Tank Journal (Picture Heavy)

Ash & Mike here...

So here is our Journal, we finally figured out this is where we put a log of our progress ^.^

Journal #1:
*We are worried because we have had some brownish growth on our tank-- I am sure that it is because we have been using PurpleUp ....which I just read in another thread, that it isn't good for the tank, but our LFS recommended it... I am beginning to lose trust in those guys =/. Anyhows, here are a few pictures of it, not quite sure what it is, but if you know plz let us know if we have anything to worry about. ;D

*Our Snail on a Branch*


*Some of the brown stuff*


*Closer image of the brown stuff*


*Some weird reddish-brown stuff growing on the right side rock*


*Brown stuff on the sand*


*More of the brown stuff on the sand*


*Brown stuff on the branch*


*Some green-branchy stuff growing on... the branch*


*More... green branchy stuff*


*One of our snails (sold to us as "mexican turbo snail" ?!?!?, but he's got some... "hairystuff" on his shell... lol)*


*Another pic of the snail and these "trace elements" or some sort on the back glass....*


*The whole thing!*


*One of the bottles that the LFS told us to use to treat tap water before mixing it with sea salt*


*The (evil) bottle of PurpleUp that the LFS told us to use.. daily, one-capfull.... :-/ *

 

Hey you guys...looking Good!

You are going to go thru several different algae cycles while your tank "matures"...

Lots of that brown stuff you are looking at will go away with time, and will quickly get gobbled up by hermit crabs, as soon as you can get them in.

Thanks for sharing.

Keep us posted. 8)

(Oh yes...forget that "Purple Up" stuff, and any other additives for that matter, now. I know there is a great urge to do so, but most will do nothing for your tank at the moment, and might even do some serious harm.--- am sure most here have all kinds of bottles of stuff they wasted money on when first starting out...just part of the hobby I suppose :-/)

 

I think that maybee it could just be linked to your tank cycling , however it could be due to lack of wated flow in the tank as I had the same looking stuff acumlating iin the dead spots in my tank.
Hope that hepls

 

Nice tank, its looking real good, like a cycling tank should. As it has been said you are going through an algae bloom which is normal. I have one question though, are you using tap water or RODI water? If tap water you need to stop using it and purchase RODI at your LFS or purchase a RODI filter as tap water usually has allot of crap in it like phosphates that can make an algae bloom more than temporary. And there is not any bottled treatment that i know of that can get rid of it.

Those "trace Elements" on the glass are Snail trails... As the snail eats the algae off the glass they leave trails because they don't eat in a straight line and have no "laser alignment tools" If you have enough patience sit watch one the next time you see one on the glass, its actually kind of cool.

Also you might want to pull the snails that have the furry shells out of your tank and use a clean tooth brush on them in a small amount of salt water. That looks like hair algae to me and if any of it comes off it could spread in your tank and you don't want that. I do it all the time, or at least I did till I bought 2 rock urchins, now they attack my snails and crab and clean the shells off better than I could ever do it, and when they are done the snail or crab just crawls away no worse for it.

I agree with omard, hold off on putting anything in your tank till after its cycled. Purple up isn't evil, it actually works pretty good but I wouldn't use it every day. I used it in my 10 gallon, I put it in about every 3 days of so and had Coraline algae growth like crazy. And the Iodine in it seemed to keep my Xenia and Zoa's really happy.

 

looking good, i love that live rock formations!

 

I couldnt agree more with Omard. All that brown algae(diatoms) is normal and all the long hair brown algae is LHA that has died. Where did you get those LR with all that dead LHA on it?
When cycling, you shouldnt add any kind of chemicals to your tank b/c that might bite you in the azz later. The only thing that you can add is ONE damsel to kick start the cycling, but you already have that started. Let nature take its course, I know its a slow process, but its better this way. Goood luck. Luna

 

ash..........mike..........ash and mike =) Things are looking good. I would recommend not using tap water at all but using distilled (true distilled) or ro/di water. tap water contains a bunch of crap that you don't need in that tank like copper, iron, and all of that good stuff. Looking good tho. Nice job getting into the one thing that will break your bank account like a singles weekend in Vegas.

 

so we're nubs, but what is LHA? I tried looking at the Acronym post but couldn't find it... did find LHS but no LHA ^.^

--Yeah, I (Ash) didn't do that with my tank back home but the guys here at the LFS said that adding the purple up was their suggestion.... /big sigh.... :-/ ... Starting not to like them more and more.

--We have scrubbed the lil furry snail of his fur coat, and he seems to be scared, he is sitting in his shell inside the tank now... hope the brushing didn't traumatize him too much!... We will try our best to find "RODI" water... Hopefully it won't be too hard to find... I was trying to convince Mike into buying the premixed ones from the lfs, but seeing as the lfs has been not the best source of knowledge... >.> Anywhos, thanks again for the responses!!

<3 !

 

He will be fine just taking him out of the tank will cause him to clam up. Give him a little while and he will be trucking right along!

LHA = long hair algae the stuff you just scrubbed off of the snail.

LFS unfortunately are in the business of selling products and making money. So some of them will say anything they need to sell you something. And unfortunately since you didn't know you bought it.

RODI or Bottled seawater is a MUST! if you continue to use tap water you will have nothing but problems with all types of algae.

 

LHS? local head shop? man am I showing my age, LOL so what does it mean?