i really need some guidance

[3crazyboies]

i have a 30g reef it has been up for 1 year.
with a few fish :cleaner shrimp, clown, bluedamsel, lawnmower, firefish,orange linka, cucumber, pincushon urchin[the worse thing yet],3 hremits,20 nass snails, 2 astreia snal,1 turbo
[2just died did not know that they flipped upside down]
lost green crabs, lettucenudibranch, flame scallop when we had last outbreak of cyano- husband used chemical
also have 1 mushroom, gorgonia,purple star polyp, yellow sun polyp, leather toad coral orange plate coral.

i was thinking about getting a sally lightfoot to help with new outbreak? i just ordered new filter covers for protein skimmer and powerhead [that might help]and thanks to urchin algae galore. i think i even have calurpa growing on rock.
we donot r/o our water. we do use a tap water filter it was @$35from fish store.which is another problem
he closed up shop. not enough business.
bio filter 1 powerheads 1korlia just put in volcano for looks. any suggestions

 

[jhildebrand]

The first bit of advice I can offer is to come here and ask for help before purchasing anything - fish, invert, or coral. Right now you have a lot of very sensitive critters in a fairly small tank with possibly very unstable parameters. Animals like the flame scallop have dismal prospects at best, most not making it a year in a captive system. We all started somewhere and have made mistakes in the beginning. I learned the hard way with my 20 gallon reef I started with 12 years ago. With no reefcentral, it was painful and expensive trial and error.

Reef animals need stability to live in captivity. I'd recommend getting a good reef test kit first and seeing where all of your levels are at. No one here can help troubleshoot an issue without knowing more about your system and its current state. It will be incredibly expensive and frustrating to keep buying things for your tank and watching them vanish or wither away.

If you want to have a reef tank with a mix of corals, you really should be using RO water for water changes and top off. If you don't want to invest in the system, buy it from a local fish store or grocery that carries it. The nutrient buildup from your tap water is going to cause problems at some point in time no mater how good your filter may be. The nitrate and phosphate levels are normally high out of the tap. When you top off with it, it just adds to the problem as it accumulates. It's hard enough dealing with what your animals will produce.

If you want to correct an issue, test your water and perform a water change. It's a bad habit to pour in a cure from a bottle. Chemicals are not only expensive, but a lot of them are going to have unintended consequences and/or cause new headaches.

A member here has a fantastic website that can guide you through a lot of the questions you probably have: melevsreef.com Also, check out the FAQ on this website and the beginner forum.

Some people will say they don't have the time, money, or energy to put into keeping coral and sensitive inverts. If you don't, you not only will be unhappy with your tank, but you will also be sending a lot of these creatures to certain doom. There is a huge difference from the fish only tanks and full reef setups.

The people on this website are very knowledgeable and helpful. Ask one question at a time and provide more info on your setup. There are also many good books on how to set up and maintain a reef. It doesn't have to be horribly expensive, but certain items are mandatory - test kits, adequate lighting, filtration, live rock, water changes, etc...

Be aware that a lot of local stores are all too happy to move livestock while asking little or no questions about how you plan to care for it. Use this site to check facts and avoid a purchase you can't return.

I hope this helps and gives you a starting point to work from...

 

[dendro982]

What I would do:
1. Check if detritus accumulates somewhere and is not removed by filtration.
If accumulates, set powerheads on wavemaker to create alternate flow for making detritus afloat for being removed by mechanical filtration/skimmer.
Or position powerheads the way, that they will blow detritus in easy to remove place, and then siphon it out. They may be set on timers, for example, blowing from the back glass to the front, and along front glass (turned on more rarely).

Link , how it was done in another keeper's tank. A little difficult to read, but if you have to solve the problem, the provided information may help. I'll do that too in a month or so, when will move my tank.

This also adds amount of flow. If turnover will be more than 20 times tank volume per hour, detritus should be moved to mechanical filtration.

2. Improve mechanical filtration and skimming, and check if filtered water is clean (add piece of filter floss or filter bag there the filtered water comes out, and see if it is clean after several hours).

3. Take a look at the rock, maybe it has to be basted by stream or cleaned by toothbrush with airline tubing attached.

4. Compare red slime, that you have, with pictures of dynoflagellates (or dinos, dynos). These require special treatment.

5. Until then:
- try to wash the frozen food before adding to the tank, if you are not doing this already.
- If you are using homemade seafood blend, try to use mysis or ocean plankton for a some time, and see if the problem lessens.
- Feeding smaller portion at more frequent intervals.
- Siphoning out the food leftovers, after feeding. Battery operated gravel cleaner may help.

The baseline is: 1) to introduce the removable food particles, less the dissolved organics, that may (or may be not) removed only by skimmer. 2) Remove detritus before in decomposes.

I know, that it is easier ti say, than do

I'll follow this strategy too, hopefully it helps. So far I have the similar problem time from time, especially in the hot summer months and after introducing the new food.

By the way, I tried ChemiClean on the tank with Tridacna clams, Christmas tree worms, condy anemone, sps, crinoid and astreas - nobody suffered. Full treatment, according instructions. This removed biofilm from the rock and clam shells. For a month and a half, then slowly all returns.
Ultralife Red slime remover was used on another tank, with sun corals, gorgonians, turbo snails, fire shrimp, clown and chromises, tube anemone. None suffered too, but water was disgusting yellow for some time. Also full freatment.
In both cases the intense additional aeration was used (well sized air pump and wooden air diffusers).

I also am using tap water, and some other keepers are using it as well. Some of my tanks have problems, some are very clean, with zero nitrates and phosphates, even with frequent feeding. So tap water is not the only cause. If this is the only possibility to keep tank at all, it is possible.

HTH

Post pictures and more details in filtration, maintenance and feeding, may be somebody else can help more.
Another thing: you may try another forum, like general discussion or Lighting, filtration and other hardware forum for advice on filtration. More people attend these forums, than Invertebrates forum.