So we added a bunch of corals over the course of a month or so, and I think we may have added them a little too quickly, so I know thats been a problem. But here are my specs:
75 Gallon tank
20 gallon Fuge with a g1-x skimmer
110 lbs of live rock
6 bulb SunLight Supply Tek fixture
3 Giessmen white aquablues
3 Giessmen blue actinics
4 inch sandbed
as for live stock…
Dendro colony, ducan colony, 3 polyps of Acans, one torch, one frogspawn, one galaxea, a couple of very small colonies of Zoas, 10 or so mushrooms, one small colony of green stars (the fake ones) and a favia colony and a Alien Eye Chalice
we have 2 perc clowns, two clown gobies, and one watchman goby.
water para.
500 Calc
78-79 degrees
nitrates=0 (but we have quite a bit of this slime algae producing bubbles)
nitrites=0
ammonia=0
hardness=don’t know
mag= don’t know
salinity= 1.026
Heres our problem
we have this slimey brown algae not everywhere but covering things, its creating these bubbles like crazy, which leads me to believe it is taking my nitrates out. (creating nitrogen)
Some of our newest corals are not doing so well I don’t think. heres some pictures
The Christmas Favia
before
after
The Alien Eye Chalice
Before
after
any advice would be great, ill see if I can get the Mag and Alk measurements.
it has been up for about 2 and a half months now. we went through the initial algae cycle went through. but your right, the algae looks like diatomes, they are there in the morning on the sand, and they are gone two hours after the lights come on, burnt off by the lights. the nitrogen cycle finished its run on March 25.
I have a 29 gal setup, and I started adding livestock after my live rock had been in the tank for a little over 3 months. Even then, the “beginner” livestock (a zoa colony, mushroom, acan) struggled. It’s been about 5 1/2 months now, and ONLY RECENTLY have I noticed my animals start to thrive. They struggled a bit, i attributed, due to the “young” nature of my tank. I’m assuming that this is what you’re experiencing.
Even though you’ve gone through a nitrogen cycle, there are alot of biological factors that play a part in the equilibrium of your tank. I’d keep a keen eye on your DkH, I made the mistake of not controlling it early on and it caused me some problems that could have been easily avoided. After several months, you’ll find out the parameters that you need to test often, and the ones that you only need to test sparatically, and the ones that you may not need to test at all (unless you suspect a problem).
Also, you’ll hear that your current salinity level is “ok” at 1.026, but from my (however limited by comparison to others) experience, a salinity range from 1.022-1.024 makes your critters a little more comfortable. I’ve had mine swing on the high side, and everything in the tank hated me for it. I say “swing” because a little deviation is alright, even natural.
My verdict: Possible salinity issue, Biological warfare with your critters, and possibly a DkH issue (you don’t know what you don’t know).
Question: Are you keeping your fuge’ lit at night, and off during the day? May help with the buildup of bubble algae.
Salinity of 1.022 would be bad for your animals. Target 1.025 and if you have trouble keeping it there and it gets low target 1.024 so if you miss a day of top off it won’t get too high.
How did your Calcium get that high? If you haven’t added calcium then your test kit or you salt mix is bad. That is very far elevated and likely your Mg is very low. Low Mg makes it a lot eaiser for unslightly bacteria and algae to take hold and stresses your animals.
You did add the stony corals way to early in my opinion. Early in the maturity of the tank and your experience level. Lesson learned on that one, but make sure it is learned and you don’t purchase any more for a while until you and the tank are ready for them?
What is your photo period? If you keep all the lights on for 12 hours a day that can make getting rid of this stuff more difficult as well.
Do not add any products that claim to remove the algae, diatoms, or bacteria. They won’t really help or may remove what you are seeing, but something else bad will happen. Either another unsightly thing such as hair algae or cyanobacteria will spring up in it’s place or the waste won’t be collected by something else your Nitrates will climb and it will kill your fish and corals or just crash your tank all together.
