Tank maybe crashing?!?

[Mixer369]

Hi all,

New to the salt life and R2R community coming here for help and hopefully some answers.

I’ll start with my equipment.

•55 gallon plexiglass tank ( yes I know plexi found out later I should have done glass)
•65 gallon Coralife super protons skimmer
•Fluval Aquasky 1000-25000K light bar mounted on the tank
•carbon fiber heater fluval maybe ?
•Fluval 306 canister filter

Fish
•X5 clown fish
•X1 Melanurus Wrasse
•X2 peppermint shrimp that never ever come out of the same rock they live in
•royal gramma

Tank was set up November 2019, Cycled for 3 months with live sand and live rock and live bacteria additive. Added fish 2 at a time every 3ish weeks added 2 zoas for a month then added a fireworks and Pom Pom Xenia for two months and then added a anemone and 2 mushrooms that was last put in around may. everything has been amazing and growing great until last 2ish weeks one mushroom died the other one split in two the long tentacle anemone hardly opens up and when it does the tentacles are 1/2 long compared to about 4-6” long, the Pom Pom has turned from pink and never really pulsed to white and shrunk. My aragonite has turned darkish on top two rocks have like red hairy algae maybe pristine skimmer doesn’t put out sludge anymore and the nitrates won’t come below 80 I can do 2-3 50% water changes and they climb right up all of this is new. I have a handful of hermit crabs and almost all my snails have died.

Salinity is 1.023-024
temp 79.5
Zero phosphates
Calcium is about 500
Ph about 8.4
Zero ammonia
Zero nitrite
And 80-100 nitrate that won’t come down at stated

I’ve been doing the water changes and haven’t changed the filter cause they tell me not to until another month or two to keep the bacteria. I run bio balls,carbon and the filter pads

I’m not sure where to go with this and don’t want to up but I’m stuck the local fish stores keep saying water changes want me to put chemicals in witch I’m not really about cause they want me to put in 3-5 different things. Light spectrum seems to be fine cause everything was growing great until now never tested with a par meter when off reccomend specs for the tank. I know I should par meter it just don’t have the money for one.

Any advice welcome please help or tell me if I’m doing it wrong I feel like the locals are letting me down.

 

[chadg]

A few questions:

How much rock is in the tank? If you have enough rock you should not worry about the filter pads. They should not be your bacteria source. I use one, but only to polish the water and I like it for a backup incase of power outage. I can run that a lot longer than my return pump. Dirty filter pads will just collect detritus and up your nitrates. I would change those regularly. Do you also use a filter sock in the sump?

How much do you feed them?

I had issues with nitrates for a long time. The only thing that got them to come down for me was Chaeto. I would get some and put it in the sump with a light.

What salt do you use? Salinity is a bit low, I would go for 1.025, most people seem to run 1.026 these days to match NSW. Calcium seems high, but should not be an issue. Man I wish my Ph would go up that high...

 

[Mixer369]

A few questions:

How much rock is in the tank? If you have enough rock you should not worry about the filter pads. They should not be your bacteria source. I use one, but only to polish the water and I like it for a backup incase of power outage. I can run that a lot longer than my return pump. Dirty filter pads will just collect detritus and up your nitrates. I would change those regularly. Do you also use a filter sock in the sump?

How much do you feed them?

I had issues with nitrates for a long time. The only thing that got them to come down for me was Chaeto. I would get some and put it in the sump with a light.

What salt do you use? Salinity is a bit low, I would go for 1.025, most people seem to run 1.026 these days to match NSW. Calcium seems high, but should not be an issue. Man I wish my Ph would go up that high...

No sump it’s a canister filter. Rock is from tank end to end about half way up the tank placed in the middle with tons of hiding places and spots for frags the only thing available in my area is instant ocean salt unless I order online but it takes weeks for me to get anything if I can get anything

 

[Mixer369]

No sump it’s a canister filter. Rock is from tank end to end about half way up the tank placed in the middle with tons of hiding places and spots for frags the only thing available in my area is instant ocean salt unless I order online but it takes weeks for me to get anything if I can get anything

Also feeding is once a day or once every 2 days depending on my work schedule but they eat all of the pellets or shrimp there’s almost none going in the tank but of course some does

 

[DSEKULA]

You say the skimmer isn't putting out sludge, did you check if it's clogged? Sometimes the airline will clog with salt creep for example.

