Need Help w/Corals

[mrs.octavia.rollins]

I have my 125 gallon tank that has;
(1) Clownfish
(1) Powder Blue Tang
(1) Sailfin Tang
Polyps
(2) Condylactis (Which will be finding a new home)
(1) Flower Pot
(1) Shrimp
(7) Crabs
(1) Turbo Snail
50lbs of live rock (I need a lot more, I know)
I may be missing a couple things.. In my 55 gallon sump I have two chocolate chip star fish & a devil damsel.

Anyway, my questions are.. What type of corals would anyone suggest getting for my tank? I've been trying to look around & the only thing I've seen so far that I like is the like green hammer head corals.

 

[obscurereef]

Well how long has your tank been up and running? What is your lighting? There's so many corals with the super vibrant colors...personally I love neon corals that pop, and don't like dull brown corals. Do you dose calcium and alk or do often water changes w/ a quality salt? Any anemone would be find besides the condy..I like RBTA or a green one the best, but there is no guarantee a clown will host it, especially if it's tank raised.

 

[mrs.octavia.rollins]

Well how long has your tank been up and running? What is your lighting? There's so many corals with the super vibrant colors...personally I love neon corals that pop, and don't like dull brown corals. Do you dose calcium and alk or do often water changes w/ a quality salt? Any anemone would be find besides the condy..I like RBTA or a green one the best, but there is no guarantee a clown will host it, especially if it's tank raised.

It's been up for almost four months I think.. The lighting I'm not sure I would have to ask my Husband but he's asleep lol
We bought the tank from our Friend who upgraded from the 125 to a 220. He had A LOT of corals & the lighting he said is the best for corals. We don't do calcium or alk. My Husband does frequent water changes on it & all the levels are great! He checks it all daily. We use salt for reefs.. I think it's Instant Ocean Reef Crystals.. We have a 35 gallon can w/an extra pump that we mix our salt in. We just got a RO/DI system that we haven't hooked up just yet as my Husband wants to hang it & do a DIY project in the laundry room with it. So right now we are having a major problem with brown diatom from the tap water. We had our Friend make us RODI water & when we added it the diatom got worse & that's when he also made some RODI water for himself & found out that the filters were bad & it was actually tap water. Other than that the salinity, nitrates, nitrites, etc are all good. The Salinity has been at zero since we cycled it & hasn't gone up. I don't know the abbreviations just yet but the green one your talking about what is that?

 

[obscurereef]

It's best to add an anemone when the tank is 6-8 months, but you said you got it from someone who already had it set up, so it's older than 4 months? Bubble tip anemones are pretty expensive at an average of $75-125 so it would be best to have an established stable tank so you don't lose money and the invert ! Sooner you hook up that RO/DI unit the better! Mine is in my laundry room too and the waste water just drains down the sink. However, for every one gallon made, there is 4 gallons of waste water I believe, so that's wasting a lot of water! You can use it for your washing machine or hook it up to your lawn somehow if you don't want to waste water/$. You mean the nitrates were at 0 not the salinity? RBTA means red bubble tip anemone and there are green ones and sometimes orange.
Some ideas of anemones:
Anemones

 

[mrs.octavia.rollins]

It's best to add an anemone when the tank is 6-8 months, but you said you got it from someone who already had it set up, so it's older than 4 months? Bubble tip anemones are pretty expensive at an average of $75-125 so it would be best to have an established stable tank so you don't lose money and the invert ! Sooner you hook up that RO/DI unit the better! Mine is in my laundry room too and the waste water just drains down the sink. However, for every one gallon made, there is 4 gallons of waste water I believe, so that's wasting a lot of water! You can use it for your washing machine or hook it up to your lawn somehow if you don't want to waste water/$. You mean the nitrates were at 0 not the salinity? RBTA means red bubble tip anemone and there are green ones and sometimes orange.
Some ideas of anemones:
Anemones

Yes the tank was already established from our Friend.. He had it up & running for three years before we bought it, I believe. I will add a picture of it right before he tore it down & brought it over here. Everything we've put in it so far hasn't died. We bought the RODI system off a guy from Craigslist that only had it for six months. It's a huge set-up but we need to buy new filters. My Husband wants to hook it up ASAP but we've been super busy & our five month old Son is having surgery so the system hasn't been a priority. I think my Husband has it on his list to do this weekend. I would hate to loose that much water. Our water bill has shot up big time since we started in the aquarium hobby. I know my Husband wanted to hook it up to the water lines for the washer & dryer.. That way the "bad" water would drain the same way the washer would. But if can look into how we can use that water for the washer without actually wasting it then I think that would be better. Once we hook the RODI up & start topping off the tank with RODI water, do you know how long it would actually take for the diatom to clear up? Oh & I meant the nitrates not the salinity, sorry. I think I remember my Husband saying yesterday that the salinity was at 1.025. Thank you for all your help, it is appreciated





This is the tank when our Friend; Andrew had it.



This is how it looks now that we've had it. We still need a lot more rock!



Our Condylactic



Our polyps.. I don't remember the actual name for them.



Our Clown, Powder Blue & Sailfin.



Our Flowerpot that the clown loves to host.



"Hypnotic"



"Jack Sporrow"



"Marlin"



The brown diatom is horrible.

 

[obscurereef]

Oh if the rock, sand, and water has been established that long I think it would be fine to add an anemone. I don't know exactly how long it would take for the diatoms to disappear once you started using the RO/DI water. I have used RODI water from day one and even months after cycling I still have some diatoms and now there is hair algae starting to pop up ! I do 10-20% water changes a week and clean out the protein skimmer about every 3-4 days for keeping the skimmer efficient. A phosphate reactor w/ GFO would definitely help your problem. I have one, I just need to hook it up! It's a phosban reactor and ROWAphos which got great reviews. I love your fish names, very suitable and made me laugh a little Oh and I hope the surgery with your son goes well!

