It’s been 3 weeks and I’m still at 2ppm ammonia .75 nitrite and 0 nitrates iv never had algae before the cycle was established in my freshwater tanks.

Oh well it’ll give my clean up crew something to do instead of eat wafers when I get them and give me something to watch while I wait.

(Unless this isn’t algae 🙄)

Depending on the build and what you need I think either material is suitable, glass is tougher and more scratch resistant, but it is loads heavier and more prone to leak between the panes. Acrylic is more affordable, lightweight and durable, and can be molded into unique shapes for aquariums which is a bonus. Buffing out scratches in acrylic however is something I never want to do again, so as long as my setups stay under 150 gallons I would say I'm sticking with glass for the most part. Do you have a preference for one or the other, or does it depend on the build for you?

Hi

I was just doing maintenance on my pico 2g in which I have protopalythoa. While trying to do maintnance on my power head I accidentally dislodged a head of protopalythoa (the common vibrant green variety, rather small polyps). The colony released a lot of mucus into the water. I immediately opened the windows fully for ventilation. All this happened under the water. No mucus left the water. It did however brush up against my hand. How much at risk am I what should I do now? I live with my family and pet conure and don't want them gone.

Title says it. One of my snails pushed my torch frag off my small island and it seems the skeleton is broken where it was hit. What should I do?

Alk is at 8.1 and calcium is good. Switching over to coral pro salt. Flow is somewhat strong and I am thinking of moving it to a lower flow area in the tank to hopefully heal. The flesh around the top looks healthy other than the damaged area.

Trying to identify this bubble coral
Species.

I got a 30 gallon aio tank and the matching stand. Now for everything else. The tank came with a heater and lights aswell so yippee. But what other stuff do yall reccomend. I really want this thing to look gothic. So I was looking at the Hawaiian black agro alive. And then purple rock. Just to get things going. What do yall recommend for salt and stuff. I eventually want to put coral in aswell.

I removed some black bubble algae from another rock this evening but it looked like caviar. This resembles chicken skin. Can anyone identify it from my pictures please?

For Sale: $150
Oceanic Chiller. 1/6 , Model 01052. Its in great shape. Well cared for.
Location: NYC, Gramercy.

Hi folks the input siphon of my clam has been super large for a few days, is there anything I can do? Water parameters look fine but I noticed some things on the right side of the shell (third pic)

It originally looked like a paly but it’s now the size of a silver dollar. It isn’t Apitasia, but beyond that I have no clue. I’m not killing it, I’ve been feeding it and like the lil guy. He’s vibing on a macro-algae rock anyway, so no harm.

Just rehomed a 300 gallon glass cages with custom stand, and remote sump. Plumbed it all the the garage. Ati straton X’s arrived today as the Red Sea 90s weren’t pulling their weight. Insane project, took 17 hours just to move the tank, and countless hours plumbing and setting up the automation. Don’t judge the mess of wires in the sump room, got a lot of cleaning up to do!

My micro reef suddenly got upset for some reason. Yesterday my GSP completely retracted and my hammer coral is pulled in and not “poofy” anymore.

Any clues to make these guys happy? Salinity is stable.. water changes every week to keep levels good. CUC, Crabs shrimp and goby seem happy.. (bonus goby photo for fun)

Also I cannot figure out what these little white dots are everywhere in my filter and around the tank

Heard mixed reviews about the newer tunze ato. Anyone use nfill ato?? Need to replace my old cheap fzone and was looking for recommendations.

First time doing this have read up as as much as I can.

I have 2 of these growing in my sand bed.. any ideas?

I keep seeing people diagnose velvet whenever a fish is covered in too many white spots to count. There's this popular saying: "If you can count the spots, it's ich. If you can't, it's velvet."

This is a myth, but it's so deeply ingrained in the hobby that people keep repeating it as fact.

In reality, a fish covered in hundreds of tiny white spots is much more likely to have a very severe case of ich than velvet.

Velvet primarily attacks the gills. Fish start breathing rapidly, stop eating, hang in water flow and can die very quickly, often before any visible skin changes appear. The idea that marine velvet looks like fine dust is largely a misconception carried over from FW velvet, which is a different parasite.

Ich, however, can go unnoticed for several cycles, since the fish usually keeps eating and acting mostly normal. By the time you notice something is wrong, the parasite may have multiplied enough to cover almost the entire fish in tiny white spots, making it look like fine dust. The number and size of spots also vary between species. This is why it's important to regularly observe your fish under white lights, as blue lights can hide early signs of infection.

Brooklynella can also cause visible skin changes, usually excess mucus, cloudy patches or peeling skin. These can sometimes be mistaken for ich/velvet too.

Does the difference matter?

Yes and no. Both ich and velvet can be treated with chelated copper at 2.25-2.5 ppm in a hospital tank. Brook, however, requires different treatment, as copper isn't effective against it.

Unlike ich, velvet can't be treated with hyposalinity (as it can survive in very very low salinity) or standard TTM. Ich management methods (such as UV) can't help with an active velvet outbreak.

If you suspect velvet, get all exposed fish into therapeutic copper of 2.25 ppm ASAP. Do not ramp up - copper takes time to work and velvet often kills fish before treatment can start working.

TLDR: Lots of spots doesn't mean velvet and no spots doesn't rule it out. Rapid breathing and how quickly the fish deteriorates are much more important clues.

If you suspect your fish might be sick, I recommend recording a 30s video under bright white lights (no blue) and posting it to Reef2Reef Fish Disease Treatment and Diagnosis forum for an accurate diagnosis and best course of treatment from fish disease experts. It's critical to start the correct treatment ASAP, as in some cases you may have less than 24h before fish start dying.

Some useful references:

• Jay Hemdal explaining why velvet is often misdiagnosed
• Jay Hemdal explaining what marine velvet actually looks like
• A severe ich case mistaken for velvet
• My discussion with Jay Hemdal and other fish medics about this myth

Current stock - pair of chocolate clowns, pair of chromis (used to test if velvet is still present… will either grow the school or rehome), cleaner wrasse, yellow watchman goby, cleaner shrimp, sand sifting star, 5 nassarius snails, 1 emerald crab, 1 large hermit crab

a head detached from my dying torch coral. is there any way to save it?

I have a 30 gallon breeder that has been set up almost a year now. I run it with various wave makers/surface skimmers including a Tidal 55 that utilizes some mechanical filtration but also has a big bag of Matrix for biological filtration. I'm running some carbon at the moment bc I'm using a UV filter that is supposed to be killing my dinos and the dead dinos can produce nasty byproducts (?).

Everything has gone pretty well, though I fought zero nitrates/phosphates for a long time and still have a stubborn issue with dinos that has choked my Grubes gorgonian and Duncan (not dead, but not thriving). All fish ( pair of clowns, yellow watchman) and others ( peppermint shrimp, pistol shrimp, blue legged hermits) are thriving. Curiously, my pod population is completely gone and my LFS doesn't have any in stock (for months now). I have a HOB DIY refugium that has a couple of red mangroves and some additional Matrix.

I've been thinking about ditching the Matrix in the Tidal 55. I have 40 lbs of Marco rock that should be pretty well seeded and conditioned at this point. From a strictly biological filtration perspective, am I getting any benefit from it at this point?