Please help with not so successful reef

[sds]

A freind of mine has been attempting a reef tank for about 1 year now. He hasn't been able to keep anything alive for long periods of time ( like a couple of months and the corals are headed downhill). The mushrooms have survived but that is about all. He has a few sw tanks setup and he does have one noticable problem in all of them red slime. I did find that his ro membrane is dead. Other than that the nitrate nitrite and ammonia are running normal. He is keeping mostly soft corals and is doing 10% wc weekly. He is dosing iron ,zooplex,and vitoplex 2 times a week, iodine and coral excel 1 time week. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Equipment.
125 gallon
2-175w mh
2- 40 w attinics
2- emperor 400 w bio wheel
1- seaclone
1- uv sterilizer 8watt
120lbs live rock
3- 300gph power heads

 

[steve the plumb]

what are his pospate levels at.His R/O unit is finished popates can increase algea.I wouldn't use a canister filter on a reef you don't need one thats what the live rock is for.Seaclone is a small skimmer for that size tank.What are his alk cal and mag levels at?What spectrum of light is he using?

 

[miztic]

I would also cut back on dosing all the stuff, iron? i thought that was plant food, and I agree with steve, check the phosphate level, although all the PO may be used up by the algea.
maybe check the salinity with a refractometer.

 

[sds]

I have tried to tell him he didnt need filters but he doesnt like that advice for some reason and have explained to him about the bio wheels and nitrate issues. He does need to upgrade his skimmer imo but he thinks he should spend the money on new lights 3-250w halides w/vho atinics But i dont see a need for that with what he is keeping. I believe they are 6500k mh. I am not sure about cal pho or mag levels, i will try and find out. I think he should invest in a new skimmer before lighting.

 

[sds]

I forgot he has it pretty heavily stocked.
not sure on #s
8- damsels, some are large about 4-7"
1- purple tang
2- firefish goby
and maybe a few others

 

[steve the plumb]

thats not alot of fish for a 125.If he has algea problems high p can cause that.If you want to keep corals make sure you have the proper conditions to do so.Tell your friend to READ up first

 

[sds]

bump

 

[reefman77]

the red slime is probably from lack of flow. he should also try testing for copper. what is his salinity

 

[sds]

found this out
calcium 480
nitrates 2.5ppm

 

[sds]

salinity i am not sure
specific gravity is 1.024
he doesnt have a copper test and neither do I

 

[Craig Lambert]

He is running what amounts to a skimmerless tank without enough rock to provide filtration all by itself. What is the substrate?

 

[sds]

I think it is about 2" of crushed coral. What skimmer for this size tank? It must be HOB

 

[Craig Lambert]

IMO there are no HOB skimmers capable of handling a 125G tank with a moderate bioload. I would definately ditch the crushed coral. Maybe someone can give you an idea of which HOB skimmer is best. It still won't be enough, but anything is better than the one he has.

With what you said about the tank in the original post, I have a hard time believing that 2.5 is an accurate number for nitrates.

 

[frags4u]

The only hang on back that would even do better is a Remora and get the pro version. Also I think the halides are not strong enough for alot of corals. Just my two cents

 

[integlikewhoa]

Yup crushed coral no good for sand. Chuck it.

 

[sds]

What if he ran dual skimmers?

 

[Psyire]

I would cut all the dosing out completely. I'd say it's doing way more harm than good. Also, like it was said, ditch the biowheel. Adding more flow would help solve the redslime problem, stick a seio or 2 in there.

Dual Skimmers would be better than one, especially if he went with 2x Remora Pro's.

 

[mr pink floyd]

how do you know so much about your "friends" tank???

 

[Craig Lambert]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6813062#post6813062 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mr pink floyd
how do you know so much about your "friends" tank???

I was wondering that too...................

 

[sds]

the reason I know so much about it is because I have been trying to help him take care of some of his problems. I don t know what nitrate test he used but that is what he told me he read when it was tested