 

[sfin52]

No sump it’s a canister filter. Rock is from tank end to end about half way up the tank placed in the middle with tons of hiding places and spots for frags the only thing available in my area is instant ocean salt unless I order online but it takes weeks for me to get anything if I can get anything

How often do you clean the filter.

 

[Mixer369]

You say the skimmer isn't putting out sludge, did you check if it's clogged? Sometimes the airline will clog with salt creep for example.

I have not checked this but I will I still see air bubbles production but maybe it not enough

 

[sfin52]

Its your lights the aquasky won't grow coral. Its for a fish only tank.

Are you using rodi wate?

 

[DSEKULA]

If your using a canister you need to keep up on cleaning it all the gunk that collects in there will absolutely cause high nitrates. People say you can't use a canister for a reef but ime you just need to keep it really clean to be successful.

 

[Mixer369]

How often do you clean the filter.

I’ve never changed any of the filer components was told to rinse 3 month in with the live stock and change at 6 months witch would mean it gets changed next month is what the local guy tells me

 

[Mixer369]

Its your lights the aquasky won't grow coral. Its for a fish only tank.

Are you using rodi wate?

Yes and sometimes I get boxed sea water from the store

 

[Mixer369]

If your using a canister you need to keep up on cleaning it all the gunk that collects in there will absolutely cause high nitrates. People say you can't use a canister for a reef but ime you just need to keep it really clean to be successful.

So most likely will need to change the filter components

 

[Mixer369]

Its your lights the aquasky won't grow coral. Its for a fish only tank.

Are you using rodi wate?

Yes sometimes I use boxed sea water from the store to

 

[sfin52]

I’ve never changed any of the filer components was told to rinse 3 month in with the live stock and change at 6 months witch would mean it gets changed next month is what the local guy tells me

The canister needs to be cleaned every month. Make sure the filter pads water runs clear. The bacteria in the filter pads is not needed. Thats is the lr in the tank.

 

[HockeyRooster]

I ran a canister for a a couple of years. I would rinse the detritus out of the canister. Don’t “wash” anything but get the big stuff out (ie rinse it in salt water) I had imy canister jammed with live rock, a bag of carbon, and no floss or foam. And lots of live rock in the display.
Id raise the salinity to 1.025 and keep up with water changes.
Keep at it; you’ll get it.

 

[sfin52]

If your using a canister you need to keep up on cleaning it all the gunk that collects in there will absolutely cause high nitrates. People say you can't use a canister for a reef but ime you just need to keep it really clean to be successful.

Fully agree. Run an fx4

 

[Mixer369]

The canister needs to be cleaned every month. Make sure the filter pads water runs clear. The bacteria in the filter pads is not needed. Thats is the lr in the tank.

Will definitely change them tomorrow thank you much for the advice I appreciate it a lot still new to this salt life lol

 

[sfin52]

Will definitely change them tomorrow thank you much for the advice I appreciate it a lot still new to this salt life lol

Learning never ends

 

[DSEKULA]

So most likely will need to change the filter components

I would either change or rinse and put back in. If your rock is nice and established which it should be at this point you shouldn't have issues bacteria wise rinsing a sponge and placing it back etc.

 

[Mixer369]

I ran a canister for a a couple of years. I would rinse the detritus out of the canister. Don’t “wash” anything but get the big stuff out (ie rinse it in salt water) I had imy canister jammed with live rock, a bag of carbon, and no floss or foam. And lots of live rock in the display.
Id raise the salinity to 1.025 and keep up with water changes.
Keep at it; you’ll get it.

So should I rinse in like a 5 gallon bucket of salt water and do you mean you place live rock in the canister filter? I believe I run plenty of live rock I’ll post a picture tomorrow with white lights on and will add to raise my salinity