I think I should start over

[Mike1995]

Nitrates are at 5ppm. Phosphate is .04. so both went down.
Tank is getting close to 8 months old. (November)
Part of the rock was dry, about half . The other was live .

 

[pdiehm]

Patience. Do another water change in a few days. I think your numbers are false. They are higher but the algae and such is using them.

I would keep stirring up the sand to get stuff into your sock, and remove the sock daily

 

[AltitudeAquarium]

Okie dokie. Let's take this one issue at a time.

Do NOT do any drastic measures!

Good call separating the fish for now. We will circle back to them.

The cloudy water could well be a bacterial bloom but I would need pics to help diagnose.

Are you running filter socks? If so, how often to you clean/change them out.

If you have no corals, kill the lights for 5 days.

Get rid of your carbon/gfo and let's hold off on that for a bit.

Try stirring half the sand bed and adjusting your wave pumps. We need to get rid of cyano.

Let's do these simple things first and post a couple pics please.

This may take us a few weeks but I am in it with you for the long haul. Don't get frustrated. I won't leave you hanging. Promise!

Dantimdad, your helpful attitude and encouragement is why I like this forum. I'm a newbie and following along to learn. Thanks.

 

[leptang]

Nitrates are at 5ppm. Phosphate is .04. so both went down.
Tank is getting close to 8 months old. (November)
Part of the rock was dry, about half . The other was live .

Unfortunately a lot of new tanks take time to mature just make sure your nitrates and phosphate dont hit or sit at zero. A UV sterilizer helps combat the Bloom from dinoflagellates and kills the free floating dinos. Adding beneficial bacteria a little at time helps. A lot of patience and time to let the tank mature.

 

[Mike1995]

Patience. Do another water change in a few days. I think your numbers are false. They are higher but the algae and such is using them.

I would keep stirring up the sand to get stuff into your sock, and remove the sock daily

That makes sense.. because when the lights were out, both numbers were much higher. I'll do that. Wierd question, but sometimes when I change my filter sock, there's little pill bug looking things in it. Are those copepods? Can I just put them in the sump where the rock is?

 

[dantimdad]

Dantimdad, your helpful attitude and encouragement is why I like this forum. I'm a newbie and following along to learn. Thanks.

Thanks!

If you need any help, don't hesitate to ask!

 

[dantimdad]

That makes sense.. because when the lights were out, both numbers were much higher. I'll do that. Wierd question, but sometimes when I change my filter sock, there's little pill bug looking things in it. Are those copepods? Can I just put them in the sump where the rock is?

Yes and Yes. Just save them, they are really good.

As directed, do another water change. Don't feed any more than you have to. Siphon algae every water change.

It will subside, I promise.

 

[pdiehm]

That makes sense.. because when the lights were out, both numbers were much higher. I'll do that. Wierd question, but sometimes when I change my filter sock, there's little pill bug looking things in it. Are those copepods? Can I just put them in the sump where the rock is?

Could be. I can’t say for sure

 

[dantimdad]

Also, try to get a pic of the pill bugs. I may have spoken too soon, but, I would bet that's what they are.

 

[Mike1995]

Also, try to get a pic of the pill bugs. I may have spoken too soon, but, I would bet that's what they are.

Alright I'll see what I can do. Theyre fast lol.

 

[Mike1995]

Yes and Yes. Just save them, they are really good.

As directed, do another water change. Don't feed any more than you have to. Siphon algae every water change.

It will subside, I promise.

Every once in a while algea gets on my coral frags. Should I get it off them? Would like a turkey baster thing work? I don't wanna disturb them more than I have to.

 

[MTBake]

Every once in a while algea gets on my coral frags. Should I get it off them? Would like a turkey baster thing work? I don't wanna disturb them more than I have to.

Yes. I would clean the algae off weekly. Not too often so you don't upset the coral.

Pillbugs? I need to go back and read the past couple pages of this thread

Edit:

I clean frags with a brush and rinse I clean tank eater before putting them back in. I only do this when siphoning doesn't get it all out.

Edit 2:

Should have been more clear. I use the brush on the plugs themselves. Not the actual coral.

