About to throw in the towel.

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iAddiction

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Apr 19, 2012
Messages
22
I have been at this salt water fish tank since May and I just have had nothing but bad luck it seams. I went on a week vacation when I thought I was just starting to get the hang of things I came back to a ton of algae . Now I had some before, but I had just done a water change and sucked a ton of it up.

I know they were over feed over my week vacation because I had to buy an auto feeder and it was feeding them every day a decent amount.

I took some photos I am going to post. I just feel like selling the fish and corral back to my fish store, throwing out all my live rock, water and sand. and waiting a few months and starting fresh again by re cycling the tank.

However I don't know if you guys can help.

I am going to try to be more committed to fixing the problem this time. I think my filter might be an issue, the bio wheel is seized up it seams. It spins but very slowly. At the movement my protein skimmer is not working, but after my cleaning I should be able to fix that.

I have been debating getting a different filter I hear the biowheels aren't that great for salt water. Should I get a Fluvial?

With two clown fish and 1 coral frogspawn what should I be feeding them and for how much blue/white light?

I bought something called PhosGaurd and put it in a media back and behind my filter, but I don't think it does much. It's not placed in my tank very well. Should I try a different GFO? My brother recommend CemiPure?

I am going to do my cleaning after a few people respond. If perhaps you want to have a Skype conversation with me about this send me a PM and I can show you my setup via webcam.

PS: What is that purple thing that grew off my live rock/algae?
 

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So you want to quit because of some algae???Okay. If you start all over and you recycle your tank its going to happen all over again, this happens in the salwater hobby. Wipe it off the glass, purchase some turbo snails and they will eat all of the algae. Dont quit because your annoyed with it,
 
Hang I'm there dude, I've been in the salty world's since march and have had my share of problems. That looks to be green hair algae. Probably from over feeding. But I am no expert. My first thought was that your flow wasn't sufficient, but seeing your pics it looks like you have 2 powerheads. What size are they, and are they running the right way? My korilias sometimes don't run the right way. Maybe try "aiming " them at the rocks or one towards the front glass and one towards the back.
And you can scrape the hair algae off but most likely it will come back. Butt it will eventually go away, I believe
 
Nu-Nu the eel said:
So you want to quit because of some algae???Okay. If you start all over and you recycle your tank its going to happen all over again, this happens in the salwater hobby. Wipe it off the glass, purchase some turbo snails and they will eat all of the algae. Dont quit because your annoyed with it,

Agreed. It's still a new tank, it will work itself out, just going to take some time. Like Nu-Nu said, get some turbos maybe an emerald crab or two and it will go away. Trust me since I went through the same massive outbreak with my first setup, you'll appreciate it that much more once it clears up and settles out :)
 
I'd get a scrub brush drain 15% of yur water scrub all the rock in the old water and do 15% once a week for a while to remove the nutrients.. do u use rodi water? Or tap
 
Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but that "purple thing" in the second picture looks like aiptasia, a pest anemone. If you have one you probably have more, and that looks like a decent sized one to boot. You'll want to remove it asap.


There's plenty of ways to remove aiptasia. There's injecting the thing with boiling water or boiling lemon juice, or buying Aiptasia-X and using that. Search the forums for even more ways to get rid of them, but you will want to get rid of them first. An abundance of hair algae is nothing compared to a swarm of aiptasia.


As everyone else suggested getting some turbo snails and an emerald crab will do wonders for your tank. I'd say maybe 2-4 turbo snails depending on your tank size. Take off the autofeeder and feed them by hand once or twice a day only as much as they will eat. Whatever they don't eat scoop out of the water. Keep up with the water changes and your tank should clear up in no time!


By the way that frogspawn is beautiful!
 
Im also kinda new to SW, and it can be frustrating. What kind of CUC do u have? Get plenty of snails, hermits, maybe a conch. They're not fun to watch like the fish are, but IMO they're an important part of the tank cuz they eat all that annoying algae. I have a Fluval 406 on my 55 and I also have a Aqua C skimmer. I like my fluval, think it does a good job, but i also rinse out all the media every week with PWC so that nitrates don't build up. In my 55 I have about 30 snails and 10 hermits and a decent sized conch, and haven't have a big problem with algae yet. hope it gets better for u.
 
If I were you I'd put the frogspawn into an icecream bucket filled with tank water. Then take out that rock covered in hair algae, its WAY to much for some snails IMO and scrub that hair off into the sink or something. Get it as clean as possible them put it back in. Try to vacume the algae off the sand for now. Do a big water change to get some clean water in there and put the frogspawn back in. Then get some turbo's to eat the bits left cause you're not gonna get it all from scrubbing. DON"T scrub in the tank or the algae will just float somewhere else.

Your tank looks what, 20 gallons? A good hang of back skimmer would do wonders. I use the Remora Aqua c and a lot of people really like the reef octopus one. Either should work on a tank that size.

Once you get this beat you're gonna love your tank and appeciate the work you put in. Your frogspawn looks like it's doing great so you must have a decent light for it, clean that bad boy up and treat yourself to some awesome coral!
 
I agree that a good CUC alone won't be able to get all of that under control, you'll have to remove as much as you can yourself, but then add a good sized cUC to prevent it from happening again. ;)
 
+1 on the lettuce nudibranch. But you asked about the filter. If the bio wheel is running slow, something maybe impeding it. Check it out and make sure. You could change to a hob filter that is rated double your tank size and use a chemi pure instead of the cartridges. That would give you more carbon surface area. The canisters are notorious trate factories, so IMO I would,skip it. All suggestions are good, snails, crabs, scrubbing and whatnot. Also, you really,only need to feed every 2-3 days. Cut down on the feeding and get the hair algae under control. Nuke the aptasia, it's pretty easy with either the lemon juice, or aptasia x. Don't give up, you'll thank yourself in a few months. The frogspawn is a beauty!!! Aside from the hair algae, you have a nice looking setup.

