ohaverd

When I first started this tank I put some live rock from a break down and half and added the live sand, and then I used "Real Ocean Water" from Petco. So the tank never cycled for the first two months, it just always had perfect numbers. Then I bought a few fish, one at a time and noticed small spikes in amonia, then nitrite, then nitrates, then nothing every time I added one. then all my level were at 0, but I had a huge GHA problem, which went away after I removed some smooth rocks and added crabs and snails. So then, I got sick of wasting money on "real ocean water" and bought a RO/DI filter. and started using that... I think switching to this water is what started my cyano outbreak, as I didnt keep the PH quite hight enough... and then I added a few chunks of dry rock from Bulk Reef Supply I believe... and the cyano took to the new rocks like crazy, so I did the re-aquacape a couple of weeks ago, and added even more dry rock to complete it and get that over with... And after stirring up the sand I think I started a cycle, I'll keep doing water changes and all that and keep you guys posted. I realize now why people culter thier rock in a separate bucket... it makes it really hard for coraline to grow on something that is GHA and cyano magnet. I swear that I have crappy eyes or something, cause I am horrible at seeing exactly what color the tubes fall under on the params chart when water testing. lol

wow, thanks for the slap in the face bud... sheesh

So in my other thread call "Hi and (?)" I have some pics of what I think is cyanobacteria. It is getting worse.. and I noticed today that my nitrates have actually spiked to 5.0 ppm... which means when I re-aquascaped and added some dry rock and 50% water change, I must have started a cycle. So what do you guys think? my PH is 8.3, amonia has a very slight reading, maybe 0.5 or .10. and nitrite is 0. so in a 55gal, should I just do water changes to lower the nitrates? Can reaquascaping and just adding in some dry rock and new water start a new cycle? is that what is causing my cyano problem? interested in hearing what you guys think, because before I reaquascaped I had a bad problem with cyano, and my nitrates where allways at 0. weird... So I put new bulbs in... I'm making some RO/DI water now for a 20% water change. and I guess I'll just keep turkey basting the cyano off the new rocks... I should probably start testing my phosphates too. Your thoughts? Also, in my "Hi and (?)" thread, I posted some pics of the cyano on my sandbed and also some pics of some mysterious things in my sump, if anyone can identify the things in my sump I'd appreciate it. thanks

OK, So below are some pictures of my tank... Including two shots of my sandbed. One when I first turn the lights on, and one after about 2 hours of lights. The brown alge is clearly visible. is this cyano? Then after that are just some shots of my tank, but aftr that are 4 images of my sump... and the wierd creatures that are literally overtaking it. What are they? when the lights first come on... after 2 to 3 hours of lights My tank What the crap are these things in my sump? Close up of one of the ugly mugs... Thanks for any help you can provide...

Sorry this took so long... Here is a picture of the clowns.

between 4 powerheads and return pump it is 1400 GPH. My return is back left and shoot along the back glass to the bottom middle, then I have a an 800 in the back right shooting along the back glass to the middle. Then I have a 600 in the top middle of the back glass shooting diagonally down towards the front glass. Then just two 200s in the back corners shooting down to get rid of the dead spot at each front corner. It seems to be pretty good flow... Am I doing that right?

thanks for all the replies... I'm going to the Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsberg for the weekend, but as soon as I get back, I'll post some pics!

We just put some tank water in a cup, dump the frozen cube in it, wait 10 minutes or so, stir it up, then turkey baster the corals and nem. the rest gets dumped in. I'll try straining it through a net before use also. but my nitrates have never really spiked on me... I dont think.

ok, so after reading up a little about cyano, I think my flow is good, there are no dead spots, and my nitrates are good. But I think what is happening is two things, one, my wife is over feeding my tank... She's got that mother mentality that she has to feed the SPS, BTA and fish a crap load of food so they can survive . She literally dumps whole cubes of frozen shrimp in at a time... so thats going to stop. And also, I'll get new T5 bulbs, as I have no clue how old mine are. I guess I'm supposed to check o2 levels or something? should I add air stones?

yup, that explains why my live rock had bubbles all over it too just before the outbreak.

The second picture of the cyano is definetly what I had before... I guess I just assumed it was dinos because it was always filled with gas bubbles and chunks were rising to the top. but it definetly looked just like that middle picture. Guess its time to research cyanobacteria lol.

