My sad tank

[coolhandgoose]

My tank has been going downhill steadily for the last two months and I'm thinking the cause may be the fact that I haven't replaced the filters in my ro/di. It now reads a tds of 30! So even my top off water is adding to the mayhem.

Here are some pics let me know what you think. I'm thinking it may be diatoms and some cyano and not Dino's like I originally thought.

http://i866.photobucket.com/albums/ab227/coolhandgoose/photo1-18.jpg

http://i866.photobucket.com/albums/ab227/coolhandgoose/photo2-18.jpg

My fox coral closed up
http://i866.photobucket.com/albums/ab227/coolhandgoose/photo3-11.jpg

And an SPS looking really sad, no polyp extension, you can see the green cyano in the background.
http://i866.photobucket.com/albums/ab227/coolhandgoose/photo4-4.jpg

[reefwars]

start running gfo in a reactor it will help big time.


that is cyano for sure theres alot of stuff you can do to stop it but the most important is nutrients.


what are your water parameters??


cal,mg,alk,nitrates,phosphates????



if you need a hand to get it under cntrol i could probably stop by to see whats up, if your interested let me know and we can arrange something.

[coolhandgoose]

That is really nice of you. Thank you so much for the offer.
I'm going to get the new filters for my water tomorrow and start making water like crazy. I'm thinking this Saturday, since my wife wants the tank moved anyway I'm going to do a 100% water change.

Hopefully with some fish water the corals will come back to life.

[reefwars]

That is really nice of you. Thank you so much for the offer.
I'm going to get the new filters for my water tomorrow and start making water like crazy. I'm thinking this Saturday, since my wife wants the tank moved anyway I'm going to do a 100% water change.

Hopefully with some fish water the corals will come back to life.



instead of 100% water change do 4 x 25% or 3 x 30% water changes with a day in between, it will be less harder on your fish and corals and you will still remove what you want to. cheers and if you need a hand just let me know it would be my pleasure:) cheers

[paddyob]

instead of 100% water change do 4 x 25% or 3 x 30% water changes with a day in between, it will be less harder on your fish and corals and you will still remove what you want to. cheers and if you need a hand just let me know it would be my pleasure:) cheers

Yea. Not 100%


Cyano is a battle. It won't resolve itself.

It can be something you are doing... Such as way way over feeding or as mentioned, maybe your filters.

To aid the process of removal, you must remove it manually.

Personally, I used a baster and basted the rocks and corals daily and removed what I could by siphon or net.

I started using ecobak pellets about 3/4 of the way through my battle.... And poof. Gone.

It's beatable. But only if you are diligent.

Don't let Denny come over. He has cyano.

Lol. Joking.

[cwatkins]

If you need to remove a lot of water to move it, keep it in clean buckets, then put it back in the tank once moved. Like mentioned above, don't do a 100% water change. You'll **** everything off.

[globaldesigns]

a TDS of 30 on your RO/DI in my opinion would not cause your problems. Many don't use RO, even myself I don't always. I am thinking it is from one or many other factors.

What is your feeding like, maybe too much food?

Water movement, maybe not good enough?

Livestock, maybe too much, along with too much food?

There can be many factors, I personally don't think replacing your RO/DI filters will fix your problem, however it won't hurt, as you should be getting zero or near that for water export.

[cuz]

oops, I've done 100% water changes and also use tap water with a TDS reading of 200...

As suggested there's probibly other causes, overfeading is usually the most common. Does your tank get natural sunlight in it? due for a bulb change?

[coolhandgoose]

I usually feed 1/2 cube of emerald entree a day, or 1 cube every two days. I also use Pacifica plankton. I have a yellow tang, coral beauty and a clown.

I'll plan on a few 30 % changes instead of the full meal deal. I'm wondering if when I built my scrubber the PVC glue wasn't fully set and leached out some toxins is why the corals are not happy right now as well.

[lngrhaul]

you need to be rinsing your food before you feed and it looks like you also need to increase your flow in the tank, keeps things from settling too much.

I would also add a gfo reactor to the tank to remove some of the nutrients and manualy remove anything you can. It might take a few months but you can get it under control and then maintain it.

Good luck - and hey Reefwars - nice of you to offer to come all the way from Bali to help a fellow out!

[reefwars]

Good luck - and hey Reefwars - nice of you to offer to come all the way from Bali to help a fellow out!



what can i say, im sure he'd do the same :pp

[fishytime]

how old is the tank?...how much flow do you have?...how big is the tank and how many pounds of LR and or dry rock did you use?......how many fish and what flavor?.....are you straining/draining your frozen food?.....

