I Just Don't Know What To Do Anymore!

[Katesreef]

I have a 1/2 aragonite/bare bottom 20 gallon frag tank. It's been running about 10 weeks. Started with old water. It doesn't have a sump. It doesn't have a refugium. It has an eheim canister filter. Didn't put anything old in it the filter. Probably should have. This has to be totally silent. It's in my office and I'm a call taker. It has corals in it. Not doing well of course. Apparently I didn't let it run long enough to cycle. I put a couple of live rocks in it. I can do something silent that hangs on the back. I have no room for a sump and can't have anything open like that in my office. Went through the brown, cloudy and now everything is green and getting hairy. There are a few snails in there. No fish. Where do I go from here?

 

[ilovereefing <3]

What are your nitrate and phosphate levels? Maybe too many nutrients in the water? Do you have any pictures?

 

[Katesreef]

 

[Diesel]

That looks nasty!
The thing is you put in old water from your tank and lit it up right away I assume.
If you feed your corals............ STOP ASAP!!
Remove as much possible algae by hand and do a 50% WC, after that cover up the tank on all sides and turn light of for 3 days.
Leave a pumps and flow running of course.
After 3 days turn lights on, un-cover and do another 50% WC.
Add some bacteria to the tank, just not too much.

Good Luck.

 

[ilovereefing <3]

The first picture looks like you are getting some green hair algae, but I am not so sure about the brighter green stuff on the sand bed. I'd assume that this is an algae bloom caused by high nutrients in the tank. I'd try to manually remove as much of the algae as you can while performing a large water change. You can scrub the rocks with a toothbrush while holding the siphon over that area to remove whatever comes off as well as the surrounding water. After that is done, turn the lights off on your tank and cover it with a blanket or something for 3 days. This will starve the algae of the light it needs to survive. After the three days, you have to do another large water change (at least 30%) to remove nutrients coming off the dying algae and remove whatever remaining GHA that you can. I would look into ways of bringing down the nitrates and phosphates in your tank as well, or this will just end up happening all over again. Running GFO and carbon in a reactor has worked well for me. I use the BRS dual reactor for my tank. If you cannot add any equipment to your tank right away, another approach is using bacteria to out compete the algae for the nutrients. Dr. Tim's Aquatics has a product line that has worked well for me also, it is called Re-Fresh and Waste Away. It is a natural way to remove nitrates and phosphates from your tank. I think I have heard some folks having good results with Microbacter 7, though I cannot attest to it because I have never used it. Keep up with your tank husbandry (water changes, filter maintenance, testing) and things should get better over time. Unfortunately, it didn't get this way overnight so it won't clear up overnight either. Be patient and diligent, and you should start seeing some results. Don't give up! Your tank is very young and there will be more bumps in the road along the way. Just do the best that you can and try to enjoy the ride. Good luck!

 

[ilovereefing <3]

If you feed your corals............ STOP ASAP!!

Diesel is right...don't add any more fuel to your tank by feeding your corals if you have been.

Also, you may need to adjust your lighting schedule as well. You could try cutting back on the number of hours your lights are on to help keep the algae from coming back. For example, my lights were initially on for 12 hours a day (mostly ramp up and ramp down time, but still a good 5 hours of full intensity lighting). After I had some algae issues, I cut back on my lights to 8 hours a day, and so far so good. I am slowly adding more time to the schedule as my tank matures (it's only 7 months old).

 

[ngvu1]

The green stuff looks like the green slime algae to me. The tiger conch love to eat that stuff.

 

[Katesreef]

Nitrites are 0, Nitrates are 20. I don't know what the phosphates are. Ph is 7.8 and Alkalinity is fine. I did a large water change day before yesterday. So now cover it with a blanket and not look at it till Tuesday? Corals be ok? I'm not feeding the corals anything.

 

[hybridazn]

Canister filter will take some time to develope a bio filter. I recommend getting a aquaclear hob filter, throw some chaeto and a small bulb in it and use that as a hob fuge. That will help a lot too.

Best of luck

 

[ngvu1]

When you cover the tank, make sure the temperature is in checked.....A small tank without an efficient way to export nutrient is hard.....I am not sure how long you can try to fight this battle before starting over. I am almost certain the problem will come right back before you even see the light at the end of the tunnel. I was there before.......The only way I would fix this is some how get a big sump for it and use macro algae to export nutrient in the DT. Good luck and I hope you can win this battle.

 

[lukshannon]

Corals should do just fine
And just a fun fact, most all corals will max out on about 8 hours of lighting period throughout the day-that means that anything longer will just grow algae--I'd rather look at a clean tank for 2 hours when I get home from work opposed to look at a algae filled one for 4! :)

 

[ilovereefing <3]

I would definitely take out as much of the algae as you can BEFORE the three days of darkness. If not, all that dying algae will foul up the water even more. Your nitrates are really high, especially since the algae is consuming lots of nitrate too so your actual levels are probably a lot higher than what you are registering. Thereafter, cover the tank for three days. You can always check on the tank if you want, I know I did. You will need to come up with a plan to reduce your nitrates and phosphates from here on out though, or you will most definitely have the problem again.

 

[Katesreef]

Ok thank you everyone! I tested the phosphates and they are .25. I have other saltwater tanks. Should I take some of the filter floss out of them that already has established a bio filter?

 

[ilovereefing <3]

Randy Holmes-Farley writes up some awesome, spot on articles on reef chemistry. Check out his write up on nitrates here: https://www.reef2reef.com/blog/nitrate-in-the-reef-aquarium

Phosphates: https://www.reef2reef.com/blog/phosphate-in-the-reef-aquarium-by-randy-holmes-farley/

We are all so very lucky he is a part of the Reef2Reef crew!

Hope this helps!

 

[Katesreef]

Thank you. My test kit is getting old and I'm going to buy a new one. What is the best one? I'm not color blind but I do have trouble with some colors. The one that goes from orange to pink is hard. I know people will say it's preference but I just want accurate and not too hard. API is the one I have now.

 

[ilovereefing <3]

Personally, I have never liked the API test kits. Color matching is just too hard. This is my list of test kits:

pH - Salifert
Ammonia - Red Sea
Nitrite - Hanna Checker ULR
Nitrate - Salifert
Ca - Hanna Checker
Mag - Red Sea Pro
Alk - Hanna Checker
Phosphate - Hanna Checker ULR

I love the Hanna Checkers because there is no guesswork, it does it for you. They are pricey, but well worth the money. Plus, they are highly accurate. I will never go back! If there were Hanna Checkers for everything, I would buy them! There is some color matching to do with the others, but I found them much easier to do with the Salifert and Red Sea kits. :D

 

[Breakthecycle2]

Im going to guess this tank has "direct" sun light of some sort?

 

[Katesreef]

I keep the blind shut. But yes it is close to one.

 

[Paulday]

Research for cpr fuge it's hob type with miracle mud. Works great. Maybe a algae scrubber. Look for paul b he made one in tank. Swears by it

 

[Breakthecycle2]

In my experience with that kind of algae, it's usually a sunlight problem, that's why I asked. Anyway you could move it or get room darkening curtains?