Pazernaker
Community Member
Hey guys, glad I found this forum! This is going to be a long one, but I really need some help as a new person to the hobby.
So a little background about me, I've spent most of my career in the industrial chemical manufacturing field, so I have a solid base of monitoring materials (Ph, alkanlinity, etc) as well as the cause and effect of how adjusting one thing affects others. That being said, I've always done solvent based material, and don't have a done of experience with aqueous formulations. I've also always had a hot tub or pond or something that I've played with and been pretty successful with balancing water to keep it ideal, so naturally, when I saw a 60 gallon saltwater system used on Facebook marketplace, I thought I could figure it out. Oh man, did I get in over my head quickly.
The system I bought was from someone who was really into the hobby for the few years she owned the tank and seemed to know her stuff when I bounced questions off her, but she just stopped caring about it when her favorite fish died. I bought the 60 gallon tank including a 100 gallon protein skimmer from Instant Ocean (Seaclone 100), the marineland magniflow 360, built in tank lighting (not good quality), a 500 watt heater, thermometer, 2 complete filter change kits for the marineland, and the various pieces of live rock (6 pieces, about 40 lbs) and 2 massive pieces of life rock that were a few years old that have since become live rock (don't know how she did it, but she did it outside the aquarium before introducing it). It also came with three different powerheads, of which I have a medium powered one flowing in a downward direction away from the intake of the filter and over the top of the liverock, creating some light, turbulent water dynamics in the tank. End goal is to add some coral. I've since added two 36" Fluval LED light bars giving me about 100-150 PAR at the lowest area of the tank. It came with a sailfish tang that looks to be a few years old and a pair of clownfish as well as a hand full of periscope snails. All animals looked healthy in the tank when I picked it up.
When I went to pick up the tank, she REALLY stopped caring about it. The walls of the tank were disgusting. I only paid $250 for everything, so I figured even if I threw out the water and started over, the live rock, live sand, aquarium, filter, skimmer and stand was worth the cost. Took all the water and live rock out in 10 5-gallon buckets and took it all home, cleaned the walls off with a sponge, and put the water, rock and fish back in. I let it settle for a few days and the filter do it's work. Took measurements of Ph, Amonia, NO2 and NO3, and they were atrocious. Did a 50% water change and cleaned the filters out and was amazed the filter hadn't choked itself/cavitated to death yet. The floss filter on top was grey and completely full with junk (I'm not kidding, it was solid with no pores in it to allow water flow, the black filters on the bottom were saturated with green growth, the black active balls were covered in garbage and the ceramic media was just as bad. I took everything out, washed the inside of the filter (caked with growth), changed the floss filter, washed out the black filter at the bottom (really open foam and rinsed out really easily), washed the outside of the activated charcoal balls and put them back in as the instructions said to do, and changed all the ceramic media. I took the seaclone 100 completely apart and washed that out. While doing the water change, I vacuumed the live sand (crushed coral, I believe) and the things I pulled out of there were straight brown in color in the bucket I was transferring to. Put in the new water, let it settle, and everything cleared up.
Since then, I've done another water change (20 gallon, 33%) and another vacuum of the sand, still pulling brown out of the live sand/coral. Protein skimmer seems to be doing it's job, and I haven't gone back into the filter yet to check how that's faring. Ph is about an 8.2, salt water in the refractometer is about 1.022, ammonia is pretty close to 0, maybe 5 PPM, NO3 is very low, NO3 around 1 PPM. Temp stays around 80F, lights are on the preset cycle using the Fluval App with about 12 hours at full intensity and a 1 hour sunrise/set built into both ends of the spectrum. Calcium is through the roof (like 550 PPM). Water during water changes is from my well, which goes through a softener, and is treated with 1ml of water conditioner concentrate per 5 gallon bucket. Salt is from Instant Ocean. Food is frozen brine with a dry nori feeder on the wall to keep the sailfish tang happy. All fish in the tank seem to eat the brine, but I throw a half a frozen seaweed cube in there every few days just in case I'm missing something. I also add 3 capfuls of Reef Plus twice a week. Food is gone within 3-5 minutes of adding it, feeding happens once a day.
