Last attempt at saving my tank

[Anonymous]

the polyps open but no growth.

SHould I add another 1000 GPH of flow? A stream?

On top of the mag 9 on the return, 2 maxijet 1200's, Panworld hd40 on a closed loop to a Oceansmotions Squid? ~2200 total?

the only way i know to tell if there is enough flow is to look at the sand on the bottom and the polyps on the corals.
you have no sandbed but you say there is detritus settling on the bare bottom.
i would think some detritus falling to the bottom is inevitable and thus needs to be vacuumed out... but regardless, it should not be calmly laying on the bottom. if this is the case then you have a lack of flow, IMO.
and if it is too little on the bottom than it is likely too little on the rocks and thus a gradual buildup.

it's hard to place a certain turnover rate that will apply to any given tank.

 

[Anonymous]

It appears the polyps are moving but I do take the powerhead to the LR ans there is allot of detritus that blows out. The algae even grown in high flow areas.

I think maybe I should hire a fish tank service to come and an do this tank over after all.
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Dodge Wiki

 

[Anonymous]

I guess it's possible you have a significant amount of phosphate in your rock.
You stated you're using RO/DI but have you tested it's quality?

Before you tear your system apart, would you indulge me by testing your water from the tap, after the RO membrane, after the DI unit, and after you add the salt for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and phosphate? May only take you an hour or so. The last two being the most important contaminants.

If your incoming water is good, I would think you could test your rock by breaking off a small piece and pulverizing it with a hammer or something and adding it to good water. Never done this, so you may have to heat it to dissolve some, and then test that liquid.

I hope it clears up for you.

 

[Anonymous]

I do not have FW kits to measure the fresh water.

I have measured the TDS.
Tap - 350
RO - 35
DI(1) - 4
DI (2) - 0
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Honda S600

 

[NaH2Ofreak]

CA - 450
Alk 7.7 DKH

I would say that the majority of the problem is in the low alkalinity. Hair algae does NOT like low alkalinity. Stop using Oceanic salt. It contains WAY too much Ca which bottomes out your alkalinity. Use some buffer and get you dKH up to about 12 or so. That should put a dent in the algae.

Keep an eye on your Ca level while raising your dKH. It will drop as your dKH goes up. Try this and I think you will be glad you did. And, once again, get away from the Oceanic salt. It does NOT do a tank good. I just recently switched from Oceanic back to IO. Within a day of a 30gal water change with IO, on my 100gal tank, the UGLY BROWN calcerous algae was FALLING off the back wall.

Dennis

 

[Anonymous]

I will not use IO. The IO had too low of CA and Mag. When I used IO I coud never get teh CA abouve 300 and the mag above 850. I even used Turbo CA.

If I had a CA reactor then IO mght be good. Since i have only a Kalk reactor and Kalk does not raise CA I would be on the other side of the spectrum.

I had the hair algae with IO too.

Maybe another brand or I will go back 4 years and use Corallife - Never had a problem there.

Tough though - LFS sells IO (Crap), Oceanic and Coralife.
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Terrorism insurance Forum

 

[Anonymous]

Rob,
Are you going to "cook" it?
I bought a heater last night I am going to do at least half of mine. Do you have any filter what so ever (floss,sponge,sock) anything?

 

[Anonymous]

I have no filters/socks or anything on my tank. My sump was designed wrong so I cannot run any. I may buy a new sump if I plan on keeping the tank.
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Ferrari 400

 

[Anonymous]

Have you decided to cook the rock?

 

[Anonymous]

Still undecided. Still contiplating ripping the whole thing down and scrubbign the tank and redoing the whole thing. I am not sold on the fact that this LR got loaded and I will have to cook the rock again in 2 years.

Something cause this to happen. The LR when purchased came from different LFS's.

I really need to evaluate the tank and all the components before doing anything.

My checklist:

Skimmer euroreef ES5-3 - Maybe get a bigger skimmer.
Flow - Mabe add another closed loop adding another 1000 GPH.
LR - cooking or new and how much
Fish/Corals - What to do with them if I redo the tank or cook
sump - new one and who can make it
Lighting - Any changes?
CA reactor?
Existing Kalk reactor - keep or dump
Salt
Additives (CA,Mag,Alk, etc)
Maintenance plan - would really like to under stand this better since I must have missed this idea completely.
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BMW C1

 

[coralfarmin]

mabey I've been out the loop to long(not havin this problem) but I'd never cook my rocks..I'd just put in 50 mexican turbos and watch them eat it all quick..then if you dont need them all later I'd trade some

seems if you had a huge phosphate problem your corals would be spittin zoo..even then I would never cook the zooplankton life out of any rock the skimmer phosban reactor etc etc would keep that in check just my opinion

 

[coralfarmin]

you wont get a clear maintance plan since everyone has differant ones

I use straight well water no ro/di so could not tell you my method if you use city water

 

[Anonymous]

All that detritus is rotting, and I bet money if you export that, your problem will be reduced. Borrow a good canister with a micron cartridge, run it, and hit the rocks with a baste/ph and pump all that crud out. Let the filter export it.

I also agree with podman, if there is detritus on the sand, you don't have enough flow.

All the other ideas are good, but if your tank is saturated with goo, you have to get it out!

 

[Anonymous]

I agree. I do have powerhaeds that blow on the bottom. I just too a powerheads and held it up to some holes on the LR. allot of junk came out. If the LR had allot of pods and creatures, shouldnt they be pushing it out of the rock where the tank flow can move it?

Another theory is the following?

Since I have a 6-line wrasse, flame hawkfish, black cap basslet, these are considered pod type predators would they have wiped the tank clean of pods? I do not see any pods in the sump or overflow either.
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Mercedes Benz C292

 

[Anonymous]

I agree. I do have powerhaeds that blow on the bottom. I just too a powerheads and held it up to some holes on the LR. allot of junk came out. If the LR had allot of pods and creatures, shouldnt they be pushing it out of the rock where the tank flow can move it?

I don't think so. The whole idea that infauna will clean up everything seems bunk to me. I have tons of pods and critters and detritus sitll builds up in/on the rock. This is not to say I don't think they are helpful!

Another theory is the following?

Since I have a 6-line wrasse, flame hawkfish, black cap basslet, these are considered pod type predators would they have wiped the tank clean of pods? I do not see any pods in the sump or overflow either.

Maybe, but I don't think pods are the answer. I think that for one reason or another (prolly the set it and forget it idea) that you have a lot of rotting stuff in your tank. I would work hard on 'blasting' the rock and exporting the goo before I did anything else drastic.
You'll need to clean the filter ever couple of days and blast ever day, but in a week or two you should see a change.
If you can find a vortex diatom filterer that is the way I would go. A little more work, but better filtration.