Water Parameters

[Saltysteve]

Just wondering, I finished the weeekend water change and testing etc. Is it normal for water parameters to never change? I do not add anything (anymore) accept RO water (top off) and water changes.
PH 8.3
Calcium 420
ALk 9.6 (3.43)
Temp 76
Nitrate 0

I am getting little growth accept hair algae :evil: and coraline!
I would post a picture of my results from 9months, if I knew how :lol:

[martym]

how old is the tank, what is in it? Now that corilline is growing watch your calicium, it will probably dip alittle. Been monitoring my 2 nano's daily for the past week. The older one (10g)dipped a bit in the CA and Alk. but the newer(20) one didn't move at all, except for the nitrite and nitrate climbed a bit, but that was expected.

[Saltysteve]

The tank is 9 months old. Lots of coraline growing, has been for quite awhile. I have a few soft coral frags that I am wanting to see grow especially my devils hand. Fuzzy green and blue/red mushrooms etc are doing well. One SPS birdsnest that is actually doing quite well, still little growth though. A few LPS, neon green trumpets large and small heads, doing well but little growth again. A brain-moon frag that does nothing anymore, no tenatacles visible etc. Grape Caulerpa used to grow very fast but now it has slowed down (this may be a good thing though). Pulsing Xenia has disapeared overnight as well as my Colt Coral :confused:
Everything seems to be just staying the same, suspended animation if you will :frown:
Water condition is always good,seem to be getting lots of Cyano though,
Livestock
I have a medium sized happy Yellow Tang
2 false percs
Lawn mower Blenny (he's cool)
and I just picked up a fire Goby

I want to go MH but I can't find what I need yet !

[Saltysteve]

No news is good news I guess.
Must have a good balance :cool:

[vertex]

What are you feeding the fish? how often? This might be the cause of cyano if you overfeed?

Otherwise, you might try some other foods or phytoplankton (DT's) for boosting your corals. My tank is not quite that old, some stuff does well (zoos, mushrooms, yellow polyps, open brain) and some is slowly (several months now) dissappearing or shrinking (cabbage leather and finger leather, Acropora frag).

I have same water parameters as you and decent coraline growth also. I have 192W on 33g, what is you light and size of tank?

[Jack]

Have you tested phosphate?

[Saltysteve]

In the beginning up until recently, I have over fed, big time. I did feed flake food twice a day plus brine shrimp mixed with reef plus as well as frozen plankton and the odd piece of seaweed on a clip for my Tang. Now I feed once every three days or so. I have also left my actinics on 24/7 for 4 plus months. I recently installed new bulbs and decided to adopt an 8 hour 10k and 12 hour actinic schedule. Phosphates, too low for the SeaTest kit's scale. I only use Culligan RO bottled water.
I have a 48 Gallon tank with a 20 gallon sump and I currently have 2x65 watt 10k and 2x65 watt actinic, 70Lbs of LR etc etc.....

[Beverly]

Your yellow tang will need a larger tank soon. 48g is too small for one, imo.

Your alk and Ca readings look okay. Also test for magnesium.

How often do you do water changes? How many gallons at a time? Do you have mechanical filtration on this tank? If so, how often do you clean the filter media?

[Saltysteve]

I agree, Tang will need a bigger tank soon, all part of the plan :smile:
Water changes get done every Sunday, 3 gallons of RO water at a time. I use Instant Ocean Salt and I vaccum the 1-1.5 inch sand bed. I do have a lot of evaporation as well, I add RO water every evening to the sump, total is 3-5 gallons per week. I have 65-70Lbs of Live Rock and no mechanical filtration. My tank is drilled in the right upper back panel. The piping is setup so the surface is skimmed and the return line (quietone 4000) is moving the surface. I also use 1 other powerhead on the opposite side. Skimming with a Seaclone 150. Have to play with it to keep it going once or twice a day. I get 3/4's of a cup a week and it stinks, real bad. Very thick and black. I use to have a sponge on the end of my overflow in the sump, never cleaned much out of it so I slowly stopped putting it back in :neutral:
Temperature was always 82 to 84. I lowered it to 76-78 and I have changed my feeding patterns.
Never tested for Magnesium though!

[Beverly]

If this was my tank with cyano, I would do 30-40% water changes twice a week for two weeks. I would also throw on some sort of mechanical filtration and do some serious turkey basting of rock and sandbed. If you have never basted your tank before, be ready for serious cloudiness. Don't worry about the cloudiness, it will not harm your tank.

Anyway, once the tank cleared, remove and clean the media in the mechanical filter, then basted the rock some more. Also gently basted the sandbed where the cyano grows, not so much as to cause a sand storm, but enough to loosen the cyano and some of the detritus into the water column. When the tank clears again, clean the filter media again. Your skimmer may also need the collection cup cleaned more frequently during basting, so keep an eye on it as well.

Do this basting and filter media cleaning thing at least once a day for as long as the tank gets cloudy during basting. By the end of the basting period, you will have exported tons of detritus which helped fuel your cyano problems.

