Please Exp reefers. Help Me

[Darin Mendoza]

Ok... I'm helping out a friend by taking care of his reef, he's a quadriplegic from a snowboarding accident when he was 17 But LOVES his reef tank.. , I do the water changes weekly, I'm battling a Cyano attack that just won't go away. Also..this reef has been running for 3 years.. have a look at the pics... 3 YEARS.. No Coraline, no green hair... no Copepods... No nothing like my reef.. my reef is 1 year old and is flourishing in copepods and life.. my corals have grown 6 times their original size and my fish and inverts are great... the only thing he can keep alive in that 90 gallon reef is fish.... now..the things you'll notice in the pics is as follows...
1. Lid, 2. 10k T5's two of them, 2 blue lights, 3 powerful power heads, and yes 4. That's a Canister Filter under there.. thats a fresh water fluval tank his mom got soaked $2200 for. 5. Not enough rock ?? 6. Crushed coral substrate
Please give me some ideas... I think an overhaul.. more rock and remove the lid completely, new lights and most of all a SUMP.... what do you all think

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Check his water source. Rodi or tap.

It’s not the lights. That should grow corraline out the wazoo.
I’m not worried about the can, probaly clean it out. Grab some gfo. He’s probaly for metals building up.
A copper test is not a bad idea.

I’d really have to suspect the tap is killing everything.

 

[Darin Mendoza]

I use RO/DI water, He bought a rodi buddy when I told him I used nothing but rodi water, that was back 3 months ago when i started doing his water changes for him

 

[Darin Mendoza]

I'll do a copper test..wouldn't traces of copper hurt the fish too though ?

 

[mike werner]

first off let me say your a saint for helping this guy out! a small amount of copper won't bother most fish.that's why many use it in the qt process.what are his levels?low levels of certain things (ca. alk. mag.) will discourage some things from thriving in the reef.testing will probably provide some quick answers for you.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I'll do a copper test..wouldn't traces of copper hurt the fish too though ?

No. Not much.
You may want to look at your local cloramines. Also its an old tank so 3 months of good water is a slow change. Both copper and cloramines. Are meant to kill algaes and stop microbial development.

I’m not sure there’s a test for that.
Cuprisorb and gfo can pull heavy metals. Seachem prime will will bind some of it and dechlorinate.

So IMO your kinda looking at a gut that has had too many antibiotics. So pulling that stuff out and doing probiotic treatments is what you’re looking at.
Not sure how feasible it is, but huge water change , dr Tim’s one and only or probidio would be the way I’d go. Then bring him a small piece of healthy rock and put it in an watch it. If the corraline dies off fast and it keeps turning into what his looks like , there’s a prob. The hope is to return seed the tank with corraline and bacterias with it.

Naturally you can do these slower , but I’d say 30 gal week for a month could run it around fairly quickly.

Double check the ro buddie. Not all are rodi , and if the water has cloramines it burns the carbon and di fast. But it is new so like not a prob.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

first off let me say your a saint for helping this guy out! a

Plus 10,0000000

 

[NeedMoreReef]

Dude, first off you're awesome by helping your friend with his tank!!! . let me say that the tank looks good. What I see is a great FOWLR. just keep it that way!

if he wants a reef, yes lights are too close to water, canister isn't great. I imagine there is a large temp swing between day and night. clean up cyano by 10% water change using RO/DI if possible, beefing up the clean up crew. red leg hermits work well.

 

[PatW]

As said before, you are doing a great service in helping your friend.

I think the tank has enough ROCK to function. You can add more for looks.

It would be good to ditch the canister filter. I would ache to add a skimmer for routine nutrient removal. It would be nice to set it up with an over flow and a sump. But I don’t know if that is feasible. But even a hang on the back skimmer or two should be a big help.

 

[Darin Mendoza]

Yeah we're gonna go with a new system.. gonna give him what I have and build him a sump, his mom is saving for new lighting..
In reply to the clean up crew... they keep dying as well.. not sure if maybe his foxface has to do with that...or if it's the water...
gonna sell his Blue Tang because she needs a bigger tank.. probably the foxface too...
And Saltyfilmfolks, I'll be doing some more tests this week.. he ordered some copper tests and other tests I don't have ... i'll message back with results

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Yeah we're gonna go with a new system.. gonna give him what I have and build him a sump, his mom is saving for new lighting..
In reply to the clean up crew... they keep dying as well.. not sure if maybe his foxface has to do with that...or if it's the water...
gonna sell his Blue Tang because she needs a bigger tank.. probably the foxface too...
And Saltyfilmfolks, I'll be doing some more tests this week.. he ordered some copper tests and other tests I don't have ... i'll message back with results

Your a good man.
I’d put a new garbage can and bag of salt on that order.