Amalee’s 75g Build

[fishguy242]

hi, i'm sorry i do not believe that phosphate test result?? just my opinion,are you using rodi water,? run 2nd uv ,kill water borne algae,could be iron,feed once a day,let go from this,first take 2 buckets ,remove 5 gal tank water,split water between buckets,scrub off algae,in one,rinse swish in other,put rock back ,

 

[AmaleeC]

hi, i'm sorry i do not believe that phosphate test result?? just my opinion,are you using rodi water,? run 2nd uv ,kill water borne algae,could be iron,feed once a day,let go from this,first take 2 buckets ,remove 5 gal tank water,split water between buckets,scrub off algae,in one,rinse swish in other,put rock back ,

Yes, I do use RODI.

I can retest, but I know sometimes the API tests just stink...

How did you suggest cleaning the rocks without hurting my RFA corals and zoanthids? Can I use hydrogen peroxide to make cleaning easier?

 

[fishguy242]

hi,yes clean rocks submerged w/brush,CAUTION ,beware of palytoxin,wear gloves,eye protection,do not touch eyes ,mouth,when doing this,wash hands 3x when done even w bleach once,not to scare you ,palytoxin is no joke,be careful,as far as peroxide have never used

 

[AmaleeC]

Thanks! I work kinda late today, so I will have to do it tomorrow. But I’m kind of excited to make this step

 

[AmaleeC]

hi,yes clean rocks submerged w/brush,CAUTION ,beware of palytoxin,wear gloves,eye protection,do not touch eyes ,mouth,when doing this,wash hands 3x when done even w bleach once,not to scare you ,palytoxin is no joke,be careful,as far as peroxide have never used

I have a question. I noticed two very healthy peppermint shrimp and my hermit crabs died a few weeks ago, then something slowly killed my LPS until they turned to white mush and disintegrated. I think whatever was in the water went away, because I added my pincushion urchin about a week and a half ago and it’s still doing well. Do you think it’s possible that copper had entered the water at some point?

here’s the plan for tomorrow: I’m going to clean everything in depth with the help of the hydrogen peroxide and my handy dandy tank only toothbrush lol I’ll also vacuum up the dinos on the sand bed & put my 2 UVs in the tank and then do a 3 day blackout. That should help kill the algaes I can’t get that are in the water column.

 

[AmaleeC]

I have a question. I noticed two very healthy peppermint shrimp and my hermit crabs died a few weeks ago, then something slowly killed my LPS until they turned to white mush and disintegrated. I think whatever was in the water went away, because I added my pincushion urchin about a week and a half ago and it’s still doing well. Do you think it’s possible that copper had entered the water at some point?

I will say that most of my trochus snails are doing well, and I just added two turbo snails who are doing well. But I added a 3-4 margarita snails maybe 3ish weeks ago and they died a week after adding them into the tank.

also, any idea on why my RFAs are bleaching? I turned up the lighting but they are all still white, and moving around from their original spots.

whatever it is, I’m hoping the addition of the carbon can pull it out of the water.

 

[fishguy242]

hi yes carbon and copper test if poss

 

[AmaleeC]

hi yes carbon and copper test if poss

I’ll ask the reefers in my area, to see if there are any and if not I’ll check with my LFS. Thanks again fishguy!

 

[AmaleeC]

I didn’t get around to the copper test, I think with all the water changes & carbon it’d be a little late lol I will wait a week and test again to see if it’s leaking from somewhere. I think that adding extra dry rock to the sump is what most likely damaged the already fragile water chemistry of a newer tank.

But, nonetheless, I did the rip clean this evening! It took several hours, between cleaning the rock and the sand bed and then a 15 gallon water change. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen a clean sand bed and most of my Zoas! I would say things can only get better from here, I’m very hopeful

I covered the rocks in hydrogen peroxide, let it sit for a few minutes, then washed them off with the power setting on the hose. I know it’s not the best way to do it, but only a few minutes of well water and then they were back in the tank stripped clean I used a gravel vac to collect any dinos on the sandbed, and then washed the sand in some more well water. Then put it back into the tank. As of now the tank is all covered up and both UV lights are running. Here’s some photos of the process & my tank now:

 

[fishguy242]

wow busy night,keep us posted

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

I didn’t get around to the copper test, I think with all the water changes & carbon it’d be a little late lol I will wait a week and test again to see if it’s leaking from somewhere. I think that adding extra dry rock to the sump is what most likely damaged the already fragile water chemistry of a newer tank.