[coolhandgoose]

how old is the tank?...how much flow do you have?...how big is the tank and how many pounds of LR and or dry rock did you use?......how many fish and what flavor?.....are you straining/draining your frozen food?.....

Tank is a year and a half old.
I have the return pump, maybe 400gph, a koralia 3 and 2. My koralia 1050 has a new part being shipped and I'll add that too.
DT is 55 gal with a 30 gal sump.
I have about 60 pounds of live rock at least
1 each yellow tang, coral beauty and clown.
I don't strain the food.

[sully08]

start running gfo in a reactor it will help big time.


that is cyano for sure theres alot of stuff you can do to stop it but the most important is nutrients.


what are your water parameters??


cal,mg,alk,nitrates,phosphates????



if you need a hand to get it under cntrol i could probably stop by to see whats up, if your interested let me know and we can arrange something.
I have some cyano problems myself, what is gfo, I am fairly new to the salt water hobby.

[sully08]

Yea. Not 100%


Cyano is a battle. It won't resolve itself.

It can be something you are doing... Such as way way over feeding or as mentioned, maybe your filters.

To aid the process of removal, you must remove it manually.

Personally, I used a baster and basted the rocks and corals daily and removed what I could by siphon or net.

I started using ecobak pellets about 3/4 of the way through my battle.... And poof. Gone.

It's beatable. But only if you are diligent.

Don't let Denny come over. He has cyano.

Lol. Joking.
What are ecobak pellets?

[reefwars]

I have some cyano problems myself, what is gfo, I am fairly new to the salt water hobby.


Gfo is granular ferous oxide, it will remove phosphate very quickly its best ran in a reactor.


tips for removing cyano:


Increase flow to areas
manul removal
remove built up ditrius
Watch nitrates and phosphatea
Do not overfeed
consistent light schedules
use ro water
remove any dieing animals right away
regular water changes and husbandry

[Beverly]

My suggestions to win the battle:

-weekly or twice-weekly water changes of 30%
-baste your rock and sandbed (baste hard into the sandbed) to get detritus into the water column where your skimmer, HOB filter with foams, and/or canister filter can remove the detritus and ALWAYS throughly clean the HOB and canister filters after basting. Basting can be done three times a day for a week for the best results. Your tank will look like a horrible snowstorm after a good basting, especially at the beginning, but it will not hurt your corals.

Detritus Export Video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZ4pOXM1pTA)

After you get the situation under control, do weekly maintenance.

[Ryan]

I usually feed 1/2 cube of emerald entree a day, or 1 cube every two days. I also use Pacifica plankton. I have a yellow tang, coral beauty and a clown.

I'll plan on a few 30 % changes instead of the full meal deal. I'm wondering if when I built my scrubber the PVC glue wasn't fully set and leached out some toxins is why the corals are not happy right now as well.



I use this plankton as well and find I have to rinse it really well with tabk water or I get nasty algea out breaks.

[reefwars]

My suggestions to win the battle:

-weekly or twice-weekly water changes of 30%
-baste your rock and sandbed (baste hard into the sandbed) to get detritus into the water column where your skimmer, HOB filter with foams, and/or canister filter can remove the detritus and ALWAYS throughly clean the HOB and canister filters after basting. Basting can be done three times a day for a week for the best results. Your tank will look like a horrible snowstorm after a good basting, especially at the beginning, but it will not hurt your corals.

Detritus Export Video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZ4pOXM1pTA)

After you get the situation under control, do weekly maintenance.



would not recommend basting a sand bed to the point of a snowstorm if you have a deep sandbed that never gets vacummed as youll be releasing nasty pollutants into your water that could have a negative effect on fish and corals.fine if you have a shallow bed or reguarily stir and vacumm your sand but if youve never touched your sand bed in a year and a half then i wouldnt start to disturb it now unless your removing it all together for rinsing.if you must disturb it do it in small amounts or add a sand sifting goby.



cyano is most always nutrients and if your not watching what goes into your tank then it can easily appear and re appear.rinse frozen food well and blotch out the juices its acked with phosphates.

your tank is small and a low bio load if you add more flow to the affected areas and watch what goes into your tank you should be able to clear it u in no time, remove what you can with a turkey baster and keep up with water changes.


it will dissappear once its food source is cut off comletely......over night fixes and chemicals are useless if you dont find the cause i can almost guarantee it will return if you dont change what the cause is.


cyano could be caused by something as small as spawning or something as large as off the chart nutrients and everything in between.....it feeds off pollution:)

cheers:)

[coolhandgoose]

Thanks for the tips guys. I'm gonna start rinsing my food.

