Debating leaving the hobby

[Quietman]

Ok...well neglecting a tank for a summer might mean a few months more before it gets back to par. Not a criticism - I've neglected mine for periods and had to pay a price with patience. And replacing things. Sigh.

So is it diatoms or dinos you're fighting. If the first...pretty easy and I"m sure you know not immediately deadly. If the second...well, I'm not the guy to ask really. Lost everything (except some purple death palys and a chromis) from dinos and then treating them. Didn't quit (that was close) or restart but if I had to do it over again, I might have restarted and saved some livestock, time and frustration. BTW - I beat them with UV and Dino-X finally (in build thread). It worked but high price to pay.

I should add so as to not be a total downer. My tank looks amazing now, best it has since before dinos last year. Had a major GHA outbreak after the dinos (of course) but once managed everything clicked again.

 

[tharbin]

This hobby and can be very rewarding and very disheartening. Sometimes a reboot helps, sometimes patience. I'm sure there are people on here that can help you through this but one paragraph of advice.

If you get out of the hobby, don't sell your gear. You will probably be back. It gets in your blood if you are deriving pleasure from the tank when it is running well. I know, I've quit six or seven times over the years.

Good luck and I hope you stick with it and fix the problems. These trying times really help us to become better reefers.

 

[SurfTrack]

Thanks for responses. Maybe Ill give it another month or two. All this requires even more money to be spent for new test kits.

 

[WallyB]

Thanks for responses. Maybe Ill give it another month or two. All this requires even more money to be spent for new test kits.

In the photo's I see you pointing out your ugly sand bed.

I stuggled with Sandbed problems that spread to rocks just becuase I didn't maintain sandbed properly. Or didn't have proper critters to keep it clean.

Years ago I decided to remove the sand in all 2 of my tank and went Glass Bottom. That ended my sandbed problems.

Sure I miss the powdery white sand bottom, but it never was powdery white for long.

 

[Woodyman]

Thanks for responses. Maybe Ill give it another month or two. All this requires even more money to be spent for new test kits.

If your willing, maybe try the ICP first it will give you a more accurate depiction of where your starting and where you need to go, and for $30 I don't think it hurts.

Then you will know what you need to adjust and can buy test kits accordingly instead of buying all the test kits.

(DISCONTINUED) ICP Water Analysis Single Test - 33 Elements - ICP-Analysis

Shop The Best Saltwater Aquarium Equipment & Supplies at Saltwater Aquarium. We Carry Everything you will Need for your Fish Tank.

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[Woodyman]

If your willing, maybe try the ICP first it will give you a more accurate depiction of where your starting and where you need to go, and for $30 I don't think it hurts.

Then you will know what you need to adjust and can buy test kits accordingly instead of buying all the test kits.

(DISCONTINUED) ICP Water Analysis Single Test - 33 Elements - ICP-Analysis

Shop The Best Saltwater Aquarium Equipment & Supplies at Saltwater Aquarium. We Carry Everything you will Need for your Fish Tank.

www.saltwateraquarium.com

Use any ICP test you like, but I know this is one of the cheaper ones so I picked it to minimize your cost since you want to keep it low.

 

[Tamberav]

If you neglect a tank… expect it to take a long time to get back on track. May be time to pull the sand bed out and rinse and replace or don’t replace at all. Water changes won’t fix a sand bed.

Diatoms shouldn’t be around for long so I suspect something other than diatoms.

I will be honest, money rarely causes success in this hobby. You can run a nice reef with a 40 breeder and a hob filter. It’s more about maintenance and stability and sticking with it and fixing problems as soon as they happen. The person who ignores the Aiptasia to fix it another day ends up with more.

I think most of us have been there though. So it’s going to take time to fix. Last algae bloom I had after an equipment failure took me 6 months before it started to turn around and recede.

 

[WVNed]

I wish you well. There is no shame in quitting and if there is no joy in continuing then why not.

Alternatively doing the same as you have been a few more months isn't going to change things.

I suspect you will need to remove the sand bed and replace it. Blow the rocks off strongly and remove as much of what comes out as you can with 2-3 large water changes.

Understand testing is what tells you how it is going before you can see it at which point it is usually a lot harder to fix.

More flow

 

[Quietman]

I gotta think if there's a bad odor it's going to be some kind of bad algae (dinos). There are some stringy patches in your photos that bring back bad memories for me.

There are some dino tests on here that don't involve a microscope (but if you have one it's best). Do they go away over night with lights out and return in morning?

Since you have the UV you can optimize it (you may have already) for general algae now and should help to remove odors. To fight algae it's important to have at least 8x tank volume running through it hourly. If you have it running to/from sump, I'd recommend either putting it in the return line or if you have an 800 gph pump, to put the pump in your DT and setup a closed loop for the UV temporarily.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

as an alternative, maybe think about a downgrade. Nothing wrong with a 30-50 gallon tank, you can probably use most of your equipment, a small tank is so much easier to manage, its much cheaper, takes less of your time, very easy to solve most problems with huge water changes (10 gallons is a huge water change in a small tank). Honestly, I would probably quit the hobby if I had to make 50 gallon water changes.

Whatever you decide, good luck.

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Orange and stinky? Sounds like it might be cyano??

 

[davidcalgary29]

Do you dose phyto? It's cheap and, coincidence or not, took care of my cyano problem.

