75 Gallons Fishtank Issues - I really need help...

[Alexandru B]

Hi Everybody I manage to put together a video that explains my tank and I also have written on this post kinda what happen with the tank.

I really need some help. I am not sure if I have setup everything correctly and if my water parameters are ok or if I take them the right way. I live in San Francisco and it would be good if somebody can come and check everything.

I have a 75 gallon fish tank and a skimmer with a 3 room refugium (I am not sure if the skimmer works how it suppose to work. I see bubbles and everything but not sure how it should be exactly).
I also have a wave-maker and not sure where would be a good place to place it to not disturb the corals.

I think I even killed 2 trochus snails I have no clue how they died... They felt from the glass then I think they ware not able to turn and when I turned them they ware not moving anymore.

I recently bought like 12 corals, and all the corrals frags are closed. Not sure what to do anymore. And it's been like 12 day's since they are close they want to open a little then they close. I think 1 of them died already not sure about the rest.

I have to say I watched over 60 hours of youtube videos but still not sure if I have all the prices correctly. I have attached some pictures so that you can see my tank. I really spent over 90 hours in the past 4 weeks to prepare everything and arrange everything, and I don't know what to do anymore.

Here is a link with a video that I just did that shows you my tank:


1) The saltwater tank was setup on 16 of December 2018 - I had over 50% of the original tank water and the live-rock & sand was there from the previous owner.

2) On 24 Of December I have added 10 Corals mostly all of them ware Zoanthids.

3) On the same day 1 of the corrals did not had a plug and my wave-maker blew the coral away and I had to move my rocks to find him. After I moved almost half of my rocks I still did not find it and then I took my wave-maker and I blew the corals from the rocks but a lot of sand got moved in the process.

4) When I placed the corals in the water they got acclimated and I had a few of them that opened up.

5) I also did some water tests but I did them wrong and I start dosing magnesium and calcium and that was bad. I think now they are still higher. Not sure why my but alkalinity is high as well.

See my current readings on the link bellow: https://www.aquaticlog.com/aquariums/axelavi33/1/parameters.

6) After I placed the wave-maker back to his position it dropped and I was not home and it blew a lot of the sand from my tank until I got back.

7) I did like 20 gallons water change on 12.28.2018 but I see my Calcium, Magnesium and Alkalinity are still high.

I had a shrimp in the main tank and it was alive for like 2 weeks but it died on 1.3.2019

Overview links:

Here is a link with a video that I just did that shows you my tank:


Here is a better video of my corals:


Zoanthids coral image: - Not sure why the coral skin looks so bad and wrinkly.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Rak-06Dkbd4VWIrETMRhraP-Jju58o3J

Fish Tank Image:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=137dyull4Ypp4CDtFCfLxF1olbELgvIlU

Sum Image: - is the foam to tick or am I suppose to have it lighter? or maybe is not good like this. Maybe in the video shows a better view.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1lthwi2x7J8Dx7Zxetm8QpbJGXYoXS_AA

Here are the water parameters that I have:
https://www.aquaticlog.com/aquariums/axelavi33/1/parameters

I also have a 10 gallons quarantine fish tank.

Thank you! Please let me know what I can do to improve the quality of my main display.

 

[Mal11224]

Not sure where to start. Welcome to R2R. You used the same original rock from this tank. Not sure how long it was sitting but your tank appears to be going through a minor cycle. You have traces of ammonia in your tank and your nitrates doubled in a matter of days. As far as calcium, Alk and magnesium is concerned, you have to know how much you need to add and be able to keep your levels stable.
Your return hose has too much slack and should have at most, a 90 degree angle into your sump. Skimmer looks fine but I think you need to let your tank run until you are reading no ammonia and nitrites. Need to work on stability. I would not add cal, Alk and mag until your tank stabilizes. This also means not adding corals and fish to the tank as well. Sorry for your troubles. It will get better.

 

[Erica-Renee]

I agree with the above,, NOTHING Good happens to a Reef Aquarium Fast, Bad things happen when you Try to fix self regulating issues with a Tank still trying to find its stable place.
At this point there is more then one thing going on.. First moving a tank from one place to another that has been established can often take longer to become stable again. Also doing those big water changes and also dosing without a Base to calculate from only adds more issues.
Let the tank run. I suggest keeping the lights at a lowest level you can for you inhabitants , Do 20% water changes bi weekly and testing once a week. Do not dose anything in the tank. The length of time it takes for the tank to become stable will depend on factors like how wee maintenance was kept up on the old system before it was moved, How long sand and rock were allowed to to be without water or water circulation, How Dirty the sand was , If you rinsed it out or not and so on ..

Reef Keeping is Like a Exciting Turtle race .

Good Luck

 

[OriginalUserName]

Making rushed changes to try and fix something can often be worse than doing nothing.

Start from the top. Temp and salinity. Don't stress about mag and calc yet, especially with those corals. Take a water sample into a local store to make sure you are on track. Your pics aren't working but based on the video it's possible your LPS are getting too much flow. Hard to see. Since you are using old rock and sand you probably caused a big cycle (and since you lost inverts), ammonia and nitrites/nitrates may be very high. Test those as well.