 

[dantimdad]

Gently flush the algae off of softies or lps. U can use more pressure on sps

 

[leptang]

Well if you problem get worse or you do suspect you have dinos this video has been useful for me

 

[Mike1995]

I'm about ready to throw in the towel. Water changes are just making things worse by the day. I really don't understand how to do this saltwater thing.
I have no clue if I have too much flow. My zoas are just not looking the best. I have 4. 3 look alright. The other looks terrible. None of the heads open except maybe one. My lighting seems fine for them. My hermits crawl all over them too. Maybe am I getting too worried?
My cuc is extremely active so I guess that's a positive..

 

[leptang]

Well the question is yours to make. But all i can say is when starting off with dry rock you leave open the opportunity for pests to run rampant. Time and steady levels of chemistry it the cure, and a little scrubbing in between with a toothbrush helps from time to time. Before i moved to oregon i lived in san diego, ca. There i had my first reef tank started off with dry cement rocks. It took the better of two years before the mats of green hair algea came off but the tank always had a lot of nitrates and phosphates... I wish i had a picture but i do have a pic of the tank after 8 years of having it that was years of letting the tank age.
This picture was one of the last after i sold it. Now as of today i started a new tank with dry rocks and its about a year old and yes i have some problems nitrates and phosphates dropping (new tank problems) until a solid stable biodiversity forms, the tank looks like crap. This is a picture of my new tank that may be hosting dinos or golden algae. But i know if i jusy wait it out it will come around.

 

[leptang]

Do you have any current pictures of your tank and some close ups your zoa's? What is the tanks temp, what is your alk/cal levels, magnesium level? pH level and last but not least nitrate and phosphate levels?

 

[NS Mike D]

I'm about ready to throw in the towel. Water changes are just making things worse by the day. I really don't understand how to do this saltwater thing.
I have no clue if I have too much flow. My zoas are just not looking the best. I have 4. 3 look alright. The other looks terrible. None of the heads open except maybe one. My lighting seems fine for them. My hermits crawl all over them too. Maybe am I getting too worried?
My cuc is extremely active so I guess that's a positive..

Start thinking in terms of months. you're only 12 days into this. There are billions of organisms in your tank in addition to the ones you can see. It takes a lot of time, trial and error, for them to find a happy balance that you will like. Don't worry about your zoas for now and stay focused in the big picture. I've had zoas get unhappy for 3 months before reopening. Don't get hung up on too much flow right now. Corals tend to be pretty tolerant of flow, especially if it's not a steady stream.

Today, as I have most Saturdays for nearly 8 months , got out the brushes and scrubbed my rocks and the plugs of the corals, siphoned the sand bed, turned on all the pumps to create a ton of turbulence and tomorrow morning I'll change the filter socks (given them a chance to catch the stuff I kicked up into the water column)

NOTE: I will be adding a UV, since I did make a change involving GFO and all fingers are pointing to dinos. See what I did? After holding steady and giving the tank time to start looking really nice, I made an impulse change that backfired. I should have been testing my PO4 before making change. The only good is that this set back is indicative of dinos and not cyano.

Reef tanks are like the stock market. If you get hung up on daily swings, you'll have a nervous breakdown. Think long term, hold steady and make small changes, like steering a sail boat.

 

[dantimdad]

Two ways to look at this. You could start over and clean everything up and in the next month or so be in the same boat, possibly. OR you could count the last few weeks as a learning experience and know that you are that many weeks closer to getting stable and having a beautiful tank.

It's up to you.

My money is on waiting it out.

We've come this far...

 

[pdiehm]

Patience. Keep doing your water changes. Think of this as a marathon.

You just started to deal with the problems. What we need to do is get into a routine. Every week change X percentage of water. Test, and manually remove the bad stuff. Every 3 days change your socks.

One you get into a routine, and get things more routine oriented’ now we can tackle the other issues one at a time.

If the crab was walking over the zoas they would be ticked and closed.

I know that I will never run a tank that is newly set up with sand again. I think that causes a ton of problems if not cleaned regularly or properly.