What will work in place of live rock?

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Ive come to the conclusion that i also dont want to setup the new tank untill i find out what went wrong with the LR in the 75 so i dont have the same problem.

This is absolutely the best course of action. Trying cleaners of various sorts is only an expensive way to treat the symptoms and not the cause. If you go that route, you will be stuck in a cycle that will drive you crazy. A herd of cleaners could wipe out all your algae....but then will die back from a lack of food. Back comes all the hair algae because the cause is still there (and so on and so forth).

Did you get the results of your water test? I think you would see a remarkable difference if you switched to RO/DI water. They units are cheap enough on Ebay these days to handle most home aquariums. I used to use tapwater, but have seen a remarkable improvement since switching to 100% RO/DI. I got a recent report from my water authority...it contained nitrates, lead, copper, and phosphates amongst a few other things. NONE of this is good for your tank (but great for algae!).

I can guarantee nitrates are up from using mechanical filtration as well. I would either switch to all liverock, or clean the filter media daily or at least several times a week.
 
HoopsGuru said:
Ive come to the conclusion that i also dont want to setup the new tank untill i find out what went wrong with the LR in the 75 so i dont have the same problem.

This is absolutely the best course of action. If you go that route, you will be stuck in a cycle that will drive you crazy. Did you get the results of your water test? I think you would see a remarkable difference if you switched to RO/DI water. They units are cheap enough on Ebay these days to handle most home aquariums. I used to use tapwater, but have seen a remarkable improvement since switching to 100% RO/DI.
I can guarantee nitrates are up from using mechanical filtration as well. I would either switch to all liverock, or clean the filter media daily or at least several times a week.


Darn, this mom and pop fish store is closed on wednesdays so i guess i will have to try my luck tomorrow even if it involves driving 45 mins to another store. Since they were closed, i conducted my home SW test kit (which i think are not very accurate) and found the nitraes are up like hoopsguru had mention also the ammonia was slightly up but the PH was really really low. I think it is supposed to be 8.2 and mine was 7.4. What casues the huge drop in PH? Also my tank water is evaporating greatly each day. Every other day i need to add water. This problem just happened recently. The tank is behind a window but i always keep those blinds closed so the light doesnt promote algae or water evaporation. I have had my tank a year this month and i have never had problems with it. It just took a turn for the worst a couple weeks ago :roll:
 
I have to add water to my tank daily because of evaporation between the lights, summer heat, the eggcrate top and the fan i have blowing towards it to keep temp down

I would not recommend the horseshoe crabs...
they will eat like all the life from your sand bed if that's what you have, grow way to fast and get way to big for a tank. it will exhaust its food supply and unfortunately probably end up dying...i know from a bad mistake myself and from reading about it afterwards
 
I add a gallon a day to my 55, which has no lid on it or the sump. Next tank will be next to my laundry room, so a auto-topoff will be an easy plumb job. The high nitrates will make algae problems worse. If any sunlight is getting to the tank, it will also help grow algae. It sounds like your circulation is fine, but the wetdry probably isn't helping any. I asked about the lights because low wattage bulbs, especially after they start losing spectrum can kick off an algae bloom, and won't be enough light to get good coraline growth.

Once you start working on your water, pull your rocks and scrub the hair algae off. Then add a good sized cleanup crew to keep algae growth in check. You should be fine with a little work.
 
I've noticed that my evaporation changes at different times and seasons. The same can be said with different humidity levels in my house as well. It is fairly normal to have to add a half gallong to gallon of water to a tank per day.

As for the PH, it could be a bad test kit. Are you taking the test in the morning...at night? You should always test it at the same time, because the PH will shift as the day goes on. Typically, it is less in the morning before the lights come on...and rises a bit throughout the day to a peak before the lights go off again. 7.4 is a bit low though, not sure if the algae could be affecting it that much when the lights are off.
 
Nope, just got my water tested last night. The guy tested the water and said your water is great. Whatever your doing, oyur doing it right. I told him about the algae problem and he said i might want to try something called a chemi pad but that it could worsen the tank if i didnt do it right. I havent decided to get it or not but this weekend im going to scrub off the LR with a toothbrush. Also they were all out of the phosphate test kits so i am going back tody or tommorrow. Just an update 8)
 
Ammonia was at 0. He said i might have a bad test kit but i made him retest it again because i was shocked myself
 
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