Need to be talked out of giving up

M

moneymm

Member
well im at the year mark and im really struggling with this hobby.

I feel like everytime i have looked at my tank over the past year, I am looking at a half assed project.

whether its b/c i didnt have fish, or all my fish, or now have 0 corals..

and througout all this process i am just battling different types of ugly algea.

my tank is pretty much always embarrassing to show people.

i have spent a small fortune on lighting and equipment.

at this point, i am thinking of doing it "tanked" or "fish tank kings" style and putting in some fake rock/coral display that is nice to look at and moving on from my real reef tank.
 
Been having the same problem with my 14 gallon. Except I have corals. All my fish die. And GHA was taking over.
So now have a bigger tank. 29 gallons. But after reading your post it may not help. I may just not have what it takes. Hmmm but I do kind of like your idea for fake corals then I can just clean it all off and not have to worry about killing corals.
 
What have your water parameters been? What type of water are you using? Do you have anything for water flow in the tank minus the return pumps.
 
What has your maintenance routine been?
You can buy your way out of some jobs buy spending "a small fortune" on high end equipment, but they can't ever replace cleaning the tank, testing the water, pulling out the algae, doing water changes, and reading up on how reefs work. I see a lot of new reefers get discouraged when they figure out that you can't just add some chaeto, snails and gfo and get a magazine worthy tank. It's a shame cause youre in a spot where youve already spent the money and it sounds like you are kinda trapped. Its sposed to be fun :(
 
Don't know if this will help or not but...
For some it is the finished project that gives them pleasure. For others, it is the process of getting something done.
I fall into the second category. After 16 months into this hobby, I don't have a beautiful showcase tank. I am battling cyano and I'm ready to give up on zoas, at least for now. But I have learned and continue to learn so much! And that is one of the reasons I am hooked on this hobby.
I'm proud to show off my tank, as I explain what the red slime on the sand and newest pieces of rock I put in is and what I am doing to improve it.
And I have learned to take everything in its stride. And to take it slow.
I sure don't mean to come off preachy. I just see that when my husband and I paint a room together, he is all about getting it done while I enjoy the process of getting it done. I enjoy painting much more than he does.
It seems to me that this is a hobby that needs to be enjoyed for the process as much as the finished project. (I'm guessing that's why so many reefers upgrade their tanks, or get a second tank?)
Anyway, only you will know what you're going to do with this tank. I just wanted to add food for thought. Good luck.
 
imo most things can be avoided by water changes with good, rodi water and good salt. Everything else just helps in between. A good skimmer helps for sure, and test kits are essential to know what your problems are so you can find them. A person may think high nitrates are the issue but it may be rock or crap water leaching phosphates. Or may be nitrates and phosphates, hard to tell without testing.

Big thing too if you're buying water from a lfs what is the salinity of it? Most keep their tanks at a hypo salinity and the lfs we used to have sold water the same way. It was 1.020 which is ok for fish but not for coral.

Need to look at the lighting as well, power compacts may be ok for softies but may not be so much for lps and definitely not for sps.

If the tank is heavily fed with no water changes and no skimmer or crappy skimmer that will lead to bad water and kill fish and coral. Also water changes with crap water will lead to poor water quality. Lastly if a person tops off their tank with saltwater, that will cause trace elements and all that to build up, plus the salinity to sky rocket, which will kill fish and coral.

Hope that helps!
 
Lilbitreefer said:
What have your water parameters been? What type of water are you using? Do you have anything for water flow in the tank minus the return pumps.
Click to expand...

my nitrates are very high like 50ish, been doing weekly water changes, havent checked them in a couple weeks.

everything else good.

RODI.

yes, sump return, and two power heads. 750 and 850
 
CStrickland said:
What has your maintenance routine been?
You can buy your way out of some jobs buy spending "a small fortune" on high end equipment, but they can't ever replace cleaning the tank, testing the water, pulling out the algae, doing water changes, and reading up on how reefs work. I see a lot of new reefers get discouraged when they figure out that you can't just add some chaeto, snails and gfo and get a magazine worthy tank. It's a shame cause youre in a spot where youve already spent the money and it sounds like you are kinda trapped. Its sposed to be fun :(
Click to expand...

yea i was having the fun and spending a good 5 hours a week online researching things for the first 3 months or so. now the maintenance is a *****. sometimes i dont mind it.

I never tried to really buy my way out of it. i spent a ton of time on things the first 4-5 months. lost a couple fish which was really demoralizing.
 
