Getting serious, and dealing with problems a.k.a. HELP

[Jackie Blue]

Alright, just graduated and now have a ton of free time on my hands so decided to actualy for once take care of my tank

My tank is a DIY 75 gallon with a 14 gal sump with built in skimmer.

I have been bad to this tank,, really bad to the point where some of you would cringe. But I have decided that I want to set up a reef tank and to do that I need help first of all gettin my tank's ecosystem fixed.

Problem
1. There is a nasty almost dust like substance that is in my gravel, when I clean my tank it blankets everything and settles in the portions of my tank that has low water flow looks almost like a puddy color have gotten Sleeper gobbies and sandsifting sea stars but they die with in a month.

2. Algae, I have all kinds except the dark purple stuff that is good, got hair, that nasty slimy red junk, green algea, but none of that dark purple stuff that grows on live rocks.

3. Nitrates, Probaly is why the algae is soo bad, they are though the roof the color of the results surpased that of the little test kit card that you compare it to. I have done major water changes, cut down of feeding, all to no avail.

4. Summer is sort of here and I have no A.C. and last year it was not uncommon for my tank to be around 84-86 degrees. Had a really bad heat wave thing early this summer and I made my first investment and got a chiller (CL-280)

Whats left
3. blue damsels
1 Spiney Pufferfish
2. Clowns (family fav.)
1. Lawn Mower Blenny
and a Mushroom

Equipment, Magnum 350, Eheim 1600, Wetdry filter/Protien skimmer combo (can't remember pump for skimmer will find out and post latter) Flourcent lighting by, JBJ I believe. and soo CL-280 chilller.

PLZ help make my tank something I am proud of and not ashamed of.

thanks

 

[bleedingthought]

Do you have bio balls? Might be the source of some of your nitrates.

What is the rest of your water parameters like?

What kind of water do you use?

For how long do you have your lights on every day?

How often are you getting gunk out of your skimmer? What color and consistency?

How often do you clean your filter pads and anything else that collects gunk?

You should try and scrape off and siphon out as much of the algae (including the detritus of the bottom of the tank) as you can. Try using a turkey baster to blow off as much off of the liverock. Maybe even taking it out to a clean bucket filled with some of your old water from water changes and scrubbing the rock a little to get the really stubborn algae off. But you need to find out what is causing it to come up in the first place in order for it to go away in time.

Someone that know much more than I do will help you out also. But try to answer these questions and you can start from there. :wink:

Oh, and P.S. WELCOME TO REEFS.ORG!

 

[Anonymous]

:welcome:

1. Sounds like detritus AKA fish poop and uneaten food. Seems like you have quite a bit. You need to syphon it out durning your water changes. Also you may want to increase you flow to keep it suspended in the water colunm. In addition you may wnat to look at upgrading your skimmer. This would help get what is in the water column out.

2. 1 is porbably a contributing factor. Do you use RO/DI water. If you are using plain tap or dechlorinated tap you are adding nutriants that help to fuel algae.

3. See 1 and 2.

4. Chiller seems the way to go for you. Have you considerd a room AC for that room?

I would guess your wet/dry and canister filter are not helping matters. How long has it been since the canister filter was cleaned? At first look I think you need a bit more flow. A couple of Maxi jets would go a long way. On your lighting is the Normal output or VHO bulbs? If you are looking to keep just fish NO bulbs are fine.

 

[Meloco14]

How much live rock do you have? You mention gravel...I hope by this you mean sand. Is it fine sand or thicker crushed coral? And how deep is the sand bed?

 

[Jackie Blue]

Meloco14: I have about 20 pounds of live rock, and I have 3 inches of crushed coral

Wazzel: My skimmer works pretty well (when its clean) as for the detritus its hard to get it to stay in the water colum, most of the water flow is oh one side of the tank so is there any really small pump that would do the job of getting water flow to the dead spots of my tank.
I use dechlorinated tap, Just tested it for nitrates and its 10ppm (darn city) and what is this RO/DI you speak of ,, sounds expensive.
The canister filter just got cleaned I have the water polishing cartrige in there to help get the detritus out. As for lighting I have VHO bulbs and I am planning to make the tank a reef tank.

