dexterie
Active Member
so..I’m not having a great time here.
I set my first saltwater tank last year, in July. It a Red Sea max nano. All went well, with little hiccups here and there.
Got some fish (a couple clownfish, a damsel, a cardinal and a bicolor blenny). Also a cleaning crew and some cheap coral to start with. I was very excited with it all and the tank was looking nice.
Then, last April, I stated to notice algae problems. Cyano, Dino? At the LFS I was told, from the pics, that it was Dino. Got dinoX and it worked. One weeks after the downfall started. More algae. The cardinal died, most of the snails died. The skunk shrimp died..all in a few days.
The algae kept propagating. Lyngbya, I was told, after all the usual procedures. 3 day blackout, nopox, phosphate removing media. Water changes. No water changes. The tank looks terrible. Fish seem to be doing ok, but everything is covered in algae, no matter how much I scrub, blow, ...
I even went down to try fluconazole...no effect.
I’m thinking about giving up. It’s a shame, but..this is going nowhere.
I just don’t know what to do with the tank. The fish I’d probably be lucky and have them accepted at a LFS. Same with the few snails and hermits I have.
Or..do you think I could just clean the tank, remove all sand, all rock and keep the fish? I just feel they’d be unhappy in a bare tank.
Please, pleas give me ideas. How do you see the idea of a bare tank? How could I do it? I have a small fluval edge that I could use to keep the fish for a few hours while I clean the tank. Should I save some of its water?
Any other idea or solution? I’d rather keep the tank and as a normal tank.
Parameters seem to be ok. I’ve always had low phosphates.. So it’s a typical low nutrient case, i think. Decided to increase magnesium this week. Still no visible effects. I don’t have a reactor (I don’t even know how I could use one in such a small tank).
Thank you for any info/comment.
PS: I feel that, somehow, the algae issue was made worse with the heatwave(s) that hit Belgium this summer. I got a ventilator to keep the tank fresher, but the house was very warm.
I set my first saltwater tank last year, in July. It a Red Sea max nano. All went well, with little hiccups here and there.
Got some fish (a couple clownfish, a damsel, a cardinal and a bicolor blenny). Also a cleaning crew and some cheap coral to start with. I was very excited with it all and the tank was looking nice.
Then, last April, I stated to notice algae problems. Cyano, Dino? At the LFS I was told, from the pics, that it was Dino. Got dinoX and it worked. One weeks after the downfall started. More algae. The cardinal died, most of the snails died. The skunk shrimp died..all in a few days.
The algae kept propagating. Lyngbya, I was told, after all the usual procedures. 3 day blackout, nopox, phosphate removing media. Water changes. No water changes. The tank looks terrible. Fish seem to be doing ok, but everything is covered in algae, no matter how much I scrub, blow, ...
I even went down to try fluconazole...no effect.
I’m thinking about giving up. It’s a shame, but..this is going nowhere.
I just don’t know what to do with the tank. The fish I’d probably be lucky and have them accepted at a LFS. Same with the few snails and hermits I have.
Or..do you think I could just clean the tank, remove all sand, all rock and keep the fish? I just feel they’d be unhappy in a bare tank.
Please, pleas give me ideas. How do you see the idea of a bare tank? How could I do it? I have a small fluval edge that I could use to keep the fish for a few hours while I clean the tank. Should I save some of its water?
Any other idea or solution? I’d rather keep the tank and as a normal tank.
Parameters seem to be ok. I’ve always had low phosphates.. So it’s a typical low nutrient case, i think. Decided to increase magnesium this week. Still no visible effects. I don’t have a reactor (I don’t even know how I could use one in such a small tank).
Thank you for any info/comment.
PS: I feel that, somehow, the algae issue was made worse with the heatwave(s) that hit Belgium this summer. I got a ventilator to keep the tank fresher, but the house was very warm.
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