So Many Problems...Please Help A Newbie

[PSU_Jess]

I have had a 29-gallon Biocube up and running since last October. One change I made to it was to use the Fluval Sea Marine and Reef 2.0 LED light. And another, at the advice of the LFS, was to get rid of the bioballs and replace it with Matrix, Phosguard, and Purigen. I used Dr. Tim's "One and Only Live Nitrifying Bacteria" to cycle the tank. I did NOT add anything live for about another month to ensure the cycle was complete. I started out with black live sand, about 25 gallons of ro/di water, salt from Petco, and about 40 pounds of dry rock from Amazon. Around the end of November/beginning of December, I added two Clownfish. After about a month one Clown died but the other is doing well. At this point, I now have about 7 or 8 very small coral frags-mostly zoas.

The major problem that I have is that I have algae. So much algae. Some of it looks like red bubble algae. There's algae all over the rocks, the glass, the coral, and some of the sand bed; not all red bubble algae, some is brown, green, and red with no bubbles. I think the dry rock that I got is where I started to go wrong. It was advertised as once having been live but I'm having my doubts now. It feels like it is made out of cement or plaster of paris and parts of the rock just seem to crumble apart and go all through the water everytime I move them. I was also uneducated about how dry rock should still be cured. One thing that I have tried with the red bubble algae is a hydrogen peroxide dip and scrubbing the algae off. This stops it for a few days but it comes back.

I'm thinking it would be best to get rid of the rock and get rock that I know is "real". I do have dead rock from a friend that has not been in water for at least six years. Would it be safe to put this in the tank in place of the rock I have now? Would it still need to be cured having been out of the water this long? Would it also be ok to replace the sand as well and is live sand really worth it? I had a concern about replacing the live rock and the sand and kickstarting another cycle but I have Matrix in the filter so I was hoping that would be enough bio media to prevent another cycle.

Sorry for the long post but I love my tank and I just have no idea what to do anymore to fix it. I really appreciate any guidance anyone could give.

 

[Fishfinder]

Do you test your water? Ammonia? Nitrite? Nitrate? Do water changes? Do you use RODI?

 

[EmdeReef]

Welcome to R2R!

Do you mind posting pics of the algae, will be easier to identify and suggest solutions.

Also can you post what rocks you got? What kind of sand? Do you have any test kits? If so what are your parameters like? Do you dose anything? How often do you do water changes?

Rocks can leach phosphates and that could fuel algae blooms but beyond that it’s unlikely causing other issues. Unless the rocks were contaminated but in that case you’d probably struggle to keep anything alive.

I don’t think adding another kind of dry rock will help and yes ideally you would want to cure it to get rid of some of the phosphates. It’s effectively dead rock now.

Your tank is still new and going through bacterial and algal blooms that are probably normal for a new tank likely due to some nutrient or other imbalance. I do understand your frustration though.

I’m also not sure removing sand will help. You may have a cleaner tank but unless we can figure out the root cause of your problems you may be in the same spot in a few months.

 

[GoVols]

Welcome to Reef 2 Reef and hope you feel at home.

When you cycle you need to test your ammonia and then nitrites until they bottom out to zero. Then you should be able to detect nitrates.

Do you know were your nitrates and phosphates are now?

JMO...
But I use Salifert for nitrates and Hanna ULR Checker for phosphates.

Truly need to test your water chemistry to be able to know where your reef stands.

 

[PSU_Jess]

Do you test your water? Ammonia? Nitrite? Nitrate? Do water changes? Do you use RODI?

Yes, I do test my water regularly. Ammonia and Nitrites have been 0. Nitrates have been between 0 and 5. Since I don't have a heavily stocked tank, I've been doing a water change (3-4 gallons) every other week. I use the premixed saltwater from Petco and I use RO/Di to top off. Temperature is between 80 and 82, PH is 8.0, and the salinity is 1.026.

 

[PSU_Jess]

Welcome to Reef 2 Reef and hope you feel at home.

When you cycle you need to test your ammonia and then nitrites until they bottom out to zero. Then you should be able to detect nitrates.

