Bought a tank that has been running for about 4 years

KevsReef

KevsReef

New member
Hi guys,

First of all, I'm totally new to this forum and to the hobby. 1st saltwater tank!

Ok so I'll explain my situation as detailed as possible so that you guys can give me the best advices possible.

On June 24th, I bought a 55g tank that had been tear appart the weak before. The guy gave me absolutely everything for a decent price. The tank has no sump and I don't have room for one. I have an API Filistar xp-l filter and a SWC mini hot protein skimmer. Lights are hagen glo dual t5HO old bulbs. Also, he gave me his fishes! (sub-adult emperor angelfish, 2x ocellaris clownfish, 2x blue damsels, 2x three stripe damsels, 2x yellow chromis and a weird fish that I don't know the name. Fishes stayed in a container for a week with an airstone, some goes for the approx 60 pounds of LR he also gave me.

I did not re-use his sand, I bought new aragonite livesand. I had around 10g of the water comming for the tank ready to put back in. As I beleived, that guy didn't really test his water(4yo test kit almost brand new), meaning not really caring about the green algae growing over the LR, as you can imagine. I tested the water left from the tank tear down. Ammonia : .5 ppm, nitrite 0 ppm, nitrates 80 ppm. Now, these results came from the old test kit, as I realised couple days later the test kit and bunch of water additives were expired.

I did buy salt (coral reef pro) and RO/DI in the same week, and don't worry, I have not put any water in the tank that was not testing 0 TDS. I did serveral water changes since the last month. I find that I'm actually throwing money away using expensive salt when I don't have any corals and don't plan having some till my parameters are stable. I'm going for a softie reef here. So first question ; would using cheaper salt like instant ocean or even cheap ok while I'm doing tons of WC and trying to find the nutrient problem?

Then I tought that my tank was overstocked. So I brought back the weird fish and the 2x three striped bully damsels to my LFS. So I have now 7 fishes. I know about the emperor, I read alot on this elegant fish. I feed them pellets and flakes as they are used to it. I stop my powerheads makers and make them eat for maybe 30 secs of small flakes then I throw maybe 10 pellets in there. Clowns are real pigs.

So today I tested my parameters with a new Red Sea Marine care test kit. Ph 8.0, P04 around 0.1, Ammonia 0-0.1 ppm, Nitrite 0.05 ppm, Nitrates 50+ ppm, 7 dKH and salinity 1.026.

I have brown algae growing over the glass and on the LR. Also, on the LR the green dense algae is still there and is looking healthy (sad to say).

I'd like to get help for nitrates since they are really high.

Also, algae, would GFO help me? Keep in mind that I would run it in the filter.

So I think that's about it. Sorry for the long book here, I hope I gave enough information so that you guys can give me advices!

Lastly, I'm french and still learning english. Be indulgent on my spelling, I do my best. Also, on your reply, please do not put ultra complicated words because chances are I won't understand them ahah! :sad2:

I want to thank you everyone for your time, it's really appreciated.

Kevin
 
Rehome the emperor angel fish 55 is way to small even at the juvenile /sub adult stage..

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk
 
In my opinion the tank is still over stocked. Your filtration is not able to handle the fish waste output thus you are seeing algae blooms that are feeding off the excess organics. You need to feed the tank less and increase water changes to compensate for the lack of filtration. That Angel alone is too much for that filter to handle. If you want to properly care for that beautiful fish you better start looking for a 180 gallon or larger tank. They grow very fast and require better foods than flakes & pellets. To get them to color up try clams, shrimp, seaweed, and pellets that are pre-soaked in vitamins.
Instant Ocean is fine for now and will do fine for a softy tank. In a SPS tank the more expensive salts make a difference.
 
Don't worry I know for the emperor I'm trying to find him a safe place to live in peace. I do feed him nori every other day. As far as a bigger tank, I just bought this one so I don't plan on getting a 180 gallons soon.

