Warning to others.

Notsolostfish · Feb 7, 2023

I just want this video to be warning for other newbies starting out. I started this hobby 7 months ago, i got excited finished the cycled, added fish, and started immediately with lps corals. I was happy about my gear, so i immediately was replacing socks, breaking in my nyos 120, and all the fun along with it. Till one day i started seeing a little bit of dinos on the sand. So i was worried about cyano, and after effect of it. At this time my corals were pretty happy, so i came to this server, and asked about my algae, and the first thing i got "whats your phosphate, and nitrate" at that time i didnt have a hanna checker for those, so i immediately bought one, and my nitrate, and phosphate were both at 0.

So the first thing this server told me was A) feed more B) buy a brightwell neophos & neo nitro.

As a guy who does not like any sort of chemicals in his tank. I started feeding more. But that didnt bring my nutrienrs up at all. Keep in mind at this time my algae wasnt bad at all.

So the devil played with my mind, and i bought neophos, and neonitro.

I started dosing those, the dinos went away not gonna lie. But iv had cyano on some parts of my sand. It wasnt extending, but it wasnt going away. It was ticking off my rock anemone, my corals were pretty ticked off. So a reefer with "experience" told me yes dose your phosphate to 0.1 as 0.06 is low to your nitrate 5.6 and when you reach 0.1 for phosphate your algae will go away. So i started double dosing phosphate. And here iam the tank is completely covered in all sorts of algae, dinos, cyanos, green cyano,a lot of green hair algae. And all of my corals either bailing out, or dying.

Moral of the story here. Never chase a number, and let your tank do its thing. Chasing numbers are not good, and i wish i listened earlier. Never buy corals immediately neverrr. And im not saying wait a year to buy corals, just wait enough for your tank to stabilize, and your nutrients are not in the low 0s.

The video doesnt do the tank justice on how bad the algae is in my tank rn

February 7, 2023

youtube.com

My mag is 1315
Alk:7.5(was 8.5 before)
Calcium:420
Salinity:1.026

LeDart · Feb 7, 2023

I can say the same, I started in the summer, and use chemical tests sparingly on the tank, I use context clues, and a schedule, for example I do a 15% WC a week, and if my zoanthids start closing then I do a WC. If my corals are bleaching, I lower my intensity, or move them down. If my corals start browning, I raise my intensity, or move them up. I stopped chasing numbers years ago on my freshwater tanks, and learned not to do it on my reef after my cycle was completed. Do I recommend this method? No! Does it work for me? Sort of. I have had three coral deaths due to my beginner learning curve.

N1tew0lf1212 · Feb 7, 2023

The best time to test is when things that typically thrive arent anymore....i have tested a grand total of three times on my frag tank and not for everything unless things seem really upset....so far so good not trying to do the number chasing game...not every system is the same and not every area we live at is either. What works for some might not for others. Do research yes ask for guidance yes but sometimes your best bet is to bet on yourself and how the tank is doing...

YOYOYOReefer · Feb 7, 2023

first thing i would check with cyano is for a bad ro membrane.
many times people are feeding their own algae problems with bad source water

Notsolostfish · Feb 7, 2023

YOYOYOReefer said:
first thing i would check with cyano is for a bad ro membrane.
many times people are feeding their own algae problems with bad source water

Yes but like im getting 0 tds. Is that possible

YOYOYOReefer · Feb 7, 2023

no if you are getting zero tds after your ro membrane most likely your tester is not working.
it should be zero after the di stage

Notsolostfish · Feb 7, 2023

YOYOYOReefer said:
no if you are getting zero tds after your ro membrane most likely your tester is not working.
it should be zero after the di stage

Theres a built in tds meter, and it says i have 0 after the membrance and after DI. Wait what?

YOYOYOReefer · Feb 7, 2023

whats the tds of your tap water ? say its 100 (which is very low) and your membrane was the best they make 98% rejection rate.. you should still have 2 tds after the ro filter, then the di will take it down to zero... you are saying you have a reading of zero after the RO filter, therefore thats not possible, so i suggest that tds meter is not accurate

hsosa · Feb 7, 2023

charbel101 said:
Theres a built in tds meter, and it says i have 0 after the membrance and after DI. Wait what?

you can do the ati icp test which test your source water RO and ur reef water . this is a total win for me as I drink the RODI water we make . good way to check if ur DI resin is working

Troylee · Feb 7, 2023

hsosa said:
you can do the ati icp test which test your source water RO and ur reef water . this is a total win for me as I drink the RODI water we make . good way to check if ur DI resin is working

You drink rodi water? You know that’s bad for you right? It lacks all sorts of minerals and strips them from your body.. lol

Lavey29 · Feb 7, 2023

So are you just going to sit down and cry about it now? A lot of us have tried to help you in your dozens and dozens of posts. You are a beginner reefer who had no patience and tried to do things way to fast and every time it didn't work out you over reacted and compounded the problem to a worse state. Now you come on to whine and deflect blame to others for your troubles and coral losses.