 

[JBKReef]

Welcome to R2R and the hobby.

The above recommendations are important but let me throw a couple more in.

First you need to do a water change on the quarantine tank asap. The ammonia badge was reading ammonia and thats why the fish are not doing so well. Additionally the fire fish looks beat up pretty bad, I'm going to guess he's getting beat up by the clown. What medications are you dosing into the QT tank? The mandarin will probably only eat copopods, are you dosing those? I would suggest adding some pieces of PVC pipe into the QT so the fish have some places to hide. They can be picked up super cheap from Home Depot/ Lowes get some funky shamped shoulders and connectors for like $10.

On your main tank, stop dosing sugar, alk, mag (anything really) Water changes will take care of the nitrate problem. Stability is key and you can get that by several large water changes now then smaller weekly water changes. With the drain for your skimmer, its looping/angling up before going into the container So i could imagine it wont drain properly.

Where do you get your saltwater from? Do you use RO/DI water?

 

[Alexandru B]

Welcome to R2R and the hobby.

The above recommendations are important but let me throw a couple more in.

First you need to do a water change on the quarantine tank asap. The ammonia badge was reading ammonia and thats why the fish are not doing so well.
I do water changes every 2 days. I do about 40% water change almost. Is a 10 gallon tank. I am afraid to do more water change.

Additionally the fire fish looks beat up pretty bad, I'm going to guess he's getting beat up by the clown.
I just separated the fire fish I did like acclimation box that only he is in place it has a decent size.

What medications are you dosing into the QT tank?
I used cupermine for 3 day's then I removed all the water and washed everything and after that I waited like 3 days and I put treatment for 4 days: API: E.M. Erythromycin, API: General Cure and ICH-X. It was the trio recommended: See image here: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0...rio-aquarium-co-op_929_2000x.jpg?v=1545017334

The mandarin will probably only eat copopods, are you dosing those?
I tied to feed him: 2 different types of flakes, live brine shrimp, frozen cyclops I feed them with the turkey baster. I stopped the pomps and placed food close to him.

I would suggest adding some pieces of PVC pipe into the QT so the fish have some places to hide. They can be picked up super cheap from Home Depot/ Lowes get some funky shamped shoulders and connectors for like $10.
I bought some, and also bought a 4" flower pot so that he can hide inside as well.

On your main tank, stop dosing sugar, alk, mag (anything really) Water changes will take care of the nitrate problem. Stability is key and you can get that by several large water changes now then smaller weekly water changes.
I tried to change about 15 to 20 gallons of water on the main tank every 2 weeks.

With the drain for your skimmer, its looping/angling up before going into the container So i could imagine it wont drain properly.
You advise me to make the return tube and pomp tube straight by cutting part of it?

Where do you get your saltwater from? Do you use RO/DI water?
I just bought some water. But before I was using regular water from san francisco. I used prime as well as I let the water sit for 2 days.

Thank you for the advice!

 

[Alexandru B]

I agree with the above,, NOTHING Good happens to a Reef Aquarium Fast, Bad things happen when you Try to fix self regulating issues with a Tank still trying to find its stable place.
At this point there is more then one thing going on.. First moving a tank from one place to another that has been established can often take longer to become stable again. Also doing those big water changes and also dosing without a Base to calculate from only adds more issues.
Let the tank run. I suggest keeping the lights at a lowest level you can for you inhabitants , Do 20% water changes bi weekly and testing once a week. Do not dose anything in the tank. The length of time it takes for the tank to become stable will depend on factors like how wee maintenance was kept up on the old system before it was moved, How long sand and rock were allowed to to be without water or water circulation, How Dirty the sand was , If you rinsed it out or not and so on ..

Reef Keeping is Like a Exciting Turtle race .

Good Luck

I did not rinse the sand and the rocks I was thinking it would be better to just leave them like that...
I dose by mistake because I did the wrong tests. Did not count the test solution the right way in my red foundation testing kit.

Thank you for the advice.

 

[Alexandru B]

Not sure where to start. Welcome to R2R. You used the same original rock from this tank. Not sure how long it was sitting but your tank appears to be going through a minor cycle. You have traces of ammonia in your tank and your nitrates doubled in a matter of days. As far as calcium, Alk and magnesium is concerned, you have to know how much you need to add and be able to keep your levels stable.
Your return hose has too much slack and should have at most, a 90 degree angle into your sump. Skimmer looks fine but I think you need to let your tank run until you are reading no ammonia and nitrites. Need to work on stability. I would not add cal, Alk and mag until your tank stabilizes. This also means not adding corals and fish to the tank as well. Sorry for your troubles. It will get better.

What do you think I should do now with the corals that I have there. The corals are there for since December 24th so about 14 days.
I am concern that I will kill all my corals. Here is how my zoa is looking like: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Rak-06Dkbd4VWIrETMRhraP-Jju58o3J/view

I was thinking to setup a new 10 gallon tank and try to find somebody that can give me some establish water and place all my corals there but not sure if I should move them there now... I know that they are not a lot of them, and not that expensive, but I really care about them.

Thanks for the advice