Health Fish but Sick Tank

[Frogspawn]

hey guys. i haven't been around for a few months cause i have not had any issues. i guess thats a good thing huh lol well, i am back cause i left my tank unattended for a little while having a friend take care of it this semester cause i had to take off. i came back for the next semester and boy o boy i have some work to do. its not to bad but i think i going to need to fix a few things. the hair algae is not covering every rock and from what he said the lights stayed off for the most part while i was gone (i learned from my last experience)
to get to the point i look at the fish and they look very good. they never grow lol but they look healthy. No white dusting, no scraping on rocks and over all move around the tank pretty well. he never did a water change when i told him to so i betting its been a few months since so i going to do a water change with pre mixed salt water from my local pet store this weekend. he added a hang on back filter to the tank which is covered in salt creep and the spray from the filter has covered my 150watt HQI LOL so i have allot of cleaning to do. i do not want to take all my live rock out and clean it again. it did more damage last time then good.

i have no snails any more thanks to the hermits that once inhabited my tank since then they all died and only little white small star fish rome the tank now.

Where should i start?

 

[melosu58]

The first thing I would do is test your water parameters. Let`s make sure we are OK there. Next I would do several 10-20% PWC`s and when you do them I would attach a toothbrush to the end of your siphon hose. Gently scrub the algea off your rock and siphon it up out of your tank. I believe if no PWC`s were done then your tank is loaded with excessive nutrients that added with you using the lights will explode with nuisance algea. That`s why the PWC`s will be very important. I`m just suggesting you kill two birds with one stone and knock out the algea removal also. I`m sorry you had to come back to that but it still can be a viable tank. BTW Welcome back.

 

[Frogspawn]

thats a cool idea melous! i never thought of that. but the last time i scrub my rocks to get off hair alage i remember it being hard to get off. Will a simple tooth brush work? wow thats cool idea.

i going to to do several water changes.. how much you think for a 30-gallon tank? 2-4 gallons? i going to keep the lights off for the next several weeks till i get rid off this algae. i am thinking since i have those little star fish the water cant be that bad can it? i only have a clown fish and a six line walrus in my tank. and i believe i have about 30lbs of live rock. You think i should get rid of the HOB filter? and replace my refugium like i once had? if ya look in my pictures you will see.

 

[melosu58]

If you could get the refuge on there with some macro algea in it for nutrient export that would be great combined with the PWC`s.

 

[Frogspawn]

hey guys what you think of one of these rodi units? i like them all.. any suggestions?

P U R E W A T E R C L U B

i like the Zero 0 ppm Reef 6st Reverse Osmosis RO+DI Water Filter

 

[buddha_red]

if you can replace a hob with a fuge, i say go for it. that filter looks good. I paid more than that for a 4 stage on ebay. Good water is key to everything as you know.

 

[Frogspawn]

sounds like a plan.. got to get another small pump to pump the water into the refuge.. thats why i took it off. i look this week end for a good one to use.

 

[Frogspawn]

what do you recomend how much water i take out for partial water changes? i do 5 gallons just because the pre mix water comes in 5 gallon jugs.

 

[melosu58]

I`m thinking 5 gallons will be OK. To start off you may need to do it twice a week to get those excessive nutrients down.

 

[Frogspawn]

if i keep doing the water changes twice a week at 5 gallons will the hair algae go away? and what did you think of that RODI unit? was it good for that price? or should i get a kent marine something more top brand?

 

[melosu58]

if i keep doing the water changes twice a week at 5 gallons will the hair algae go away?

It will definitely dilute the excessive nutrients that are fueling the algea. This problem didnt happen overnite and neither is it going to disapear overnite. By manual removal and dilution of nitrates and phosphates then you can win in the long run.

 

[Frogspawn]

the fish seem happy, so i am not to concerned about it going away right now. i not going to put anything in the tank like last time and stress them out. almost lost them both.
if you remember last year about this time when i left; i came back to a much much worse tank then what i have right now. hair algae was clean to the top of the tank. LOl i remember taking globs of hair algae out hand full at a time. now its just a little covering the surfaces of the rock.

 

[Frogspawn]

Ok, i got good news and bad news.

Bad news is the Refuge has a small crack in the corner looks like some on threw a box on-top of my aquarium supplys i had in the shed. so i looked around and brought out my CPR Bac-Pac to help reduce some of the excessive nutrients in the tank in conjunction with doing 2 partial water changes weekly for the time being. Should i add a small bad of Carbon for a few days? 3-7 days?

i think i going to cut my lighting completely off for a few weeks. There is no more corals so i have nothing to worry about any more, i don't think.

Some more bad news, also from me putting my hands inside the tank and doing my water changes i think i may have stressed the fish a little; i have not seen the six-line and the clown i just seen scratch on the side of the glass.

i threw in another maxi jet 600 on my wave maker long with my 1200 and 900 to give a little more flow inside the tank. i believe along with the protein skimmer i just may have enough movement for my 30g.

i thew away my old flake food and water testing agents for the simple reasons it was super old stuff. my refractor says i just a smidgen high on the specific gravity @ 1.031
i left room for error this go around cause it has not been changed in so long and i found it was a little high about 1.034Sg when i came home; So on my way to the store tonight i am going to get a bottle of distilled water and put in there, That should bring it down a little more. I plan to do another water change about Tues or Wed By ten it be as close to 1.026 Sg as possible.

Also since i been working on my Tank i have found that my Heater is broken. but the Temp stays about room temp at a steady 72-74 Degrees.

any suggestions would be grateful as-well.

if i can pry my Girlfriends New crama out of her hands long enough i will take some updated shot.