Disheartened.

[reeferkeeper420]

Right now the only thing in my sump is equipment and 10pds of rubble. No algae or anything. I figured that adding them to the sump wouldnt be as beneficial since fuges need a slower flow through them. Id love to set up something like that tho, if space would allow it lol. Right now im using the roughneck rubbermaid garbage cans for mixing water and i hold 5gs at a time of fresh ro in the culligan bottles for my ato. My waters tds is 0, i use h20 salt. The fish get fed strictly PE mysis, New eras grazers, flakes and pellets, and once in a blue moon some cyclops. The corals once in a while get reef roids and fuel(not that much anymore tho, due to algae issues, dont wanna "fuel" it lol)

 

[Sewerat]

I have a few empty glass boxes if you want to set up a qt system to put some coral in.

I'd look at moving the corals and fish and moving the structure rocks, will those without any corals stuck to them into separate tanks, treat the corals and those rocks, and nuke the hell outta the structure rock. You have about 1/2 the rock nuked and the expensive half would be treated.

 

[scubasteve]

this is why i am now skipping water changes i started out using every bell whistle and peice of equipment i could get my hands on and i was plagued with issue after issue and a couple crashes i started skipping water changes and went to the fuge algae scrubber and gac mostly because i was broke by that point and was all i could afford to do.... as you know i have had alot less problems and things going smoothly for quite some time not too mention the massive savings i now get to spend on coral and fish . Sometimes its better to be different if i start to notice algae building up my gac is probably way overdue im bad for that lol.

 

[reef keeper]

gAC is granulated activated carbon correct?

I gotta put that on my tank today. I have all kinds of spare equipment I'm not using. Refugium=$$$ in the bank baby!!

 

[reeferkeeper420]

Nuking the rock isnt an option. Most of my rocks have coral growing on them. And i think doing all that to my system, wouldnt be worth the set back it would have on it. HA im just going to let it leach out and stay on top of it with regular water changes,wet skimming and regular gfo changes. Aips im going to hope my CBB develops an appetite for thm, and for the time being stay on top of some with vinegar. Bryopsis im going to get tech m and attempt to remove it that way again, and perhaps continue with tech m in hopes the impurities that kill bryopsis in the tech m will still be strong enough at lower levels to keep it in check and stop it from coming back. As for the receding acros im going to do a couple dips to ensure theres no AEFW, even tho the 3 wrasses i have should be able to keep that from getting too bad hopefully. Then get a Potassium test kit and Strontium test to see if maybe somethings out of whack there.

 

[AdInfinitum]

IMO if you need to "nuke" your tank to solve your problems you're not doing it right and it will just be a matter of time before you need to nuke it again.

If you take the slower path of fixing your issues by the time you are done you will know bow to sustain a healthy system long term.

Read Salty's tank rehab thread! I think he has links to his RC thread about it too.

As Big Show said address one problem at a time and don't quit until it is solved (fixing one issue will often help with the others).

You mentioned gac removing "stench" from the water??? A healthy tank should have no real odor (except the skimmate...lol) if your tank water smells you have an issue there that needs to be addressed.

A relatively small change in your light cycle can have a huge impact on algae growth too....

 

[reeferkeeper420]

IMO if you need to "nuke" your tank to solve your problems you're not doing it right and it will just be a matter of time before you need to nuke it again.

If you take the slower path of fixing your issues by the time you are done you will know bow to sustain a healthy system long term.

Read Salty's tank rehab thread! I think he has links to his RC thread about it too.

As Big Show said address one problem at a time and don't quit until it is solved (fixing one issue will often help with the others).

You mentioned gac removing "stench" from the water??? A healthy tank should have no real odor (except the skimmate...lol) if your tank water smells you have an issue there that needs to be addressed.

A relatively small change in your light cycle can have a huge impact on algae growth too....

The gac thing is just something ive read. Ive never ran any carbon on my saltwater tanks. I have no stench besides the saltwater smell but nothing unless ur right over top of it. I do need to change out bulbs and im currently only running lights for 9 hrs.
Ill be definately doing it one step at a time. Dont wanna give up after how much work and money ive put into it now.

 

[Pistol]

I have to reiterate, slow down, ditch the pellets they are not working for you, run carbon and gfo but don't over do it, don't try to bring it back too quickly or it can get worse. Stability can not be achieved quickly, a good skimmer is a must. Stop adding livestock until you have things sorted out. Regular water changes with quality water.
I know hermit crabs are a pain but they can plow through a lot of algae and get into the nooks and crannies.
Joy can return to the hobby for you but you will have to be patient.

 

[heath]

amazing, a ton of great advise/info for you. I agree there should never be any type of "stench"..to your water.. I found when I had the MAJOR hair algae issues there was a molding smell to my tank water and as soon as the problem was corrected the smell was gone..
take it slow, these issues didn't happen over nite and you are not going to correct it overnite..

 

[Pistol]

Forgot to mention, if you ditch the pellets you have to do it slowly, remove 20% each time and give the tank a few days to adjust.