Do you know were your nitrates and phosphates are now?

JMO...
But I use Salifert for nitrates and Hanna ULR Checker for phosphates.

Truly need to test your water chemistry to be able to know where your reef stands.

Thanks for the welcome! The ammonia and nitrites have been zero for a while and the nitrates have been between 0 and 5. I don't have a test for phosphates yet, please forgive the newbie mistake, but am ordering one on Amazon right now.

 

[GoVols]

Thanks for the welcome! The ammonia and nitrites have been zero for a while and the nitrates have been between 0 and 5. I don't have a test for phosphates yet, please forgive the newbie mistake, but am ordering one on Amazon right now.

Your Welcome and no worries

@EmdeReef made a good point:
Dry rock can leach out phosphates and sometimes a test kit wont pickup on them. The phosphates can be bound up in the algae and not detectable with a test kit in from your water column.

I've had old live rock to leach out too.

 

[cracker]

Hello PSU, 1st welcome, The Folks here are really knowledgeable & want to help. I speak from personal experience ! As a "Beginner" not a newbie. You will have all kinds of issues with a young tank. They will ask a lot of questions & get to the bottom of Your issues ! Hang in there, Your gonna have fun !

 

[GoVols]

Hello PSU, 1st welcome, The Folks here are really knowledgeable & want to help. I speak from personal experience ! As a "Beginner" not a newbie. You will have all kinds of issues with a young tank. They will ask a lot of questions & get to the bottom of Your issues ! Hang in there, Your gonna have fun !

+1

@PSU_Jess
Please get an RO/DI unit with a built in TDS meter, or it's not going to be a winnable battle
https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/4-stage-75gpd-plus-ro-di-system-bulk-reef-supply.html

 

[John3]

I have a 29 biocube and the first bit of advice I can give you is to get at least 1 powerhead added to the tank because the stock return pump does not have enough flow. So you end up with dead spots that will grow cyano.

I don’t use the bioballs either, just a large filter sock that fits the middle chamber with some filter floss on top of it where the water flows in. I have a skimmer in chamber 2. Did you remove the hood to accommodate the new led fixture? If you did and you can spring for it a Aquamaxx ws-1 fits nicely in chamber 2 and is an awesome skimmer. I believe the skimmer and my live rock are doing the majority of the cleanup work in my tank.

I can honestly say that my tank was way better at 6 months than at 3 months and a year in it is 100x’s better than at 6 months. Part of that is the tank cycling through different algae stages(Dino’s, gha, cyano) and the other part is learning about good water parameters and how to achieve them. There’s also a learning curve you will go through by making mistakes and seeing how your tank reacts.

Also, I would suggest only running resin filter media if you need it. My experience with it is that it makes it harder to keep your parameters consistent which is everything. You throw in a new bag and as it gets used it works less and less until you replace it with a new one which instantly starts stripping stuff out fast again. At some point you will understand nutrient levels and how they are important for corals and tank health and you want to keep those consistent too.

 

[PSU_Jess]

Welcome to R2R!

Do you mind posting pics of the algae, will be easier to identify and suggest solutions.

Also can you post what rocks you got? What kind of sand? Do you have any test kits? If so what are your parameters like? Do you dose anything? How often do you do water changes?

Rocks can leach phosphates and that could fuel algae blooms but beyond that it’s unlikely causing other issues. Unless the rocks were contaminated but in that case you’d probably struggle to keep anything alive.

I don’t think adding another kind of dry rock will help and yes ideally you would want to cure it to get rid of some of the phosphates. It’s effectively dead rock now.

Your tank is still new and going through bacterial and algal blooms that are probably normal for a new tank likely due to some nutrient or other imbalance. I do understand your frustration though.

I’m also not sure removing sand will help. You may have a cleaner tank but unless we can figure out the root cause of your problems you may be in the same spot in a few months.

Thanks for the welcome, seems like a great forum! This is the sand that I ordered: https://goo.gl/1Q6WiH and this is the rock I ordered: https://goo.gl/tRqF5w
I do have an API master test kit and the nitrites and ammonia are both zero and the nitrates are between zero and five. The PH is 8.0, salinity is 1.026. I do not dose anything and I do biweekly water changes of about 3 or 4 gallons but will do it more often as I get more livestock.