Bleedingthought: Yes I have bio balls,, thought those would help.
For water my Nitrates are 40 ppm
For Nitrites I am good
My PH is also in range
Ammonia is .50 ppm though, could it be cuz i just scrapped algae of my tank walls and didn't pick all of it out of my tank and now its decomposing?

I use tap water that has been dechlorinated, My lights are on for about 12 hours a day, My skimmer works for about a week getting crud out of my tank then I have to clean it again for it to work but what comes out is a brown almost like a thin cooking oil and smells really good (no not really), I clean the canister when the flow subsides, as for the sponges I clean them when they get clogged. Just got done doing a major water change and siphoned the gravel scrapped algae and all that jazz. P.S. Thanks for the welcom and help everybody.

 

[Anonymous]

You could use a little more rock. A non-hard rule of thumb is 1-2 lbs per gallon. If you like the sparce look that is good to. I never used crused coral before. I have had a 5 inch deep sand bed of sugar sized sand. This worked OK for a while then in got gunked up because I did not properly care for it. I when to a bare bottom tank and that worked for me.

For getting you water to flow a couple of Maxi Jets would help. If you do not want to add power heads you could do an over the back closed loop. If interested you can ask more questions on it. If you are wanting to keep corals you need to get the total flow in you tank 10-20 times the tank volume per hour, minimum.

Since you are using tap water I am guessing you are jus feeding the algae. Other that nitrates you propably have some phosphates and other things in there that will not help you. RO/DI have a large price swing depending on what you get and from where. If you are planning to stay in this hobby for the long haul it is a good investment. I think I paid $300 give of take for my 5 stage from airwaterice.com. Other places may have better deals.

How old are you lights? VHO are good light but after a while they need to be changed out. When I ran just VHO I had 4 bulbs. I would change two of the bulbs every 6 months.

Sponges in filters are not the greates things. They trap the detritus and IMO should be cleaned weekly if used. Personally I do not like them. I feel the same on the caniset filter. I would use it only for running carbon and clean it once a week.

If your skimmer is pulling out gunk that is a good sign. I am lear of the all in on skimmer/sump things, but that is just me. If it is working for you keep it going.

 

[bleedingthought]

Wazzel pretty much covered everything. Also, for the time being, you might want to limit your lights to maybe 8 or 10 hours a day to bring the algae growth down a bit.

Depending on how you're using the bio balls and how much, they could be upping your nitrates. You could slowly remove them, to see how it goes. Maybe 1/4 of the total amount every week or so until they're gone.

With more live rock (I have a 75G also, and about 80 lbs of LR. I love it and want more!) and good flow and considerable skimming, it'll be enough filtration.

Look into that RO/DI unit/water and meanwhile try getting glacier water (from machines that are serviced often) from certain grocery stores (publix) or walmart. It's better than house tapwater but it also depends on how often/well it is serviced.

And like Wazzel said, old VHO bulbs encourage algae growth.

Get your nitrates down a bit and maybe consider a couple of small hermit crabs and some snails to help you with the algae. Turbos and nassarius snails are excellent!

 

[Anonymous]

If you had some macro algae, maybe in an in-tank refugium or in the sump if you can add a light to it, that would help with some of the nitrate.

 

[bleedingthought]

If you had some macro algae, maybe in an in-tank refugium or in the sump if you can add a light to it, that would help with some of the nitrate.

Macros can help but might not do the trick for him. Might be used in addition though!

 

[waymack97]

if you don't want to spend a lot of loot all at once on a ro/di you can call culligan or another water store and rent a ro/di for about 20 bucks a month. then save up and buy your own.
_________________
Ferrari 308 GTS

 

[bleedingthought]

I've seen NEW RO/DI units going for $99 plus shipping. I'm sure someone here has gotten a deal like that and can tell you where...

