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Scottcrafts

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Hey guys, I posted in the new to the hobby but I wanted to post here as well seeings how I am in SoCal. I live in Murrieta and I have a 40 gal tank that I am having problem after problem with.. I will post pics later when I get on my computer and get the links for photo bucket. But just wanted to say hi and see if there is any one that lives close to me in the hobby.
 
Well I had a red Algi attack so I got rid of that then I got a fungal thing so I was trying to get rid of that, now I have tons of green hair algi.. And I lost half my fish to the fungus.. Not I have was to many Bristol worms that I want to get rid off at least some of them..
 
so this is what my tank looked like a few months ago


this is what it looks like now





and i know they are good for your tank but i have soooooo many of them and i have a few really big ones in there and i would like to just get some of the smaller ones under control.



here is my sump set up right now, when it was working before the mess started it was working great. i think i was leaving my lights on to long and i am going to buy a timer so they are only on for the 8 hrs or so and not like 14hrs.


and here is my little 12 gal tank that i just have one damsel because he is mean and i needed to get that tank started.



sorry for the long post and the lots of photos but i am so upset that my tank looks like this right now.
 
When you say red algae, was it red slime? If so and now you're battling GHA, then you're most likely dealing with excess nutrients in your water. Do you mix your own water or buy from LFS?
 
KWoo008 said:
When you say red algae, was it red slime? If so and now you're battling GHA, then you're most likely dealing with excess nutrients in your water. Do you mix your own water or buy from LFS?
Click to expand...

Yes red slime. I buy salt water from LFS. I talked to the kid at the fish store today and he said I should move one of my power heads and reduce the food amount because I lost half my fish.

I am also having a problem with something eating my stuff, I got this slug thing to eat my long hair algi( sorry cant remember the name of it) and this morning I found it with its head missing... The guy at the fish store it could have been an Emerald crab that got extra hungry.
 
You definitely should reduce the amount of food you're feeding if you have fewer fish. What type of food(s) are you feeding? You probably had a sea hare which are usually great at eating GHA, but the more important thing is to find the source of your excess nutrients. They are relatively slow moving and can fall victim to something predatory like a crab. Here's what I would do...

1. Find out the TDS reading of the RO/DI water that the store is using to mix their saltwater.
2. What is the TDS reading of your top off water (assuming that you are using RO/DI)?
3. What type of food are you feeding (pellets/frozen/etc)?
4. Try cutting back on amount of food. If feeding frozen food, thaw out and drain the "juice" before dumping into tank.

I'm sure there are other things that need to be address that I'm missing, but this is a start. Others will chime in to help...
 
KWoo008 said:
You definitely should reduce the amount of food you're feeding if you have fewer fish. What type of food(s) are you feeding? You probably had a sea hare which are usually great at eating GHA, but the more important thing is to find the source of your excess nutrients. They are relatively slow moving and can fall victim to something predatory like a crab. Here's what I would do...

1. Find out the TDS reading of the RO/DI water that the store is using to mix their saltwater.
2. What is the TDS reading of your top off water (assuming that you are using RO/DI)?
3. What type of food are you feeding (pellets/frozen/etc)?
4. Try cutting back on amount of food. If feeding frozen food, thaw out and drain the "juice" before dumping into tank.

I'm sure there are other things that need to be address that I'm missing, but this is a start. Others will chime in to help...
Click to expand...


Ok I will def start with all that stuff. The guy I buy my salt water from says he gets it shipped in from the ocean and it's at .025 always. I feed pellets and frozen and rotate but I am going to go to just frozen and one block per day and not twice a day. I can remember what good I just a new food today I will look at it when I get home.
Thank you for all the advise
 
welcome to rc. when i first started i was in the same boat as u. i usually feed frozen food every other day. what type of fish do u have? any corals?
 
"Ok I will def start with all that stuff. The guy I buy my salt water from says he gets it shipped in from the ocean and it's at .025 always. I feed pellets and frozen and rotate but I am going to go to just frozen and one block per day and not twice a day. I can remember what good I just a new food today I will look at it when I get home.
Thank you for all the advise"

There's a lot more to ocean water than the specific gravity or salinity. WHERE in the ocean? OUT 10+ miles, or right at the causeway? Test the LFS water next time...you may be surprised.

Some larger water changes more frequently could help. 20% or less 2 -3 x per week til nutrients start to come under control.

Do you have a skimmer? If not, consider getting one.

regarding the frozen cubes.....i like to cut them up into quarters and feed throughout the day. But straining them is a great way to reduce the nutrient import.

Time, attention, and maintenance, making small incremental changes until you arrive at a desired outcome with your system will be the best route. This method of approach to the issues at hand, namely algae and fungus, will be the surefire solution....as the system balances and the system parameters stabilize, the algae and fungal issues should stabilize with it.

More details about your setup and maintenance schedule, inhabitants, etc will help also.
 
Reefer54 said:
"Ok I will def start with all that stuff. The guy I buy my salt water from says he gets it shipped in from the ocean and it's at .025 always. I feed pellets and frozen and rotate but I am going to go to just frozen and one block per day and not twice a day. I can remember what good I just a new food today I will look at it when I get home.
Thank you for all the advise"

There's a lot more to ocean water than the specific gravity or salinity. WHERE in the ocean? OUT 10+ miles, or right at the causeway? Test the LFS water next time...you may be surprised.

Some larger water changes more frequently could help. 20% or less 2 -3 x per week til nutrients start to come under control.

Do you have a skimmer? If not, consider getting one.

regarding the frozen cubes.....i like to cut them up into quarters and feed throughout the day. But straining them is a great way to reduce the nutrient import.

