got ethical husbandry?

Sam's 10g work tank

Everything looks great! Glad its doing so well. An LED fixture would probably be nice because most of them are set up so you can independently dim the white and blue channels. So you can get it just the right level of blue for your tastes.

Any suggestions on a LED fixture for a 10g tank which I believe is 20" long?
 
I have a Maxspect Razor nano that is really nice. Its very sleek looking and has a built in controller for the light channels, so you program in sunrise and sunset effects and such.
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=26580

If you want to save money, a PAR38 bulb on a gooseneck mount would work great. You can't tune the white and blue channels on those, but you can pick out the color temperature you want for the bulb. For example:
http://coralcompulsion.com/led-36w-14k-Full

Also, a Kessil would work well. You could get an A150. Again, the white and blue wouldn't dim separately, but you could pick out what color temperature you like since they offer several different ones.
http://www.kessil.com/aquarium/A150.php

I am sure there are a ton of other options, but those are the ones I think of quickly for a 10 gallon.
 
After Felicia recommendend the use of Chemi-Pure Elite, Purigen, and some filter floss in the HOB filter, I purchased them yesterday. I plan on placing them in the filter today when I do my first water change with livestock in the tank.

I also purchased a refractometer from BRS.

Everything appears to be doing well.
 
One thing that I need to work on is improving my ATO system.

Which currently consists of a yellow Post-it on the side of the tank which marks the water level and a pitcher with RO/DI water that I use to refill the tank. :)

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I received my refractometer in the mail yesterday with the calibration fluid. I tested my salinity, which if my eyes are working properly, measured at 1.025. I'm aiming for 1.026, but since I do a manual top off everyday, I assume this slight a variation in salinity would be ok. Plus, with a weekly water change I would think that the salinity will never bee too out of range of my target of 1.026.

My tank has started to get a slight brownish/green film algae on the glass. I would say it is similar to green dust algae in a freshwater tank. Could someone tell me the name of this algae? I am not familiar with the various algae that a saltwater reef tank should or should not have. I have read that with a new tank such as mine this is still part of the maturation process of a newly established tank. Below are some pictures of the algae.

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Aside from the slight algae on the glass which I will clean off. Everything seems to be doing well. The 2 clownfish are eating and appear to be healthy. The corals seem fine to me.

My photoperiod on the tank is 6 hours. The light comes on at 10:00 a.m. and turns off at 4:00 p.m. I'm wondering if I should increase the photoperiod to 8 hrs? Are corals like plants, the more light you give them the more they grow?

One thing for sure I'm always learning. :)
 
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In my mind I was thinking that my tank should be over the diatom bloom. The tank did get some diatoms, however the tank is currently experiencing a much heavier diatom bloom. I assume that this diatom bloom is the one that many speak of when a tank is first established. The rock is very brown and the glass has diatoms as seen from the pictures from the post above.

I have 2 cerith snails but they don't seem to be helping much with the diatoms. Maybe I need a astrea or trochus snail?

I do have the Chemi-Pure Elite and Purigen running on the HOB, so I would think that this is taking care of any nitrates or phosphates that may be in the tank.

The other realization I made is that this tank has only been setup for about 6 weeks, so this tank is still very new. When is a tank considered mature?

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Diatoms will reduced over time with good husbandry. They are just part of every new tank and even established tanks can get it from time to time.

Just keep up on your water changes. Looking at the photo, the tank doesn't look bad at all. You should of seen the outbreak I had in my tank. Make you rethink the hobby, LOL.

Just keep at it and give it time. If you add a bunch of CUC its going to help but once your out of the woods for algae there will not be a lot for them to graze on in a 10g.

If you feel its too crazy for your liking, run no lights for a day or 2 and see if that helps.

I wouldn't consider a tank mature till at least 12 months. Even then, you are battling certain things.
 
I agree, looks pretty good to me. I went through a wicked diatom outbreak with the 10g nano I set up at my old job. Just keep up on maintenance and it'll be fine.

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The tank has been doing well. The fish and corals seem to be healthy and happy. I've been taking it slow and haven't added anything new just to make sure everything is stable.

My tank still has a lot of diatoms and I'm not sure why. I can't tell whether it is getting better yet. I'm sure in time the diatoms will go away.

I did notice a white long worm on the glass. I can't tell if it is more than one or just one long one. What is this? Is this a good thing or bad thing to have in the tank? I posted a couple of pictures of the worm below.

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Yup definitely snail eggs. I managed to have that in the sump of my old 140g. At one point I had literally thousands of baby cerith snails.

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I have been wanting to add some movement to my tank for a while now and have been really wanting a frogspawn. Mike (Coral reefer) had generously offered me a frag, but I wasn't sure when I was going to be able to pickup from SF.

I was at Neptune Aquatics today and saw they had the really pretty green frogspawn with the purple tips, so I purchased a frag which is now in the tank.

As of right now, I have my 2 ocellaris clownfish and have been wanting to add either a yellow clown goby or a shrimp goby/pistol shrimp combo.

I almost purchased a yellow clown goby from Neptune, but they were very small and when one of the employees feed them none would eat. So I passed on the purchase. :(

The tank, fish, and coral seem to be doing well. I do my weekly water change and my daily manual top off of RO water.

I did notice that some of my rock is starting to get a faint hint of green in different areas. I took a picture of it. I'm assuming this algae. What kind of algae is this?

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The diatoms are finally starting to go away. :) All inhabitants seems to be doing well and are healthy. My zoas and paly are growing. I see lots of new heads.

I'm waiting to acquire various corals before I really start to attach them to the rocks.

I've read so many stories about people's tanks crashing that I find myself waiting for something bad to happen. I'm new to reef tanks and saltwater, so I keep on thinking that my inexperience is going to cause the tank to suffer somehow. But thankfully, so far everything seems to be doing well. I just feed the fish a little everyday, do my daily manual top off, and do my weekly water changes. And just enjoy watching the tank while I'm at work.

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Glad to see its doing so well!

Unfortunately, tank crashes seem to just be an unavoidable part of our hobby sometimes. Don't spend your time stressing about it. Just take good care of your tank and hopefully it will do well. I worried all the time that I'd have a crash when I first started, but luckily I never did and finally stopped worrying so much. Then after over 2 years in the hobby and with my tank having just turned 2 years old, I had my first crash. So its not necessarily an inexperience thing :)
 
Vince (Vincerama2) was nice enough to offer me various mushroom coral frags from his tank, a lot of advice, and the chance to meet another great member of BAR. I received some really nice green and I believe red and/or purple mushroom corals.

Yesterday, I glued the mushrooms onto some small rock pieces that I then placed into my tank. Today, when I came to work I noticed that nearly all of them had detached and had been scattered around the tank.
I ended up just placing them in the crevices of my live rock in hopes that they won't get moved around before they have a chance to attach themselves. There were some that ended up moving, but were still on the live rock, so I just left them there.

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