Nothing but problems with my 90g, need help

J

Jarretk1

Premium Member
As stated I am having nothing but problems, if its not 1 thing its another. 90 gallon with 80lbs of fiji rock, and a sump of roughly 24 gallons. Chambers are- Reef Octopus 6 (rated for a 150 gallon tank), 10lbs of fiji rock and a medium bar size of chaeto, followed by a Sicce 5 pump (1321gph). Inside the tank I have 2- 1400gph power heads and a 850gph power heads. Livestock and coral is a low bio-load, 2 small clowns, 2 small to medium tangs, 6 frags including- birds nest, 5 heads of palys and zoos, 3 encrusting montis, and 1 small rose bubble. Birdsnest grows but slowly, palys have added maybee 2 polyps over 2 months. 1 monti got nudi's that I caught late, and 1 just browned out. I thought it needed more light so I moved it up but that didnt help, replaced the halides and nothing. Light fixture is 2-150w halides and 2-96w pc.
PH-8.2
Amonia- 0
Nitrite- 0
Nitrate- Less than 5
Phosphate- .25
Calcium- 520 (has not changed in 2 weeks)
Dkh- 8
Magnessium- 1300 (has not changed in 2 weeks)
Nitrates went from 40-80 but I got them down with water changes; within hours a fourth of my sand is brown(diatom's I believe) soon after cyanobacteria is in full bloom.From my research phosphates are a big problem with my tank. They are allowing the cyano to bloom and feed on, also the phosphates arent allowing calcium and magnesium to combine to form what is needed for coral to maintain color and grow. I tried kent phosphate sponge which did nothing and did a dose og chemi clean which killed the cyano but was back in a few days. My next thought is vodka dosing. The guys at the LFS are puzzled as am I so I figured I would have a better shot here anyways. Sorry for the run on but I always see that half the thread is asking and answering questions about tank specs.
Thanks for any advice, Jarret
 
Hy, sorry to hear about your troubles. Have you looked into a GFO reactor? That pulls PO4 put pretty quickly. You'll need a bunch of GFO at first, but as the PO4 reduces, the GFO will last longer. You'll have to get a good phosphate test kit to monitor it. I recommend the Hanna Checker.



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What is your sale it level and what type of salt do you use?

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Also, I have always used RODI water and I feed a 3.75oz cube of food every other day. Any recommendations on a goof GFO reactor?
 
Salinity hovers between 1.023 and 1.024, I need to check on the salt but I get all my water from DNA. I have no room for an RODI unit or excess water in my 500 sq ft apartment.
 
They use Kent Reef Salt at DNA. Make sure you ask for the specific SG you want. When I bought my water there, I'd get it between 1.021 and 1.028 when I didn't ask and check when I was there.


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Mix you own salt at 1.025 like tropic marin pro reef... Run gfo in a reactor to get your phosphates to zero.... That will help a bunch and you have a ton of return flow a mag 9.5 would be plenty for your return

~introducing fish and coral into a electronically balanced body of water since 2007~
 
@Jarretk1 wrote:
Also said:
How much food do you offer? That sounds like a lot to me.

For GFO, I recommend Phosphate Rx instead of GFO. It's Lanthanum chloride, which you drip in the tank at night, and the next day your skimmer has exported it. It's what I've been using for years. .25ppm isn't too bad, but one dose should be able to bring it down to nearly zero overnight.

Do you clean your sandbed with a gravel vac? Or do you have a clean up crew with nassarius snails, serpent stars, cucumbers and conchs to keep it clean?

How old are your lights?

Those are the questions I don't believe you've answered yet. [smilie=wink.gif]
Click to expand...
 
