This tank hates me.

[KQuillan]

If it was you would know. It’s generally shipped overnight from a aquaculture facility. I bet the old tank you had no trouble with in the past was started with real South Pacific Ocean rock which was readily available in the good old days. Now to get good rock like that you have to mail order it special. The rock the industry calls “live” now is just a bunch of quarry rock soaked in a tank for a couple of months or even worse just dry concrete with bacteria spores on it.

It's the same rock from my old tank brought over to this tank. I get what you are saying though.

 

[Lavey29]

I have one AI 32 and two 16's. On at 0800, off at 7 p.m.
I now know I have a bristle worm, cleaner shrimp about 5 crabs, 1 bumblebee snail, 2 astrea snails, about 4 cerith snails, about 3 stomatella snails, I have at least a dozen nassarius snails and two huge turbo's. I have a brittlestar and a rock urchin in there too.
The wrasse was the only fish still in the tank as I could never catch him. The other two remaining are still in quarantine.

I will get pics posted asap.

Well you need more cleaners. Trochus and astrea snails specifically along with a couple tuxedo urchins. I battled GHA for about 3 or 4 months. It's part of the tank maturing process even if you used rock from previous tanks. Cut lights to 6 hours with blue and uv only. Weekly water changes with lots of manual removal. Diverse cleaners, dose pods and then dose phytoplankton daily to build biodiversity and microfauna. Maintain good stable parameters. This is not an overnight battle. Think 3 months or so.

If you did not remove all fish then your tank was not fallow and you rish return of ich again as soon as you restock.

 

[Dallascowboys16]

I started out with a 15 gallon Nano. Moved up to a 38 gallon Bow Front, to a 60 gallon AIO. I have had better luck with the Nano and Bow Front than this thing! I have struggled with hair algae, apstasia, ich, loss coral and fish loss. Lost another one today. Have no idea where the heck this one has gone.

Not to whine, but I totally understand why people get so frustrated. I test, match with two fish stores, they always say they wish they had levels like mine.
Mag 1350
Alk 8.3
Nitrate 5
PH .025
Calc - 380
Salt 1.25

Just venting because every time I think I have a chance to just enjoy for a moment, something else happens. So much money and love poured into this and I am ready to tear it down.

I've had periods of loving my tank when things are going great, and hating it when things melt down. I have a smaller reef (10 gallons) and like you I have experienced times where it is a constant struggle. I recently was stuck in one of those periods for about 6 months, but managed to get things right again recently. I have come to realize that my tank does best when I stop constantly testing and trying to correct levels with additives and just do regular water changes.

To reset the tank, I do a few good old fashioned maintenance sessions to really blast all the detritus out of the tank/manually remove as much algae as possible. As part of the reset, I also do a sizable water change with quality salt (50%) and then I just follow up with a reasonable water change (15% - 25%) once every few weeks. This will not fix things overnight, but over the course of 6-8 weeks, things stabilize and corals will bounce back.

For 90% of reef tanks, this is all that is required to be successful. Most tanks are not supporting a high density of sensitive, ALK hungry SPS but we are all led to believe we need to be maintaining our systems like they are. I would recommend that you strive for simplicity and quit chasing parameters. Typically the ship will right itself if you provide stability.

 

[Sump Crab]

It's the same rock from my old tank brought over to this tank. I get what you are saying though.

I thought that tank was 16 years ago?

 

[vlangel]

I started out with a 15 gallon Nano. Moved up to a 38 gallon Bow Front, to a 60 gallon AIO. I have had better luck with the Nano and Bow Front than this thing! I have struggled with hair algae, apstasia, ich, loss coral and fish loss. Lost another one today. Have no idea where the heck this one has gone.

Not to whine, but I totally understand why people get so frustrated. I test, match with two fish stores, they always say they wish they had levels like mine.
Mag 1350
Alk 8.3
Nitrate 5
PH .025
Calc - 380
Salt 1.25

Just venting because every time I think I have a chance to just enjoy for a moment, something else happens. So much money and love poured into this and I am ready to tear it down.

Hang in there, I have read thread after thread of discouraged folks who just stayed the course and the tank ran it's course and straightened out. Some added some quality live rock but some did not. So just hang in there!

 

[KQuillan]

I thought that tank was 16 years ago?

That was my old tank. Long gone. This rock was from a friend's tank that has been transferred to my nano to the bowfront to this one.

 

[KQuillan]

Well you need more cleaners. Trochus and astrea snails specifically along with a couple tuxedo urchins. I battled GHA for about 3 or 4 months. It's part of the tank maturing process even if you used rock from previous tanks. Cut lights to 6 hours with blue and uv only. Weekly water changes with lots of manual removal. Diverse cleaners, dose pods and then dose phytoplankton daily to build biodiversity and microfauna. Maintain good stable parameters. This is not an overnight battle. Think 3 months or so.

If you did not remove all fish then your tank was not fallow and you rish return of ich again as soon as you restock.

Thank you.

 

[Sump Crab]

That was my old tank. Long gone. This rock was from a friend's tank that has been transferred to my nano to the bowfront to this one.

O ok my answer was referring to the tank from 16 years ago that you said was so easy

 

[UtahReefer]

It can be frustrating,,, hang in there. First year on a tank is always the hardest. Started mine in November and 4 months no issues. Now in the 5th month starting to have a few with brown algae, a few tuffs of Hair algae and various greens. It will pass if you do things right. Trust me, I've been doing this for a lifetime. All the best.