Over the last two weeks, I've added a snowflake eel (6-7" baby), a hammer coral, a candy anemone, a blue tang, a blue spotted puffer, a bubble coral, a melanurus wrasse, and a royal grama. I realize the eel may not be a long term addition, as it may eat things (I suspect it's already eaten half my snails), but I wanted to try it and read that was the safest bet. Here's my problems:
1) The live sand seems to have algae growth within a day of vacuuming it and doing a water change, it looks really dirty again with green, purple and brown growth over the top of it. Should I replace the live sand? Should I just keep cleaning it and vacuuming? Is there a better way to clean/treat it?
2) My blue tang has been insanely lethargic ever since I got it from the store. I read that they often lie on their side and hide, but it's stomach looks to be caved in like it's starving and it barely swims at all now. It has no colors/marking on the outside that would indicate ich or other parasites, but I'm worried it has something internal that may spread. Rest of the tank's fish look great.
3) My bubble coral is thriving, but my hammer coral died within days and the candy anemone has lost all color and looks to be on the way out. What other water conditions should I be monitoring to ensure I'm not throwing more money out the window with future purchases?
4) The intake and outfeed of my filter looks to have some growth on the inside of the tube. I expect this is normal on the intake, but didn't know if I should run a brush through the outfeed, since that water should be "clean" coming out of the filter.
If you've made it this far, thank you very much! I'm looking for constructive criticism, different parameters I should be testing for, things I need to add or be careful of, and generally anything else! Since I'm new here, I'll also be searching the forums and trying to learn from past posts, but I wanted to get all my thoughts down in my first post so I can be successful in my new hobby
I've attached pictures, the first is a picture of the tank from the ad. This was a month before I bought the tank and she did 0 maintenance other than feeding up until I bought it. The second picture was a few days after I had bought the tank and not long after the first cleaning. The third picture is a few hours after the second picture (I went back and cleaned the rest of the algae off the glass shortly after the picture was taken) and the fourth was taken after the second water change the next day (I also changed the rocks around). The fourth shows how fast I'm getting growth in the sand. Within 4 days, it looks like I never cleaned it.
So a little background about me, I've spent most of my career in the industrial chemical manufacturing field, so I have a solid base of monitoring materials (Ph, alkanlinity, etc) as well as the cause and effect of how adjusting one thing affects others. That being said, I've always done solvent based material, and don't have a done of experience with aqueous formulations. I've also always had a hot tub or pond or something that I've played with and been pretty successful with balancing water to keep it ideal, so naturally, when I saw a 60 gallon saltwater system used on Facebook marketplace, I thought I could figure it out. Oh man, did I get in over my head quickly.
The system I bought was from someone who was really into the hobby for the few years she owned the tank and seemed to know her stuff when I bounced questions off her, but she just stopped caring about it when her favorite fish died. I bought the 60 gallon tank including a 100 gallon protein skimmer from Instant Ocean (Seaclone 100), the marineland magniflow 360, built in tank lighting (not good quality), a 500 watt heater, thermometer, 2 complete filter change kits for the marineland, and the various pieces of live rock (6 pieces, about 40 lbs) and 2 massive pieces of life rock that were a few years old that have since become live rock (don't know how she did it, but she did it outside the aquarium before introducing it). It also came with three different powerheads, of which I have a medium powered one flowing in a downward direction away from the intake of the filter and over the top of the liverock, creating some light, turbulent water dynamics in the tank. End goal is to add some coral. I've since added two 36" Fluval LED light bars giving me about 100-150 PAR at the lowest area of the tank. It came with a sailfish tang that looks to be a few years old and a pair of clownfish as well as a hand full of periscope snails. All animals looked healthy in the tank when I picked it up.
