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Innovative Marine Aquariums

Anyone want to take a stab at this?


cityreefer

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So I've already survived dinos in my tank (running for 20 months) and this doesn't look like that did. Open to ideas here: GHA? Cyano? Diatoms? Dinos again? Other?

 

I recently noticed that my powerhead and return pump wasn't really strong so I cleaned them out about 5 days ago. Had to replace the pump but thats another story. My mushrooms have gone from the size of half dollars to the size of an eraser on a pencil. Acan is almost all bone now, zoa's have been colsed for almost 2 weeks now. Anemone is doing alright oddly enough. Frog spawn hasn't fully opened in weeks.

 

Ph 8.2

Ammonia 0

Nitrite 0

Nitrate 0

Phosphates 0

Calcium 540ppm

Alkalinity 7

Salinity 1.022

Temp 77.8

RO/DI water 0 TDS

Istant Ocean Reef Crystals

Running a skimmer, ChemPure Elite x2, Purigen x2, filter floss x2, PhosGuard x1

 

 

 

 

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Well with that much cyano it would consume all of your nitrates. Whats your water change schedule like. Also light cycle.

Interesting point.

Mostly water changes on the tank were done every 3 weeks. Sad to say I had gone about 5 1/2 weeks after moving the tank before I did a water change. Now I've done 3 water changes in the last 4 weeks. I have the lights running on higher intensity for about 5 hours a day now. I just treated it with red slime remover last night as this was my best guess.

 

Specific reason your keeping salinity so low?

Honestly this was by accident. What happens when you do your water changes while intoxicated... I have it up to 1.0235 after my last water change.

 

Further disclosure:

Those stats were taken prior to my last WC this past weekend. One thing I did notice was that in my bucket of ATO water the TDS was up to 29 (before my last water change). Could this be a factor? Currently I'm keeping an eye on this. I also used some Aiptasia-X on a bunch of rocks when I did that WC after 5 1/5 weeks... Probably wasn't a smart idea on my part.

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NorthGaHillbilly

Interesting point.

Mostly water changes on the tank were done every 3 weeks. Sad to say I had gone about 5 1/2 weeks after moving the tank before I did a water change. Now I've done 3 water changes in the last 4 weeks. I have the lights running on higher intensity for about 5 hours a day now. I just treated it with red slime remover last night as this was my best guess.

 

Honestly this was by accident. What happens when you do your water changes while intoxicated... I have it up to 1.0235 after my last water change.

 

Further disclosure:

Those stats were taken prior to my last WC this past weekend. One thing I did notice was that in my bucket of ATO water the TDS was up to 29 (before my last water change). Could this be a factor? Currently I'm keeping an eye on this. I also used some Aiptasia-X on a bunch of rocks when I did that WC after 5 1/5 weeks... Probably wasn't a smart idea on my part.

Hell man, Ive done worse. Throw some salt in your ATO bucket and let that help bring it up slow. The TDS could be an issue, your own RO system?

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Hell man, Ive done worse. Throw some salt in your ATO bucket and let that help bring it up slow. The TDS could be an issue, your own RO system?

I've got the 4 stage RO/DI system from bulk reef supply. What do you keep your salinity at?

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NorthGaHillbilly

I've got the 4 stage RO/DI system from bulk reef supply. What do you keep your salinity at?

I keep it at 1.026, with an ATO theres not much risk of it getting too high. Id change out your filters on the RO, dont know if thats your problem, but couldnt hurt. Might see about adding a DI stage too

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I keep it at 1.026, with an ATO theres not much risk of it getting too high. Id change out your filters on the RO, dont know if thats your problem, but couldnt hurt. Might see about adding a DI stage too

It actually has a DI stage. I replaced everything in it about 4 months ago too.

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NorthGaHillbilly

It actually has a DI stage. I replaced everything in it about 4 months ago too.

weird, any chance the tds are coming from the top off container

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Running a skimmer, ChemPure Elite x2, Purigen x2, filter floss x2, PhosGuard x1

 

May I ask why you have resorted to using so many products designed to strip the water of elements/nutrients, many of which the corals need? Your corals and other higher organisms are deprived of the elements they need to survive and their death and decay is providing sustenance for the red cyanobacteria...and as you can see they can survive in conditions where higher organisms can not.

 

Now that you now know what is happening, what would you propose to steer the system back towards a healthy environment for higher organisms?

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So what would you suggest I bring my filtration down to? I have an IM Nuvo 16. To be honest I could certainly believe I'm over filtering because I had better luck when I started and only used the innovative marine filters an no skimmer even.

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So what would you suggest I bring my filtration down to? I have an IM Nuvo 16. To be honest I could certainly believe I'm over filtering because I had better luck when I started and only used the innovative marine filters an no skimmer even.

 

There you go. Once your system is back in balance the skimmer is plenty, but even that is not necessary if water changes are performed regularly and feeding is correct for the bioload present. Finding the right balance for your tank is key and that can be a challenging task, but very much worth it once you succeed.

 

If I were in your shoes, I'd perhaps keep the skimmer in operation and do weekly water changes with detritus removal and daily cyano mat removal. I'd remove any decaying organisms ASAP and I'd LIGHTLY feed any remaining corals 3x/week with high quality foods to help them regain vigor. I'd try to keep ALL parameters as stable as possible and I'd be very observant of all organisms in the tank to gage if things were improving. I'd also have lots of patience since improvements don't usually happen over night.

 

As the tank conditions start to improve think about a maintenance plan that you can implement and also how to balance your inputs (food) against exports (water changes/detritus removal/skimming). Here's an example of my unfiltered tank's maintenance plan that I wrote up a while back that that I still follow today:

 

http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/327364-maintenance-and-the-nano-reef-tank/?hl=maintenance

 

Without it, I wouldn't have a thriving mixed reef tank 6+ years later :)

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