I am having Major Tank Issues... Please Help

THEPHISHGUY

THEPHISHGUY

New member
So, everything has been going great with the new setup. Polyp extention was great, all rics and zoos open and growing. Last week, on wednesday, my nitrates were at about 10. I got some kent nitrate media and pulled the rowaphos out of my reactor. I put the nitrate media in the phosban reactor and filled a media bag with seachem phosgard. Ever since then, I have had a sizeable out break of cyano and no polyp extention on my SPS corals. One A. Rosaria frag has bleeched. I dont think it died cause there is no alge growth, it is just white. This morning, I pulled the nitrate media out and put the phosgaurd in the reactor. So what else should I do. Total water volume is @ 50 gallons. I did two 5 gallon water changes and nothing.

Salinity - 1.024
Calcium -- 400
ALk -- 9 dkh
Temp -- 78
amm -- 0
nitrite -- 0
nitrate -- <10

What else can I do? I just ordered some more rowaphos on line. Should I pull the reator with phosgaurd out of the system? Should I get some chemi-pure. While I am sure that will rectify the cyano problem, for how long? While the cyano inhibit poly extention or is something else bothering them? My R/o TDS meter is at 0. So what r your thoughts?
 
i would do more water changes more water volume. My tank was heading down hill my fault got lazy. I then added phosban reactor and did 1/3 water changes every week till my tank came back it is now better than ever and ill stay up on my water changes every 2-3 weeks regaurless if I think my tank can go with out.
 
Cyano is a really persistent nuisance. Since many species of it can derive their nutrition from multiple sources, or even fix atmospheric nitrogen to make their own nitrates, vigilant nutrient export on all fronts in necessary to get rid of it. You did not post your phosphates? Test PO4 and run Phosban or Rowaphos until it is undetectable. Keep up with weekly 10% water changes until your nitrates are undetectable. If you have substrate, vacuum it weekly. Loosen up any mats of cyano on the subrate, live rock and tank walls and vacuum out as much of it as you can. I doubt the cyano is affecting your corals unless it is physically growing on them.
 
I have been doing 10% water changes every 3 days since the tank was set up. I truly believe it is from wither the phosgaurd or the nitrate sponge. I will keep doing waterchanges and pull the phosgaurd and nitrate media off line and see if things change....
 
why have you been doing water changes every 3 days?

that kinda worries me, that your tank hasn't stabalized yet, if that is nessecary.
 
How long has this tank been up and running? It sounds like new tank syndrome to me and that's why I'm asking.

I run Seachems PhosGuard and no problems whatsoever. I'm also curious if you are running carbon?
 
IMO, if you have concerns - I'd pull the reactor/phosguard/etc off-line. Provided you have a skimmer, are not overstocked, don't overfeed ... IMO your tank should do ok.

I'd also change the water.

What kind of water do you use? If RO/DI, test your TDS again.

What fish stocked in there?
How much do you feed, how often?
What kind of skimmer, how's it working?
 
Nitrate Sponge doesn't work for a few weeks -- but once it does it's pretty effective. I've used it before and it doesn't show any immediate results, but long term does work -- I believe it's nothing more than very dense rock, and that it has to colonize with denitrifying bacteria just like anything else, and that it thus goes in stages (mini cycles) as it does.

Water changes are better, IMO.

How new is "new" on this setup? I have to agree that new tank syndeome / too many water changes / etc. might be accurate.
 
It is 2 1/2 months old... I have a Euro-reef CS-6 (I think :)) Tank has one false ocelaris, one straw psuedo, one fire goby and a baby half black, all are doing well. I dont over feed. If it all didnt happen the day after the phosgaurd and nitrate media were added, I dont think I would be so concerned. My PE was AWESOME untill the next day when this happened....
 
What skimmer?
What other livestock?
What feeding?
How much coralline has colonized the tank? How big of spots?

