Beginner in need of help with a picoreef

[Kaisentlaia]

Hello Hello everyone, I need help.

About year ago an acquaintance gave me his old, well established pico reef and didn't really explain much. I do well with freshwater but I know almost nothing about saltwater.

For a couple of months I did no water changes (he said topping off with RODI was enough) and everything was going well. Almost no algae, mushrooms and zoanthus getting bigger and looking happy.

Then the previous owner told me that I should have done a 5% water change every week or 20% every month adding Aquaforest's Reef Salt and KH Plus to keep the Kh between 7-10, so I did a big water change and everything went downhill from there. The brown zoanthus started getting pale and shrinking and red algae choked everything.

Since then I've been struggling with keeping the water hardness high enough. I'm doing a small water change weekly as instructed but the two zoanthus are dead and red and green algae grow so fast it's hard to keep them at bay even cleaning weekly. Only the mushrooms are still doing well.

What should I do? If it was a freshwater tank I'd dump in some fast growing plants, shrimps and snails to starve the algae and I'd be able to bring it back, but saltwater? I have no idea.

There are a few inhabitants, a few small starfish, a shrimp that lives in a hole and looks a bit like a mantis shrimp, and there were some tiny critters around but I don't see them much nowadays. I feed the shrimp once a week with small bits of frozen fish and that's it. There's a filter too, an EHEIM aquaCorner, I rinse the sponge in old tank water when it gets clogged. The tank is around 1.85 gallons (7L), temperature around 77F (25C), Kh about 7 last time I tested but it tends to go down over time.

I have a RODI system at home and I make my own water adding reef salt (38g/L) and Kh plus.

I do have a nitrate test kit and it was usually around 0 so I stopped testing.

Which parameters should I check aside from hardness and nitrates and what other things should I do to try and bring it back? Would adding some shrimp or macro algae help? Any advice would be really appreciated.

 

[WIReefer]

That size of tank for your first saltwater is tricky but we will get you back on the right track! First off I would make sure that water you are making with your Rodi unit is producing 0 TDS. I would invest in a couple nice test kits for alkalinity and phosphates those are important to try and keep stable. I would go to your local fish store and have them test your water and tell them you need a clean up crew for your size tank. I think that’s where I would start.

 

[Kaisentlaia]

Thank you! Yeah I know how finicky picos can be, I've kept a lot of freshwater picos over the years and it's easy to throw them off balance, but I just love them much more than the big ones <3

I have a couple of tests, Kh/Alkalinity and nitrates (salifert) and an old phosphate one (random brand). Here are the results:

- RODI water dKh 0.3
- dKh 8 (that's actually good, I expected it to be much lower)
- phosphates 0 (either the test is expired or the algae ate it all even if I removed most of it three days ago)
- nitrates 0.2 mg/L

I can run tomorrow to the only LFS (hard lockdown on Monday) to pick up a couple of snails and shrimps and get my water tested there as well. My trusted store closed down and I don't know yet how reliable this one is so any advice on what to get? Turbo snails get big I've heard, would a sea hare and a couple of sexy shrimp be okay if I can find them?

Would a big water change (around 90%) followed by a 2-3 days blackout be of any help?

 

[dedragon]

no i wouldnt do such a large water change, i expect the bad stuff had to do with the first water change and that needs to be figured out first. What is the tds being checked with?

 

[JosephM]

I wouldn’t get a sea hare, they get massive. I would think more of some trochus or astrea snails. Sexy shrimp won’t do much on the fight against algae. With algae like that popping up I would invest in a Hanna ULR phosphate checker. A large water change won’t hurt just make sure the dkh and temp are matched

 

[dedragon]

Joseph she said she did a large water change and then everything went south. Not sure if one of her tests is busted, but couldnt another large water change be detrimental in this case?

 

[JosephM]

Joseph she said she did a large water change and then everything went south. Not sure if one of her tests is busted, but couldnt another large water change be detrimental in this case?

The first water change probably caused the issues because a tank gets used to a certain set of parameters no matter how bad and that water change threw them out of whack. The damage has been done and now she needs to do damage control and maintain the tank and get them stable except this time at good levels. I’m no expert on pico tanks though these are my educated guesses

 

[Jekyl]

Do you have a refractometer for measuring salinity?

 

[Kaisentlaia]

So many replies! Thank you everyone! I was worried about doing a big water change as well because as dedragon said the first one I did was the beginning of all the problems.

I'm pretty sure the Kh/Alkalinity reagent test that I'm using works fine, I use it for my softwater tanks as well and the readings are what I expect from my other tanks as well as tap water. The phosphates one is probably busted since it's so old.

What is the tds being checked with?

I'm using this test for Kh/Alkalinity, but I do have a TDS meter and I can check with that one as well.

Do you have a refractometer for measuring salinity?

I do not, only Kh/Alkalinity and a TDS meter, but I can order one on Amazon.

I would invest in a Hanna ULR phosphate checker.

I can't seem to find this one but I can get a new salifert reagent test (that brand is quite reliable). Oh and thanks for the advice on snails, I'll see if I can find some of those.

 

[dedragon]

Good point Joseph, it was a large change fast. I do think she needs to figure out proper testing first. Test with the tds meter into the rodi water. Kh will show nothing, though i think should be zero out of the rodi but could be wrong there

 

[dedragon]

oh didnt read that properly go out and get a refractometer asap. It is absolutely necesary to test salinity of the water

 

[dedragon]

most likely a bad water change that is currently still killing your whole tank

 

[Kaisentlaia]

Test with the tds meter into the rodi water.

Will do as soon and possible and post results.

go out and get a refractometer asap

I can order one, should arrive in 1-2 days. Would something like this be okay or it would be better to get an electronic one that will need to be calibrated first?

 

[dedragon]

I would check with any local fish stores because they should have one, but if not I would at the very least get your salinity checked and buy already mixed saltwater from a LFS and do a water change with that to get the salinity correct. I would go slowly with water changes but it is going to be up to the salinity in the tank to determine the size of the water changes

 

[dedragon]

You will need a refractometer and calibration solution. Make sure the refractometer reads 1.026 or 35ppt around the middle as that is the salinity we are looking for, calibration solution salinity 1.026 (sometimes 1.0264)

 

[Tamberav]

Large water changes in a pico are fine and even recommended however you need to match salinity and temp and likely there is some issue/swing here since you didn’t test.

That sand bed also looks filthy and will likely be an issue some day.

This is my pico and I change all the water down to two inches.. enough for the small fish to swim in. I carefully match salinity and get temp close. I clean the sand bed with every water change and it still gets pretty filthy. You have to be careful touching your own sand bed though. @brandon429 can help with that.

But yes refractometer and calibration fluid is a must and don’t use tap water (not sure if you are).

 

[dedragon]

digital is not necessary

 

[Udest]

Did that with my 5 gal when I panicked about an outbreak of red algae ,also some blade claurpea if you can find it is a nice nutrient export that won't cling too tightly to rocks.

 

[JosephM]

I hate digital refractometers. Bought one of the nice Milwaukee ones brand new and it never tested right. I use a floating hydrometer but that’s not really a good choice for a pico tank

 

[Jeremy K.A.]

Absolutely get a refractometer asap. Sounds like it may be a salinity issue to me as well as some sort of nutrient issue such as Phosphates or high TDS from RODI water.