New tank and new reefer blues

Zeither18 · May 16, 2012

Man, I have been making it through this tank for about 2 months now, It actually started out looking really nice and then came the GH algae and found out that the fixture I bought used had 2yr old bulbs in it,lol. First stupid mistake. Then came the diatoms which was ok to deal with. Just lasted a bit. So no big deal, and then I never thought to set up a quarantine tank, next stupid mistake cause I had an ick breakout, I tried to take care of it as the LFS suggested some kind of treatment that didn't have copper in it. Yeah that didn't work so I tried to transfer them and I'm guessing I stressed them to much and lost them all but 1. I have now been going for a little over a month now trying to rid the ick for sure now. And now I have cyano I think. It's brown and stringy and smothering the few little frags that I have started with. Today for the very first time I actually thought to myself that this is more work than what it is worth, but I'm also staring at a fishless algae covered aquarium. Lol. Just keep telling myself it's only gonna get better

revhtree · May 16, 2012

It will bro keep at it!

You have to find the source of your algae problem.

Are you using RO/DI?
Do you have a suitable skimmer?
What about flow?
What is the TDS readings of your top off water?

larryl · May 16, 2012

Have tested your water? Any water changes?

thewackyreefer · May 16, 2012

It will get better! Keep your head up!

Keep your nutrients down and maintenance regular and you'll end up just fine. 2 months in is just the beginning! If you've got questions or need suggestions on anything specific I'm sure you'll find plenty of help here.

BarbH · May 16, 2012

It will get better, this hobby at times has a way of creating some interesting stress in your life and will definitly teach you to have patience in abudance.

Zeither18 · May 16, 2012

Yeah I test my water regularly. When this algae turned up my nitrates were at 40 ppm and I don't have low range po4 but they showed 0 on an API test kit. I will be ordering new kit soon. I have a 220gal with a 50 gal sump and change 15 gal weekly and at the beginning of each month do a 50 gal change while vacuuming the sand. I have a couple of zoa frags and spot feed them with the top of a 2 liter bottle on my mega squirt so it doesn't go flowing away. And all of you guys are great for help. I really appreciate how all of you come together

Zeither18 · May 16, 2012

I finally ordered a phosban reactor and some phosban from tlf is it to early to run gfo just to assist me this early in the aquariums life

pumarjr · May 17, 2012

How long has your tank been setup? 2 months?, remember that when you are running a closed system, the only problems a tank has, are the ones we create by what we add to it. your issue could arise from stocking to early for the bioload or by heavy nutrient load on the bio filter. I do not know your current tanks inhabiting but you may still be cycling, re check your tanks parameters, have you thru the nitrogen cycle? Also, if all else is in order, try h2o2 dosing.

Zeither18 · May 17, 2012

My cycle is already done. Ammonia and nitrates are 0 and have been at zero. I used to have 3 chromis a powder blue tang,a scooter goby and a coral beauty angel. All I have left is the angel and a few zoa frags that is in there now I prob. Did as all my fish to fast but my LFS said I should be fine with them. I will tear down my rocks and go through everything really well this weekend to make sure I didn't miss a fish or something that could have died under a rock before I try dosing anything. If I pull all my rocks and scrub then down and vacuume the sand good before I try dosing anything. I'm always scared to dose anything that doesn't have instructions

Tabasco1 · May 17, 2012

Hang in there! I'm fairly new as well, been up since oct. had fowlr for about 5 yrs back in the 90s, but this reef thing is a whole different ball game.

Best advice is to go really slow and to research everything you are going to add. In ideal world you could just trust your lfs. While it might be possible to add a powder blue and scooter blenny at 2 months, both are tricky. Pbt's are ich magnets. I've heard if you look at them funny they will get ich.

definitely a fish you want to quarantine. Scooters are like mandarins and usually only eat live pods that live in your rock unless you train them to eat prepared food. At 2 months there might not have been enough of a pod population for it to sustain itself. Usually takes 6-12 months to get pod populations up to that point.

Do you know what caused the fish loss? If it was ich, one option is to remove the angel and run the tank fishless for 8 weeks to run the parasite cycle out. During this time you do not need to remove coral.

Forums are a great place to get information about issues, compatibility and requirements/challenges of fish or coral.

