Endless Problems

[Jeff Hartman]

Hello everyone. I have had a saltwater system for 6 years now and I love it. It seems the past year I cannot do anything right. I have never had any problems before other then a cynobateria breakout once or twice. I got a new 180 gallon tank 2 years ago and made my old 55 a refugium. It seems since around that time I have had endless hair algae, a two ich breakouts, to many cyno breakout to count. I just can't figure it out. I have changed everything I can think of Ro filter, lamps, carbon, 40 gallon water changes every other week. Letting the system go for a month, crushed coral, removed that and put sand, multi function cleaning pads......to much to count. I have backed off for a few months to see if it was me doing to much but it has only got worse. No one in my area is willing to come out and do a system check for me or anything so I hope to get some advice here....... I love my tank but it is starting to push me over the edge.

 

[austinsdad]

Hey Jeff and welcome to AA!!

Might start by posting your water readings and tell us what critters are in the tank.

 

[melosu58]

Welcome aboard Jeff. I`m moving this to the SW reef general discussion forum so more people will see it. We will get you plenty of advice to help you out.

 

[Jimbo7]

Start us off with a full list of your levels, tank equipment, and stocking list. Welcome to AA!

 

[melosu58]

As far as your endless hair algea check out this checklist.

FantasyReef Databases-Viewing item "10 Step Plan for Nuisance Algae Control"

 

[Jeff Hartman]

Tanks

My Tanks
180 Gallon Tank
55 Gallon Refugium with a deep sand bed
Eshopps 36" x 16" Sump
72" Nove Extreme T5 light
ASM G-4 Protein Skimmer
Coralife Turbo Sea 1470 Pump
(2) Hydor 1200 gph wavemaker
4 - 400 watt heater
AquaEuro 1/3 Chiller
Heat/chill relay for exact temp regulation
200 lbs of liverock
Coralife 50gpd RO filter
Aqua 57 watt UV light
Bag of Bio balls
Bag of pellet Carbon
5 lb of rubble rock


Right now I have 2 Chromis, 3 clowns, 1 foxface, 1 Hippo Tang, 1 Yellow Tang, 1 Pajama Cardinal, 1 Queen Angel, About 150 blue leg crabs.....

Nitrates Not 0 but less then 5
Nitrite not 0 but less then .05
Ammonia 0
Ph 8.2
Phospate .1
Silica 0
Copper 0

 

[kdogg85]

I didn't see any macroalgae listed. I have two wet/drys full of chaetomorpha. I haven't had any cyano or hair algae outbreaks. Since you have a 55g fuge, I would try and find a giant wad of some sort of macroalgae and a light to put over the fuge and see what happens. That should help with any nuisance problems and get rid of the phosphate reading. Your phos is probably higher but the cyano and hair is eating it up.

 

[Jeff Hartman]

I do have a volleyball size of macroalgae and I did have a 18x 12 area of Caulerpa growing but I pruned a nice size peice to put in the main tank for my foxface and tangs to eat and suddenly the rest of it died... I did get two mangroove plants that went dormant right when I got them and 3 months later one of them is growing a leaf and both the roots are growing.....

 

[Jimbo7]

When was the last time you replaced the bulbs in your lights?

 

[austinsdad]

Do you keep carbon in the system all the time? Also, do you run your UV 24/7? Don't exactly know why it wold make a dif, but I'm just wondering if either of them is altering something.

 

[David S]

I would fill your fuge with chaetomorpha,drop the lighting time in your DT and run a small Metal halide over your macro algae when the dt light is off,within a month you will see a massive difference,once sorted change your lighting times around.

 

[thincat]

mangroove plants are a waste of time and energy. They grow to slow and you would need at least 12 for a tank of your size. Old lights might be part of your problem as well as your die off of macroalgae.