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Old 11-28-2017, 02:00 PM
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Myka Myka is offline
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Looking at the photos of your tank it's obvious that you have too much nutrients in the tank, and not enough flow.

I think the "daylight" LEDs probably aren't helping you much either - they are too yellow/white. You need to add more blue light, and less white light. If you don't have the funds to do that you can buy some blue cellophane to cover up some of the white LEDs to make them blue. If you go to somewhere like Staples you'll find something useful such as the colored plastic sleeves used to hold papers in binders. Do you know what I mean? Any kind of clear blue plastic will work as long as it isn't much thicker than a typical paper sheet.

Why are there so much nutrients in the tank? You said no fish, right? Were there fish before? Are you feeding the corals? What are you adding to the tank besides salt?

You also said you only have 1 Astraea Snail. You need to beef up your clean up crew. If you can find a small Tuxedo Urchin that will help a lot. Add a couple Turbos or Trochus, and maybe 3-4 Scarlet Hermits (not other type of hermits).

I'd also add 2-3 large male Emerald Crabs. The big males eat Bubble Algae WAY better than small ones, and way better than females. Don't worry about popping the bubbles, only the mature bubbles will have mature spores in them, so the ones that pop on their own are the bad ones - the hard ones you pop don't matter.

When you do a water change, blow the rocks and nooks and crannies out with a turkey baster first, and then siphon all the junk out. Use the siphon hose to suck all the detritus out. Vacuum the sand to its full depth with a gravel vacuum (pinch the hose to get the sand to fall out).

What size is that powerhead? Do you have any other filtration or pumps? You may need to upgrade that powerhead to one size bigger. Too much gunk is settling out in the tank. If you don't have any filtration on the tank (I don't see anything listed), I'd suggest you get a hang on filter. Use bulk filter pads (not sponges) that you cut to size yourself. Throw them out (don't reuse) once a week. Also use some carbon to adsorb some dissolved organics.

It will be a long road, but if you do all these things well you will be able to save the tank. I own a marine aquarium service company - I've cleaned up tanks like yours many times.
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Last edited by Myka; 11-28-2017 at 02:03 PM.
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