Zeither18 · May 17, 2012

To get rid of the ick I did remove all fish from the tank. Even though the angel never did get it for some reason. And scooter would eat anything for me. He was awsome. He really like brine shrimp. I don't know if ick was the reason do the loss or not but def. a major role just stessfull time of getting it. Tryin to treat it with rid-ick and the getting it again after it failed and then moving to a new tank for treatment. They died before the new treatment. I'm considering his a lesson well learned as these little critter dot come by cheap

sirevans reef · May 17, 2012

Man oh man.... sounds like a tough time. I have a 125 dt with a 30 gal sump and I too had a really bad problem with the brown string algae. I mean this stuff was everywhere. I could clean my tank with a toothbrush and the very next day it was completely covered again.(rocks,glass,overflow) So first thing I did was cut my light time from 8 hours to 5 hours a day. Then I tried to dose vodka and after about three months was up to about 13 ml a day and I was not seeing any results. Next I bought a GFO and Carbon reactor from bulk reef supply and ran phosban and Kent reef carbon and it dropped my phosphates from 1.0 to 0 in just a few days, but the brown stuff was still there no matter how clean I got it the day before the brown stuff was all over again in about 3 hours of my m.h. lights coming on. :mad2: So my buddy Mike from Home grown aquatics gave me the $1.00 answer I was looking for! Simple drug store Hydrogen Peroxide H2O2 and he also gave me a big hand full of Chaeto for my sump. He also told me about a thread on here from a guy troylee( Dinoflagellates my experience......h2o2 reefing tool!!!!! ) Great INFO!!!So I came home and put 1ml for every 10 gal of water of peroxide in my tank(about 15 ml.)every day and by day 3 it had cut it down a bunch!:bigsmile: The best part about it was I did not have to start at 1 ml and work my way up like the vodka method. About that same time I read a thread here on R2R about making an algae bubble screen in your sump and how the algae would grow better in your sump if you just give it what it wants. So I did not make the screen I just turned on my sump light full time with my new chaeto in there and left int alone. I am happy to report after just two weeks of 15ml a day of Hydrogen peroxide ALL of it is gone.:clap2: Good luck

Reefer Addict · May 17, 2012

The first few months are tough, especially your first ich. It gets better

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Zeither18 · May 17, 2012

Has anyone had problems with lithe snails and shrimp and so fourth with this h2o2 dosing. This method keeps looking better and better

sirevans reef · May 17, 2012

Zeither18 said:
Has anyone had problems with lithe snails and shrimp and so fourth with this h2o2 dosing. This method keeps looking better and better

I have a coral banded shrimp and lots of hermies and turbo snails and non have been affected. My zoes suck up when you add it but they come back out in about 15 min or so.

pumarjr · May 17, 2012

your issue is coming either from a tank without a proper bio filter, or over feeding, or your cycle never completed. I had asked you how long your tank was set up, being that you did not answer that question, it must be 2 months. that's not a bad thing, but does give clues. how long from cycle to stocking? what type of filtration are you running? When you were loosing fish, did you test and find anything besides your nitrates at 40ppm?
PS: if you want instructions on H2o2 usage, here you go.
step 1. buy or go into your medicine cabinet and grab a bottle of H2o2.
Step 2. pour 1ml to every 10us gal, so for a 125gal tank, use... 12ml.
Step 3. pour the 12ml into your dt in heavy flow.
Step 4. repeat the process for 6 days and your done.

Zeither18 · May 17, 2012

I'm sorry I should have explained a lot better. I had a 125 fowler for about 6 months and then purchased this 220 with a sump that has been up for 2 months now.all of my rock and luve sand that I had from my 125 went into my 220 and of course i added more live rock and sand and have about125lbs of live rock and abiut to get anither 75lbs (money has been tight) and i dint remember how much sand but i have about a 3" sandbed on a 6' tank. I have 4 filter socks that get changed out every 3 or 4 days and a foam block that goes from the middle compartment to the pump compartment which gets cleaned weekly. I have an aqua c esv180 protien skimmer and a phosban reactor that has pur complete in it as well as carbon in a filter bag in the bottom of the sump and I'm about to add a 30 gal remote fugue out of an eclipse3 tank that I have laying around. When I recycled the tank it only took about 2 weeks for my ammonia and nitrites to fall and my nitrates have never been over 15 to 20. The fish that I transferred in from the 125 was the scooter 2 chromis the dwarf angel and then I added another chromis and the powder blue tang. I tried another tang but they didn't get along so he was gone that same day. I didn't know any better at the time and bought the API master test kit. befor I started having this little issue my nitrites were at 0 my ammonia was at 0 nitrates were 40 calcium 450 kh was 10 and po4 was 0 on the API which only goes 0-.25 so I'm sure it was somewhere in between. I hope I didn't forget anything u started to forget what I already typed by the end. Lol. Thanks for the instructions and if y have any more advise or need more info I'm all ears. Thanks again