Time, attention, and maintenance, making small incremental changes until you arrive at a desired outcome with your system will be the best route. This method of approach to the issues at hand, namely algae and fungus, will be the surefire solution....as the system balances and the system parameters stabilize, the algae and fungal issues should stabilize with it.

More details about your setup and maintenance schedule, inhabitants, etc will help also.
Click to expand...

Ok, I have to grab water for a water change today so I will test it with all the test kits i have.

Yes I have a skimmer and usually it works great but when I started dowsing for the fungus is was going crazy so it's just starting to foame up good and get that good green stuff back in it.

As for maintenance I add RO water just about everyday due to the heat out here in the desert. And I was doing a 5 gal water change every week but upped it to a 10gal with all the stuff going on and I have done two 13gal the last two weeks.

As for food I am going to only start feeding them frozen and I will start straining it as well.
Hopefully I will have time to run all the test told I have later to see where my water really is..


Thank you for all the advice and help I hope I can get this under control soon.
 
sako818 said:
welcome to rc. when i first started i was in the same boat as u. i usually feed frozen food every other day. what type of fish do u have? any corals?
Click to expand...

Well after all my problems I only have to fish left. I have one ocellaris clownfish and a blue green chromis. The other thing I have in my tank is a fire shrimp and a Sea urgent and two anemone.
As for corals I have some red mushrooms and some frog span a little thing of birds nest corral and some other little stuff that I am not sure the name of. I am really bad at remembering the names of all the stuff I will post pics of what I have in my tank when I get on my computer
 
So the basics have been said just watch how you are feeding. I would make sure your timing for your lighting is set up properly. And I really can see what you have going on for your sump but if you dont already have I would set up a refugium area with a deep sand bed, live rock, and put some cheato algae in there. And run the light on the sump opposite of the main tank. To answer your question about the worms there are lots of things that will eat them you just have to find what animal will be best for your tank but i would find your killer in the tank first.
 
jasonbucholtz said:
So the basics have been said just watch how you are feeding. I would make sure your timing for your lighting is set up properly. And I really can see what you have going on for your sump but if you dont already have I would set up a refugium area with a deep sand bed, live rock, and put some cheato algae in there. And run the light on the sump opposite of the main tank. To answer your question about the worms there are lots of things that will eat them you just have to find what animal will be best for your tank but i would find your killer in the tank first.
Click to expand...

Pretty sure I found the killer this morning a huge Emerald crab... I moved him to my tank up stairs out of the big tank. I just left the fish store and got brand new bulbs for my light and I got a timer as well so that should solve that issue. I will take better pics of my sump when I get home but I according to the guy at the fish store I need to clean the air intake on my skimmer, it's not getting the bubble action on top to pull the stuff out like it should be.
 
ok so it's been a pretty productive day. i went to a local fish store ( deep sea creations) and they did a full spectrum test on my water, here is how everything sets.

alkalinity 8.4 DKH
salinity 10.26
PH 8.2
calcium 370
nitrate 20
nitrite 0
ammonia .5
phosphate .36

ok so looks like from what i have read and they told me it's my phosphate levels that are to high. i did add a little calcium to my tank to bring the levels up to help out my corals. so what can i do to bring my Phosphate levels down?


while at the fish store i bought brand me bulbs for my light. and i know as they get old the spectrum changes but you are not really going to see it with your eyes, but when i put the new bulbs in i could see the difference in the light. i have no idea how old the bulbs were but i know i have new ones now. i also picked up a timer for my lights so they will only be on for 8hrs now and not 14 or so like before.

next on the list i noticed that my protein skimmer wasn't bubbling like it used to so i asked about that and he said the air way could be blocked with salt or something so i pulled it out of my sump and cleaned it all out and i went from this no bubbles on the top

to this, bubbles like it used to.

so it's all ready starting to pull way more then it has been so i hope that helps the tank level out as well.


so here are the frozen foods that i have


i am going to start doing one cube a day and i will start straining them and when my tank starts doing better see if i can not strain them

oh and like i said in a earlier post i found a huge emerald crap that i moved to another tank and while i was catching him i had to move some rock to get him so i ended up re arranging my rocks and i moved my power heads for what i am hoping is better flow
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=244416&stc=1&d=1378094896
 

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Welcome.
If you are buying natural seawater at your LFS and you live in Murrieta then your water is probably comes from Andy at Oceans In Motion. That's where they are based out of, Murrieta. Their water is the same water that Scripps out of La Jolla uses. It's good water. Your phosphates are way up there, enough so that levels are still that high with all the nuisance algae feeding on the PO4. This is why you are having these outbreaks. Your nitrates are ok. A question I have regarding your loss of fish is did you take them out when dead or did they disappear. If they just went missing that could have a lot to do with excess nutrient and organics in the water as well as your feeding. Decomp. One cube of the food you took a pic of is way to much for two fish. They will not eat it all and it will lead to more of the same problem. Are you sure you found an Emerald Crab or could you have found a different one like a gorilla crab which would decapitate your sea hare. what typeof lighting do you have? Some solutions for the relief of the hair algae is another sea hare, turbo snails and rabbitfish. However, unless you get the PO4 under control it will just grow back. There is also chemical solutions as well. Red Sea NO3/PO4X is a good one and there are others too. You can also think of a refugium in your sump if it will support it. The good macroalgaes will out compete the nuisance algaes for the excess nutrients in the water and starve off the HA and the Cyano (red slime) which is not algae but a bacteria. And lastly, for the bristleworms, there are fish that will pick on them and some crustaceans will feed on them as well. Arrow crabs and coral banded shrimps are a couple that come to mind. bristleworms are also beneficial as they eat detritus and stir up the sandbed. Hope you find this info helpful and good luck getting it under control. Keep up with the water changes and good you got your skimmer up to snuff. Keep it clean including the neck where all the smelly crap settles
 
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