New To This.....Help Please

[newreefbishop]

First of tank is going great so far....Using GARF setup everything is running smooth, levels are all at Zero, PH is at 8.2 and temp is about 81.5 in afternoon with lights on after 12 hrs....

First thing is I want to file a missing Yellow Belly Damsel Report. Last night before lights came on, fish was there, when I fed this afternoon all, but that one showed up. Dont want to disturb sand bed or rocks so I have decided to hope he shows back up. Has any one else experienced this?

Second thing, is I seem to have some redish slime growing in the refugium. I will watch it for another day or so and cut back on feedings to see what happens.....

And last thing has anyone ever used Purple Up? What are your opinions.....

[newreefbishop]

Any help?

[Kevinnap]

I have had fish disappear, but they were new fish to the tank, and may not have been too healthy to begin with. How long was the fish in your tank? How long has your tank been setup? The reddish slime could be due to lack of flow through the refugium, but without more information, it is hard to determine.

[masterqaz]

redish slime is most likely Cyano bacteria or possibly Diatom algea but seemingly that its a new tank my bet in the cyano, which btw can come in reds, browns, and greens. It's caused by low flow, phos, nutrients, nitrates, excessive light. Any combo of those usuall result in it. I wouldn't worry about the slime in the fuge or flow problems in the fuge, fuges should generally have a slow flow so that the nutients in the water can be absorbed by the algeas in which grow in there.

[AZDesertRat]

Its very common to see algae blooms in new setups as they go through their maturation cycle. I remember going through brown diatoms, red slime, green hair, bryopsis and bubble algae before it was all over. And that was using nothing buy RO/DI from the very beginning.
Are you using RO/DI water? Its probably the best thing you can do for your tank as far as lending some stability. Its the most critical part of your tank and with your own RO/DI you know the water is not only good but the same each time you add it.

[masterqaz]

Quick question to AZDesertRat, the bryopsis you had in your tank, is it still there or did it die off or just plain old got eaten by something. If it did get eaten by something, what was it? I say this because i have come across it in some clients tanks and i still havent ever seen something that ate it.

[AZDesertRat]

The only thing I found that ate it was lettuce nudibranchs. They did a good job but will starve after its gone as I couldn't find anything else they would eat.

[oonycxwilloo]

well i bought 3 harlequin shrimps and the next day i ended up with 1...a few months later i cleaned out my tank (rocks and everything..) still couldn't find the body or the living thing

[newreefbishop]

I have yet to find body, Tank has been running for about 2 weeks, which under normal circumstances would be crazy I know, but considering I used live sand, and bought LR from an existing tank....colonies are already there.....there are three fish in tank or at least where three fish....now down to two....looked extremely healthy at last feeding. No parasites, with powerheads roughly 1000 GHP flow rate.

As far as flow through refugium/sump I have a ViaAqua pump rated at 400+ with about 3 feet of head which probably cuts it to about 290 or so, its a 65 gal so I should be good there, the sump is divided into 4 sections, return to sump, protien skimmer, refugium, return to tank. It is set in a way that only the water from the protien skimmer flows into the refugium, after going through some activated carbon, so water should be ultra pure and almost divoid of excess nutrients, which should then be eaten up by macroalgea, the only place im seeing this red slime is in refugium.


What about Purple Up? Has anyone used this?