I'm new and want to try to contribute So my ocellerus did not like my BTA one bit. In fact, he seemed to just strait up hate it. Well, the only info I could find about trying to get the clown to host with my BTA was to print a picture of a clown in a nem and tape it to the side of the glass, or just give it time. Neither of these worked for me... the picture was stupid and my wife made fun of me , I'm not patient enough to wait for the lazy clown to learn! And there was two cleaner shrimp that became way too over protective of the BTA which might be another reason why the clown wont go near it ,so... this is what I did... I went to the LFS and looked for a happy little (cheap) clownfish that was swimming in a nem... After 3 diferent stores, I finally came across a cute little clarki that was all comfi cozi in a RBTA. So I bout the little guy for around 10 bucks, brought him home, QT'd him for a week, then put him in my main tank. the little guy went strait to the BTA, kicked some cleaner shrimp butt and made him self at home. A couple of days later, I wake up one morning and the big Ocellerius and lil clarki were both snuggling up nicely in my BTA. It was a great day! Anyways, thats what I did. I just bought a trained clown fish to show my knucklheaded clownfish what to do. I wasnt a big fan of the Clarki's yellowish color, so I was planning on taking him back to the LFS or sell/trade him. But he's grown on me, and I think I'll keep him. So you all probably all ready thought of this, or heard of it or whatever... But I thought I'd share my experience anyways. Poice!

thanks for the replies. It does look like my skimmer acting up was do too my re-aquascaping and moving the sandbed around. I dialed it back a little bit and it seems to be doing good now. JAN - The algae, I'm pretty sure was dinos, it was like dark red mucus that covered rock and sandbed... It made all my snails appear dead; they just wouldnt move. But when I cleaned the tank, changed the water flow, and raised the PH all my snails came back to life and are all over the glass when I wake up in the morning. Anyways... The sandbed looks good now when I first turn the lights on, but after about an hour I see dark brown spots forming. Like the dinos are trying to make a come back or something. I'm still working on raising my PH very slowly using Kalkwasser drip. its still 8.3ish right now. "Have you had any diatom algae? What's your water flow like? what are you other parameters like? " I know I need to start checking my phosphates and calcium (when having algae problems), but I havent gotten the kits yet for those. The only thing I have been checking are PH/Amonia/nitrites/nitrates. I added two power heads after I cleaned the tank of the dinos, this created a turbulant flow. I dont know the gph they are pushing but from the look of it, its enough. Before the dino problem I did have a small bout with green hair and bubble algae, but after adding a few blue leg hermits and a couple of emerald crabs those two algaes disappeared. Coral Hind - I forgot to say, yes I am using RO/DI water in the tank and for makeup water. Now a question I forgot... Chaeto! I bought a golf ball sized chaeto ball a few weeks ago, but when I put it in my sump the darned thing just fell apart and made a huge mess in my sump and viewing tank. How the heck do I get one of those nice sized balls that stays together and just rolls around the sump?

Hello everyone, I am new to this board and to reefing as well. My tank is about 3 months old, and I've been having a blast trying to figure everything out! My tank stats 55g (20g sump) 40lb live rock UV steralizer seaclone 100 skimmer 3 sps 2 clowns 1 strawberry (the little guy, cant remember rest of name) 2 damsel fish PH 8.3 Amonia/nitrite/nitrate all good So I have a couple of questions to ask... 1) Out of no where one day I look in my sump and it has a large amount of small white fuzzy things growing all over it. They dont move, and they look alot like a pineapple sponge, but not as perfectly oval. I figure they are sponges because that is where the best quality of water is right after my UV sterilizer and skimmer. Any thought? 2) I'm getting a couple of full cups of brown nastyness a week from my skimmer, so I guess its working, but all of a sudden it is foaming way too much and coming out of the small hole on the top of the lid. One day the foam was literally covering the entire top of my sump tank. What is this all about? What should I do? 3) I re-aquascaped my tank last week and there is a couple of reasons why. firstly I hated the appearance of my rocks, but mostly because I had a bad case of Dino algae... At least I think it was. It was massive layers of redish brown goo on my sand bed and rocks that filled with air bubbles so much that they would float to the top of my tank. it was nasty, so after reading up about it, I learned that 3 days of lights out, completely cleaning the tank of as much algae as possible and raising my PH was the best way to do this. Back then my PH was only 8.0. So I researched how to Kalkwasser drip and since have raised it up to 8.3, on my way up to 8.6. So now when I turn the lights on, after an hour or so I start to see dark brown on the sand bed and small air bubbles forming. I then get scared and turn the lights off. So what am I missing here? Do you think my bulbs have something to do with it? I bought them used off of someone from this forum. he actually is the one that told me about this forum, but I dont remember his name lol. I run 4 T5s... I'm thinking about getting new bulbs. Any suggestions for a mixed tank? I'm thinking 2 blue and 2 white? I like the bluish look. Not so hot on purple, makes everything look red to me. thanks for anyone that actually read through my ramblings and tries to help me, I know, I know... I'm a mess.