I attached pictures of the algae. Thank you for your advice.

 

[PSU_Jess]

Your Welcome and no worries

@EmdeReef made a good point:
Dry rock can leach out phosphates and sometimes a test kit wont pickup on them. The phosphates can be bound up in the algae and not detectable with a test kit in from your water column.

I've had old live rock to leach out too.

Ok, that makes sense. In that situation, I assume I just have to wait it out?

 

[PSU_Jess]

Hello PSU, 1st welcome, The Folks here are really knowledgeable & want to help. I speak from personal experience ! As a "Beginner" not a newbie. You will have all kinds of issues with a young tank. They will ask a lot of questions & get to the bottom of Your issues ! Hang in there, Your gonna have fun !

Thanks! Everyone has been so helpful already. I don't mind the questions at all I feel better now, I thought I was doing something horribly wrong and was going to kill everything.

 

[PSU_Jess]

Welcome to Reef 2 Reef and hope you feel at home.

When you cycle you need to test your ammonia and then nitrites until they bottom out to zero. Then you should be able to detect nitrates.

Do you know were your nitrates and phosphates are now?

JMO...
But I use Salifert for nitrates and Hanna ULR Checker for phosphates.

Truly need to test your water chemistry to be able to know where your reef stands.

I was looking at the API Reef test kit, would it be more beneficial to buy the Hanna ULR checker instead. I just want to spend my money efficiently. Thank you for the suggestion

 

[GoVols]

I was looking at the API Reef test kit, would it be more beneficial to buy the Hanna ULR checker instead. I just want to spend my money efficiently. Thank you for the suggestion

I trust API for calcium and alkalinity, but that's were it stops for myself and API.

 

[PSU_Jess]

I have a 29 biocube and the first bit of advice I can give you is to get at least 1 powerhead added to the tank because the stock return pump does not have enough flow. So you end up with dead spots that will grow cyano.

I don’t use the bioballs either, just a large filter sock that fits the middle chamber with some filter floss on top of it where the water flows in. I have a skimmer in chamber 2. Did you remove the hood to accommodate the new led fixture? If you did and you can spring for it a Aquamaxx ws-1 fits nicely in chamber 2 and is an awesome skimmer. I believe the skimmer and my live rock are doing the majority of the cleanup work in my tank.

I can honestly say that my tank was way better at 6 months than at 3 months and a year in it is 100x’s better than at 6 months. Part of that is the tank cycling through different algae stages(Dino’s, gha, cyano) and the other part is learning about good water parameters and how to achieve them. There’s also a learning curve you will go through by making mistakes and seeing how your tank reacts.

Also, I would suggest only running resin filter media if you need it. My experience with it is that it makes it harder to keep your parameters consistent which is everything. You throw in a new bag and as it gets used it works less and less until you replace it with a new one which instantly starts stripping stuff out fast again. At some point you will understand nutrient levels and how they are important for corals and tank health and you want to keep those consistent too.

I did forget to mention that I added a powerhead and upgraded the return pump, but I do not have a skimmer. I did remove the hood to accommodate the new light so I will look into the one that you mentioned.

 

[EmdeReef]

Based on the pics looks like cyano and diatoms.

Diatoms are mostly harmless and inevitable in virtually all new tanks. They will go away once their food source - silicates - are depleted or outcompeted.

Cyano has many causes but it appears that one of the the leading causes is imbalance between nitrates and phosphates.

I would start by investing in a better test kit.
As stated by @GoVols salifert nitrate and ideally Hanna for phosphates but may not even be necessary.

You may also want to get a salt mix and an rodi and do more frequent water change. Over the life of the tank it will pay itself over many times - as long as you plan to stay in the hobby.

Also, based on the 2 links I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the rocks and sand. I’d probably consider buying the same if I had to start a new tank (especially the sand).

Hang in there and be patient, these are all very common issues for all of us, sometimes with much older and more established tanks!