What is the TDS on your RODI water? If you don’t know hit the books and figure out what I’m talking about and how to fix it.
It is a good idea to either know your Mg, Ca, and dKH or not to mess with any of them. If you mess with one it will throw the balance off of the others(if not right away in time) Either test and supplement all or rely on water changes and don’t buy any more stony corals. This is my opinion and some who don’t really keep stony corals, haven’t kept a stable tank for long, or won’t ever show off pictures of their ugly tanks may disagree with me.
It would be a good idea for you to have a digital pH probe in your tank as well so you can make sure your pH is high enough. Meanwhile open up your house when you can to try to get some fresh air in there. Your tank will appreciate it. You can also run the air line intake to your skimmer(assuming you have one?) to outside or put a CO2 scrubber on it to increase your pH)
Take things slow. Do you water changes. Limit food going into the tank. Hit the books.(the things with paper in them, not the forums)
In this addiction/hobby, patient is virtue. 2 1/2 month might be long time for you, but IMO it’s not long enough. However, there’s no standard time establish as to when a tank can be cycled, but to be cycle there shouldn’t be no amonia or nitrite in the water parameter and very low in anything else.
Hopefully you’ve tested your water parameter before you add your animals. Once it’s in low parameter then you should slowly add those animal not in large amount. Too large of a bio load will set your water parameter out of wack and your bacteria will not be able to catchup with all the bad stuff that is being put in the tank all at once.
Also, you’ve stated that there’s algae like diatoms in the tank and you haven’t check for your alkalinity/PH. I think you might want to do that.
Hope this help. Try to put it as easy as it can be with out being scientific about it.
I agree with Gordonious - PH could be an issue at play - open a window in the room with the tank to decrease carbon dioxide levels. I think a young tank and new reefer should avoid stony corals for at least 6 months as well. While books are good they’re often outdate and you can temper what you’re reading on paper with update dinformation available online.
I think your corals are too close to the light which is affecting their appearance. The algae is part of the natural cycle of a tank, do your water changes, measure salt carefully, airrate your new SW for at least a day before using. Watch your lighting schedule and how much and what you’re feeding. Flake and pellet foods have a tendency to be high in phosphates which will not help your algae issues.
Slow down and enjoy the growth of your tank - an old addage in this hobby is “nothing good happens fast”
Books can be out of date, but if you check the date inside the cover it will give you an idea of how old it is. While there have been some changes I don’t believe you’ll get much misinformation from a good book. There is nothing out of date about the Marine Chemistry book from Chris Brightwell and you’d be hard pressed to find much in Sprung and Delbeck’s most recent Reef Aquarium book. LEDs are further along, but your not going to crash a tank by not using them and “ultra low nutrient systems”(some would argue you shouldn’t call them that) are becoming more popular, but in my opinion a newby hobbyist shouldn’t be tinkering with as you really should have a much better understanding of your aquarium before playing with them.
Neither of these books would tell you to run your tank at 1.022 while you may hear it would be good to do so on any forum.
If you want to do things the long and hard way then don’t touch any books and have fun over sorting through the conflicting advice online that send many people back to gardening or some other hobby.
[quote=“Gordonious, post:10, topic:4284”]
Neither of these books would tell you to run your tank at 1.022 while you may hear it would be good to do so on any forum. [/quote]
and
[quote=“Gordonious, post:6, topic:4284”]
Salinity of 1.022 would be bad for your animals. Target 1.025 and if you have trouble keeping it there and it gets low target 1.024 so if you miss a day of top off it won’t get too high. [/quote]
eye pinch . . . once innocently mentioned, twice criticized . . . I got on someones bad side today. My :TWOCENTS was a general suggestion that the salinity may be too high. If 1.022 salinity is too low, “so let it be written, so let it be done”. No arguments here. Must have something to do with my quoted “limited experience”. . . slap-stick
[quote=“Gordonious, post:10, topic:4284”]
If you want to do things the long and hard way then don’t touch any books and have fun over sorting through the conflicting advice online that send many people back to gardening or some other hobby. [/quote]
The irony is that this advice is posted on an online forum ;D
I’m not saying books are wrong - but some are outdated. Make sure if you’re going to invest in a book it is a recent book, written by a credible author. I tend to avoid books and advice by people that also have a business selling aquarium related goods. I always feel that their opinions and advice are slightly biased.
