# New Tank Syndrome



## Manny

Hey all! So I haven't posted anything in a few days. I have been enjoying my new aquarium too much and stayed away from my computer. So let me go over a few things that have happened.
I will start by telling you a little story:
I always planned on starting my tank off with a pair of ocellaris. I did crazy research on them! My wife always supported me in building my aquarium and sometimes would sit down with me and read what I was researching. After I figured out that I could keep a black ocellaris with an orange, my heart was set to by one of each. 3 days after my tank cycled, I went and bought my clownfish. Sadly, the store only had 1 black ocellaris and it looked to already be at max size. I ususally like to by something small and watch it grow (like reading a book series or playing a video game series, you always have to start from the beginning). I purchased my orange ocellaris and went home. I drip acclimated him for 2 hours before putting him in my tank. He has been happy ever since. Along with researching clowns, I was also wondering about what my first corals would be. I kinda had my mind set on candy cane corals. Once again, my wife was watching me research this. I started reading on forums and came to the conclussion, it would probably better for me to wait and let my aquarium run it's course for about 2-3 months before I added the candy cane coral. Well, I had a really big Anatomy and Physiology II exam coming up (6 chapters) and finals following close behind, so I went away for the weekend to study for my exams. I came back and low and behold, my wife had bought me a black clown and 3 candy cane frags. Here's the thing though. I don't believe my tank was ready for the frags. Nonetheless, I am donig my best to keep them, not only alive but healthy. I didn't want to upset her and have her take them back to the fish store. Another thing was that she confused the clownfish and got me a saddleback clown. When I explained to her the issue, she said she thought it might be the wrong one and talked to the person at the fish store. He assured her it would get along with my ocellaris. From what I had read, I thought this to be a big no no. Well I immediately called the store but they only had 10 minutes to closing time and I live 15 minutes away. The dude was like they will be ok together man. If one is aggressive towards the other, I will give you a different one. I didn't want to leave the fish in the bag overnight so we went ahead and added him to my aquarium and observed. To our amazement, those two love each other. They are always next to each other, swimming together, riding the current in front of the powerhead together. They aren't even aggressive when feeding. So that worked out. So far my frags look good too. They are a little more brown than they were when I first saw them but seem to be getting their "glow" back to them. 
Here's the real issue though. Of couse as with most new tanks, I have a diatom bloom. I am going to wait it out and let my clean up crew handle it. I don't have a shrimp yet but might go get one to add to the crew. But I read an article saying that you want to let your diatoms eat your nitrates and phosphates. That's essentially what a protein skimmer does. Later in the article is said not to run a skimmer while there are diatoms in the tank. Now this was a published article so I don't mean to discredit this at all. But is this sound advice? I just recently got my protein skimmer and removed my canister filter. Should I remove the skimmer for the time being? Will the shrimp eat the diatoms? How many shrimp can I keep in my 29gallon? I would really love to have a fire shrimp and a harlequin shrimp. Can I keep these together? Since I only have 3 frags, will they be ok with just regular water changes? If not, what is the next step to keeping them healthy? Kalkwasser? And how much?
Last question is in regards to lighting. From what I have read, I believe I should run my lights 10 hours a day right? How long am I keeping my actinic lights on and my normal lights on? 
Sorry for the long post. It's just a way of showing my enthusiasm. Any advice helps. Thanks in advance.


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## Manny

O I forgot to mention, I have been feeding my corals mysis shrimp through a turkey baster. I will feed them twice a week.


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## TheOldSalt

Okay, this is good.
Candycanes are easy corals, so you shouldn't have much trouble.
Run the skimmer. The more you skim, the less diatoms you'll have. Don't overfeed!


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## Manny

Here's a question for you OldSalt, how do I know if my collection cup on my skimmer is adjusted correctly? What am I looking for? I ran it overnight and it doesn't seem to have foam inside the cup but rather beneath it.


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## Manny

O and I took the saddleback to the fish store and got my black ocellaris. Just didn't want to take the chance of it killing my little ocellaris.


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## Ice

That is the smartest thing you've done - to return the Saddleback clownfish. Every marine aquarist will tell you mixing clownfish is considered a big no-no. If had you kept the Saddleback, there's is no doubt in my mind it will kill your Occelleris clownfish.

