Man, where was this place years ago?

[SoulOfCoal]

Hello all, first time in R2R, popped up in facebook, probably due to my reef tank interest. I actually haven't been into it for some time due to my failure in maintaining the tank I had.

It's not for lack of trying, mind you. First blunder was not realizing that evaporation didn't also get rid of saltwater, so adding more saltwater eventually bleached the tank. Later, corrected attempts kept it stable, but I constantly and repeatedly had issues with slime algae that were persistently resistant to treatment. Corals and coraline algae constantly and repeatedly refused to propogate despite constant monitoring of calcium, magnesium, strontium, iodine, trace elements, ph level, salinity, even water hardness, phosphates, and the typical simple problems like Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate (no matter what, I couldn't get my nitrates below 20, even in no-fish tanks).

I'm hoping that in a community of folks, I might have better luck trying again, especially now that I've moved. Maybe somewhere down the line, someone might figure out what I've been doing wrong!

 

[Pete polyp]

Hello all, first time in R2R, popped up in facebook, probably due to my reef tank interest. I actually haven't been into it for some time due to my failure in maintaining the tank I had.

It's not for lack of trying, mind you. First blunder was not realizing that evaporation didn't also get rid of saltwater, so adding more saltwater eventually bleached the tank. Later, corrected attempts kept it stable, but I constantly and repeatedly had issues with slime algae that were persistently resistant to treatment. Corals and coraline algae constantly and repeatedly refused to propogate despite constant monitoring of calcium, magnesium, strontium, iodine, trace elements, ph level, salinity, even water hardness, phosphates, and the typical simple problems like Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate (no matter what, I couldn't get my nitrates below 20, even in no-fish tanks).

I'm hoping that in a community of folks, I might have better luck trying again, especially now that I've moved. Maybe somewhere down the line, someone might figure out what I've been doing wrong!

You picked a great forum to join! I'm pleased to hear you haven't lost all hope. With the great advice and friendly folks here I'm sure your questions will be answered and you will have success at last!

 

[Ryan2428]

Welcome lots of info here and good peeps aswell

 

[SoulOfCoal]

Well, at least I can tell this place is active, with quick responses.

So a little about the tanks I've had/attempted: My primary and beginner was a 24gal Aquapod with hood enclosure. I used typical aragonite floor, about 5 pieces of live rock (probably wasn't enough at the time), had a reef cleaner group consisting of margarita snails, mexican turbo snails, scarlet hermit crabs, some other dwarf hermit crabs, a single abalone (man, that thing refused to leave his bag) and eventually got some other cleaners when the first few passed, like a lawnmower blenny, an emerald crab (had the start of bubble slime, never came back afterward), a scarlet skunk cleaner shrimp, and even a brittle sea star to clean up after fish.

Later I realized maybe the fish care was taking its toll on the care of corals in such a small tank, so I moved them to a 50gal with a mess of fiji live rock. That tank had serious issues, probably with the filter/pump system, as it never seemed to be flowing correctly. The smaller tank developed serious algae issues, even after switching to a metal halide open-top lid, and adding another 'water fan' to fix some flow issues. Nothing I did was making a difference, so I replaced the old lid, killed the lights, covered it up, and decided "I'll let it cycle the rock, change out the water a few times, maybe that will fix it."

It's been a few years since then, kept it running, never tried again. I moved a few months ago and didn't take it with yet, still working out the electrical issues with the new place. I figure it's as good as starting out 'fresh' as I can without starting from complete scratch.

 

[Ryan2428]

Just remember when u r ready to take it slow let the tank cycle before u add anything but rock and what ever bottom u chose to go with it

 

[Pete polyp]

It sounds like you had nutrient issues going on... High phosphate and high nitrate. I would strongly suggest starting from scratch (kinda).... You can soak the rock in different mixtures like Lanthanum chloride to expel the trapped phosphate and bleach to rid it of any other organics.

 

[SoulOfCoal]

As I mentioned Pete, the only issue I had was a permanently fixed nitrate level of 20. I tested for phosphates as soon as I found out they might be the issue, but the test came up empty. No matter how often I did water changes, the levels remained consistent. (I even used a siphon to get up the older stuff under the aragonite a few times, but still no change).

 

[Pete polyp]

You said it had serious algae issues.... This means phosphate, no matter what a test tells you. The algae consumes the phosphate so you're getting a false test result. Whenever there's an algae problem it always has to do with phosphate. Other factors may help fuel the problem but it always roots back to phosphate. Normally high nitrate and algae are the result of overfeeding. The food we feed has phosphate in it and the organics break down into nitrate. Once you have a nitrate and phosphate issue in your tank all that mess gets locked up inside your rock. It will leach out for a very long time after that also.

 

[Reefing Madness]

 

[Davesgt]

Welcome to R2R!

 

[SmartChoice]

:rapture:welcome

 

[VB68]

 

[fishroomlady]

welcome to the forum! Just saw your initial post. Pete is correct in that you can tell if you have excess phosphate by having visible algae no matter what the kit says. I also wanted to mention that a nitrate of 20 is not that bad - it sounds like concentrating on reducing phosphate could help. As stated, you'll want to take some time and cure your rock right and that will save many headaches as you go forward.

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

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[spspirate]

Welcome to REEF2REEF!!!