 

[mrs.octavia.rollins]

Oh if the rock, sand, and water has been established that long I think it would be fine to add an anemone. I don't know exactly how long it would take for the diatoms to disappear once you started using the RO/DI water. I have used RODI water from day one and even months after cycling I still have some diatoms and now there is hair algae starting to pop up ! I do 10-20% water changes a week and clean out the protein skimmer about every 3-4 days for keeping the skimmer efficient. A phosphate reactor w/ GFO would definitely help your problem. I have one, I just need to hook it up! It's a phosban reactor and ROWAphos which got great reviews. I love your fish names, very suitable and made me laugh a little Oh and I hope the surgery with your son goes well!

I will have to look into the Phosphate reactor & stuff.. So much stuff to learn it's helping though.. I get confused but then it started coming together. I named my friends Powder Blue Tang "Mesmerized" since every time I went out there she would mesmerize me with her beauty, so when I got one my friend named mine Hypnotic. My Husband named the other two & I'm not quite sure were he came up with them. I think Nemo's Dad Marlin.. Idk lol Glad that made you laugh & Thank you, my Son is a strong boy & will do great!

 

[Keithhjs]

First & foremost best wishes for your son.

IMHO you need at least 75 lbs more live rock and should add that before stocking any more cuz depending what kind/where you get it you can have some die off and a mini cycle.

+1 on the reactor. I run one myself and even tho I get tons of algae on the tank walls, my rock and corals are not affected much and the sand never has too much that my goby can't sift it and I run lights on my DT 24/7.

As far as corals go IMO some of the Acans, Blastos, and Scolys are pretty nice looking.

Good luck & happy reefing! Keep posting pics of your progress

 

[Sniperhank]

In terms of your diatoms, that is actually cyano. It is probably coming from the fact you are using tap water, since you said you haven't started using ro/di yet. That and the lack of flow is adding into your issue. Siphon it out with some airline tubing and increase your flow, you'll be battling it for awhile until you get things under control.

In terms of coral, it depends on what kind of lighting it actually is. Ask your pal what kind it is and that will be of better help. I'd assume that it is atleast a T5HO with maybe 4 or more bulbs?

 

[Gregcoyote]

First & foremost best wishes for your son.

IMHO you need at least 75 lbs more live rock and should add that before stocking any more cuz depending what kind/where you get it you can have some die off and a mini cycle.

+1 on the reactor. I run one myself and even tho I get tons of algae on the tank walls, my rock and corals are not affected much and the sand never has too much that my goby can't sift it and I run lights on my DT 24/7.

As far as corals go IMO some of the Acans, Blastos, and Scolys are pretty nice looking.

Good luck & happy reefing! Keep posting pics of your progress

I agree with this. Get everything sorted out before you buy more coral or fish. Diatom and/or cyano growth indicates there is still a organic issue going on and flow might be too low. As said, adding live rock may cause a bump in the tanks cycling, but more rock is needed especially if you are adding more stuff. I hate anemones, so good luck there. They need a lot of light generally.

 

[mrs.octavia.rollins]

We have a few things to so first before we can ad more stuff. We have to get a new pump for our skimmer.. The RODI system set-up, more rock, etc. those are important right now.. I heard from multiple people not to mess with the brown diatom. So I'm kind of confused on what to do... It seems to be getting worse every day.

 

[mrs.octavia.rollins]

In terms of your diatoms, that is actually cyano. It is probably coming from the fact you are using tap water, since you said you haven't started using ro/di yet. That and the lack of flow is adding into your issue. Siphon it out with some airline tubing and increase your flow, you'll be battling it for awhile until you get things under control.

In terms of coral, it depends on what kind of lighting it actually is. Ask your pal what kind it is and that will be of better help. I'd assume that it is atleast a T5HO with maybe 4 or more bulbs?

You said it's cyano? Everyone has said it was brown diatom.. What's the difference? Is the cyano not good for the tank? I know it's from the tap water. I don't know how I can increase the flow??? It has really good flow as it is now.

 

[mrs.octavia.rollins]

Also I did out a huge load in the tank at once... Both Condy's, both tangs & 7 crabs.. Could that also be a problem?

 

[Stephen Rollins]

It is diatoms and not cyano! We keep feeding the diatoms with silica from the tap water. Bio load is fine considering the amount of current live rock. Live sand and not to mention the refugium in the sump.
Yes we need to get the skimmer going and to get the rodi in use those are our current problems

 

[Stephen Rollins]

Also I did out a huge load in the tank at once... Both Condy's, both tangs & 7 crabs.. Could that also be a problem?

Nope! The current bio load can sustain the amount added to the tank.

 

[Stephen Rollins]

Flow is not an issue we have a saner 9.5 pump ( 950 gallons ) and a 1050 circulation pump

 

[Stephen Rollins]

Flow is not an issue we have a saner 9.5 pump ( 950 gallons ) and a 1050 circulation pump

Sorry I meant to say danner not saner lol

 

[mrs.octavia.rollins]

Sorry I meant to say danner not saner lol

Stalk much? Eek
I couldn't remember all the stuff we have to explain it better. I'm still learning geez

 

[Stephen Rollins]

Stalk much? Eek
I couldn't remember all the stuff we have to explain it better. I'm still learning geez

Just trying to help you honey.

Oh and you just said "stalk" lol

Ask me first. Lol

 

[mrs.octavia.rollins]

Just trying to help you honey.

Oh and you just said "stalk" lol

Ask me first. Lol

Maybe... Mr. Know it all