I know you always get the How old is your light question, it's not your bulbs. From what I read you're getting diatoms and then Cyano, and being lightly stocked, and the nitrate spike raises One question. Is your tank new? As in LESS than 6-8 months old? If it is, it's new tank syndrome. One mistake you made was using chemicals to try and kill your Cyano. Those treatments are antibiotics. Cyano that don't die from it becomes immune to the chemicals and much stronger and resilient. I suggest you not use any more chemical treatments as it can harm your current tank inhabitants. As Cyano is common in new tanks, some even say its part of the cycling process or better known as breaking in. I know, my tank is 7 months now. I had Cyano about 6-8 weeks in. I cured it by sucking out the Cyano with a tippet on my water change hose. Sucking the Cyano out usually took about half a gallon which i replaced with new water everyday. The diatom bloom will cover your rocks and sand with a real ugly brown color, Do Not Stir Your Sand Bed!!! What is happening is your bacterial cycle is kicking in and building colonies which can be disturbed by swirling your sand. If you have a bare bottom then ignore that. Only thing that will fix your problem is time (and patience). Lessen feeding. Lower the hours that your lights are on for now. The diatoms will be awhile before they die out (they will never completely die out). Get you some clean up crew aka CUC. Snails n hermits. If your tank is rimless stay away from Nerite n Cerith snails. They jump out n dry out. Astraea snail n turbo snail will work. Your smartest move was joining a forum. There are very knowledgable and experienced members here. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions. If you've had your tank for over a year and this just happened, then I cannot help. There's so much more but I don't wanna drag on. Oh. Do Not Dose Vodka. It's a carbon source and will only feed the Cyano.
 
Jarretk1,

I can stop by and check out your setup and offer some suggestions.

I have a 90g that's been up for 6 years. I've had a things happen and I've gotten them back under control.

My corner tank has an Mp40 (3200 GPH) and a Tunze Turbelle Stream 6065 (1,700 GPH) with a Mag 7 return. It's quite a bit of flow, but I have a lot of SPS in my tank.

I can bring my test kits over to test with yours to see if we get similar results or if your test kits may be bad.

Just let me know. I'm real close to DNA of GB and MARSH if you want to stop by and see my setup.
 
Sorry for not responding last night but the 3:30am wake up comes really early. CUC consists of around 10 nasarius snails, 4 turbo's, a few cerith and margarita snails, along with probably 5 random crabs. I bought the light fixture off a guy on here that used it for a year, halides were just replaced a week ago. I have made the large mistake of vacuming the sand during water changes and mixing the diatoms in, I try getting out as much cyano but I need to try a different approach instead of scooping it by hand. The tank was finished cycling in August so it is still pretty new, I just think I have more problems than a new tank. I will look into
1. Specific salinity from DNA
2. Reactor of some sort (DNA is trying to sell me a $67 Mini Tumbler Media Reactor, I just thought to look here before buying that)
Anyone have pros and cons of a reactor with GFO vs the media tumbler?
Marc- You suggested Phosphate RX for a GFO but I thought GFO was a powder, I guess I need to do more research on that subject

Thanks again to everyone
 
Phosphate Rx is liquid, and looks like a large bottle of eye drops.

phosphate_rx.jpg
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I have a Two Little Fishies 150 reactor if you want to try GFO. You would need a small maxi-jet. I have phosban that worked fine on my 120g as well.
 
Well I have figured a few things out. I found a Hanna phosphate checker and they registered at .20, which is around what I thought they were. I had tested everything and it was all on the good side but after about a week I tested everything and my Dkh was 6. I guess somehow I got a bad test the first time or miscounted the drops so since then I have been dosing to increase the dkh. Also I replaced the bulb over my macrae algae because its growth has stopped, hopefully this will help bring down my phosphates. Im still debated on if I want to run carbon, gfo, bio pellets, or nothing. Thanks again for everyones advice.
 
If it were me.....(and I've read so many good things you've been told). I'd find out if you have a phosp. problem or just temporary high phosphates. Like Marc suggested use a lanthanum chloride product (Brightwell's Phosphat-E) is another and this will get you phosphates way down and quickly (but use recommended or slightly less doses) stop using it and see if you phosphates start creeping up to a high level again, if so, you need to find the source. If not, then you can use the GFO as a maintenance tool. As far as the bio-pellets, if your nitrates are in line then they are not necessary. I use them as I feed my fish more than you (and I don't think they are "all that.") Be careful with the alk and bring it up slowly to a better level. As far as carbon, it won't help your params but I run it 24/7, I just feel safer running it. Lighting shouldn't affect your chaeto growth, you might need to just give it a trim. (I just started running my sump light opposite my tank lights to help balance out Ph, don't know how well that works yet) Good luck!
 
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