 

[Meloco14]

In addition to all of the advice above, I would suggest siphoning your crushed coral during water changes. Due to the large particle size of crushed coral a lot of detritus can fall between the cracks and get trapped. When it starts to decompose it will release ammonia/nitrite/nitrate and can be contributing to your problems.

 

[Jackie Blue]

Meloco14: I do siphon the crushed coral during my water changes, cept that it never ends and if i add more rock and cover up more of my sand bed how will i get to siphon it? is there a trick or something.

Bleedingthought: 99$ cheep, and cheep is good. thanks. Now i am a bit confused about the bioballs, if i remove them then what filters my water?

Wazzel: I plan on getting more live rock, I am looking to get it though a mail order catalog that i get, or should i get it from the local store (catalog is cheeper and i have bought stuff from there before with no problems)
How do you properly take care of the sand bed when there are rocks on top of it?, What in the devil is a over the back closed loop? as for a total flow, is that through the filter or though all the pumps filters and power heads combined? No sponge filters,, well it will make cle3aning easier, One of the reasons i use a canister filter is to direct water flow to a dead spot in my tank.

 

[bleedingthought]

Now i am a bit confused about the bioballs, if i remove them then what filters my water?

With a combination of a good amount of live rock, proper feeding, good skimming, regular water changes, and possibly regular use of carbon, your water will stay wonderful. That will be your filter. A refugium will help even further.

You just gotta make sure to keep your socks/filters/sponges/substrate/rock and anything else that collects detritus clean. You'll be good to go!

 

[Meloco14]

Jackie, any sand under your rocks will not accumulate detritus because there is no way for it to get there. So you don't need to worry about cleaning that portion of the sand bed. A lot of people actually place the rock on the glass/acrylic bottom of the tank, and fill in sand around the rock. This makes the rock more stable, and eliminates the possibility of rock falling over if an animal burrows into the sand beneath a rock. Do you have any good books on saltwater aquariums? If not, I would recommend reading through one or two. It will clear up your questions about filtration. To give you a basic idea, bio balls provide area for bacteria to live. The bacteria perform biological filtration. Live rock and sand also provide places for these bacteria to live. Therefore, if you have live rock and sand, you don't need bioballs. Bioballs are more useful in a fish only tank with very little or no rock. Bioballs can create problems because all those little crevices can accumulate detritus. This then decays and causes ammonia/nitrite/nitrate. If you have good flow and few places for accumulation (by getting rid of bioballs, sponges, and filters), the detritus will not get a chance to build up. It will hopefully be skimmed out or eaten by a detritivore. If you do want to use filter pads or sponges, make sure you rinse the accumulated junk off of them at least once a week. HTH

 

[bleedingthought]

A couple of really good books to start of with are:

The Conscientious Marine Aquarist by Robert Fenner.

The New Marine Aquarium by Michael S. Paletta.

Other authors to look for are: Charles Delbeek, Julian Sprung, John Tullock, Eric Borneman, and Anthony Calfo.

Check out https://www.amazon.com/?tag=reefs04-20 for some of these if you'd like!

:wink:

 

[Jackie Blue]

Alright, so I have been throwing around the idea of a over the back closed loop. But i dont knwo if it will have the ability to get to all the corners of my tank. and at waht point is considered too much water flow? Also has anybody used a mail order catalog to order live rock?

 

[bleedingthought]

You should try posting a new topic for this. There's a lot to go into for the CL and it'll draw more people/opinions if you start a new thread with a new title.

But to start off, too much water flow is probably something high like 30X the volume of your tank. Or poorly positioned flow... But like I said, start a new thread.

Mail order catalog? Do you mean online vendors? If so, try premiumaquatics.com or liveaquaria.com for LR but you might be better off buying it locally, if you can. Might still come out the same price after shipping, curing, and time taken.