But, nonetheless, I did the rip clean this evening! It took several hours, between cleaning the rock and the sand bed and then a 15 gallon water change. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen a clean sand bed and most of my Zoas! I would say things can only get better from here, I’m very hopeful

I covered the rocks in hydrogen peroxide, let it sit for a few minutes, then washed them off with the power setting on the hose. I know it’s not the best way to do it, but only a few minutes of well water and then they were back in the tank stripped clean I used a gravel vac to collect any dinos on the sandbed, and then washed the sand in some more well water. Then put it back into the tank. As of now the tank is all covered up and both UV lights are running. Here’s some photos of the process & my tank now:

Sometimes you just have to get down and dirty with it! Let us know how things progress and hopefully digress algae wise!

 

[AmaleeC]

Hello friends! I’d like to report that the blackout has been going well! When I peek in, I can see hair algae dying away and I am happy to report that I haven’t seen any new dinos on the sandbed!

Sadly, my pincushion urchin isn’t doing too hot as of recently. I noticed today he has lost a lot of spines overnight. I’m not exactly devastated, as I did buy him just to help out with the hair algae and now there isn’t much, if any, of that. Nonetheless, he’s a living thing & I’d hate to see the poor little guy die. I hope he rebounds.. I also lost a purple dottyback during the rip clean, and I’m pretty sad about the loss. After letting one of the rocks sit out of the water, covered in hydrogen peroxide, I went to wash off the rock and noticed something bright purple wash right out. My orchid dottyback. Poor thing was hiding in a hole and sat out the whole time. I expected some loss during all of this, and accidents happen. I just think it’s such a terrible way to go.

Here’s a photo I quickly grabbed today to plan some landscaping for new corals. The second photo is what I’m planning next for a new scape! The rip clean has allowed me to make some changes to my scape and I’m pretty happy about that.

The second photo shows what I’m planning to do now

I’ll be testing in a few mins, and will be uploading photos of the results then. Have a blessed day everyone!

 

[AmaleeC]

Here’s the readings on everything:
Phosphate .25
Ammonia .25
pH 7.6?
Nitrate 2.0??

I’m still using an API kit and eventually want to buy some Hanna Checkers for ammonia, pH, nitrate, and phosphate. They’re a bit harder to read with the API kit. These numbers are okay, but not ideal so I’m going to remove the rocks in my sump and buy some sea lettuce to start up a refugium.

I‘m not sure that the rocks in the refugium are totally to blame, because there’s so much that could have caused all of the issues I’ve been handling. However, they are a more recent addition and I think it would be in my best interest to retrace my steps, to see what could have caused the imbalance in water chemistry.

Sea lettuce is my macro of choice because chaeto always floated around the tank and got stuck in my return pump. Sea lettuce should help balance pH and keep water chemistry in check to avoid future mishaps. I have also been feeding much lighter and will continue to do so. Dinos and hair algae are not fun, and I want to do everything I can to never deal with them again. I’ll update with photos when I get the sea lettuce

 

[fishguy242]

hi are you running a skimmer?try to post pic of urchin

 

[AmaleeC]

hi are you running a skimmer?

Hello, yes! And it’s pulling out a lot of protein.

 

[AmaleeC]

Unfortunately I’ll be ending the 3 day black out a day early, my zoas are still shut completely closed after the cleaning and my RFAs are bleaching.

No clue why my urchin died but my RFAs are starting to look happy and well spread out again which is a great sign!

Because I am a day early, I’ll be turning on the blue lights only. It’s going to be the best thing to keep up the fight against dinos & give my corals some TLC.

I am very happy with my new aquascape! Can’t wait to start adding corals again

 

[Snoopdog]

Add at least some real live rock, you may regret not doing it in the end.

EDIT: Reading back I see you already got dinos, so I guess my comment is a little late. Reducing light is just masking the problem, dinos just hit the water column when the lights are out, they will come back with a vengeance.

 

[Snoopdog]

Sea lettuce is my macro of choice because chaeto always floated around the tank and got stuck in my return pump. Chaeto should help balance pH and keep water chemistry in check to avoid future mishaps.

Chaeto is actually going to make your situation worse. I notice you had question marks on your nitrate reading, you also need to check your phosphates which are likely to the point of being unreadable.

IMHO your issue is you started with dead rock. This seems to be some new thing people are doing as to not introduce unwelcome life into a reef tank. Well I hate to tell people but the truth is you cannot have a thriving ecosystem without eventually bringing in something you may not want. These tanks are too sterile and for every new tank thread there is a dino thread. This used to not be the case, it is a new thing. Check post on forums 15+ years ago and dino cases were just not as prevalant. What changed? IMHO these sterile tanks are a new fad that took away one problem to just introduce another problem. Sure we had hair algae but that is a heck of a lot easier to deal with than dinoflagellates. You need to get a microscope, a cheap one will work. Find out exactly what you have and start reading, a lot.