Considering I have yet started my own SW tank due to financial constraints at the present time, my plan was to get an Innovative Marine Nuvo 16 Nano tank. My livestock will be a clownfiah pair of either the Occelleris clowns (1 regular, 1 B&W) or Fiji Barberi clowns and 1 skunk cleaner shrimp. 

My corals list would look like this:

*( ) are suggested coral placements

Frogspawn (Bottom/Moderate-High) Clownfish have been known to host this coral

Zoanthids - BamBam Orange, Yellow Face, Purple Hornets (Middle-Top/Moderate)

Ricordia Mushroom (Bottom/Moderate-High)

Duncanopsammia (Bottom-Middle/Low-Moderate) - Clownfish have been known to host this coral.

Purple Asterospicularia Coral (Bottom-Middle/Moderate)

Candy Cane Coral (All/Moderate)

Button Coral (Bottom-Middle/Low)

Red Tip Tree Coral (Middle-Top/Moderate)


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## kay-bee

*...I read an article saying that you want to let your diatoms eat your nitrates and phosphates. That's essentially what a protein skimmer does. Later in the article is said not to run a skimmer while there are diatoms in the tank. Now this was a published article so I don't mean to discredit this at all. But is this sound advice?*

How I've understood things, protein skimmers are not effective at removing phosphate. However, they're very effective at removing organics which would otherwise contribute to nitrate accumulation in the tank.

If diatoms are using nitrates and phosphates as a fuel (in which to create more diatoms), they will eventually starve themselves out...IF those compounds are depleted faster than generated in the tank (that's a big IF in a new tank). 

I would think running a skimmer (to remove the organics and reduce the amount potential nitrate the diatoms have access to uptake) would only speed this up. 

Leaving the diatoms to starve themselves out could take time and only after it has bloomed to the max in the tank. 

I'd personally run a protein skimmer as well as carbon (for additional organics a*d*sorbtion), and granular ferric oxide/GFO (to sequester the phosphate to minimize) to rob diatoms, nuisance algae, cyanobacteria and the like of a fuel source thus weakening their ability to establish a strong foothold in the tank at the very start.

Does the article indicate which adverse affect a protein skimmer has on a new tank?


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## kay-bee

*Will the shrimp eat the diatoms?* 

From what I understand, no. Most of the shrimp in the hobby, like most crustaceans in the hobby, are opportunistic feeders. They'll sooner go after (and prefer) the mysis shrimp that your providing to your corals (and the fish food that you would feed your fish) than even batting an eye at diatoms. 

Obligate feeders such as harlequin shrimp would obviously not consume diatoms.

*Since I only have 3 frags, will they be ok with just regular water changes?If not, what is the next step to keeping them healthy? Kalkwasser? And how much?*

Yes. Water changes will be fine for three trumpet coral frags in regards to replenishing calcium, carbonates, and essential elements and minerals, etc. Kalkwasser (or any other additives) may be an option when stony coral calcium uptake surpasses calcium replenishment via water changes, but at this point that is a long way off. You'll need test kits to indicate when additives are recommended or not. For now, though water changes are fine.

Trumpet corals can become large colonies over time. I purchased a single head of green trumpet coral. This quickly became two heads:










Which then became four heads:









Then more than eight:









To become the colony on the upper right in this top view shot:









As colony grows so does the rate of calcium uptake (in which calcium supplementation becomes a greater option). 

*Last question is in regards to lighting. From what I have read, I believe I should run my lights 10 hours a day right? How long am I keeping my actinic lights on and my normal lights on?*

8-12hrs is fine, 10hrs in right in the middle of that range. I normally have actinics-only on for the hour or two at the start and end of the photo-period and then both actinics and 'daylights' for the majority the hours in between.


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## kay-bee

Manny said:


> Here's a question for you OldSalt, how do I know if my collection cup on my skimmer is adjusted correctly? What am I looking for? I ran it overnight and it doesn't seem to have foam inside the cup but rather beneath it.


I'm not OldSalt, but here's my take:

First, if this is a new skimmer it may take awhile for it to break in (a few days to a couple of weeks). After the break in period, the foam should rise up the neck and into the collection cup. You can modify the setting depending on how wet or dry you want the skimmate. Wet skimmate may be the color of apple juice, give or take. Dry skimmate is darker and thicker.



















