Im starting over my tank I couldn't get the tank back right and lost most sps. I was not sure why the problems didn't stop,could be nutrient related or light or bacteria. Right now I have some zoas and a few lps like gold torch and blasto colony and the fish. and a digi that hung on through out. Im going to change 20 gals of water every few days till I hit about 80-100 gal. Just to rule out one thing how can I test for stray voltage? I don't want to do a complete 100 wc because the corals that are good I had since I started the tank and really don't want to loose them since they always looked good. what other ways can I keep phos low besides gfo and phos guard. my tank is too small at 40gal it strips the water. I have algae on a few rocks and green film algae that sometimes blankets the rocks, but the hanna checker always says 0 new battery new powder packs it this little checker even working? Any advice on getting my water back to sps quality. As I do these changes I will shake off the live rocks in a bucket and put powerheads behing the rocks on the bottom and siphon out the corners and behind all the rock work and re scape everything and vacuum the sump also. the sps I did have look ok but have really slow growth. I don't thing its weak lighting as I have 6t5 ati fixture about 10 inches above the tank .all the param test always came back good so low nutrient issue was the most suspected problem. how can I avoid this with out letting algae get outta hand. anyone who did this or something similar please share the steps you took thankz.
Starting over..
- Thread starter SteveZ15
- Start date
Steve I helped several friends going through the same issue as you. You are stripping your nutrients. It's that simple. Let your nitrates creep up. 5ppm-10ppm, even 20ppm NO BIG DEAL. Nothing will suffer, corals health will improve. Get po4 to detectable levels. .03-.05 would be good.
Trying to clear algae issues by stripping an already stripped tank will kill your coral. Faded/tan SPS. STN issues. No polyps etc. What you're explaining as a green matt covering the rocks sound more bacteria rather than an algae.
If it is indeed algae on few rock that you really can't stand, swap out those rocks. Algaes such as bryopis and even GHA will grow on certain rock no matter how much you strip the water.
If you rule out copper in the water, no electrical current, proper salinity and temp, then what I said above will fix your tank. You're over doing in. It's not as difficult as it seems.
I still plan on passing by, just been lazy for the end of the summer
Trying to clear algae issues by stripping an already stripped tank will kill your coral. Faded/tan SPS. STN issues. No polyps etc. What you're explaining as a green matt covering the rocks sound more bacteria rather than an algae.
If it is indeed algae on few rock that you really can't stand, swap out those rocks. Algaes such as bryopis and even GHA will grow on certain rock no matter how much you strip the water.
If you rule out copper in the water, no electrical current, proper salinity and temp, then what I said above will fix your tank. You're over doing in. It's not as difficult as it seems.
I still plan on passing by, just been lazy for the end of the summer
The nitrates been 5-10 range for a while. The sps had weird dry look and stn from all different parts on the corals birds nest digis. they have pe and the non stn parts have pe. I thought mabe the chiller can be contaminating the tank some how,but I cant check till it gets cooler. Ill try a test for copper just to be sure. It seems stn is more the problem. I took gfo off a few weeks ago didn't change water lowered the doser . Only 2 pices have no stn. I tossed most of the stn stuff except for one to see what makes it look better in hopes to find whats wrong. past few weeks I only fed the fish and tested alk which was 10. I took the heaters out thinking they are bad. Can the chiller contaminate the water? What should I do with the fuge its bb with some cheato that don't really grow. I have more coralline in my sump than my tank which is weird. How do I test current in a tank. I can borrow a fluke meter from work just don't know how to test I hate electric. Ill start cleaning the tank up tonight. I didn't like the rockwork anyway and the encrusted stuff I couldn't move either died or I don't care if I break it now.I eventually gonna get a bigger tank I want more fish because this tank is like prision.,everyone has their turf.. even the pj cardinal will attack a new fish,my clown either tries to host my hand or bite it off and the wrasse thinks my armhair is food so no new fish in this tank
OK cool, a fresh start with the right fish seems to be in order. I definitely wouldn't used gfo in your new reef. Not unless po4 is very high. You have me laughing at the clown biting off your hand and wrasses biting hair lol I know what you mean.
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