Explain of possible my lack of filtration. Is it my skimmer or the fact that I don't have a sump system?
 
I only have 6 years experience but from what I read you probably have high phosphates even though it tests low. It is tied up in your green algae. You will need to run some kind of GFO or phoszorb to absorb the phosphate. As already stated by Carrots, reducing your livestock will for sure help. Consider a sea hare to mow down the green hare algae but remember you will need to bring him back to the store when algae is gone or it will die by starvation.
 
Ok. I still don't have a clean up crew since I had ammonia. Will snail/shrimp/crab help me with that? Also what kind of these little guys should I get?
 
My clean up crews seem to not have a great effect on hair algae.
I have used dolabella sea hares to remove green hair algae and had it works extremely well.
I also tried Blue Life Phoshate RX which removes a lot of phosphate making the hair algae loose on the rocks and easy to pull off. But I think this chemical had a killing effect on my pods and bristle worms.
I hear Mexican turbo snails are good for hair algae but have not tried them.
Remember when you buy clean up crews, if you get bothe crabs and snails, the crabs will gradually wipe out all the snails.
 
Thank you! I already know about crab and snail. But I was wondering if emerald crab were more peaceful with snails than hermit?
 
Get those nitrates down.. plain and simple..
Water change..water change..water change.. till nitrates are below 5 or 10
Continuer à faire des changements d'eau

I'd keep doing 20 gallon water changes a few days apart until nitrates are down..

And so far your English is excellent !!! :thumbsup:

Once you get them down see if they stay down.. If not look into carbon dosing (vinegar) as long as you have or get a skimmer
 
Last edited:
About the emerald crab. I have always had them in two different tanks and have never seen one mess with my snails.
 
Denbf58 said:
how about a pic. did you replace the bulbs old bulbs can cause algae growth keep up the water changes
how many hours are you running the lamps? is the stand store bought or home made if it is store bought eshopps make a sump that will fit under a 55g here is a pic from when i set up mine https://www.dropbox.com/s/oiw4ymcs43wk4n3/2016-02-07 15.12.00.jpg?dl=0
Click to expand...

I did not change the bulbs since I plan on buying leds! I had them for 7h on now I dropped it to 6h to see if it would slow the brown algae growth. Yet nothing positive. The stand is from store I guess. I have the filter under it and all my items on the other side.
I will try to put a pic here later since on my phone it's not working..
 
mcgyvr said:
Get those nitrates down.. plain and simple..
Water change..water change..water change.. till nitrates are below 5 or 10
Continuer à faire des changements d'eau

I'd keep doing 20 gallon water changes a few days apart until nitrates are down..

And so far your English is excellent !!! :thumbsup:

Once you get them down see if they stay down.. If not look into carbon dosing (vinegar) as long as you have or get a skimmer
Click to expand...

I had a saechem prime botlle almost brand new at home so I'll try to get them down as max as I can. Forgot to say that when I started back the tank I forgot to change filter pads and to clean it.. did it 2 weeks ago, it was a mess!

Your french is not bad also well that sentence has no mistake ahah!

I do have a HOB swc skimmer wich works fine. My only concern is that it's not doing surface skimming.. I've seen all reefoctopus hob skimmers with a surface skimmer.. should I try to do something like that with mine also?

I tought about carbon dosing but I'm affraid my skimmer won't handle it and I'm leaving home for university in about 40 days. It will be hard to do carbon dosing when I won't be home. So I'd like to make my tank as stable as possible without needing a daily attention from me.

Thank you for your advices!
 
Denbf58 said:
how about a pic. did you replace the bulbs old bulbs can cause algae growth keep up the water changes
how many hours are you running the lamps? is the stand store bought or home made if it is store bought eshopps make a sump that will fit under a 55g here is a pic from when i set up mine https://www.dropbox.com/s/oiw4ymcs43wk4n3/2016-02-07 15.12.00.jpg?dl=0
Click to expand...

There you go for the pic!

f1TgC5
 
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