I have mine dialed to where I have to empty the collection cup every few days.

Are you running your skimmer only at night or 24/7?


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## kay-bee

Manny said:


> I have been feeding my corals mysis shrimp through a turkey baster. I will feed them twice a week.


During the diatom phase you can skip feeding your corals as it contributes additional organics to the system (which you may not want to do when there's a bloom going on). 

Feeding most corals is very optional, most can do fine without direct feeding.


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## Manny

Wow Kay Bee, you're amazing. Thanks for such an educated response and detailed information. 
I had assumed my coral would be fine without additives since they are the only 3 in there. Just wanted to double check and also see if I could do anything to help them keep healthy.
Yes I do have a brand new protein skimmer. I am currently running it 24/7. Is this good or bad? My collection cup looks like that first picture you posted (wet skimmate). I thought this was supposed to fill with foam. I guess not then right?
About your corals, they are beautiful. Neither of the 3 that I have are single polyp. I have a 5, 4, &3 polyp frags.. The one with 3 probably has the largest heads and is starting to bud. How long did it take you trumpet coral to "get going" and at what rate do they seem to grow a head? Once a month? Once a quarter? How many years did it take to grow to the big colony you now have?
I appreciate all of your guys' responses. This really does make this hobby that much more fun for me.


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## TheOldSalt

Yes, 24/7 is the way to run a skimmer. Otherwise you have to keep starting all over with the breaking-in, and that's no good. Adjust the foam height until it's in the cup's neck. When new and clean, the bubbles pop and can't climb. Once slimed-over a bit, the skimmer can finally work.


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## Manny

This is what my collection cup looks like right now. Also, just yesterday my tank started filling up with thousands of bubbles everywhere. Where is this coming from?


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## kay-bee

Manny said:


> How long did it take you trumpet coral to "get going" and at what rate do they seem to grow a head? Once a month? Once a quarter? How many years did it take to grow to the big colony you now have?


This particular trumpet (I have four different trumpet coral groups in my tank) is the only one that started from a single head and was perhaps the slowest of them all. 

Timeframe-wise the first three photo's were each taken about 4 months apart (with the first being taken 4 months after I acquired the single head). The top view pic was taken 3 years after the photo above it.

It went from one head to over 8 heads in a year and to the colony size (35-45 heads) in about 4 years. In comparison, one of my other trumpet colonies started with about 8 heads and went to 70-80 or more in the same time frame. The last photo was taken in 2009 so the neon green is about 50 heads strong now but neighbor corals and overshadowing are slowing its spread.


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## kay-bee

Manny said:


> This is what my collection cup looks like right now. Also, just yesterday my tank started filling up with thousands of bubbles everywhere. Where is this coming from?


Ah, micro-bubbles. They're being generated by the protein skimmer. What type of protein skimmer do you have?


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## Manny

kay-bee said:


> Ah, micro-bubbles. They're being generated by the protein skimmer. What type of protein skimmer do you have?


I am using the Reef Octopus BH100. It started foaming as soon as I put it in the tank. I just don't understand if I should have the collection cup higher or lower


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## Manny

Ok so it has been installed for 3 days and I have already have to empty the collection cup twice. Does this mean that I have it too low?


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## Manny

And how can I post pictues the way Kay Bee does? Mine always show up as thumbnails.


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## TheOldSalt

What you want is thick slimy water, or at least very dark colored. If you get thin, clearish, runny water, then lower the level of the water in the riser tube to lower the foam head. It will behave better when broken-in a bit.


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## Manny

It had a very dark and quite nasty yellow color to it. It was slimy but can't tell you if it was thick or not. You think I should lower the collection cup?


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## TheOldSalt

That sounds about right. Leave it alone unless it runs over every day.


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## kay-bee

Manny said:


> And how can I post pictues the way Kay Bee does? Mine always show up as thumbnails.


I upload to photobucket and then post the photo IMG links in my forum entries. There are probably similar sites besides photobucket that can be used.


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## Manny

Thanks a bunch. I will go and create and account.


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## Manny

Diatoms are completely gone. If you guys wanna a good solution, buy branded trochus snails. OMG they do a good job at eating diatoms.


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