Help on reviving a slowly dying tank

[shrimped]

Definitely upgrade your test kit if you have room in your budget. You definitely have nice equipment

Thanks :) I will upgrade the test kits as soon as possible.

I strongly recommend not adding anything. Keep cleaning it out, do water changes but increase your water movement in the tank to as high as you can. It will run its course. You mentioned Cheatomorpha as well, do whatever you can to keep it growing and make certain your skimmer is dialed in and clean. Inside and out to make sure it is at it best and oxygenating you water as well. Make sure your skimmer is also properly installed and adjusted. You could run some carbon too. An occasional gravel vacuuming wouldn’t hurt either. If your tank has been running for 6 months you don’t need more bacteria. Adding chemicals just destabilizes everything which is 100% what you do not want. I have been keeping reefs for 17 year as of now professionally for a few back in the day and never once has the above not worked. Don’t expect any miracles but it takes time and maintenance. It will come together for you. All these photos of algae free tanks you see on here are because they are usually brand new. Very very few mature systems are as sterile as some portray them in photos on this site. Those that are, the owner are exceptionally careful and religious with their maintenance routines.

Thank you for the words of encouragement man! I will get a carbon reactor and continue maintance. If I do not see any changes I will try Biodigest suggested by @marvelousone

 

[shrimped]

Here is the (probably inaccurate) API reading for nitrate

I will upgrade nitrate and phosphate test kits to Salifert and Hanna
I also am not 100% sure I am correctly running my skimmer and radions so I will post on equipment forum later today to confirm everything is running smoothly

 

[marvelousone]

All I can say it worked for me. I spent 3 years messing with brown stuff. I started following and reading info from PSXerholic. Started applying his technics and now I am happy.

I had dinos and cyano at the same time. It was all over rocks and sand. I did vacuum my sand to get as much as I can. Blew rocks off daily. I was ready to take the tank down. I am not a professional so take it at what it is worth.. I can tell you don't give up. What ever method you go with you can over come it.

 

[Softhammer]

All that goo cannot exist with adequate water movement.

 

[shrimped]

Speaking of dead tank all the fish died
They weren’t out yesterday so they might have died on Tuesday but they were all active and eating fat on monday.

No new additions to the tank
Nothing new I’ve done to the tank
Just dosing a bit of calc
Heater is ok
No malfunction in any equipment
Some coral are ok
Latest fish been in tank for more than month (sunburst Anthias, Neon Goby, McCoskers Wrasse)

I’m really stumped rn. I’ll think about this later on since I got finals this week.

 

[marvelousone]

Man I hate to hear that.

 

[shrimped]

Man I hate to hear that.

Heh yea I guess that’s life sometimes.
I’ll probably clean out the tank and scrub it down after the finals since I got nothing to lose.

 

[shrimped]

Thank you all for the suggestions, info, and advice, I really appreciate it.
I’ll just start on a fresh new slate... again...
I’ll try turning it to a frag tank I think it’ll be easier on me :)

 

[Marie7]

Hey what’s up
I’m not new to R2R, this is just a new account but as the title says, I think my tank is slowly dying.

I kept a small 34g AIO (which crashed early twice) then upgraded to a 60g cube because I wanted to restart on a fresh new slate with better equipment to prevent old mistakes I have made. The current tank is running with water for about half a year.

I have realized about a month ago that the current tank is slowly dying due to how diatoms are blooming everywhere and some simple LPS are dying for unknown causes. The water is also usually cloudy.

I am a Junior in Highschool so I don’t have much time every week to perform a half decent water change so I haven’t done one in 2 weeks from today.

Tank stock list:
Sunburst Anthias
McCoskers Wrasse
Blue Neon Goby

4 Sexy Shrimp
A few cuc snails and hermits
Feather Duster

Branching Black Sun Coral
Fat head Dendro
Plate coral
Hammer coral
Ricordea
Interstellar shroom
Unknown Zoa

Main Equipment:
Nyos Quantum 120
Eheim Jager heater
Vortex going MP40WQD
Radion G4 Xr15
Chaetomorpha
Tunze Osmolator

Water Params from Sunday/Jan/20
SG: 1.026 (refracto)
PH: 8.2 (API)
dkh: 9.5 (Hanna)
Calc: 398 (Hanna)
Phos: > .25 (API)
Mg (forgot to write down but from what I can recall*): 1320 (Salifert)
Nitrate: ??
Nitrite: ??

Today I posted this because I noticed that the tank looks more “dead” than usual. I don’t see much life going on in the tank. The Anthias is weirdly sleeping at day time and I don’t see the very active blue Neon Goby.

My goal or “dream” for this tank is to have a clean look and to see coral visibly growing at a decent pace due to how I have never experienced that in past tanks.

I’m sorry this is so long to read but I would love to take in some information or advice from successful reefers.

Thank you
-Sung

I have learn something and is .....partials water changes, believe me that it will do miracles as you are getting bad stuff out of your water and tank.... If you don't have time to do this simple task I will consider to be in this hobby or change to fresh water tank with freshwater fishes. Good Luck!

 

[lauderdalestunner]

Check/clean all your pumps. You have a bunch of non-photosynthetic corals and if you’re like me, you like to feed them. How much food are you giving the corals and fish? Over feeding can be an issue. And FYI life in high school is good and you have way more time than you think, it only gets worse with age and then it’s over after the second kid. Lucky my LFS sells candy so getting water has become a family activity.

