my tank isn't doing great

[Tommy3492]

Hey guys so i just want to share a couple picture of the tank with you...

The tank is 9 months old i am running a 492 watt system with 150 watt metal halides and 92 watt halogens.... I am also running a big UV sterlizer in the tank....


So here the deal ive been running the tank for the past 9 months now and everything has gone pretty smoothly. but im noticing that theres alot of green algea on the glass and every few days i have to clean it off there is also quite of bit of red hair algea throughout the sand, the rocks are getting a greenish yellow tint, the corals aren't as bright as they use to be but there are growing and rapidly spliting up. the fish are doing great, but the tanks appearance isn't vety good at all, when i clean it it looks brand new, but after 3-4 days it becomes to that old pale stage again...

is there anything i can do to maybe clean up the water, and most improtanly bring back the color to the corals and such...? Do i need to get a bigger cleaning crew, i added 2 sand sifitng stars but it does not seem like enough. also the yellow flower pot i got is not doing very well, i have it medium to high height with medium water flow, but its just not doing great....


also the algea on the glass is crusting over and i have to scrape it off most weekends...


so any advice on how to make my tank become alive again would be great...

oh yea what about supplemnts for corals or anything like that?


its a 90 gallon.

 

[Tommy3492]

Temperature: 82 F
pH: 8.3
Salinity: 1.024 SG
Calcium: 500 ppm
Nitrate: 0 mg/l
Phosphate: 0 mg/l
Nitrite: .2 mg/l
Ammonia: 0 mg/l
Carbonate Hardness : 8 dKH

 

[sanababit]

i dont see a problem with what you are going thru, except for the halogen lights which i havent heard being used in the hobby, and maybe that is what is giving th dull colors, your params are good, even nice tanks get their glass cleaned every so often, so dont worry so much and enjoy the ride, BTW about the cyano i saw on the sand, if you keep your params in check i am sure it will go away, good luck

sanababit

 

[Tommy3492]

sorry not halogen, not sure but its a complete reef lighting setup

 

[rcypert]

What kind of skimmer do you have and how well is it working?

 

[IridescentLily]

Do you have actinic lights operating in addition to your metal halide lights?

 

[Tommy3492]

i have a g-3 skimmer, not totally sure on the other lights, there blue maybe actinic

 

[IridescentLily]

Are your skimmer or lights new?
I like your aquascaping by the way, it's very nice.

 

[downhillbiker]

your tank looks great. you are starting out slow and learning, and that is important. you were asking about supplements. i would first get a reef test kit, and make sure you can test at least pH, nitrates, calcium, and carbonate alkalinity. You want to keep your nitrates at 0, pH around 8.3, calcium i like around 440, and alk i like around 11 dKH. the ca and alk are very important if you want coral growth as that is what the stony skeleton is constructed of, as well as what coralline algae is made of.

good methods of dosing ca and alk are:

kalkwasser-read up on this, be very careful, has pH of 12, so can kill everything fast if overdosed

2 parts-good method although slightly more expensive than kalk, and also raises pH slightly

ca reactor: expensive to set up, and needs to be controlled with controller

i use kalk and a 2 part to adjust one or the other slightly. dont dose anything you cant test. start with ca and alk, and later on we can talk magnesium.

here is a link from Randy Holmes-Farley about....

Kalk:
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-01/rhf/index.php

pH:
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-09/rhf/index.php

Calcium and Alk:
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-01/rhf/index.php

Read these, it may take some time, but it will benefit you more than you could ever imagine in this hobby. Randy is one of the most respected reef chemists in the industry, and if you understand these, your learning curve will be great and you will get through some of the tough times involved with this hobby. I wish someone had pointed me to these articles earlier.

 

[Slakker]

Sounds like part of the initial algae cycle to me...it'll be a while before things really stabilize out and start looking pretty all the time.

Have you got any nassarius snails? If not, I'd pick up about 20 of them, they are absolutely awesome for the sand bed.

 

[Linkblaze]

If you haven't replaced your MH bulbs yet, you are definetly overdue. That would help out with your algae problem and get some more pop from your corals.

Oh yeah, and the sand sifting stars are a bad idea. They will eat up everything in the sand bed and die.

Other than that though, I don't think the tank looks too bad. You're probably just getting a bit burned out. Maybe redo the rock a bit for something new to look at...get that rock off the front glass so you can clean it easier?

 

[rcypert]

I dont think that cyanobacteria or that green crap on your glass is part of your initial algae cycle. I believe that you are now seeing nutrients build up to levels where that stuff will bloom. How much are you feeding and how often and how is your skimmer working? How often are you emptying your skimmer cup and what does the skimmate(the crap in the cup) look like?

 

[vetdog]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13084109#post13084109 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Slakker
Sounds like part of the initial algae cycle to me...it'll be a while before things really stabilize out and start looking pretty all the time.

Have you got any nassarius snails? If not, I'd pick up about 20 of them, they are absolutely awesome for the sand bed.

ditto

 

[Tommy3492]

alright so to anwser the question about the skimmer i have it running all the time and the skimmate comes out to be a dark green fluid a little thicker than normal water...

i feed the fish once a day.


Oh and my carbonate hardness is around 8, is it vital to get it up around 11? and if so how would i do that?

 

[Tommy3492]

and how is everyones sandbed loooking so brilliantly white?

 

[ginger7286]

The cyno (red slime) is a problem I recently encountered. I did not have the good fortune of it just going away. I had to use "chemi-clean" in my tank (i hate using that stuff) but it did knock it down and I have not seen it since. As for the algae get the clean up crew (snails and crabs). Replace the lights you'd be amazed at how much they fade and because we see them everyday we don't see them fading. Good luck

 

[wargeneral]

change your mh bulbs, add a two little fishes phosban reactor with some chemipure elite.
I doubt you have 0 phosphates if you have cyno on the sand.
The chemipure elite will remove phosphates and nutrient build up.
Or if you are running some sort of carbon. You can put some phosban in the reactor.
Also nitrite should be at 0

 

[DLANDINO]

Do you have any occupants, clean up crew or fish that stir the sand bed for you? I have a diamond goby and he really keeps the sand nice and white.

The tank looks GREAT by the way, good job and keep going. I am about at the phase you are at. Started my reef in Feb 08. When I saw some of the things that you are seeing I began running carbon and Phos Lock as well as increased my flow.

Dave

 

[downhillbiker]

nassarius snails will help stir up the sand bed, which is certainly a plus. i would get about 20 of those, plus i would get a fighting conch, they stir sand, but actually filter the sand too.

as for the chemistry: you are on the lower end of safe with 8 dKH, but i would raise it a little. you also need to keep an eye on the pH and the calcium. if i were you i would raise the dKH a little, so that as it is used up it doesn't fall below the safe zone. you can raise it slowly with baking SODA, or any alk buffer from kent, seachem, ect.

it will take about 4 tspn of baking soda to bring it up from 8 to 10 dKH, and i would do 1 tspn every 12 hours for 2 days. here is the calculator i used and you can use for future reference, i have it bookmarked.

http://reef.diesyst.com/flashcalc/flashcalc.html

 

[Tommy3492]

could not enough live rock be the problem, and ive always wanted to run a fuge, but i can't find the right size tank to fit it in...