Help!
- Thread starter AYM4DRIVER
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jsker
Reefing is all about the adventure
+1 on the hair algae. Mexican turbo and hermit crabs love that stuff. I am at 15 months and dealing with the same issues and it started with adding new light and try to get them dialed in.
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AYM4DRIVER
Community Member
It's completely enveloped my tank.
OP
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AYM4DRIVER
Community Member
Anytime I've added snails, they flip on their backs and die.
reeferfoxx
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When you started this tank, did you use dry rock, live rock, or dry live rock?
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AYM4DRIVER
Community Member
Live rock, it was sold to me by LFS in 2014
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AYM4DRIVER
Community Member
The tank is a RED SEA MAX S650, it's supposed to be the Holy Grail of aquariums. Pure BS if you ask me.
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AYM4DRIVER
Community Member
replaced all 10 T5's Salinity at 1.022, nitreates are 0, phosphates are 0, tank blacked out due to shame of ugliness and done substrate change as well as 60 gallon water change. Substrate covered in 2 days since. I wish I would have got a freshwater system.
You really need something sifting your sand, could be snails, conchs, starfish, hermit crabs. But I'm not expert on their requirement but I believe they are most susceptible to salinity changes. Which could be the issue if your LFS keeps their tanks at 1.026/1.025.
Have you had any corals or invertebrates survive since setting up? Possible the rock you bought came out of a system breakdown that had used copper in it, how long did it take the snails you mentioned to die?
Have you tried a Poly-filter? it absorbs some metals and has certain color changes that could clue you in to a contamination issue..
reeferfoxx
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He's running a FOWLR lol... Fish only with live rock. No coral.
Naiad
Valuable Member
The reason your reading no nutrients is that the algea is eating it all. There is high nutrients somewhere. Hair algea is great at trapping detritus under it then feeding of it. Have you cleared your rock of detritus recently?
Freakyyfort
Active Member
If nothings in there but algea take the tank down to a good cleaning. Rinse and clean rocks and sand and filler up and start over.... let it cycle and add new tenants. It's a little clEan up work.. but if you can't keep it under control
Then start fresh.
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AYM4DRIVER
Community Member
The snails went on their back as they went in. I want to have corals which was why I bought the RSM. LFS help set up system and added bad tap water. Tried to have corals with no success, the fish that are in the system came from my original tank which was a disaster. Since setting this system up, I've had 13 of the fish survive for more than a year. The algae started coming real bad last summer and the LFS kept changing water with tap and selling me chemicals and even a UV sterilizer. The Algae completely took over the system in November and the LFS sold me a RO/DI system but left me hanging. I managed to do water changes with mixed store water but the alge got worse. Last month, I got with some new people who came and saw my tank told me that I needed a Reactor and showed me how to set up my RO/DI system. The came over and arranged my rocks for better flow and replaced the substrate because the original was too fine and made the water cloudy. 2 Weeks later and my algae is back, it is truly depressing me and I'm heartbroken, I need help, please!
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AYM4DRIVER
Community Member
Well over $10k into this and it makes me sick to see how nice everybody's aquarium looks and I'm still wishing I could have that.
With your snails dying so quickly, have you accounted for stray voltage, temperature swings, ammonia, etc? Are you possibly overfeeding? Depending on size, 13 fish could be a lot of bioload for a tank that size.
Freakyyfort
Active Member
Clean tank and replace water with rodi/salt.. keep adding chemicals you'll spend more time and money for short dead end results I'd think. I've never seen a ship dumping in gallons of chemicals trying to fix the ocean
Naiad
Valuable Member
Hehe you haven't seen pics of my 120. Think about a lush rolling medow. Now picture that underwater. I was pulling a 5 gallon bucket of hair algea out of my tank every Saturday only to have it grow back by the next week. It does want to make you throw in the towel. Get a poly pad to see if your tank is suffering from heavy metal poisoning thanks to that tap water. That is step one. If it is nothing but algea will thrive