I don't think you can really be talked into or out of the hobby by folks on here. Ultimately it is up to, as your the one that will have to keep dealing with the tank. That being said, I haven't looked up a post history on ya, what sort of issues outside of algae have you been having? Also, could you post up some general info such as, do you QT ( you say you lost fish, was that to disease, did they die right after putting them into the tank, etc? ) also, what temp are you running, what are your other param's in the tank, ammonia, nitrite, ca, alk, mg? I know you say you are doing weekly water changes. Has that been consistent for the life of the tank, or did you just start this recently. ( I left my previous tank without water changes for 2-3 months and lost several coral because of it). Just anything you can think of that might provide a clue to your issues. Also, have you checked your RO/DI filters recently? I have to change my DI resin every few months because my house has pipes from the 1950's and the tds is through the proverbial roof. As to your nitrate issue, you may want to consider vodka/ vinegar dosing.

Edit: Also a pic of your tank might help. An embarassing looking tank is all in the eyes of the beholder. I frequently see threads on here where people freak out that they have a quarter size diatom bloom on the sand. You may be perceiving it as way worse than what it actually is.
 
With the help of these guys you will get threw it. CStrickland doesn't know it but when I was starting out I had a few problems such as algae and a quick thread like this one he gave me ideas how to solve and now problem is fixed. It's few months late but thanks cstrickland.
 
CStrickland said:
+1
Click to expand...

ill take a pic tomorrow, but 5 pieces of my live rock are in the QT b/c i had to move 2 of my fish there, b/c the clown was picking on the new wrasse i got.

i had about 2000 little balls of bubble algae. which i have scraped 90% of it off, and got 2 emerald crabs to combat the rest and from it coming back.

i had about 300-400 baby ceriths come to life. so they cover my sand band and rock and glass. now they are about 5 months old, so they are not that tiny any more. and alot prob died off and dissapeared.

i have hair algae all over.

after cleaning off my power heads, they get covered in algae in 2 days. along with the rest of my tank.
 
I strongly suspect your essential problems lie in water management. The hair algae results from a phosphate load, which can be cured with granulated ferrous oxide in a reactor, changed monthly until the algae goes away. I use Phosban brand, but there are really no bad ones to my knowledge.
Your bubble is just another algae, not as dependent on phosphate as hair, but able to take advantage of other water problems. Your snails will reproduce at any stress, if they have enough calcium.
Cyano can be cured also with water management.
Try to hit these marks: temperature bracket 79-80. Salinity 1.024 to 1.026. Calcium 420. Phosphate unreadable on a tsst WITH NO ALGAE in the tank. Nitrate under .2 if you have corals; under 20 if you have fish. Magnesium 1300. Alkalinity 7.9-8.3. Ammonia of course zero. Follow instructions meticulously: dose these things 8 hours apart to avoid having them precipitate and mess things up further. RUN ALL TESTS after 8 hours from the last dose, deal with magnesium first, then alkalinity, then calcium, in that precise order.
These are all numerical readings, except the nitrate test, and I recommend them instead of color matching: Salifert can give you that.
Water changes starting with a 30% and then changes of 3 gallons a day for the next while until you see that nitrate hitting the proper levels. Put a filter sock on and keep them cycling to the washing machine (no soap) to keep one constantly effective...especially if the water pour has kicked up your sump or tank.

This is a labor-intensive program, but I think it will kill off your algae and make everything much healthier. Keep your hands out of the tank except for keeping the glass clear with the mag cleaner. I would add, consider vinegar dosing (get the table) which will hype your skimmer and maybe help the nitrate also. ONce you get the parameters under control, you will find the hobby much easier and you will not battle algae. Your fish will also be healthier.
 
moneymm said:
ill take a pic tomorrow, but 5 pieces of my live rock are in the QT b/c i had to move 2 of my fish there, b/c the clown was picking on the new wrasse i got.

i had about 2000 little balls of bubble algae. which i have scraped 90% of it off, and got 2 emerald crabs to combat the rest and from it coming back.

Easiest way I've found to beat bubble algae is pull the rock to a temp tub with very good lighting above it. Then scrape every piece off you can see into the tub. Then put the rock back in the main tank. Rinse and repeat.

i had about 300-400 baby ceriths come to life. so they cover my sand band and rock and glass. now they are about 5 months old, so they are not that tiny any more. and alot prob died off and dissapeared.

I had a lot of these on my 55. Are they mainly on the glass?

i have hair algae all over.

Sea Hares will make quick work of this

after cleaning off my power heads, they get covered in algae in 2 days. along with the rest of my tank.
Click to expand...


Sk8r above has some good points. All that algae is getting fed somewhere. I'd do as advised with a strict water change schedule. The most important thing after deciding this, is to force yourself to do it. I know it's much harder to actually do it, than to think about doing it. GFO as mentioned will also help, as could vinegar dosing.

