Nitrate Spike in 10G Nano Tank

[zymeth90]

Hi guys,
I've started a SW tank 3 weeks ago. I top off with RO water every week when the water evaporates and drops to a certain level.

1st Week - Let the tank cycle, there's 1 three stripe damsel in it since i started.
2nd Week - Nitrate at 0.3, threw in 2 small cubes of frozen brine shrimp
3rd Week - Nitrate level going higher, Brown stuff growing on LR

Are these unusual?

As the damsel in my tank is really small, it cant consume pellets yet, so i mashed it up and the food has become very fine. During feeding, i turn off the HOB filter as well because any flowing water will make the food sink. Anyone have advice on feeding?

P.S: I've attached a picture that I took today with the brown stuff growing on my LR.

My previous thread : http://www.thereeftank.com/forums/f9...ml#post1605297

[Loverotties]

Sounds good so far!

[jenglish]

Sounds like your usual tank maturation, you may want to start topping off daily instead of weekly. You can do waterchanges during the cycle to keep any critters that came in on your live rock alive

[wharyat]

Sounds like all is well. Agreed with Jeremy's suggestions.

[cutietwo]

looks normal sounds normal too! lol. keep it up and it's up to you to do water changes during a cycle, but in a nano you would do a waterchange about once a week, so why not during cycling? It'll help the tank adjust.

[zymeth90]

thanks guys. The rock came with nothing on it but recently there's some fans growing on it i think. here's a picture of it, if anyone knows what it exactly is, do tell. when lights go off it shrinks, when there's light it will come out like in the picture.

[wharyat]

Tube worm. Harmless little filter feeders.

[jenglish]

^

[zymeth90]

As the damsel in my tank is really small, it cant consume pellets yet, so i mashed it up and the food has become very fine. During feeding, i turn off the HOB filter as well because any flowing water will make the food sink. Anyone have advice on feeding?

+ any advice on what nice fishes that will suit my 10g tank?

[jenglish]

For food I always feed frozen, if you feed pellets or powder you can soak it in a teaspoon of tank water to get it wet first.

For a 10, the most I recommend is 2 fish, if one likes to swim and one like to chill out on the bottom. Like a sand dwelling goby and a firefish. There are several gobies that will pair up with a pistol shrimp as well, making them interesting tanks. Liveaquaria has a section devoted to fish for nano tanks
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/a...t=1&page_num=1