Tank Reset Help

[Bear Claw]

I am a moderately experienced reefer and started this thread to 1) keep myself accountable for this "reset" and 2) gather the much needed help in this journey. I have been really unmotivated and frustrated lately with my tank as it just seems to be giving me problem after problem. I really need some help on getting this tank back to the relaxing outlet it used to be.

I have a now 4 year old mixed reef tank. It is a Fluval Flex 32.5 gallon.

I currently have a few hermits (~5), snails (~5), 2 nassarius snails, 1 emerald crab, 1 cleaner shrimp for CUC.

For fish I have 1 ocellaris clownfish, 1 bangaii cardinal, 1 springer damsel, 1 royal gramma, 1 tailspot blenny.

For corals I have quite a few, however through bubble algae, overgrowth, low parameters, and warfare I have lost many of them. Currently on the large end I have a red plating montipora, splatter hammer, zoa garden, elegance, kryptonite candy cane, and rainbow lobophyllia colony. On the smaller side I have assorted mushrooms, a teal hammer, an acro, and a chalice.

For equipment I am running 2 AI Prime 16HDs, 2 Jebao 10s, A fluval heater, a jebao doser (although I do not have it set to dose anything currently), an inkbird heater controller, the stock fluval return pump, and 2 Intake media basket inserts.

For dosing I feed frozen brine 2-3x per week, I dose red sea AB+, reef nutrition phyto feast, and (for the past 7 days) 5mL of all for reef every day, 1 bag of chemi-pure blue after a water change (which I do about once a month), and coral food once a month.

My current parameters are...
Salinity - 1.022
Phosphate - 0.02
Nitrate - 0.0
Alkalinity - 6.3
Calcium - 510

My main problems currently area...
-bubble algae (absolute bane of my existence and by far my biggest issue)
-overgrowth (I have a guy who can frag my colonies and keep the pieces in exchange for some new pieces to add when I can clean some of the stuff up)
-parameters
-disorganization (corals cluttered and unorganized, empty shells and things all over the sandbed, dead spots)

Below I will link the pictures of everything in my tank currently. My budget for this reset is $400 but I am willing to spend more to get this thing how I want it. Thank you!!

Please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you!

 

[dedragon]

Salinity - 1.022
Phosphate - 0.02
Nitrate - 0.0
Alkalinity - 6.3
Calcium - 510

why such low salinity and alk? trying to limit growth?
the tank looks great even with the bubble algae but are you planning to use any rock or transfer corals over from this tank? are you using a new clean tank or trying to reuse the 32?

 

[Bear Claw]

why such low salinity and alk? trying to limit growth?
the tank looks great even with the bubble algae but are you planning to use any rock or transfer corals over from this tank? are you using a new clean tank or trying to reuse the 32?

Sorry for the confusion on that. I am not tearing the tank down I am merely trying to get it back to where i had it before. I am dosing all for reef trying to get the alk up and I am going to slowly try to get my salinity up to 1.023-24.

 

[dedragon]

Sorry for the confusion on that. I am not tearing the tank down I am merely trying to get it back to where i had it before. I am dosing all for reef trying to get the alk up and I am going to slowly try to get my salinity up to 1.023-24.

bubble algae will be hard to get rid of but can be out compete just takes time.
unless u drain and dry/completely hydrogen peroxide it or let the tank dry out the bubble algae will still be present unfortunately

 

[sgdnycct]

From the pictures your tank looks really good! I think I see a little of what you described.

I think starting to dose to get your parameters up is the best start. Just do it S L O W L Y. The corals you have now seem healthy and you don’t want to shock them.

Outside of your parameters which can be easily fixed by dosing I’d say your maintenance regime has been pretty good. I force myself to keep my hands off my tank and find it does better when I leave things alone!

Next I’d suggest you have any fragging done. Trim back whatever you feel is over grown, etc.

To clean the sand bed you have a few options. You can clean out rubble by using something as a rake (I rubber banded two tongs to create 4 teeth) rake up what you can into piles then remove the largest pieces. You can then use a net to remove small pieces leaving the sand behind. My sand was pretty clean so it wasn’t a concern. But if you’re worried about stirring up too much gunk you could vacuum the sand first or add a filter while you’re working. Probably a bunch of options there.

