About to call it quits,

[actik]

Had a 20g AIO tank for about a year, 1x shrimp 2x clown fish and a few easy to keep coral. the tank did okay i decided to upgrade to a 75 gallon... ive had nothing but issues. I let the tank fully cycle added fine fiji pink sand ( prob wont go fine sand again) and the rocks/fish from my 20g everything was fine. I then later on added a midas blenny... he passed, no idea what the issue was big eater very active just woke up and he was dead. After a while i then purchased a yellow clown goby he also did well... then my gf suprised me and purchased 1 porcupine puffer and a desjardini tang. Everything was doing well for up to 2 months, then had those 2 big monster fish for all the 3rd month. Got a huge diatom bloom, continued to do 20% water changes and my fish are now dying off... And my corals are closed up.

i have x2 sunsun 840 ish gph powerheads
1x hydor 240 gph powerhead
x2 HOB 350 penguin filters.
Protein skimmer
eheim 300w heater.
And an ATO system.

Parameters are
Temperature 78
Salinity 1.025
Ammonia 0
nitrates are less then 5 ppm
PH is 8.2-8.4
Phosphates .2 ppm or less.

please help... i love the hobbie and wish i could just be success full at it...really dont know whats going on.

 

[Reef.]

Is the puffer reef safe? Could be attacking the coral/smaller fish.

Those are 2 big fish, no wonder you got a bloom.

You could always up your water changes if you spot something is not going right.

Presents are good but those 2 fish for a 75g reef maybe are not the best.

 

[shadesatsetbreak]

Pull your powerheads and inspect for any possible leaks, maybe some rust is getting into the water or there is an exposed power cable. Also check your heater for possible exposed power source. Electricity and rust are not good for tank inhabitants. Grab a sample of water and send it in for a full analysis, that might reveal some issues. For instance, if you have high levels of tin in your water as a result of something rusting, that could cause a lot of issues.

And in the future, understand you get what you pay for. My first instinct is to blame poor Chinese manufacturing QA on the sunsun powerheads and maybe they're rusting under the plastic. That would explain why things were fine for a while until they weren't. I'm just beginning at this too though so take my advice with grain of salt.

 

[Tuffyyyyy]

Can you take a picture? is it feasible for you to do a water change every day for a few days?

 

[IKD]

Just curious, how much more food (and what type) was being added with the new fish? How much live rock do you have? Wondering if the new bioload is more than the bacterial population can keep up with for now.

 

[actik]

I would hand feed the puffer frozen shrimp with a shell and dispose of whatever he didn't eat, the tang "rip" was being fed new life spectrum pellets (along wish the other fish) and I would also add a piece of iceberg/other types of lettuce now and then he seemed to love it. No sign of disease on any fish I even tried soaking there food in garlic now and then incase it was an internal parasite. As far as voltage I get no shocls from the heater and I hope the power heads wouldn't be rusted because they are only 3 months old.

 

[actik]

Also there are no local fish stores in this area... I order everything from Montreal or 1 fish 2 fish nova Scotia $$$$ this hobbie hasn't been kind to me lol
.

 

[actik]

Just curious, how much more food (and what type) was being added with the new fish? How much live rock do you have? Wondering if the new bioload is more than the bacterial population can keep up with for now.

Have been feeding more but the tang was a big eater, as far as rock I have about 50 lbs ? And a deep sand bed.

 

[actik]

Is the puffer reef safe? Could be attacking the coral/smaller fish.

Those are 2 big fish, no wonder you got a bloom.

You could always up your water changes if you spot something is not going right.

Presents are good but those 2 fish for a 75g reef maybe are not the best.

Love my puffer, doesn't even bother my cleaner shrimp. He did however put some teeth marks in the goby 1 day, I assume he got in the way lol

 

[actik]

****** pictures sorry..it's a tablet. This is after a big water change today.

 

[IKD]

Do you run any carbon? Also, how quickly does the sand discolor after the water change (assuming you are vacuuming the sandbed with the water change)?

 

[Fishfinder]

That looks like it could be Dino not diatoms

 

[IKD]

That looks like it could be Dino not diatoms

Right, that’s why I was asking about how quickly the sand bed gets discolored.
Do you see any bubbles in that cyano-looking sand.

 

[actik]

there are bubbles and the sand begins to change back brownish in a matter of hours, i do clean the sand bed with the siphone but i was told you only mix the surface up a little, not to go deep. Sorry i have to google dino i actually thought it was the same as diatoms :/ lol

 

[actik]

wait,.. time out. if i have Dinos its because my tank is "too clean" ?? i need to feed more and add more bacteria to compete?

 

[PSU4ME]

Are you using RODI water?

 

[actik]

Are you using RODI water?

Yes, but because my water is about 3000 tds my rodi only knocks it down to about 25 tds

 

[IKD]

Sounds like Dino’s then. Do your rocks also have a coating that you can blow off? This could explain your fish issues (and coral issues). There are some really helpful threads but it’s not a short road so patience will go a long way here.

 

[actik]

Do you run any carbon? Also, how quickly does the sand discolor after the water change (assuming you are vacuuming the sandbed with the water change)?

Yes, I run carbon in my hobs, along with phosguard, those aquaclear white sponge filters and pond matrix media

 

[actik]

Sounds like Dino’s then. Do your rocks also have a coating that you can blow off? This could explain your fish issues (and coral issues). There are some really helpful threads but it’s not a short road so patience will go a long way here.

I can easily blow it off with a turkey baster, then I see what looks like Green hair algae. Do dinos kill fish and coral ? This is new to me, it would suck but I'd love to discover the issue finally, big win for me..lol