When I went to pick up the tank, she REALLY stopped caring about it. The walls of the tank were disgusting. I only paid $250 for everything, so I figured even if I threw out the water and started over, the live rock, live sand, aquarium, filter, skimmer and stand was worth the cost. Took all the water and live rock out in 10 5-gallon buckets and took it all home, cleaned the walls off with a sponge, and put the water, rock and fish back in. I let it settle for a few days and the filter do it's work. Took measurements of Ph, Amonia, NO2 and NO3, and they were atrocious. Did a 50% water change and cleaned the filters out and was amazed the filter hadn't choked itself/cavitated to death yet. The floss filter on top was grey and completely full with junk (I'm not kidding, it was solid with no pores in it to allow water flow, the black filters on the bottom were saturated with green growth, the black active balls were covered in garbage and the ceramic media was just as bad. I took everything out, washed the inside of the filter (caked with growth), changed the floss filter, washed out the black filter at the bottom (really open foam and rinsed out really easily), washed the outside of the activated charcoal balls and put them back in as the instructions said to do, and changed all the ceramic media. I took the seaclone 100 completely apart and washed that out. While doing the water change, I vacuumed the live sand (crushed coral, I believe) and the things I pulled out of there were straight brown in color in the bucket I was transferring to. Put in the new water, let it settle, and everything cleared up.
Since then, I've done another water change (20 gallon, 33%) and another vacuum of the sand, still pulling brown out of the live sand/coral. Protein skimmer seems to be doing it's job, and I haven't gone back into the filter yet to check how that's faring. Ph is about an 8.2, salt water in the refractometer is about 1.022, ammonia is pretty close to 0, maybe 5 PPM, NO3 is very low, NO3 around 1 PPM. Temp stays around 80F, lights are on the preset cycle using the Fluval App with about 12 hours at full intensity and a 1 hour sunrise/set built into both ends of the spectrum. Calcium is through the roof (like 550 PPM). Water during water changes is from my well, which goes through a softener, and is treated with 1ml of water conditioner concentrate per 5 gallon bucket. Salt is from Instant Ocean. Food is frozen brine with a dry nori feeder on the wall to keep the sailfish tang happy. All fish in the tank seem to eat the brine, but I throw a half a frozen seaweed cube in there every few days just in case I'm missing something. I also add 3 capfuls of Reef Plus twice a week. Food is gone within 3-5 minutes of adding it, feeding happens once a day.
Over the last two weeks, I've added a snowflake eel (6-7" baby), a hammer coral, a candy anemone, a blue tang, a blue spotted puffer, a bubble coral, a melanurus wrasse, and a royal grama. I realize the eel may not be a long term addition, as it may eat things (I suspect it's already eaten half my snails), but I wanted to try it and read that was the safest bet. Here's my problems:
1) The live sand seems to have algae growth within a day of vacuuming it and doing a water change, it looks really dirty again with green, purple and brown growth over the top of it. Should I replace the live sand? Should I just keep cleaning it and vacuuming? Is there a better way to clean/treat it?
2) My blue tang has been insanely lethargic ever since I got it from the store. I read that they often lie on their side and hide, but it's stomach looks to be caved in like it's starving and it barely swims at all now. It has no colors/marking on the outside that would indicate ich or other parasites, but I'm worried it has something internal that may spread. Rest of the tank's fish look great.
3) My bubble coral is thriving, but my hammer coral died within days and the candy anemone has lost all color and looks to be on the way out. What other water conditions should I be monitoring to ensure I'm not throwing more money out the window with future purchases?
4) The intake and outfeed of my filter looks to have some growth on the inside of the tube. I expect this is normal on the intake, but didn't know if I should run a brush through the outfeed, since that water should be "clean" coming out of the filter.
If you've made it this far, thank you very much! I'm looking for constructive criticism, different parameters I should be testing for, things I need to add or be careful of, and generally anything else! Since I'm new here, I'll also be searching the forums and trying to learn from past posts, but I wanted to get all my thoughts down in my first post so I can be successful in my new hobby
I've attached pictures, the first is a picture of the tank from the ad. This was a month before I bought the tank and she did 0 maintenance other than feeding up until I bought it. The second picture was a few days after I had bought the tank and not long after the first cleaning. The third picture is a few hours after the second picture (I went back and cleaned the rest of the algae off the glass shortly after the picture was taken) and the fourth was taken after the second water change the next day (I also changed the rocks around). The fourth shows how fast I'm getting growth in the sand. Within 4 days, it looks like I never cleaned it.
