What can I do to turn this around?

[Poseidon's snail]

Hi everyone!
My tank is a 55litre tank with 2x clownfish a firefish.
please see the picture attached
I was thinking of setting up a fuge with chaeto.I keep up with my weekly water changes of 10% a week but im still getting dinos and cyano .My parameters are all good except for my alk calcium magnesium (which im still trying to perfect before i get some coral)
What can i do?
thanks

 

[andrewey]

Could you expand on your water parameters as well as what steps you've taken to help with the possible dinos, definite cyano, and what appears to be hair algae?

 

[Victor_C3]

How long has your system been up? Did you start with dry rock, live rock, or a combination of the two? How long ago did you add fish? What sort of a cleaning crew do you have?

Without any of the above information, I’m guessing your system has only been up a few months and just needs to Mature for a few more months.

From my experience, it takes a minimum of 4-6 months before algae and whatnot begins to get itself under control. More than likely, you’ll be wrestling these things until the system is 6-9 months old.

 

[Poseidon's snail]

Thanks for your advice my parameter says are ammo 0
Ph 8.2. Nitrate 2.0. Nitrite 0 alk 12 calcium 345
Phosphate and mag test kits are coming in the mail
My system has been running for just over 5 months.
I vacuum the sand bed and pluck the hair algae and suck it up the siphon.And for clean up crew I've got around 7 hermits and 7 snails.Please advice on the fuge.
Thanks

 

[ApoIsland]

2 hours of good old fashioned dirty manual labor will have that tank good as new. Just need a good reset. You will have to do this again in the future if you don't figure out the source of your algae though. Whether that is your water source or food source etc.. but at least you will enjoy looking at the tank again in the mean time.

For the tank reset....the thing I would do is pull those fish/inverts/coral out. scrub those rocks really well with a hard bristled brush to get all the algae off. Rinse it well in new salt water to make sure and keep the beneficial bacteria alive but make sure to get all the detrius and algae off. Use new salt water to rinse, do not rinse in fresh water.

Take the sand out and rinse it extremely well. This is the most time consuming part as you need to make sure and rinse until the water is clear. You can do this in fresh water. Does not need to be rinsed in salt water. Try to suck out all the algae before to minimize rinsing time and avoid it getting stuck in the sand.

Do 100% water change. Don't get lazy and try to use any water from the new batch you made up and rinsed he rocks in. If you match the water parameters correctly your fish will be just fine. Whenever i move my tanks I take the opportunity to give a good deep cleaning with nearly 100% water change and have never lost a fish or invert during the process. Just pay attention and don't screw up the new mixture by not matching temp within 2-3 degress or salinity. Salinity of new water can go lower but not higher so try to err in that direction.

You may get a little diatom bloom after but just suck it out every 2-3 days with a small water change and it should go away in no time as long as your source water is good.

Good luck.

 

[brandon429]

nothing can beat a rip clean. everything else leaves the clouding we turn tanks back to brand new, in three hours.


do a total skip cycle 100% rocks cleaned sand cleaned rip clean and Ill add your work to page 34. There is nothing to buy, dose, measure or ID

you simply rip clean it, we didnt get 33 pages by failing

turning out tanks that have no more waste packed in the rocks and sand is what we do..no doser, no param change can do it. they're all temp fixes

ours is the best, hands down. imagine that picture above but now a 100% clean tank like day one, same life in the tank put back in the clean condition. thats a rip clean

reach in and grab sand now, doom cloud results

after rip clean, its snowglobe sand. falls back down, clear. if you dose chemi clean, the cloud increases not decreases (target compounding)

you would take tank apart, clean it our safe way, put it back with 100% new water, reacclimate animals, done.

your rocks are covered in algae, reducing outflow of waste and filtration capacity. we'd fix that, rocks would be open and ready for business.

 

[ajhudson15]

for the purple algae on the sand this can usually be helped by increasing flow. also you said your params are good except you cant get a good number on nitrate and phosphate with that much algae. your phosphate and nitrates are probably a lot higher than you thin since the algae is consuming it.

 

[Poseidon's snail]

If I rinse the sand won't I lose the bacteria?
Thanks for your help

 

[andrewey]

I'd agree with @ApoIsland. First, manual removal of much of the cyanobacteria and algae is likely the first place I would start. The caveat is that if you have dinos, the steps you take in mixing new saltwater might make the issue worse, so I would probably confirm their presence or absence.

The second point they made is probably the most important. If you don't discover the source of the high nutrients, you'll likely be doomed to repeating this process like some doomed sisyphus. Therefore, I would ensure you track down the root cause(s). Otherwise, it's really only harming you to suggest drastic action if you'll be back here in a couple weeks/months.

If I rinse the sand won't I lose the bacteria?
Thanks for your help

Rinsing the sand in tap water will likely kill most of the bacteria, but at five months, you have enough of a bacterial population that it likely won't make a difference in the majority of captive reefs hobbyists keep.

 

[Poseidon's snail]

Shall I add another power head into the tank temporarily until it's gone?

 

[Poseidon's snail]

Is adding a fuge a good idea then?

 

[andrewey]

Additional flow most likely won't hurt and may help with some of the cyanobacteria as well as general aeration, but I suspect the problem is much larger than the absence of another powerhead.

 

[ccombs]

If I rinse the sand won't I lose the bacteria?
Thanks for your help

Maybe some, but the majority of your beneficial bacteria is in the rocks.

 

[andrewey]

Is adding a fuge a good idea then?

I would confirm you are not dealing with dinos. Assuming you aren't, then a properly run refugium will help with nutrient export which will certainly help with cyanobacteria and unwanted algaes .

 

[brandon429]

-

 

[Poseidon's snail]

Anything anyone can recommend? Product-wise?
Thanks

 

[Thaxxx]

Did you not read what @brandon429 wrote? That's all you need to fix your problem. No products to buy.

 

[Poseidon's snail]

Hi yes i have its just i wanted to know if there was an alternative to ripping the tank apart as it sounds kinda scary and i cant really get enough fresh saltwater to fill and refill our tank at the moment
thanks for all of your great advice!

 

[andrewey]

There are certainly other options if you're interested including forms of mechanism filtration, products based around heterotrophic bacteria or those products utilizing a variety of antimicrobial mechanisms. I would advise doing research on each product- most evidence for or against their use is largely anecdotal and I would caution you to understand the possible side effect profile of each products before purchasing.

I'll leave it up to others if they want to suggest specific products. They are easy enough to find via googling if you want to see the hundreds of options claiming to eliminate various marine pests

 

[ApoIsland]

Hi yes i have its just i wanted to know if there was an alternative to ripping the tank apart as it sounds kinda scary and i cant really get enough fresh saltwater to fill and refill our tank at the moment
thanks for all of your great advice!

Its not as bad as it sounds. Do the rip clean tomorrow or this weekend or next week or whenever. It doesn't have to happen right away.

If you want instant results you will have to do the work. No chemical will do that for you.