need some help. Not getting the results I want

[mntbiker2008]

Hello all,

So this is my first saltwater tank (55 gal). It has been running for approx 3-4 months give or take a month. I have 2 clowns, 2 blue damsels, spotted hawkfish, red leg hermits, blue emerald crabs, mexican turbo snails, and a few astrea snails. Coral wise, I have a zoa frag, galaxea frag, and a frag of candy cane.

Also have sand bottom, about 20lbs live rock and around 30lbs dead rock. Have 2 800gph powerheads as well.

Sump has a deep sandbed, skimmer, 2 little fishies reactor with phosban and carbon, Mag18 pump, and a good amount of chaeto.

Lighting- 2x 4' High output t5 lights at 12,000 K that run for 10 hours a day then go to a blue led that runs from 9-11pm and then turns back on around 6 and shuts off around 8.

I have been having multiple issues.. 1 being I keeping getting huge spikes in the brown algae.... I will post a picture of my parameters at the bottom of this post. What can I do to minimize the amount of brown algae? I recently bought a RO/DI filter that I have been using on all my 25% weekly changes

I feel like I am doing something wrong because I have seen tanks that have been set up much sooner looking way better than what I have. My dead rock has yet to be seeded. I put the live rock so that it is touching the dead rock. None of the corals are really growing or doing much. The fish are happy and swimming around but thats about it.

The Galaxea will stretch it's tentacles out every now and then but not super often.

Sorry for the long post. please tell me what I could be doing wrong and what I can do to correct these issues.

Thank you!

 

[oldbones]

For starters, most will recommend you replace your test equipment. You'll want something that doesn't start (or end) with API... API tests (and test strips in general) are not very highly regarded for accuracy or reliability.

 

[FullBoreReefer]

Having the dead rock become "live" or "live" looking will take awhile, maybe even up to a year to blend in color wise.

As for corals, time, time, and more time. And good water, lighting.

As for the algae down on the sand bed, up your water flow in the tank or change the flow to reach more areas.

A mag 18 is a heck of a pump for that small setup. It'll work for sure, but heck I run one on my 110gal total system, plus runs 2 reactors and the return is also dialed back some. I don't mean you've chosen wrong, but maybe sell that large return pump for a smaller size and then add another powerhead inside the tank from the money you may save.


So another words it sounds like your on the right track, but give it about a year or so to change and evolve, patience my friend...

 

[chilli_reef]

My guesses,
Your getting brown diatom algae because you are either just going through your cylce now....you have broken your cycle by adding to much bio load to fast and the cylce could keep pace...or you have fairly large source of excess nutrient or phosphates entering your system.

How long has the dead rock been in ?
It should only take about a month for it to colonize with bacteria from live rock and or live sand.

How fast did you add your fish ?

Have you tested both tank water and source water with other tests aside from the test strips ?
Test strips are not good to rely on.

 

[richieii]

I think your tank looks great for 4 months. My tank went through the ugly stage for a few months. This is something everyone has to be patient with.

 

[heathlindner25]

You are 3 to 4 months in you said, brown stuff is perfectly normal, corals not growing and thriving perfectly normal.... your tank is raw and you are learning get high quality test kits and go from there.

 

[danil]

tank is still maturing. 3 months is not enough for all those blooms go away. Your sand and rocks leaching silicates and phosphates and it will take some time to balance all things out.
It is possible to get better results faster if you use only materials from established tank.
Get good test kit (I like red sea ), keep your phosphate down, keep your nutrients down, keep up with WC and wait.

 

[mntbiker2008]

For starters, most will recommend you replace your test equipment. You'll want something that doesn't start (or end) with API... API tests (and test strips in general) are not very highly regarded for accuracy or reliability.

I see all these test kits everyone is using that have vials and dyes in them. I was looking at the API Reef Master kit but if API isn't recommended, what would be the best?

Having the dead rock become "live" or "live" looking will take awhile, maybe even up to a year to blend in color wise.

As for corals, time, time, and more time. And good water, lighting.

As for the algae down on the sand bed, up your water flow in the tank or change the flow to reach more areas.

A mag 18 is a heck of a pump for that small setup. It'll work for sure, but heck I run one on my 110gal total system, plus runs 2 reactors and the return is also dialed back some. I don't mean you've chosen wrong, but maybe sell that large return pump for a smaller size and then add another powerhead inside the tank from the money you may save.


So another words it sounds like your on the right track, but give it about a year or so to change and evolve, patience my friend...

Thank you for the advice. I will mess with the powerheads some and see if I can get better flow around the tank. I got the pump for a really good deal ($50) and definitely have it dialed back A LOT and have my reactor running off of it as well. I figured I will eventually upgrade to a bigger tank at some point so I went big and just dialed it back. What is the general rate I should have the water circulating in the tank at? I am currently at about 1600gph currently,

My guesses,
Your getting brown diatom algae because you are either just going through your cylce now....you have broken your cycle by adding to much bio load to fast and the cylce could keep pace...or you have fairly large source of excess nutrient or phosphates entering your system.

