Vacation? Does my tank look good?

[Ashv5]

Hi everyone,

My 40-gallon bowfront tank has been set up for around 6 months and I am kind of unhappy with the way it looks. I have done water tests, have a protein skimmer etc. No sump though, and the conditions seem to be fine (a bit of phosphate) but I still have algae (green/brown) and very small amount of coraline algae on my LR. I think I have pretty decent lights (coralife t5 4 bulb fixture 2 blue 2 white) but I just don't see the shimmer on the sand like other tanks. I only have 2 clownfish and zoanthids in my tank. Also, my zoanthids seem to be disappearing???! My once full colony has decreased to a few new green polyps and not at all spreading. Can someone help me with what's going on? The rock in the image used to be full of polyps... I want to keep more corals but im going on vacation soon for about two months so yeah.

Speaking about vacation. What should I do to keep the fish and tank healthy? I was thinking of timers to automate my skimmer and lights. I have an ato running and will have to buy an automatic feeder. I need this to run for more than 40 days as I am going on a long vacation. I can't seem to find someone who can take care of the fish while I'm gone and I just don't trust other people (friends) taking care of it as they have no knowledge. Will the method I am using work? I don't expect power outages as I live in a suburb in Chicago.

MY OLD ZOA (SAME LIGHTING)

 

[HotRocks]

Hi everyone,

My 40-gallon bowfront tank has been set up for around 6 months and I am kind of unhappy with the way it looks. I have done water tests, have a protein skimmer etc. No sump though, and the conditions seem to be fine (a bit of phosphate) but I still have algae (green/brown) and very small amount of coraline algae on my LR. I think I have pretty decent lights (coralife t5 4 bulb fixture 2 blue 2 white) but I just don't see the shimmer on the sand like other tanks. I only have 2 clownfish and zoanthids in my tank. Also, my zoanthids seem to be disappearing???! My once full colony has decreased to a few new green polyps and not at all spreading. Can someone help me with what's going on? The rock in the image used to be full of polyps... I want to keep more corals but im going on vacation soon for about two months so yeah.

Speaking about vacation. What should I do to keep the fish and tank healthy? I was thinking of timers to automate my skimmer and lights. I have an ato running and will have to buy an automatic feeder. I need this to run for more than 40 days as I am going on a long vacation. I can't seem to find someone who can take care of the fish while I'm gone and I just don't trust other people (friends) taking care of it as they have no knowledge. Will the method I am using work? I don't expect power outages as I live in a suburb in Chicago.

MY OLD ZOA (SAME LIGHTING)

How are you checking your salinity?

I had an issue similar, with algae.

I wouldn't be real comfortable without someone checking on my tank being gone for more than 24-48hrs. That is a personal preference.

 

[Ashv5]

Hi,
I use a refractometer to measure salinity. It seems to be on the good side .24,.25 etc. How did you overcome the algae issue? I am trying to find a friend who can help. He has a reef tank too.

 

[HotRocks]

Hi,
I use a refractometer to measure salinity. It seems to be on the good side .24,.25 etc. How did you overcome the algae issue? I am trying to find a friend who can help. He has a reef tank too.

Have you checked the calibration on your refractometer? I check mine almost weekly now with calibration fluid. Mine was reading 1.026 when the actual specific gravity was 1.017.

My tank was roughly 4months old, I still had cyano, dinos, you name it all because algae thrives in low salinity. Of course there are many other factors as well. When I saw your post it sounded all too familiar. I have hundreds of pallys and zoa's and they were all closing up as well.

 

[Ashv5]

I should check into that! Thanks for the idea! I do not have calibration fluid currently so should I experiment? Should I turn off my ato for a day or so and see what happens? The description you gave is precise to what I'm facing now. Do you have a picture of your tank? Would love to see how it has changed!

 

[HotRocks]

I happened to have a swing arm hydrometer laying around that @4FordFamily left here when we set up my tank originally. That's how I figured out my refractometer was WAY off. It's worth getting the fluid and checking.

You can also check out the videos towards the end of my build thread and see the cyano was still evident. I just finally got it cleared up using TONS of patience!

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/red-sea-reefer-750-xxl-deluxe-build.338222/

Today:

Back when I was battling issues:

 

[Ashv5]

Wow nice tank! Yeah, my sand bed is kind of "dirty" but didn't have cyano or the stringy algae like you did. Did you face any form of hair algae?

 

[HotRocks]

Thanks!

I had lots of green hair for the first 45ish days.

 

[4FordFamily]

Thanks!

I had lots of green hair for the first 45ish days.

Dinos, too pictured