lewis171
Aquarium Advice Newbie
I apologize in advance if I provide more information than needed, however, I feel more is better than less when it comes to solving these types of problems.
My wife and I moved to North Carolina two year ago and left behind a Saltwater Fish Only, 125 Gallon Aquarium. About a year and a half ago we decided to set up our “Ultimate”: aquarium in our new house. We hired a local, well respected Reef/Saltwater Fish establishment to build us a custom (not the tank but all of the cabinetry and plumbing) 140 Gallon, reef and Saltwater Setup. The setup is as follows:
- 140 Gallon (24”x48”x 28½) Glass Aquarium
- 2 @ 250Watt Metal Halide Lights (10,000ºK)
- 2 @ 96Watt Super Actinic VHO Fluorescents
- 2 Small, Fixed power heads to circulate water within the tank
- 2 5/8” output tubes from output pump to return water
and further circulate water within the tank
- 2-3” of Aragonite Substrate Material covering the tank bottom
- Approximately 150lbs of Good Quality Live Rock
(not sure about how much)
- Reef Concepts Model 624 Aerofoamer
- Reef Concepts Model CA700 Calcium Reactor
and associated pump, monitor CO2 tank and bubble counter
- Kent RO Water system which automatically fills a 40 Gal
reservoir which Is used to auto fill evaporating water in
tank and create new Saltwater For water changes
- Unidentified Circulating pump which is moving at least
1400 Gallons of water per hour
- Custom Made Sump for the Protein Skimmer and Calcium
Reactor Approximately 60 gallon capacity which is
filled to about 30 Gallons
- Read Sea 200mg/hr Ozonizer and ORP Monitor
- Aqualogic 1/3HP Aquarium Chiller and Cooler/Heater
Controller
The system was fully functional about a year ago at which point we added about 5-10 Soft corals and several Tangs. Initially I relied on the Aquarium Maintenance Guy to Do all of the parameter monitoring (big mistake!). Gradually over the past year we Now have the fish/coral/invertebrates:
- Approximately 15 Soft Corals, Leathers, Bubbles, mushrooms, etc
- The following Fish - 3” Yellow Tank, 4” Sailfin Tang, 3” Fairy
Wrasse, 1¼” six-line wrasse, 3” engineer goby, 2 fairly
larges fire shrimp, 2½ Kole Tang, 2” Scribble Rabbit, 3” Hippo
Tang, 4” Pink Sea Cucumber.
- Until about 2 months ago when “trouble began” I also had a 3”
Clam And approximately 3 hard corals. The clam died and the
hard corals Also lost there polyps.
I have the Fluorescents turned on at 2:00PM and turned off at 10:00PM, I have the Halides turned on at 3:00PM and turned off at 9:00PM. A 20 – 25% water change Is done every three to four weeks, mostly four weeks lately. There is virtually no Coralline Algae or even dark green algae buildup (very strange). The temperature Is maintained at a steady 77º, the PH in the reactor typically between 6.7 and 6.9.
About 2 months ago, I first noticed the clam had “passed away”. Next I noticed the Hard corals had bleached which was confirmed by the maintenance guy. I next Noticed that the some of the soft corals where “drooping” and is some cases Not standing up at all. I don’t think any are gone but they are not looking anywhere As good as they did 6 months ago.
I then decided to check some of the tank parameters myself with the following results
- Nitrate level - 80ppm (yes, I said 80!)
- Specific Gravity - 1.0125
- Ph level - 8.4 – 8.5
- Nitrite Level .5ppm
- Calcium – Approximately 400
- Alkalinity – Approximately 250
I called the maintenance guy who swore he never read more than a negligible level of Nitrates. He came out and realized that his reagents were bad and confirmed the 80 ppm level. He did an immediate 50% water change and the nitrate level dropped to 45 -50ppm. The next day I took another reading and it was back up to 80 ppm.
I do believe I have been overfeeding this tank for quite a while I feed them approximately 4 cubes of frozen food a day, formula 1, formula 2, plankton and myssis shrimp!
When I reported this to the maintenance guy, he said we would have to replace the Entire aragonite substrate, I task I’m not looking forward to because of the work involved, but more importantly the effect on the biological process. I contacted someone Else who told me not to take this extreme measure. When we vacuum the substrate We can only get to the front 1/3 of the tank because everything else is under rock. Perhaps
The debris is being swept behind the live rock where is now building up.
I can try and Take a power head and blow out the stuff behind the rock but I’m afraid it will be difficult To get anything other than surface debris.