Got news for you, every new, novice and even experienced reefers hit hurdles in this hobby and a good percentage of them work through those hurdles and move on to the next phase with their tanks. Everyone here has had all the algae problems you have and some more then once or twice but they don't whine and blame others.

Let this sink in. Your tank is still new. The first year is rough with ugly phases and inexperienced reefers should not be spending a lot of money on corals the first year but focus on bringing stability to their tank and caring for their fish. You need to better educate yourself to the reefing hobby and learn patience not over reacting and screaming emergency on every little issue.

Yes your tank is a complete mess now but it is also completely fixable and if you follow some of the steps that very experienced reefers give you it will be fixed. Not overnight or next week but think 2 maybe 4 months as long as you do your part with water changes. Regular testing and focused on stability in the water, proper lighting and flow.

YOYOYOReefer · Feb 7, 2023

troy lee you can drink di water, but it will taste funny without the minerals, however it still can have bacteria and viruses as the process makes water "pure" from an electrical charge standpoint. in fact some healthy food type people use di water and re-add minerals.

PS :the way to cure dinos is to use UV.

Troylee · Feb 7, 2023

YOYOYOReefer said:
troy lee you can drink di water, but it will taste funny without the minerals, however it still can have bacteria and viruses as the process makes water "pure" from an electrical charge standpoint. in fact some healthy food type people use di water and re-add minerals.

PS :the way to cure dinos is to use UV.

Yeah it’s ran through a uv sterilizer and still has zero Nutritional value really lol..

YOYOYOReefer · Feb 7, 2023

my wife is a yoga/health nut and once we met and she figured out what my ro/di setup was she wanted to make healthier water lol... i drink the tap...

Notsolostfish · Feb 7, 2023

Lavey29 said:
So are you just going to sit down and cry about it now? A lot of us have tried to help you in your dozens and dozens of posts. You are a beginner reefer who had no patience and tried to do things way to fast and every time it didn't work out you over reacted and compounded the problem to a worse state. Now you come on to whine and deflect blame to others for your troubles and coral losses.

Got news for you, every new, novice and even experienced reefers hit hurdles in this hobby and a good percentage of them work through those hurdles and move on to the next phase with their tanks. Everyone here has had all the algae problems you have and some more then once or twice but they don't whine and blame others.

Let this sink in. Your tank is still new. The first year is rough with ugly phases and inexperienced reefers should not be spending a lot of money on corals the first year but focus on bringing stability to their tank and caring for their fish. You need to better educate yourself to the reefing hobby and learn patience not over reacting and screaming emergency on every little issue.

Yes your tank is a complete mess now but it is also completely fixable and if you follow some of the steps that very experienced reefers give you it will be fixed. Not overnight or next week but think 2 maybe 4 months as long as you do your part with water changes. Regular testing and focused on stability in the water, proper lighting and flow.

YOYOYOReefer said:
whats the tds of your tap water ? say its 100 (which is very low) and your membrane was the best they make 98% rejection rate.. you should still have 2 tds after the ro filter, then the di will take it down to zero... you are saying you have a reading of zero after the RO filter, therefore thats not possible, so i suggest that tds meter is not accurate

My tap is 70.

HudsonReefer2.0 · Feb 7, 2023

Quality water, water changes w manual removal, reduce the lighting if possible and test w quality kits. Add a variety of snails and a tuxedo urchin

YOYOYOReefer · Feb 7, 2023

charbel101 said:
My tap is 70.

you should still get 1.x tds .. i would check your meter against another tds meter.
my guess is your tap is not 70 tds (at least in most of the usa)

Notsolostfish · Feb 7, 2023

YOYOYOReefer said:
you should still get 1.x tds .. i would check your meter against another tds meter.
my guess is your tap is not 70 tds (at least in most of the usa)

It doesnt matter if its 1 or 0 bro. After DI its going to be 0 DI. It doesnt matter if i have 5 after the membrance as long as its passing by DI and im getting 0 thats what matters. Why is that even matter?

Spare time · Feb 7, 2023

My main issue is the 'chemicals are bad' ideaology. What do you think food, water, fish, corals, etc. are made of? It is a ridiculous statement that I see on here often (and in many industries) made by those who have no understanding of the basic chemistry of the world, or simply don't want to learn. It is a foolish notion with no sound reasoning behind it.

Also, numbers are fine to target. The saying "don't chase numbers" is just a catchy phrase that is used when someone doesn't understand why a test value should be in a particular range, or when someone wants to justify their laziness. It is an irrisponsible statement that always annoys me when I see it. No one is saying you can't have variations in a test value, or that you need an exact value for each parameter. You just want things in a certain range, not just for the known issues that arise when the values are very far off from optimal, but that, in order to tell what is wrong with a tank (be that algae, fish, coral health, etc.) we need to standardize the common parameters of a tank. If not, no one can help you as you would be introducing too many variable if you just say "I don't test because targeting certain values is bad." In order to diagnose a problem, you need to eliminate variables that could be a cause of an issue. When everything is within the right range, you can assume with a fair amount of confidence that the issue at hand is not from a value drifting outside of a healthy range.