just part of the cycle. wc's are the best way to combat it. ive been dealing wiith a little cyano myself. for me it was from overfeeding. yesterday i did close to a 50 gal wc and am hoping it solved the problem.

[tedlepplin]

cheers for that twisted,

its pretty unsightly stuff that red slime cyno and its got a weird texture.

im going to get to work on a w/c today and maybe look to do one mid week aswell hopefully it will start to die off...

i'm still trying to work out what it was caused by hence thought i'd start with my skimming. i'll prob move a few of the rocks that i can and have a look to see if i can spot any dead snails, nothing else is missing... would a dead snal cause something like this?

[twisted]

cheers for that twisted,

its pretty unsightly stuff that red slime cyno and its got a weird texture.

im going to get to work on a w/c today and maybe look to do one mid week aswell hopefully it will start to die off...

i'm still trying to work out what it was caused by hence thought i'd start with my skimming. i'll prob move a few of the rocks that i can and have a look to see if i can spot any dead snails, nothing else is missing... would a dead snal cause something like this?

its possible but most likely food that is rotting away,overfeeding,or just part of the end of the cycle. doing some good wc's will get you straightened out

[tedlepplin]

not been posting for a while but have still been busy with the tank. Cyno problem is pretty much cleared up but its been replcaed by green hariy stuff.

after speaking with my lfs they have suggested a dwaf sea hare, has anyone got experiense of these or any other sea slugs?

Saltwater aquarium sea slug page: Aquatic Connection

sg 1.026
ph 8.4
am 0
rite 0
rate 5

[Parrothead]

check phosphates, sounds like you got some green hair algea starting, good luck, stuff suc#$

[tedlepplin]

cheers parrott, i'm hoping to get it under control eventually, but got a feeling like the cyno its going to take some time to clear it up.

i can just remove it by hand and syphon it out using airline, works quite well but it seems pretty happy to grow back at the moment. could it still be another part in the marine cycle? the tank has only been running maybe 4 months so its still pretty young in the grand scale of things!

i'm hopeing time and patience will sort it out, still looking into a sea hare or emerald crab, but possibly leaning more towards the crab at the min.