Once you get things under control with the large water changes, continue basting your tank before doing weekly water changes of at least 15%.

[Saltysteve]

Thanks Beverly,
I have an hour right now, going to get started.
I just visited your website, very impressive :cool:

[Saltysteve]

Not sure if this will work or not but I'll try!
The most recent picture of my tank!
http://rcpilot.users.sunwave.net/tank1_2005_July15.jpg

[Saltysteve]

Holy smokes, it worked :lol:
:EDIT:
Bev, I don't know where to start LOL
I vaccum the bed quite often. When I stirred the sand bed, not much cloud appeared. Do I have to pull out rock and get under it all??????
I also think I know why I lost my Colt Coral, Majano Anemones :frown: Does not explain why my Macro Algae stopped growing though, or does it?
Will wait for your comment! I will be buying some of Joes Juice today, I have quite a few of those Anemones to get control of.


Learning everyday!

OK
Guess it just takes the right tool.
The wife will never know I found and used her big turkey baster. Big clouds coming now, I was able to squeeze the baster between rocks etc and I have an Aquaclear 200 running. While the water was real cloudy I siphoned another 3 gallons out. I have another 3 gallons mixing now as well :biggrin:

[Beverly]

Saltysteve,

Yikes! Your wife is gonna freak when she finds out you've been using her turkey baster :eek: You should have one of your own for reef purposes. Maybe just buy her a new one now :smile:

When basting, baste in all the nooks and crannies in, around and behind your rockwork. Make sure to thoroughly clean the foams in your AC 200 each time the water clears, then baste it again.

Also, clean the glass so the crud doesn't stick to the film algae.

Post a pic of the tank when it's cloudy :biggrin:

[Saltysteve]

I can see a difference already ! Here it is a little cloudy, looks great compared to the first time I did it LOL

http://rcpilot.users.sunwave.net/cleaning_1.jpg

[Saltysteve]

Well, I hit it hard today. Two sand storms and a 6 gallon water change. Cleaned the protein skimmer right out and destroyed what would appear to be 100% of my lovely Majano anemones. Joes Juice worked very well!
I will continue on with the cleaning and post my results.
Thanks Bev!

Hopefully, things will start to grow!

[Saltysteve]

Well my camera does not do the tank justice. I can see a large difference from then till now. Polyps are extended on the leather, tentacles are visible on the trumpets etc. Joes juice worked very well for the Majano population. Interestingly, a lot of the green in my tank (accept the obvious GHA) looks to be green Coraline :confused: :cool:
http://rcpilot.users.sunwave.net/tank_3.jpg

[Saltysteve]

See what I mean, what's worse than GHA? encrusted green coraline so that your tank always looks bad LMAO
http://rcpilot.users.sunwave.net/green_coraline.jpg

[Invigor]

a (good) phosphate remover resin will never hurt. :D

[Saltysteve]

Here is an update picture. I could not handle it anymore and I was moving so I went BB. The ultimate test now in progress. Listening to so many opinions etc........ etc :lol: Will also be upgrading the skimmer and I will continue to Turkey Bast and run the Aquaclear!

http://rcpilot.users.sunwave.net/bb_day_one.jpg

[Beverly]

A few tips for successful BB detritus removal....

> make sure you have space all around the rock structure to siphon out obvious detritus on your first round of siphoning.

> clean glass (so detritus does not get stuck on the microaglae), then baste rock the day before water change and detritus siphoning.

> turn off filters/powerheads before siphoning detritus.

> lots of detritus can settle under the rock, so make sure you can baste under the rock. I baste from front to back, making it easy to do the second round of siphoning.

> siphon detritus weekly and clean filtration material in outgoing changewater for best results.

[Saltysteve]

Thanks Bev,
The rock work was definitely the hardest, I changed it again this morning.
One thing I have noticed already, with the two Maxi Jets in the back corner pointing to the front on an angle, I have a nice pile pretty much center/front and a lot of suspended particulate in the water column. I now have my return line rippling the surface down the back of my tank with another powerhead completing the rotation down the front of the tank to the overflow. I can actually watch the flow as it deposits debris down the pipe into the sump.
I will be purchasing a better syphoning tool though this week. THe one I have now has a small diameter and does not like to pick up heavies.

Any tips on a good syphon tool? If I get one large enough the tank will empty before I get all the heavies out :rolleyes:

[Beverly]

Just so happens I have a page on maintaining BB tanks :biggrin: Lots of pics, a bit too much reading, perhaps :rolleyes: :

http://www.lostmymarblz.com/reeftips-maintainbarebottomtanks.htm

[Saltysteve]

You can never read enough :biggrin:
Canreef should have you on the Payroll :lol:

Thanks again Bev

[Saltysteve]

I am thinking bare bottom is going to work for me. As soon as I am happy with the skimmer it, as well as the heater will be going in the sump. I may be on my way here :lol:



http://rcpilot.users.sunwave.net/bb_day_4.jpg




From sand bed to cleaning to deciding to doing it, BB for me!
http://rcpilot.users.sunwave.net/