I've had my Peninsula 650 up for almost 4 years and had very little success. Care to help me get on track?

Tired

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 29, 2020
Messages
4,016
Reaction score
4,104
Location
Central Texas
Rating - 100%
1   0   0
What water are you using? Tap, RODI, something else? If it's anything other than distilled or RODI, switch to distilled or RODI.
 

ying yang

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Apr 16, 2021
Messages
4,860
Reaction score
10,103
Location
Liverpool
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Can see quite few fish.
5 anthias
Royal grammar
Leopard wrasse ?
Corus wrasse
Some kind foxface?
Pj cardinal
Purple tang
Some kind black clown possibly
So some nice fish there and to my untrained eye looks ok,little clean of glass and some nice corals in there.
What you struggling with most?
Fish or coral losses? or diatoms or dino's seems to come up often.
Keeping parameters stable maybe

Sorry i trying to slowly get info from you ha ha ^_^
 
OP
OP
youcallmenny1

youcallmenny1

The Lobster
View Badges
Joined
Jun 10, 2021
Messages
883
Reaction score
5,290
Location
Salem, Oregon
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Can see quite few fish.
5 anthias
Royal grammar
Leopard wrasse ?
Corus wrasse
Some kind foxface?
Pj cardinal
Purple tang
Some kind black clown possibly
So some nice fish there and to my untrained eye looks ok,little clean of glass and some nice corals in there.
What you struggling with most?
Fish or coral losses? or diatoms or dino's seems to come up often.
Keeping parameters stable maybe

Sorry i trying to slowly get info from you ha ha ^_^
Missed almost half the fish :p

I can't even clean the glass. The green corraline is so thick I can't remove it. I am a large guy and I have to take my extra large flipper, by hand, to aggressively SCRAAAAAAAAAPE it off. It's insane. I appreciate you goading me. I'm sorry, I'm very distraught at this point.

No, I don't have many algae problems EVER except for the awful glass algae. Went through the brown/green cycle when I reset the aquascape, then a quick cyano and bryopsis but it's all resolved. Not a chronic or recurrent problem by any means.
 

Tired

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 29, 2020
Messages
4,016
Reaction score
4,104
Location
Central Texas
Rating - 100%
1   0   0
Coraline is hard to scrape off with those magnet dealies. Get a hard-edged acrylic scraper, or use a razor blade. Some people use old credit cards.

Any chance any of your test kits have expired?

What light do you have?

Have any corals lived?

Any invertebrates?

Any chance the tank was dosed with a copper-based or similar medication?
 
OP
OP
youcallmenny1

youcallmenny1

The Lobster
View Badges
Joined
Jun 10, 2021
Messages
883
Reaction score
5,290
Location
Salem, Oregon
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Coraline is hard to scrape off with those magnet dealies. Get a hard-edged acrylic scraper, or use a razor blade. Some people use old credit cards.

Any chance any of your test kits have expired?

What light do you have?

Have any corals lived?

Any invertebrates?

Any chance the tank was dosed with a copper-based or similar medication?

I don't think you understand. I am saying I have to remove the outside magnet, grab the wet side with MY HAND and reach in to SCRAAAAAAPE it off with the 4-5" metal blade. I do not have weak hands by any means and it is painful. I'd break an acrylic scraper, razor blades cut my finger with the BACK of the blade because I have to push so hard. A credit card would be laughably ineffective on this stuff. My testers are all Hannah and all new reagents. Some corals have persisted for a couple of years, slowly losing polyps. I haven't grown a new polyp in years either. PLenty of CUC and inverts. No copper.

4x AI Hydra 26 HD, added that to OP too
 

Tired

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 29, 2020
Messages
4,016
Reaction score
4,104
Location
Central Texas
Rating - 100%
1   0   0
That's some weird coraline. Maybe pick up a tuxedo urchin- they'll eat a bit of coraline, and are usually reef-safe, aside from picking up and moving small coral frags. If it makes a dent, you could try a couple more.

Also, they make razor blade holders, handle things. You might need one of those.

Beyond that, I got nothin', sorry. But this should be fixable.

What corals have stayed alive? That might be helpful.
 
OP
OP
youcallmenny1

youcallmenny1

The Lobster
View Badges
Joined
Jun 10, 2021
Messages
883
Reaction score
5,290
Location
Salem, Oregon
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
That's some weird coraline. Maybe pick up a tuxedo urchin- they'll eat a bit of coraline, and are usually reef-safe, aside from picking up and moving small coral frags. If it makes a dent, you could try a couple more.

Also, they make razor blade holders, handle things. You might need one of those.

Beyond that, I got nothin', sorry. But this should be fixable.

What corals have stayed alive? That might be helpful.
I have had a little blue tuxedo this whole time. Wouldn't go without one! Honestly if the giant flipper blade isn't doing it I don't know how much a razor with a handle would. Maybe I'm wrong on that though. I appreciate you walking through some troubleshooting with me, sorry it wasn't fruitful.

Most LPS and leathers have lived for 1-4 years but have never really grown. Zoas all just insta-melt. That includes thriving corals from my last system that got transferred in here and stalled out for basically forever. I grew SPS great in that tank too!
 
