what to do?

spscrazy · Jan 4, 2011

I am having problems with my set up and would like some suggestions

first the stats
95g 36l x 36h x 24 w 200lbs live rock 5" sand bed
2 koralia evo 1050 & 1 koralia evo 1400 on red sea wavemaster pro 1 maxi jet with sure flo upgrade lifereef skimmer, cpr hob refugium w chaeto & sand bed, 500 ml ecobak slowly tumbling.
ph 8.3 calc 450 mag 1500 ammo 0 nitrites 0 nitrates 5 silicate/phos 0
tank has been set up 3 years last year I fell in love with sps that is when it all started going down the tube! my tank & I have now developed a love/hate relationship everytime I think I see a glimmer of hope some crappy thing happens first it was aiptasia & mojos get that wiped out then diatoms take over get that mostly under control & hair algae starts get that almost gone then byropsis starts raised the mag & now I have gelidium(and still byropsis & diatoms):sure: and still have to date never gotten rid of the nitrates altho down from the 1 year run of 20 to now maybe 5-10 I have a r/o filter so what goes in is good. I have 4 fish 1 maroon clown 1 purple squareback anthias 1 6 line wrasse & 1 false lemonpeel angel I had 2 sps frags in the tank that were muddy brown & didn't do anything about 6 months ago they started to grow & color up I had discovered GFO so think that is why. anyway at that time I only had a little brown diatom on my sand & thought things were looking up oh but nooooooooo that is when the hair algae started then the byropsis started & now the gelidium. Now I know you are probably thinking well you should stop adding things but I am not I am spending all my money on trying to fix this tank I am about to give up I look at reef club members who say all I have is some live rock no skimmer & here is my tank & it is full of the prettiest sps corals I have ever seen what the heck am I doing wrong? I am wondering if the sand is now old I really wish I had never added it anyway but now everything I read says I'll really mess up if I take it out. so any suggestions before I turn it into a goldfish tank?
thanks for reading all this!

FiReBReTHa · Jan 4, 2011

sounds like a normal reefers adventure..... :)

persistence in this hobby is what makes you part of the 20% that actually stay in.

cultivatedcoral · Jan 4, 2011

Get rid of the sand. It holds in so much nastyness you will not believe. Once you take it out you will see the filth that is in it. You still may have hair algae problems on occassion but that happens, just look at the ocean. Get a tomini or kole tang to pick at the rocks. They won't help bryopsis but may help the hair algae. I would also suggest going with bio-pellets and some bacteria supplementation. Manually scrub the bryopsis and hair algae in a bucket.

You could also consider cooking your LR in the dark for about a month or two.

Good luck and don't get discouraged!

Nick

cultivatedcoral · Jan 4, 2011

Here is some motivation for you. These are some acros after we took the sand out. BTW, go slow with tanking the sand out. Siphon a quarter of it at a time when doing water changes.

divewsharks · Jan 4, 2011

i'd agree you probably have alot of junk in your sandbed, (i run a shallow bed ~2 inches) what kind of cleanup crew is in there to work it?
do you clean off your rocks (like with a turkey baster) sounds like you have alot of rock in there which could easily impact your flow, not allowing the powerheads to help keep them clean of detritus.
normally if you had 5-10 nitrates, i wouldn't call that a big deal, i target that range cause my SPS seem happiest there; but if you have alot of algae then it likely consuming nitrate which is not showing on the test. How did you test for phosphate? most tests are inaccurate (and basically useless), a Hanna checker is probably the most accurate hobbygrade.

hippo tang · Jan 4, 2011

Look around R2R's site there is alot of people that have had problems with there tanks and have posted them. Try Foster and Smith they have some good info. They say any sand bed over 2in is a bad thing. I just found out from reading someones post on here that my top off water ( ro water 8 stage ) is why I have so many problems with my sps.