Head up,high, and kick hair algaes butt!!!!

Good luck!!!!
 
I would go for the protein skimmer before I getting rid of the bio wheel. If you can do both, that's even better! Are you using tap water?
 
Def scrub excess algae off & get good CUC in place. I'm a big protein skimmer proponent, personally I run two on my tank and therefore I recommend getting a good one going. I would ditch the biowheel and if you possibly can add a sump with a Refugium. Using a Refugium wil allow the macroalgae in there to use some of the nutrients causing your algae outbreak up. Also try a media reactor with gfo. Of course all that preceeded by cutting down feedings & doing PWC.
 
Your frogspawn is gorgeous and so is your clown! Don't give up on it. It may seem like you'll never get it under control but I believe you will. I've seen people ask about your source water. RODI (reverse osmosis/distilled) is recommended because it doesnt have all the stuff in it that tap water has in it. So if you aren't already using RODI water I recommend giving it a try.

You'll kick that algae's butt! We are all rooting for you!
 
Like everyone has said, hang in there.. Suck up the junk from the sandbed when you do your water changes. The biowheel is probably slow because it may be getting dirty.

A clean up crew will help, also cut way down on feeding. Two fish dont need much food. The excess nutrients feed the algae. As for the GFO it needs to have flow through it, not just around it. It will work out bud.
 
This hobby can be very discouraging when you have problems like this and you dont get or have the information that you need. Hang in there, we are here to help.

First off the purple thing your seeing is and Aiptasia, it is a pest anemone and there are many ways to kill them here is a link to help you out with that.

Reefkeeping Magazine - Reefkeeping 101

It appears your being over run with hair algae. First lets get some test results, lets have em. Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, phosphate, ph. Likely you will get a low or 0 reading for nitrates and phosphates, this is becuase the algae is binding these nutrients making them unavailable to testing. Nitrates and phosphates are what your really fighting, not the algae itself as much.

First you need to determine where your excess nitrates and phosphates are coming from. You stated over feeding, that would be one source. Are you using tap? How often do you clean and change filter pads? The biowheel should be taken off as its only trapping organics and constantly producing nitrates.

Chemi-pure is not a GFO in the any real sense, you would be best served by spending about 40 bucks on a reactor and running actual Granular Ferric Oxide (GFO) in the reactor. Also step up your water changes and pick as much algae as you can to removed the nutrients. Getting that protein skimmer working would help remove some organics before they begin breaking down.

Adding creatures to eat the algae is ok, however, the algae problem will not go away if you resort to just this. The nutrients these animals consume are excreted and taken up again by algae. Removing these nutrients is the only solution to the problem.

Here are a few links and articles dealing with nuisance algae etc.

Green Hair Algae by Stephen Hopple - Reefkeeping.com

Phosphate and the Reef Aquarium by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com
 
Schism said:
This hobby can be very discouraging when you have problems like this and you dont get or have the information that you need. Hang in there, we are here to help.

First off the purple thing your seeing is and Aiptasia, it is a pest anemone and there are many ways to kill them here is a link to help you out with that.

Reefkeeping Magazine - Reefkeeping 101

It appears your being over run with hair algae. First lets get some test results, lets have em. Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, phosphate, ph. Likely you will get a low or 0 reading for nitrates and phosphates, this is becuase the algae is binding these nutrients making them unavailable to testing. Nitrates and phosphates are what your really fighting, not the algae itself as much.

First you need to determine where your excess nitrates and phosphates are coming from. You stated over feeding, that would be one source. Are you using tap? How often do you clean and change filter pads? The biowheel should be taken off as its only trapping organics and constantly producing nitrates.

Chemi-pure is not a GFO in the any real sense, you would be best served by spending about 40 bucks on a reactor and running actual Granular Ferric Oxide (GFO) in the reactor. Also step up your water changes and pick as much algae as you can to removed the nutrients. Getting that protein skimmer working would help remove some organics before they begin breaking down.

Adding creatures to eat the algae is ok, however, the algae problem will not go away if you resort to just this. The nutrients these animals consume are excreted and taken up again by algae. Removing these nutrients is the only solution to the problem.

Here are a few links and articles dealing with nuisance algae etc.

Green Hair Algae by Stephen Hopple - Reefkeeping.com

Phosphate and the Reef Aquarium by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

+1

I agree because, well I agree :)

In all seriousness great advice as always, much better put than I.
 
Seems like most of the advice has been given out. I had a hair algae outbreak just like yours in my 55 reef. Killed off 500 bucks worth of coral. I was quite upset. I kept going with my water changes. Scrubbing as much as I could off and manually removing it prior to water changes. I added a lawnmower blenny who went to town on the stuff. Helped me out since I work many turnover shifts and couldn't increase water changes and scrubbing.

I didn't notice if you are running ro/di, that would help if you aren't. Def reduce feedings. Two or 3 times a week is more than enough. That will reduce the nutrients being put into the water column. I believe Schism stated about GFO. I run GFO and Purigen on my reef system in a BRS dual reactor. It helped, might be something to look into. Keep at it and things will get better, trust me.
 
+1 on the reactor with rowaphos. +1 on chemi pure elite. I had the same problem. I bought a phosban reactor and problem solved. I put enough bags of chemi pure elite, I run my sump with my rowa phos and miracle mudd. No problems and I have not done a water change in 1 month now. All levels are good. I also have a swc150 protein skimmer.
 
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