During this time you’ll probably want to shift rock around to get to the rubble.

Then It becomes a matter of aquascaping. You could pull the rock out and glue pieces/add together for different looks. Use accelerator with super glue to minimize time out of water.

Just a high level of what I’ve done in the past. Hope this helps!

 

[mcarroll]

I dose red sea AB+, reef nutrition phyto feast, and (for the past 7 days) 5mL of all for reef every day, 1 bag of chemi-pure blue after a water change (which I do about once a month), and coral food once a month.

My current parameters are...
Salinity - 1.022
Phosphate - 0.02
Nitrate - 0.0
Alkalinity - 6.3
Calcium - 510

Your problem shows up in the numbers.

Salinity is low for a coral tank – double check your measuring device for accuracy by testing something else like tap water and see if it gives you a correct result. If not, you may have to calibrate your device.

Phosphate of 0.02 ppm is too low for corals. Unless they are eating well (which is unlikely out of the wild) they depend strongly on dissolved phosphate to make photosynthesis work. Without adequate P in the process, they are stressed and can even be mortally damaged by the side effects. This in addition to all the other needs they have for P, including growth, repair, immunity and reproduction.

Nitrate being zero is another problem.....not quite as severe as a PO4 "outage" but still not beneficial. It's a major nutrient that everything competing with your bubble algae is being deprived of.

Shoot for ≥0.05 ppm PO4 – maybe dose up to 0.10 ppm and see if it says in the right range after that. There is no "too high" for PO4, so don't worry in that direction. All of the worry is on the "too low" end of the spectrum.

Likewise, shoot for ≥ 5 ppm on NO3.

N and P both being unavailable is giving the bubble algae an advantage, BTW....it's much better at uptake than most of the things it's competing for space with (eg. coralline algae and other desirable periphyton) so it doesn't mind the substandard conditions as much. Improve conditions and you'll see the algae slow down and maybe even disappear. BTW, bubble algae is the best greean algae to have IMO.....it's good looking ("the jewel of the reef" in one of my reefing books) and not nearly as aggressive as most other pest algae. (I know you'd still rather not have it, but algae is a natural part of EVERY reef....even healthy ones!)

Alk isn't actually THAT low, just bring it back to normal with a water change or two. Low salinity could even explain it. (I would run a full battery of tests on your seawater to see if that's where the low alk is coming from. Some mixes are low, whether on purpose or accident.)

My main problems currently area...
-bubble algae (absolute bane of my existence and by far my biggest issue)
-overgrowth (I have a guy who can frag my colonies and keep the pieces in exchange for some new pieces to add when I can clean some of the stuff up)
-parameters
-disorganization (corals cluttered and unorganized, empty shells and things all over the sandbed, dead spots)

Try to relax on the algae.....siphon out what you can, and try not to worry too much about the rest.

Overgrowth is a sign of success, not a problem per se.

Disorganization is a human thing, not a reef thing.....it's OK to want a "tidy looking" reef tank, but it's actually very unnatural.

IMO try to be a better "lazy reefer". But until then, a basic fish net is he best way to clean the "extras" off your sand bed. :)

Sorry for the confusion on that. I am not tearing the tank down I am merely trying to get it back to where i had it before. I am dosing all for reef trying to get the alk up and I am going to slowly try to get my salinity up to 1.023-24.

Your calcium is too high for that.....you either need an alkalinity supplement (ie baking soda) or you need to fix alk with water changes (not dosing).

Verify this problem isn't coming from your salt mix though – mix a batch and test it before you use it! Make sure ca, alk and mg are all close enough to the intended levels.

There's no reason to be slow in fixing any of these things – it's just that much more time for critters to suffer or for algae to take over. Slow is for making changes...that's different from fixing things that are wrong.

Last, it seems maybe you'd like someone else to take care of your tank so you can spend your energy enjoying it. Consider using your so-called "reset budget" for that.