With that being said - I personally feel it’s always good to research and sort through as much information as possible. It’s how we learn, I also believe in learning from our mistakes, like trying to run a reef tank at 1.022 ;D or adding stony corals without testing alkalinity ;D or not suggesting a specific book or author to someone that may not know a scientist from someone making fish food in their kitchen.
+1 to everything stated. It’s hard to wait longer but it is always worth it in this hobby. Always pace yourself with fish and corals. Buy small, then wait two or three weeks so the bio-load can stabilize. Also, I couldn’t tell if it was mentioned already but do you have any filtration media in the tank or any other areas that excess detritus might be trapped and building up? Check because trapped detritus poisons a tank with excess nutrients that will decompose and can cause you similar problems to what you are seeing. Increasing your flow in your display tank will help keep detritus from settling in your rocks as much and help keep phosphates out of your rocks also. Good luck! And don’t worry, we’ve all been there.
[quote=“Cdangel0, post:12, topic:4284”]
Make sure if you’re going to invest in a book it is a recent book, written by a credible author. I tend to avoid books and advice by people that also have a business selling aquarium related goods. I always feel that their opinions and advice are slightly biased.[/quote]
So you avoid buying books all together correct? If you don’t want to read a book that has some bias to it then you won’t find yourself reading at all. This is the case in and out of the hobby, there is no such thing as an unbiased book.
I think the best advice you can give someone new to the hobby with a lot left to learn is to pick up a good book. If you read around online and get conflicting advice it leads to a lot of frustration and I know plenty of people who dropped out of the hobby for this reason. Hobbyist often make significant changes to their aquarium frequently based on what they’ve read online. Staying consistent for a significant period of time is very important for the success of an aquarium especially when starting out.
Few hobbyist are going to really read 5 different articles by respectable authors on alkalinity and form a well researched opinion on the topic. Most will not be likely to even read one from beginning to end. It’s great to tell someone to read multiple things and form your own educated opinion, but if they are not will to read one and just want to ask a simple question on a forum not understanding even what they are asking and get a specific answer…
dajohnson, sorry I used your advice as an example, but it was just easy to do so and get to my point quickly. Didn’t mean to tease you or laugh at you in anyway, it was just an easy illustration of my point. Most forums contain advice given by people who won’t admit in it they are a newby.
To the original poster include some information about your flow, source fresh water, and filtration media or skimmer. That being said I probably won’t be checking back to this thread. My advice would be to slow down get a good book such as the ones mentioned above and take your time.
I also wouldn’t suggest running any tank at 1.022. (totally playing with da :-P)
I have to fully agree with John(Gordonious) on all his posts, he’s very experienced and knowledgeable reef keeper.
Sweeneyc, I don’t even know what to tell you about your problems and how to fix it because I don’t have troubleshooting skills like John. I feel little sheltered by my WC schedule and following good books/authors religiously with some common sense of-course. I think let nature take it’s course, you can’t undo what is alredy done so, do basic husbandry - WC, ect., and while tank fixes itself you can read and learn and dream of your next step.
If you would like to advance and enjoy this hobby you will learn.
im in no debate about books, but anyone who would run a tank at 1.022 runs the risk of a serious problem if, as many are, his method of testing SG is a tiny bit off. decent refractometers still need proper adjustment and calibration. and floating arms can be waaay off, 30% is not unheard of. in a read of 1.022, a small deviation in b/c of equipment can be disastrous. cam, are you using a float arm hydrometer???
many things change over a season in every specific area of the ocean, but salinity i’d think is remarkably similar within each region and doesn’t vary much at all like ph or temp
and you can temper what you’re reading on paper with update dinformation available online.
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