Quit doing water changes, scrubbing rocks, adding commercial products to fix a problem. You are basically just resetting the clock every time you do this. The problem is your tank is immature, dead, no life. If you keep sterilizing everything in your tank you are killing the life. Your tank is not a hospital that needs to be sterilized, it is an ecosystem trying to establish itself.

We all want our tanks to succeed, it hurts me to see all these tank threads with everyone having issues and then breaking their tanks down because they came to their wits end and gave up.

Those are my 2 cents, take them or leave them.

 

[AmaleeC]

Chaeto is actually going to make your situation worse. I notice you had question marks on your nitrate reading, you also need to check your phosphates which are likely to the point of being unreadable.

IMHO your issue is you started with dead rock. This seems to be some new thing people are doing as to not introduce unwelcome life into a reef tank. Well I hate to tell people but the truth is you cannot have a thriving ecosystem without eventually bringing in something you may not want. These tanks are too sterile and for every new tank thread there is a dino thread. This used to not be the case, it is a new thing. Check post on forums 15+ years ago and dino cases were just not as prevalant. What changed? IMHO these sterile tanks are a new fad that took away one problem to just introduce another problem. Sure we had hair algae but that is a heck of a lot easier to deal with than dinoflagellates. You need to get a microscope, a cheap one will work. Find out exactly what you have and start reading, a lot.

Quit doing water changes, scrubbing rocks, adding commercial products to fix a problem. You are basically just resetting the clock every time you do this. The problem is your tank is immature, dead, no life. If you keep sterilizing everything in your tank you are killing the life. Your tank is not a hospital that needs to be sterilized, it is an ecosystem trying to establish itself.

We all want our tanks to succeed, it hurts me to see all these tank threads with everyone having issues and then breaking their tanks down because they came to their wits end and gave up.

Those are my 2 cents, take them or leave them.

Thank you for this! I’ve been reading up on dinos, and saw that they enjoy living with the chaeto only to eventually outcompete them. It’s a bandaid really. Using a UV light is a bandaid. 3 day blackouts are a bandaid. I’m still on the fence on wether or not a rip clean falls into a “bandaid” category but we will see.

I am well aware that fixing the water chemistry is going to be the best solution, and I am working on that. I’ll be getting some salifert kits & a microscope to get better, more accurate, readings. I’ve looked into Hanna Checkers and noticed they can be a little inconsistent.

I honestly don’t care for a perfectly clean tank, and I’ve dealt with a lot more pests than I’d like to mention. I‘ve used dry rock before and things went well the first time so I thought to use them again.

While adding live rock may help, and is something I never thought about, I also don’t know if it’ll really stop the problem. Ive seen plenty of tanks with dinos and not all of them have started with dry rock. It could be that they were introduced to those systems who started with live rock. But I’m curious as to wether or not adding a few pounds of live rock would really be a solution to dinos. I admit to making many mistakes, and don’t know it all so I can’t say yes or no to it being a cure. But it’s worth a shot.

Here’s an updated photo of my tank.

 

[Snoopdog]

Thank you for this! I’ve been reading up on dinos, and saw that they enjoy living with the chaeto only to eventually outcompete them. It’s a bandaid really. Using a UV light is a bandaid. 3 day blackouts are a bandaid. I’m still on the fence on wether or not a rip clean falls into a “bandaid” category but we will see.

I am well aware that fixing the water chemistry is going to be the best solution, and I am working on that. I’ll be getting some salifert kits & a microscope to get better, more accurate, readings. I’ve looked into Hanna Checkers and noticed they can be a little inconsistent.

I honestly don’t care for a perfectly clean tank, and I’ve dealt with a lot more pests than I’d like to mention. I‘ve used dry rock before and things went well the first time so I thought to use them again.

While adding live rock may help, and is something I never thought about, I also don’t know if it’ll really stop the problem. Ive seen plenty of tanks with dinos and not all of them have started with dry rock. It could be that they were introduced to those systems who started with live rock. But I’m curious as to wether or not adding a few pounds of live rock would really be a solution to dinos. I admit to making many mistakes, and don’t know it all so I can’t say yes or no to it being a cure. But it’s worth a shot.

Here’s an updated photo of my tank.

I disagree, the majority if not all that I have seen started with dry rock. Sure it is possible to have them with live rock, but the net cause is probably the same, zero nitrates and zero phosphates.