 

[BeltedCoyote]

One thing I’m grateful I’ve picked up in my long build is the importance of having as much balance in biodiversity as possible.

why? It’s going to give the undesirables (what you’re dealing with) competition. If done right, enough competition that nature itself will keep them away, or at least keep them an manageable levels.

what does your nutrient export look like? Bioload? I agree that flow will be a good start. Beyond that, do you have any CUC than helps with the substrate?

also, as others have said, if your tank has been given time to slide out of balance, it will take time to re-stabilize.

all that said, If you truly want to quit, follow that desire. If not, let’s all work together to help you out

 

[Supa]

get more flow going! Manually remove what you can without disturbing a ton, you will start to beat it back. Also if you had a “good algae” growing it could outcompete some of the bad algae. I’m a noobie and just started reefing but I’m seeing diatoms on my sand bed in all the low flow areas. I have a very small clean up crew too so that may not be helping.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I have spent endless amounts of time money and effort for so long w my extremely expensive tank, and nothing seems to be getting better. I'm not willing to put in more work. The diatoms is OUT of control and Ive spent almost a thousand dollars and so much time trying to fix it. It is so ugly and makes the entire room look horrible, and it smells. It's just an extreme eye sore and honestly embarrassing to explain to people.. I'm not getting any happiness from my tank, is it a bad idea to just tear it down?

Is this tank at or near a window? If not, reduce or turn off white light for at least a week.
Diatoms are a brown algae that typically appear in a reef tank that has just completed its cycle but they can also appear in an established reef tank. They can cover sand, rock, pumps, glass, you name it. Diatoms look ugly but in most cases they are harmless so the key is to not panic when they appear.
Diatoms feed mainly off of silicates but also consume dissolved organic compounds, phosphate and nitrates. Unfiltered tap water can contain silicates and is a good way to jump start a bloom if you use it to mix salt or to replace water that evaporated from the tank. The best way to prevent this from happening is to filter water through a RODI unit, although you can still get a diatom bloom when using RODI if the cartridge that removes silicates expires.
diatoms are typically harmless to a captive reef and can be beaten once their food source expires. Once you put the kibosh on the source, the outbreak should last a couple of weeks so just be patient and it will pass. For major outbreaks you may want to consider the three day blackout. Diatoms are easily wiped from the glass with a mag float, a turkey baster or a toothbrush can access other areas of the tank. Be prepared for them to re-establish themselves quickly, they are likely to be able to resettle and have exponential growth rates.
To prevent their return, practice good aquarium husbandry by doing regular water changes, keep the substrate clean, don’t overfeed the fish, ensure your skimmer is running at an optimal level and rinse out filter socks and sponges on a regular basis.
Some cleaner crew to help control it are : Cerith snails, Nerite snails and Trochus snails and also Astraea snails are effective at removing diatoms.

 

[MaxTremors]

Thanks for responses. Maybe Ill give it another month or two. All this requires even more money to be spent for new test kits.

Well to be fair, test kits are like buying salt, it’s just one of the ongoing costs of maintaining a tank.

 

[Miami Reef]

@SurfTrack

Can you send me a bottle of your tank water? I am willing to use my test kits (good quality and expensive ones) to determine your levels. I use 100% hannah checkers.

Judging by your thread, I’m going to guess it’s Dino’s. I’m positive we can fix this with very little money on your part. If your source water is 0 TDS and you’ve already had your tank running, it’s impossible that silicates are still leaching out. Diatoms don’t look like snot. They look like a brown powder.

 

[Miami Reef]

Also, my sense of smell doesn’t work, but I’m almost positive that diatoms do not have an odor?

Edit: I can now see the pictures. I definitely see cyano (that’s the smelly stuff) and I THINK I see Dinos (but can’t 100% ID them from that picture).

If you’re going to send me a sample of your water, send a small amount of the brown stuff so I can microscope it for you.

 

[Neoma]

I have spent endless amounts of time money and effort for so long w my extremely expensive tank, and nothing seems to be getting better. I'm not willing to put in more work. The diatoms is OUT of control and Ive spent almost a thousand dollars and so much time trying to fix it. It is so ugly and makes the entire room look horrible, and it smells. It's just an extreme eye sore and honestly embarrassing to explain to people.. I'm not getting any happiness from my tank, is it a bad idea to just tear it down?

If you are finding it a chore and not a joy,... there is no shame in saying- I can appreciate- but it's not for me. another option could be to hire someone(an expert) and have them maintain for you so you can enjoy your investment!

 

[jsker]

I have been there, trust me. My system went in a down slide 3 years ago and now the system is finally were I am starting to enjoy the tank again. I still have a ways to go to get it back to were it was.

I would suggest checking everything

As some have posted

Dinos can be from running to much white light spectrum, old bulbs and silica

Cyano, the scourge of a system, as suggested RO/DI filters not doing there job. My I asked what type of carbon are you using in the RO/DI system. I went back to using the carbon block instead of loose carbon, which made a big different with my cyano not coming back. I am also switching out the filters regardless if they're dirty or not every six months. The water down here in Orlando is not the best.

I took some time, but my tank was killed off by having my skimmer intake line to the outside to keep my PH up. The tank slowly was dying off no matter what I tried. Then one night the county mosquito sprayer drove by and the light went on. I was pulling in the insecticide into my system via the skimmer line. Once I move the line into the attic, the dye off stopped. Then the recycle every time I would use the cyano remover. I stopped that and just started making small adjustment and wait.

Sounds like you have a great system and will a little time and patient you can have a great system back. Take note of your journey to help other.

The other positive thing for your system is that you asked for help