 

[lauderdalestunner]

I use BRS 4 Stage RODI
TDS meter: 0

I have a Trigger System 20C Saphire (20g)
Only filtration is Nyos Quantum 120 and Chaetomorpha

Floss or socks held big time with nutrient export

 

[shrimped]

I have learn something and is .....partials water changes, believe me that it will do miracles as you are getting bad stuff out of your water and tank.... If you don't have time to do this simple task I will consider to be in this hobby or change to fresh water tank with freshwater fishes. Good Luck!

Yea I agree on the partial water changes. I’ll try to find more time to do maybe 20% each week.

Check/clean all your pumps. You have a bunch of non-photosynthetic corals and if you’re like me, you like to feed them. How much food are you giving the corals and fish? Over feeding can be an issue. And FYI life in high school is good and you have way more time than you think, it only gets worse with age and then it’s over after the second kid. Lucky my LFS sells candy so getting water has become a family activity.

When I had fish I would feed the tank maybe 1/4 mysis cube, 1/4 PE Calinus Cube, half table spoon of Reef Roids. I also occasionally substitute the mysis with a small piece of Rods Foods. I feed once a day. I just put in a new 200 filter sock yesterday.
I made the really bad decision for the past 3 years to take multiple AP classes along with a lot of other extracurricular activities because I was so focused on getting near perfect GPA and SAT/ACT scores to appeal top universities resulting in me sleeping less than 4 hours every week day. Now that I have gained more knowledge on how to get somewhere in life without graduating from top colleges I will drop some APs next semester.

 

[shrimped]

Did a nice large 50% water change and siphoned out a ton of that nasty algae.
Scary how after a day they seem like I haven’t touched the algae at all.

 

[J Rog]

From the famously inaccurate API test kit my phosphates read less than 0.25.
I use unfortunately use API for both Nitrates and Phosphates and they are “undetectable” or less than .25 when I test. I will test nitrates again in around 5 min
Edit: I used dry rock (from Marco Rocks). I used Dr. Tim’s bacteria and ammonium chloride for cycling. During cycling period nitrates were high then went low.

I have Marcos rock and started the cycle with dr Tim’s as well. I went through the same thing. Now I’m dealing cyano. But the Dino’s are for the most part gone. Seems like most people that start with dry rock end up going through this.. I got everything calmed down by dosing nutrients. It is a pain because you really have to test for nitrates and phosphate daily when your dosing and keep a good track record. It really is a lot of work when your nutrients are out of wack but I’m told they will stabilize.. When, I have no clue. But I’m looking forward to the day I don’t have to test every day.. lol You will hey though it. Just stay on top of you levels and it will eventually work it’s way around..

 

[justmee]

I strongly recommend not adding anything. Keep cleaning it out, do water changes but increase your water movement in the tank to as high as you can. It will run its course. You mentioned Cheatomorpha as well, do whatever you can to keep it growing and make certain your skimmer is dialed in and clean. Inside and out to make sure it is at it best and oxygenating you water as well. Make sure your skimmer is also properly installed and adjusted. You could run some carbon too. An occasional gravel vacuuming wouldn’t hurt either. If your tank has been running for 6 months you don’t need more bacteria. Adding chemicals just destabilizes everything which is 100% what you do not want. I have been keeping reefs for 17 year as of now professionally for a few back in the day and never once has the above not worked. Don’t expect any miracles but it takes time and maintenance. It will come together for you. All these photos of algae free tanks you see on here are because they are usually brand new. Very very few mature systems are as sterile as some portray them in photos on this site. Those that are, the owner are exceptionally careful and religious with their maintenance routines.

+1

 

[shrimped]

I have Marcos rock and started the cycle with dr Tim’s as well. I went through the same thing. Now I’m dealing cyano. But the Dino’s are for the most part gone. Seems like most people that start with dry rock end up going through this.. I got everything calmed down by dosing nutrients. It is a pain because you really have to test for nitrates and phosphate daily when your dosing and keep a good track record. It really is a lot of work when your nutrients are out of wack but I’m told they will stabilize.. When, I have no clue. But I’m looking forward to the day I don’t have to test every day.. lol You will hey though it. Just stay on top of you levels and it will eventually work it’s way around..

Thank you!

 

[shrimped]

I have turned up the flow up a lot and after the water change I don’t see the algae as a dark bronze carpet across the sand anymore. It’s been 3 days and here are some update photos

I realized that the refugium part of the sump is pretty messed up since the last two weeks and I’m wondering how y’all clean up your sump due to how the siphon doesn’t work because the sump is lower than the bucket. The chaeto is also floating due to bubbles coming out of the skimmer. How do I fix this?

 

[Hemmdog]

A half table spoon of reef roids a day?! That was your problem my friend. That is enough for a 300 gallon system once a week. Sorry all your fish died.

 

[shrimped]

A half table spoon of reef roids a day?! That was your problem my friend. That is enough for a 300 gallon system once a week. Sorry all your fish died.

Ah shoot well there’s the problem lol. I gut load the NPS with it everyday.
Guess I will start selling the branching black sun asap and probably still keep the fat head dendro but maybe 1 mysis per head?
Thanks for telling me that I had no clue how much was too much

 

[Hemmdog]

Ah shoot well there’s the problem lol. I gut load the NPS with it everyday.
Guess I will start selling the branching black sun asap and probably still keep the fat head dendro but maybe 1 mysis per head?
Thanks for telling me that I had no clue how much was too much

I give my nps a mysis per head twice a week. No worries man, we are all learning here.