New fish tank.

[Kenneth456]

So I’ve had a fish tank for about 3 years now.. for the first year I had the tank at my moms and everything was looking beautiful. Had 5 healthy fish in it and a good amount of coral. The tank is a 55 gallon. I moved out of my moms and took the tank with me.. I threw out half the old sand. Cleaned the half I kept and added new sand. Put everything back in and a month later the tank was full of green hair algae. I updated my filter from a old wet/dry system and got a sock filter and sump. I added Chato and made a little refugium, and then even added a protein slimmer to help get rid of all the phosphates.. I knew the phosphates that made the algae grow came from me moving the tank. I tried a lot of things to help get rid of the algae problems but the only thing that worked was adding fluconazole to help kill it.. well after adding the fluconazole and doing some 40-50% water changes my phosphates were still high.. the algae went away for about a month but then returned. I’m down to two clown fish and one wrasse. I barely feed them enough to eat so I’m not sure we’re these phosphates keep coming from. I moved a year ago, and I’m still dealing with the algae problems after everything.. when my tank was at my moms the filter system was old, now I have a upgraded sump with a protein skimmer but some how the tank has lots of algae growing. No matter how many water changes I do I can’t get my phosphates to go down. I’m at the point to wear I wanna sell my tank and start over from fresh.. I wanna get something that’s 40-45 gallons that has the filter built in the back of the tank, I’m not sure on what they’re called but I feel that makes it easier and there will be no sump under the tank. Can you guys help me find a good tank to buy, I’m not sure what websites to go to and what to look up, either that or give me some advice to help with my current situation. Thanks.

 

[sfin52]

Test you water change water. That maybe your source .

 

[Kenneth456]

I get my water from a local fish store that a lot of other people use. I doubt that’s the source but idk

 

[Instigate]

Have you tried GFO to lower your phosphates? What are your actual parameters?

 

[SPR1968]

Welcome to R2R Kenneth!

As far as tanks go there are many choices but my personal choice is Red Sea all the way and they also have a full reef program that you can follow and learn about. That’s what I did. But it depends on your budget as they aren’t cheap.

If you can get your nutrient levels under control (Nitrate/Phosphate) then your algae problems should reduce. GFO such as Rhowaphos will work for phosphate and / or you could do more frequent water changes to reduce the levels.

Read and learn as much as you can otherwise if you just change the tank, the problems will just return on a bigger scale. Once you understand why and what’s happening you will find it much easier. And you will enjoy the hobby much more to.

Oh, and make sure the water from the LFS is 0 TDS RODI water otherwise you will be feeding the algae and making it worse. Many shops don’t necessarily sell ‘good’ water.

 

[Kenneth456]

Haven’t tried gfo, my phosphates are usually anywhere between .02-.05

 

[timnem70]

Haven’t tried gfo, my phosphates are usually anywhere between .02-.05

Nothing wrong with that amount of phosphate. If its been a year since all the rinsing and moving, its leaching from something in your tank or fuge.

 

[Instigate]

Haven’t tried gfo, my phosphates are usually anywhere between .02-.05

That's a good level for po4. Can we get a full tank shot? What's your nitrate at? And I would definitely test the water from the LFS.

 

[Kenneth456]

I meant .2-.4 on the phospates my bad lol. This is my full tank and some corals.. I’ve since moved everything to help with water flow thinking it’ll help lower my phospates so the rocks are a little different.

 

[Kenneth456]

I’ve had about 3 nice corals bleach and die recently. I’m guessing because of the phospates and algae growing.

 

[Kenneth456]

Some of the algae that’s been growing.. I just need help finding where these phospates are coming from. I figured a couple water changes and we’ll be good but that’s not the case.. it’s a 55 gallon tank. I do a 20 gallon water change once a month instead of doing a 10 gallon water change every two weeks..

 

[Instigate]

I would double check the source water and if no issue there I would run GFO and manually remove what I can. IF you run GFO be careful to not strip the water of po4. You want .03-.08 ish. But I'm no expert and would defer to the #reefsquad if someone there says different. Also, you may attempt to get some clear close up shots of the algae to verify what you have there. It looks very similar to what I thought was just regular GHA and turned out to be bryopsis. Here is a link to the thread where I was told what I had was bryopsis, has some photos of what I have. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/unknown-algae.364331/ And I wouldn't necessarily blame the po4 and algae for the corals bleaching there might be more going on here.

 

[Crabs McJones]

I would up the water changes to 10% a week. And the reason your levels test so good is the algae consumes it before it becomes free floating and can be registered by a test kit. Invest in an ro/di unit, it's the best decision you'll ever make unfortunately you just never know what you're getting from the fish store. Also you can cut your photo period to help starve it out, and run the fuge light so the macro algae eats up what is available for nutrients. But more frequent water changes are going to be your friend in this battle

 

[Flippers4pups]

I would up the water changes to 10% a week. And the reason your levels test so good is the algae consumes it before it becomes free floating and can be registered by a test kit. Invest in an ro/di unit, it's the best decision you'll ever make unfortunately you just never know what you're getting from the fish store. Also you can cut your photo period to help starve it out, and run the fuge light so the macro algae eats up what is available for nutrients. But more frequent water changes are going to be your friend in this battle

This^. I would vacuum the sand bed during a water change and brush off what you can on the rocks as well. Up your flow in the tank if possible too.

I would invest in a RO/DI unit as well for peace of mind as @Crabs Mcjones has stated as soon as you can.

Reduce you amount of food you feed during this time also. Only enough for your fish to eat, with little hitting the sand bed.

 

[HotRocks]

Definitely invest in your own RO.

I tested TDS on our LFS water. 60ppm! No good.

I spent around 150 bucks for my entire RODI system with float and all. 0ppm TDS.

The other key here is patience. Stability takes time to achieve. Nothing happens fast in a Reef Tank. I was trying everything other than letting it naturally cycle when I started my tank. I'd chemically fix one problem and gain another or two. When I finally quit messing with it, slowly but surely it paid off.

Also how are you checking salinity? Salinity is an elementary part of reefkeeping. My kids messed with my refractometer once and had it way out of calibration. Algae thrives in lower salinity. Make sure your tool is calibrated properly, sounds stupid, but I've been there.

Don't overfeed. Don't add any more fish until stabilized.

Great advice above as well.

Welcome to R2R! Great place, great people, and tons of great info!

 

[Kenneth456]

Ok. Will do. Thanks

 

[Kenneth456]

I also forgot the mention that some of my Chato in my refuguim is turning clear, like it’s dying. And it looks like there’s this red algae growing around it. Not sure what it is kinda hard to see in the pic but it looks like some slime red stuff

 

[Kenneth456]

There’s also this clear slime that builds up on the holes on the overflow box.. once it builds up it doesn’t allow the top of the water to be skimmed so I have to clean it off all the time. Can anybody tell me what this clear slime is from ? I used to never see it now it’s here all the time. Kinda hard to see but it’s there

 

[Kenneth456]

Also this red algae on the sand. Never seen it before either

 

[Instigate]

The red on the sand and chaetomorpha looks like cyano to me. Dunno about the clear stuff. What kind of light do you have on the fuge?