Here are the water results as I got some new di resin from Eli.

Tds readings
Tap water 264
After carbon and sediment filters 277 ( crazy how it went up!)
After RO filter 104

With new carbon and sediment filters it went to 240
After the RO down to 16
With the brand new di resin at the last stage it's now at 0.

[lngrhaul]

The other thing that people often forget is to rinse and dry your mixing container where you make up your salt water. Stuff can accumulate on the container and increase phosphates and other unwanted junk.

[vanreefer]

oops, I've done 100% water changes and also use tap water with a TDS reading of 200...

As suggested there's probibly other causes, overfeading is usually the most common. Does your tank get natural sunlight in it? due for a bulb change?

Good suggetsions so far...I have usually sem cyano in my tank when my bulbs are due to be changed... how old are your lights?

[coolhandgoose]

The bulbs are 6 months old.

I just did a 16 gallon water change so we'll see how things go. Planning more in a couple days.

[coolhandgoose]

Corals are still closed up, definitely doing another water change tomorrow, maybe a partial one tonight.

On a brighter note I found a peppermint shrimp I've been missing for about two weeks in the overflow box!

[coolhandgoose]

Here is the fox coral, somewhat inflated but definitely not fully.
http://i866.photobucket.com/albums/ab227/coolhandgoose/photo1-20.jpg

The sand bed was clear yesterday now already turning brown.
http://i866.photobucket.com/albums/ab227/coolhandgoose/photo2-20.jpg

Frogspawn closed up
http://i866.photobucket.com/albums/ab227/coolhandgoose/photo3-12.jpg

Kenya trees loving it.
http://i866.photobucket.com/albums/ab227/coolhandgoose/photo4-5.jpg

[dpg]

Are you running an ATS (thought I saw your handle in another forum). Is it helping?

[coolhandgoose]

I've just added the ATS so no help so far, just gonna do lots of water changes.
I'm on the algae scrubber site so SM can help me with the build.

[coolhandgoose]

Argh stupid peppermint shrimp is back in the overflow!

[fishytime]

you could also reduce your photo period......or do a complete "lights" out on the tank for up to three days, to get better results..... lots of things to try but I would bet that just being a little more mindful about how much you feed and rinsing the food, coupled with a low tds will likely do the trick for ya

[coolhandgoose]

Just did another 16 gal water change this morning and sucked out all the brown again.

I think I might do like 8 gallon water changes every other day now just to keep siphoning the sand.

I caught that bastard shrimp again and put some 5mm screening around my overflow to hopefully prevent him from going back in the overflow.

Also my tank temp was a little low around 76. I cleaned the heater and moved it to the sump and turned it up a couple of degrees to hopefully get it back to the 78 79 range.

[coolhandgoose]

I fed my frogspawn some acan plus and the feeder tentacles came out so that's a good sign. It's still not inflating like it should though.

[coolhandgoose]

I checked my phosphates today with my new Hanna checker and it showed .08.

The diatoms appear to have subsided from the main display, but the sump is really brown where the scrubber is. The biggest thing now is the cyano in the DT. I'm still waiting for a part for my koralia 1050, so just have 2 and a 3 in there right now. I'm going to add gfo to hopefully reduce the phosphates so the cyano stops.

The scrubber I need to adjust today since it has way too much flow, so I'll be putting a restrictor in the line.

I think the corals are showing signs of recovery but it may take a long time for them to bounce back completely. My frogspawn was starting to bleach out but it's back now. I also removed the carbon.

[coolhandgoose]

Just to give an update.

A couple weeks ago I moved most of my corals over to Eli's place (caco3reef) for safe keeping and bought a new ro filter, the Tds coming out of the old one was 116, after the new ro it was down to about 14, the di resin took care of the rest.

Armed with all brand new water I began the process of draining and moving my tank.

I took out all the sand and could not find my sand sifting starfish, which leads me to the conclusion that it died and probably released a wicked toxin that started the major decline of my tank.

The tank is up and running with no sand and brand new water and already the green palys which were brown before are starting to color back up. I ditched the scrubber and the skimmer is running again.

Lessons learned: maintain the rodi filter, never buy a sand sifting star fish again!

[troni]

ive never used a scrubber but have been interested in trying. is it a vertical one? and did it have any growth on it?

[coolhandgoose]

It was a vertical one and I couldn't really get anything growing. Back to basics for me, skimmer with carbon and gfo, new tank will also have a refugium with cheato.

[troni]

set it back up you have to wait till stuff starts growing for it to be useful. if youd like talk to titus99 he use to have one, before he had clams