How long has the dead rock been in ?
It should only take about a month for it to colonize with bacteria from live rock and or live sand.

How fast did you add your fish ?

Have you tested both tank water and source water with other tests aside from the test strips ?
Test strips are not good to rely on.

The dead rock has been in there since about 3 weeks after I started the tank. It has some purpleish tint to it and a little bit of a green coat on it as well.

The fish were added pretty slowly. I put the 2 damsels and hawkfish in first (they came from my30 gallon FO tank) after my levels were down,I added the 2 clowns maybe a month and a half after. I have not tests the waters with anything else though.Its time I should invest in a good test kit.

I think your tank looks great for 4 months. My tank went through the ugly stage for a few months. This is something everyone has to be patient with.

You are 3 to 4 months in you said, brown stuff is perfectly normal, corals not growing and thriving perfectly normal.... your tank is raw and you are learning get high quality test kits and go from there.

Thank you guys. I feel better that what I am experiencing is relatively normal. I am super anal about my tanks and want them looking pristine but I guess I just have to be patient with this one

 

[Vinny Kreyling]

I prefer Salifert for testing, but Red Sea & Elos are also respected.
Hannah Checkers are better for phosphate with a number instead of a color change.

 

[CStrickland]

I agree it's pretty normal for 3 months. Do be aware that it can take a while to get on track after you switch to pure water. The rocks and sand can bind algae fertilizers like phosphate, and coral poisons like copper.

Bare minimum you'll want decent tests for ammo, nitrate, phosphate, alkalinity, calcium, magnesium, and specific gravity; as well as a good tds meter for your water. There's plenty of threads about which company makes the best (or second best and way cheaper) test for each thing.

I think you've got room for another powerhead if you want. I run about 2,200 gph in my 55, used to be 2,400 and that was fine. It's more about not having dead spots than the total gph.

 

[itsmeraja86]

API is good for nitrite, nitrate , ammonia and PH
Salifert for Magnesium and Calcium
Hannah Checker for Alk and Phosphate

 

[heathlindner25]

When a tank is established, there's no need to test for ammonia and nitrite.
Red Sea Pro : alkalinity, calcium, magnesium
Salifert: no3 & po4
Imo.... I haven't tested for ammonia or nitrite in 8 years

 

[mntbiker2008]

ok great! Thank you everyone! I will be adding another powerhead and getting better testers.

 

[slash7]

Patience is really key and it's about the hardest thing to achieve. Every tank I have set up has been somewhat flaky for the first 6 months or so. Things will start to get much more stable after that if you keep up with your tank maintenance. Just go slow and steady, use the resources here to learn. And do upgrade your test kits. Good luck!

 

[mntbiker2008]

Patience is really key and it's about the hardest thing to achieve. Every tank I have set up has been somewhat flaky for the first 6 months or so. Things will start to get much more stable after that if you keep up with your tank maintenance. Just go slow and steady, use the resources here to learn. And do upgrade your test kits. Good luck!

thank you!!! patience is definitely the hardest thing to achieve. i was so used to my fresh water tanks and being to do a lot of stuff and not kill everything off.

 

[chilli_reef]

It is so foreign to me to hear the words "redsea" and "respected" as far as test kits go. Guess I really have been out of the hobby to long lol !
They were hot garbage back in the day.

 

[jsnrho82]

Some great advice here. The only thing I will add is to resist the urge to add anything to the tank for another month at least. Let everyone get to know each other and the growth will soon come.

Also, admittedly I am not experienced with T5, but is that enough light? I would have thought you needed at least a 4 bulb setup on a 55 -even for softies.

 

[Bent]

Flow wise....

Fwiw, I have two RW-15s in my 55g running at 40% minimum constant and doing a random ramp up to a maximum of 100%, so you might not have enough flow.

But I'm with everyone else, I think your tank looks good for its age. The brown stuff will go away.

 

[mntbiker2008]

Some great advice here. The only thing I will add is to resist the urge to add anything to the tank for another month at least. Let everyone get to know each other and the growth will soon come.

Also, admittedly I am not experienced with T5, but is that enough light? I would have thought you needed at least a 4 bulb setup on a 55 -even for softies.

I plan to leave it be for the next month or so while I get all of my equipment dialed in and placed in my sump the way I like. The sump is just a hot mess of hoses and wires right now. It really looks terrible.

As far as the t5s go, I have a local shop that specializes in saltwater and the guys there all have very nice reef tanks and they all said the 2 t5 lights will do fine for softies but that is about as far as I could go.

Flow wise....

Fwiw, I have two RW-15s in my 55g running at 40% minimum constant and doing a random ramp up to a maximum of 100%, so you might not have enough flow.

But I'm with everyone else, I think your tank looks good for its age. The brown stuff will go away.

I just ordered 2 1300 gph powerheads so I plan to take one of the 800s out and put the 2 new ones in. there is a dead spot on the left side of the tank.

Do I need to worry about all of that water movement stressing the fish out? I know it looks like my clowns are constantly fighting the currents from the pumps I have now and they move to the dead spot in the tank to get a break.

 

[oldbones]

Your fish are fine, they handle the turbulence well.