 

[reeferkeeper420]

Ok, whats going to keep my n03 in check tho? Last time i took them off my n03 went up to 15-20 within a week. What exactly is the carbon doing, ive seen alot of different discussions on what carbon actually does so im a little confused there. And my skimmer is a great skimmer IMO, ReefOctopus SRO 3000int, rated for up to 300galls, on a 135DT and 25g sump. Ive ran gfo for a long time now, but im out and need to stock back up. I can admit i got a little behind on water changes, but even when i was doing them i didnt notice and big difference in my nutrient levels if at all, only reason i was doing water changes was to replenish elements i dont test for. My waters good, tds testing at 0.

Also my water has no stench to it, like ive already mentioned.

 

[reef keeper]

Riley

I'm going to bet money that the baseline issue you are having is phosphate leaching from those rocks. I bought some used rocks for my build for cheap cheap and soaked them for 2 weeks in fresh saltwater. The PO4 reading was a horrifying .57. Yes. .57. Algae was actually starting just from sitting in the bin in a barely lit room. I did a bunch of water changes which knocked it down some, but the real answer was lanthanum chloride. It's not cheap if you buy the lab grade stuff, but will save you potential issues down the road from buying the less pure pool stuff.

If you have a rock without coral on it put it in a 5 gallon bucket of fresh SW for a week and test the water. I think you will be horrified at the level you get from one rock.

I think that this should be you first point of action. Then you will know.

Do you run filter socks? Is there any sediment in your sump? That's a lot of pollutants there as well. If you do go with LC, make sure to dose it by dripping into a filter sock. Otherwise you will have a snowstorm when it binds the PO4

 

[reeferkeeper420]

Dont run any filter socks. Am not set up for it, in my sump. Yeah theres is some dertitus build up in my sump? Would a pwerhead in there help that issue? Yeah ive been thinkin about Lanthanum Chloride, but dont know if the issues that bad to resort to that. Unfortunately any of the rocks that dont have coral on it are at the bottom of my tank, and theres no way im reaquascaping to do that lol. I know for sure its my rocks leaching, thres no questions there, that and old bulbs that are potentially fueling the growth. I need to win the lottery so i can stock up on everything and replace stuff lol.

 

[unibob]

Dont run any filter socks. Am not set up for it, in my sump. Yeah theres is some dertitus build up in my sump? Would a pwerhead in there help that issue? Yeah ive been thinkin about Lanthanum Chloride, but dont know if the issues that bad to resort to that. Unfortunately any of the rocks that dont have coral on it are at the bottom of my tank, and theres no way im reaquascaping to do that lol. I know for sure its my rocks leaching, thres no questions there, that and old bulbs that are potentially fueling the growth. I need to win the lottery so i can stock up on everything and replace stuff lol.

I have lots of LC, Bulbs, HC GFO, Rox Carbon all just siting here man. You can pay me later, no worries there as it's not making $$ sitting here.

When you do when the lottery though, you can just buy me some really nice stuff


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[reeferkeeper420]

I have lots of LC, Bulbs, HC GFO, Rox Carbon all just siting here man. You can pay me later, no worries there as it's not making $$ sitting here.

When you do when the lottery though, you can just buy me some really nice stuff


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Wow thanks jerry. I guess its now a matter of meeting up lol. I hve carbon i just need bulbs and gfo and more grazers now that i think about it lol

 

[Pistol]

Ok, whats going to keep my n03 in check tho? Last time i took them off my n03 went up to 15-20 within a week. What exactly is the carbon doing, ive seen alot of different discussions on what carbon actually does so im a little confused there. And my skimmer is a great skimmer IMO, ReefOctopus SRO 3000int, rated for up to 300galls, on a 135DT and 25g sump. Ive ran gfo for a long time now, but im out and need to stock back up. I can admit i got a little behind on water changes, but even when i was doing them i didnt notice and big difference in my nutrient levels if at all, only reason i was doing water changes was to replenish elements i dont test for. My waters good, tds testing at 0.

Also my water has no stench to it, like ive already mentioned.

If you take the pellets off line you will need to maintain regular water changes to control no3 or dose another form of carbon such as vinegar or vodka, vodka can be dosed in one shot but vinegar should be dosed slowly through the day to not impact ph., carbon dosing is good for no3 but not so much for po4 so you would still need something for that.
Vodka dosing is pretty easy and the best vodka is the cheap stuff, you would want to start with about 1ml a day for the first week then bump it to 2ml/day the second week then 3ml/d for the third week and so on till you get to about 6ml/d which I think would be the right dose for your tank. If you go too fast or too much you will get a bacteria bloom which is not a big deal, you would need to cut back a bit.

 

[Sewerat]

And here I thought the vodka was so I could keep my sanity? You mean he's supposed to put it in the saltwater? What a waste of vodka

 

[heath]

And here I thought the vodka was so I could keep my sanity? You mean he's supposed to put it in the saltwater? What a waste of vodka

I was told " one of the tank and one for me "

 

[TORX]

Vodka worked great for me. I just bought whatever was cheap. But daily dosing was a pita, so I went to pellets. A doser and vodka would be awesome....for the tank and me lol

 

[heath]

I agree, did wonders for my tank too, the tanks got their shot when I got my morning coffee..