My sad tank
 

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/a.../photo1-18.jpg

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

My fox coral closed up
http://i866.photobucket.com/albums/a.../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/a...e/photo4-4.jpg

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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!