Edit: Double check your RO/DI filters and make sure they don't need replacing. Also, what kind of rock are you using? Marco by chance? Also forgot to ask earlier, but what is your lighting schedule like?
 
You have all the equipment and I'm sure you've done a ton of research so my guess is you've just had really bad luck battling something that came into the system at one point.

I only have a couple years of FOWLR experience, so I'm not much help other than to reassure you that these guys will get you back on track. Hey, worst case is get rid of everything in your tank and start over again with new dead rock and dead sand and maybe seed it with some from an established tank that's been stable. You'll get to have fun with aquascaping again. The clowns are durable, and don't need a lot of room, a small used 20 gallon will keep them happy for a while till your new system is ready for them. :)

Don't give up.
 
stingeragent said:
Sk8r above has some good points. All that algae is getting fed somewhere. I'd do as advised with a strict water change schedule. The most important thing after deciding this, is to force yourself to do it. I know it's much harder to actually do it, than to think about doing it. GFO as mentioned will also help, as could vinegar dosing.

Edit: Double check your RO/DI filters and make sure they don't need replacing. Also, what kind of rock are you using? Marco by chance? Also forgot to ask earlier, but what is your lighting schedule like?
Click to expand...


i changed my RO filters a couple weeks ago, i will also change my DI filters tomorrow.

kind of rock?? live rock from LFS, but again this was 13 months ago.

8:30 AM to 7:30 PM

how exactly do i do this vinegar dosing?


will my green hair algae go away with all these water changes and parameters fixed, or will it just prevent it from coming back and i need to manually remove it?
 
Sk8r said:
I strongly suspect your essential problems lie in water management. The hair algae results from a phosphate load, which can be cured with granulated ferrous oxide in a reactor, changed monthly until the algae goes away. I use Phosban brand, but there are really no bad ones to my knowledge.
Your bubble is just another algae, not as dependent on phosphate as hair, but able to take advantage of other water problems. Your snails will reproduce at any stress, if they have enough calcium.
Cyano can be cured also with water management.
Try to hit these marks: temperature bracket 79-80. Salinity 1.024 to 1.026. Calcium 420. Phosphate unreadable on a tsst WITH NO ALGAE in the tank. Nitrate under .2 if you have corals; under 20 if you have fish. Magnesium 1300. Alkalinity 7.9-8.3. Ammonia of course zero. Follow instructions meticulously: dose these things 8 hours apart to avoid having them precipitate and mess things up further. RUN ALL TESTS after 8 hours from the last dose, deal with magnesium first, then alkalinity, then calcium, in that precise order.
These are all numerical readings, except the nitrate test, and I recommend them instead of color matching: Salifert can give you that.
Water changes starting with a 30% and then changes of 3 gallons a day for the next while until you see that nitrate hitting the proper levels. Put a filter sock on and keep them cycling to the washing machine (no soap) to keep one constantly effective...especially if the water pour has kicked up your sump or tank.

This is a labor-intensive program, but I think it will kill off your algae and make everything much healthier. Keep your hands out of the tank except for keeping the glass clear with the mag cleaner. I would add, consider vinegar dosing (get the table) which will hype your skimmer and maybe help the nitrate also. ONce you get the parameters under control, you will find the hobby much easier and you will not battle algae. Your fish will also be healthier.
Click to expand...

thanks. i will treat this as the bible. i also think a problem might have been my temperature for a month or so was awfully high due to a pump for a filter in my sump running hot. my water for a while was like 85ish. didnt know why it was getting so how, i would run a fan on the water sometimes, but overall i think it caused some problems.
 
Giants13 said:
With the help of these guys you will get threw it. CStrickland doesn't know it but when I was starting out I had a few problems such as algae and a quick thread like this one he gave me ideas how to solve and now problem is fixed. It's few months late but thanks cstrickland.
Click to expand...

*blushes*
ETA it's funny how you guys say "he" considering my avatar. It's a pretty accurate pic of what I look like most days I work on my tank. Lol
 
PS anything that dies needs to come out right away. If you are losing snails and they are rotting in there that can push your nutrients way up. Sometimes you see a tank that is right on the edge of managing nutrients and a few deaths push it over the edge. Idk if a few baby snails would be enough to throw a 45g out of whack, but it wouldn't help.
 
Think of yourself as a water keeper instead of a fish keeper or reef keeper. If you can keep your water stable at the right parameters, you will succeed if you:

Seek out good advice & follow it
Buy healthy animals & acclimate them properly
Feed them the right, good quality food
Buy the right equipment & use it properly
Take your time, be patient, enjoy the journey & celebrate the little successes as they come

You're not alone. Everyone has been exasperated by this hobby at one time or another. The challenge is half the fun for many of us. Hope you hang in there. Good luck.
 
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