IMO, tank is still stabilizing. Many folks find that Acropora tanks do much better 6-12 months in, or at least mine have.
 
I agree about the time with acro's. This is my third SPS tank and the fastest I have ever stocked. Suprisingly, coraline is doing very well for such a short period of time. The spots are small, but there are a lot of them. In my past tanks, coraline hasnt really taken off like this for atleast 6 months....
 
Sounds like new tank syndrome to me. I ran into this a bit when I transferred from my 18G to my 29G and now to my 50G.

It's a pain, but I just kept sucking it out w/ the siphon and/or turkey baster and eventually it went away.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7052266#post7052266 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by THEPHISHGUY
It is 2 1/2 months old... I have a Euro-reef CS-6 (I think :)) Tank has one false ocelaris, one straw psuedo, one fire goby and a baby half black, all are doing well. I dont over feed. If it all didnt happen the day after the phosgaurd and nitrate media were added, I dont think I would be so concerned. My PE was AWESOME untill the next day when this happened....
Click to expand...
 
IMO you've gone a little too fast and this is what's causing your problem.

I would try to remove any inhabitants/corals (or a fair bit) till the tank settles a little more, then re-introduce them individually once it has. If you leave the corals in there you might get more bleaching and if you remove them now and put them in your established tank then you'll probably be able to restore it's color.
 
I'm pretty certain that your problem is the Phosguard. Remove it completely and perform additional large water changes. Also, add some carbon. I suspect that Phosguard is adding aluminum to the water and this heavy metal is affecting your corals. I've seen this happen many times. I even experienced it personally. It nearly wiped out my aquarium before I realized the cause of the problem.

Now I know some people have used Phosguard without a problem, but it really depends upon how it's employed and how much is used relative to the total water volume.

Greg
 
I'm voting for still stabilizing.

My 125 was started 1/15/06, and I just got my first cyano these past couple of days. Nitrates were zero for the first two months, and just popped up to 5 ppm a week ago -- down to .5ppm now following a 10% w/c with SSB siphoning, and macro harvesting from my HOB fuge. I run a ER CS-180, and my total system volume is around 150 gallons. Light bioload, 1 ocellaris, 1 powder blue, 1 royal gramma, 1 six line, 1 orange spot goby, 5 mexican turbos, 20 ceriths. I have 32X turnover in the tank via Tunzes and Eheim 1262 return. Despite all of these positive factors, I STILL have cyano (just two tiny patches, but still) now in this relatively new tank. Weekly w/c with siphoning and slow removal of bioballs (which were kept in as a safety measure since I had to move the tank quickly) from sump under way at this point.

Coraline has covered about 25% of my overflows at this point, and 10% of my back and side glass. Spots are about 3/8" across -- so it's growing quite well and I know the water is suitable for stonies. Still, I have only a couple of montis and a turbinaria for SPS at this point and I'm a long way from adding more. Heck, I'm still trying to get the right concentration of kalk in my topoff water to maintain CA and ALK.

Just be patient, I'm learning myself that as "perfect" as I thought I'd set everything up on this tank, the standard stuff like cyano still happens.
 
Oh, and everything in my tank is showing good polyp extension. A little problem with a mat of blue zoos dying, but otherwise everything has survived the move into the 125 and is thriving.
 
I too would skip on the Phosguard.
Greg put it well. Many haven't had problems - but some have. Seems like it's hard to tell unless you pull the Phosguard, do some w/c to remove the Al/etc.

But with a 2.5 month old tank, IMO you should not need all this excess filtration - and if you do, that is a sign that your tank isn't stable yet. IMO, your tank should be able to run `balanced' without additional N + P export media, esp for the first year. Some would disagree - but IMO if you're going for an Acropora dominated tank - you need balanced import/export without resorting to `additional methods' just to remove nutrients, esp early in the tank's life.

Just my take, but I'd pull the filter, do lots of regular water changes ... and wait a few months for things to settle.
 
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