Any thoughts, ideas or suggestions as to what I should do. The fish are doing great and Some of the corals look OK but I want to head off a disaster if that is what is on the horizon
I would appreciate any recommendations or suggestions on anything else that might be Going on here. Why am I not growing any coralline (purple/lavender) algae
My wife and I moved to North Carolina two year ago and left behind a Saltwater Fish Only, 125 Gallon Aquarium. About a year and a half ago we decided to set up our “Ultimate”: aquarium in our new house. We hired a local, well respected Reef/Saltwater Fish establishment to build us a custom (not the tank but all of the cabinetry and plumbing) 140 Gallon, reef and Saltwater Setup. The setup is as follows:
- 140 Gallon (24”x48”x 28½) Glass Aquarium
- 2 @ 250Watt Metal Halide Lights (10,000ºK)
- 2 @ 96Watt Super Actinic VHO Fluorescents
- 2 Small, Fixed power heads to circulate water within the tank
- 2 5/8” output tubes from output pump to return water
and further circulate water within the tank
- 2-3” of Aragonite Substrate Material covering the tank bottom
- Approximately 150lbs of Good Quality Live Rock
(not sure about how much)
- Reef Concepts Model 624 Aerofoamer
- Reef Concepts Model CA700 Calcium Reactor
and associated pump, monitor CO2 tank and bubble counter
- Kent RO Water system which automatically fills a 40 Gal
reservoir which Is used to auto fill evaporating water in
tank and create new Saltwater For water changes
- Unidentified Circulating pump which is moving at least
1400 Gallons of water per hour
- Custom Made Sump for the Protein Skimmer and Calcium
Reactor Approximately 60 gallon capacity which is
filled to about 30 Gallons
- Read Sea 200mg/hr Ozonizer and ORP Monitor
- Aqualogic 1/3HP Aquarium Chiller and Cooler/Heater
Controller
The system was fully functional about a year ago at which point we added about 5-10 Soft corals and several Tangs. Initially I relied on the Aquarium Maintenance Guy to Do all of the parameter monitoring (big mistake!). Gradually over the past year we Now have the fish/coral/invertebrates:
- Approximately 15 Soft Corals, Leathers, Bubbles, mushrooms, etc
- The following Fish - 3” Yellow Tank, 4” Sailfin Tang, 3” Fairy
Wrasse, 1¼” six-line wrasse, 3” engineer goby, 2 fairly
larges fire shrimp, 2½ Kole Tang, 2” Scribble Rabbit, 3” Hippo
Tang, 4” Pink Sea Cucumber.
- Until about 2 months ago when “trouble began” I also had a 3”
Clam And approximately 3 hard corals. The clam died and the
hard corals Also lost there polyps.
I have the Fluorescents turned on at 2:00PM and turned off at 10:00PM, I have the Halides turned on at 3:00PM and turned off at 9:00PM. A 20 – 25% water change Is done every three to four weeks, mostly four weeks lately. There is virtually no Coralline Algae or even dark green algae buildup (very strange). The temperature Is maintained at a steady 77º, the PH in the reactor typically between 6.7 and 6.9.
About 2 months ago, I first noticed the clam had “passed away”. Next I noticed the Hard corals had bleached which was confirmed by the maintenance guy. I next Noticed that the some of the soft corals where “drooping” and is some cases Not standing up at all. I don’t think any are gone but they are not looking anywhere As good as they did 6 months ago.
I then decided to check some of the tank parameters myself with the following results
- Nitrate level - 80ppm (yes, I said 80!)
- Specific Gravity - 1.0125
- Ph level - 8.4 – 8.5
- Nitrite Level .5ppm
- Calcium – Approximately 400
- Alkalinity – Approximately 250
I called the maintenance guy who swore he never read more than a negligible level of Nitrates. He came out and realized that his reagents were bad and confirmed the 80 ppm level. He did an immediate 50% water change and the nitrate level dropped to 45 -50ppm. The next day I took another reading and it was back up to 80 ppm.
I do believe I have been overfeeding this tank for quite a while I feed them approximately 4 cubes of frozen food a day, formula 1, formula 2, plankton and myssis shrimp!
When I reported this to the maintenance guy, he said we would have to replace the Entire aragonite substrate, I task I’m not looking forward to because of the work involved, but more importantly the effect on the biological process. I contacted someone Else who told me not to take this extreme measure. When we vacuum the substrate We can only get to the front 1/3 of the tank because everything else is under rock. Perhaps
The debris is being swept behind the live rock where is now building up.
I can try and Take a power head and blow out the stuff behind the rock but I’m afraid it will be difficult To get anything other than surface debris.
Any thoughts, ideas or suggestions as to what I should do. The fish are doing great and Some of the corals look OK but I want to head off a disaster if that is what is on the horizon
I would appreciate any recommendations or suggestions on anything else that might be Going on here. Why am I not growing any coralline (purple/lavender) algae