Last edited:

Billldg

My Gem Tang Is Watching You
View Badges
Joined
May 14, 2018
Messages
17,478
Reaction score
121,885
Location
Georgia
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Lol I thought this got closed. Thanks everyone. Here it is today. :\
20211009_144406.jpg


Parameters:
Alk: 8.0
Calc: 440
Nitrate: 5-10
Phos: 0.05-0.08
Mag: 1250

Problems:
Corals all shrivel and die, nothing grows. Glass algae is unbelievably thick and almost impossible to remove. Been like this for 4 years straight. I'm really sorry everyone I'm just so bummed at this point and I don't know what else to do.
Your parameters look good, I would start off with sending a water sample in to get tested to make sure you don't have any heavy metals and such in the tank.
 
OP
OP
youcallmenny1

youcallmenny1

The Lobster
View Badges
Joined
Jun 10, 2021
Messages
883
Reaction score
5,290
Location
Salem, Oregon
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Your parameters look good, I would start off with sending a water sample in to get tested to make sure you don't have any heavy metals and such in the tank.
I just got an Oceamo test back and had 170ug/l aluminum. This is probably from the phosguard reactor I've been running for the last 6 months. It's obviously been removed and waterchanged back down to a reasonable level. The problems predate using phosguard by years though.
 

Matthew01

New Member
View Badges
Joined
Oct 9, 2021
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
Location
Ohio
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Parameters:
Alk: 8.0
Calc: 440
Nitrate: 5-10
Phos: 0.05-0.08
Mag: 1250

Problems:
Corals all shrivel and die, nothing grows. Glass algae is unbelievably thick and almost impossible to remove. Been like this for 4 years straight. I'm really sorry everyone I'm just so bummed at this point and I don't know what else to do.

Equipment:
4 x AI Hydra 26 HD
150g/day BRS RO/DI
Bubble Magus medium filter roller
RO 200Int skimmer
BRS 1.1ml dosers with timers
BRS 2-part soda ash and calcium chloride
Large gyre on weir-end
2x H80 growing chaeto in fuge
How many fish? And turn gyre down, get rid of chaeto and check tank in a week
 

Susan Edwards

5000 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Nov 28, 2016
Messages
5,462
Reaction score
7,003
Location
Tracy, California
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
For your coraline on glass this is what I use. the flipper blade doesn't get all of mine. This does. Your tank is too beautiful to give up. Give it and the folks here time to find the issue.

I started my soon to be old tank in early 2018. Only softies survived and my toadstools. In 2020 I did a reboot--removed sand and added new. Took a year to get nutrients down (with 100% water change) and algae gone. A year ending last month!!! Also, once I removed a massive toadstool, now I have lps and sps surviving where before only hardy softies. So for my tank with corals, it was the huge leather giving off toxins that killed any lps or sps. Took me 2 years to figure that out and the loss of every new coral I tried to add.

Don't give up. Sit back, and let R2R help

 
OP
OP
youcallmenny1

youcallmenny1

The Lobster
View Badges
Joined
Jun 10, 2021
Messages
883
Reaction score
5,290
Location
Salem, Oregon
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
For your coraline on glass this is what I use. the flipper blade doesn't get all of mine. This does. Your tank is too beautiful to give up. Give it and the folks here time to find the issue.

I started my soon to be old tank in early 2018. Only softies survived and my toadstools. In 2020 I did a reboot--removed sand and added new. Took a year to get nutrients down (with 100% water change) and algae gone. A year ending last month!!! Also, once I removed a massive toadstool, now I have lps and sps surviving where before only hardy softies. So for my tank with corals, it was the huge leather giving off toxins that killed any lps or sps. Took me 2 years to figure that out and the loss of every new coral I tried to add.

Don't give up. Sit back, and let R2R help



Will do Susan, thank you for the kind words and advice.

So, your post made me think of something. I run carbon regularly but do have my ORIGINAL coral in there, an umbrella coral measuring 10-12" across. There's also a green toadstool measuring about 6-7". My nutrients are absolutely under control though.
 

Susan Edwards

5000 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Nov 28, 2016
Messages
5,462
Reaction score
7,003
Location
Tracy, California
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
This was what I believe to be my culprit--not for the algae but for the inability to grow lps or sps. My clowns used it for their "home" and I think it was constantly irritated. Plus it was close to gsp, rhodactis and palys and zoas. Rehomed it and now I have 2 pavonas thriving, an aleopora (sp?), and a frogspawn (that one is not as robust as the others). Before, anything other than the softies lasted less than 2 months.

I also ran carbon, purigen and boyds elite and phosguard.
20210702_144325.jpg
 

A worm with high fashion and practical utility: Have you ever kept feather dusters in your reef aquarium?

  • I currently have feather dusters in my tank.

    Votes: 69 37.5%
  • Not currently, but I have had feather dusters in my tank in the past.

    Votes: 62 33.7%
  • I have not had feather dusters, but I hope to in the future.

    Votes: 25 13.6%
  • I have no plans to have feather dusters in my tank.

    Votes: 28 15.2%
  • Other.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
Back
Top