I need some help people!

[ALexpsycho]

Dear users I have a 55lt nano reef running for since august.I use crashed coral for sand bed I have a eheim 2213 for filter and a DIY as hang up filter on the cover of my tank I also use a protein skimmer running 24/day and I provide with oxygen my nano using an air stone to drop the gKh levels(now is 12).My tank has ended cycling prosses and I used some live rock for that.I have about 7,5 kg of fiji live rock with a red mushroom some polyps,zoos and some feather dusters.Everything was going realy well so I finally added a red fire shrimp and a pair of clown fishes.The setup was looking fantastic and healthy.My salinity is 1.021 and the temperature was stable enough for a nano-reef(78F).I overfeed one day with cyclops and after a day I descovered that my shrimp was laying in the sand bed dead.I have a DIY lighting system with 3 arcadia 15W lamps 2 marine white and 1 marine blue.I use a timer swich to run my lighting system.The macro algae was growing enormously on the rocks.It was looking like jungle in there.So I bought some surgical equipment to remove the unwanted macros to free some of the life on the rocks that was hiding from the light and could not grow any more.When I was cutting,the macros were releasing some blue thing(liquid form) that poluted my tank.The next day my clowns were dead.I don`t know what happened.I just got mad and teribly sad.Now I am just running my tank with activated carbon inside the filter to clear and stabilize the system.I ordered a 30lt sump and I want to tranfer the macro algae there so in the future when I will collect my pieces and decide to add some livestock again I won`t have the same problem again.What do you guys do when you want to shave your macros.I am very desperate and I dont know what to do.I have about 3 kinds of macros.Penicillus bushes Caulerpaceae green algae and a a green macro that looks like hair and is getting longer and longer.I can`t stand looking at it any more.Please help!!!!!!!!!!

[xoshagsox]

For a reef tank, try to get your salinity to 1.025. It'll be better for you corals. Also, you said that you were running an eheim for filtration. How long have you had it running. It might have collected a lot of detirus while it was being used. That could up the levels of nitrates in your tank. Did you test for ammonia, nitrite, or nitrates? Those will help determine what is going on in the tank.

[ALexpsycho]

My ammonia levels are normal.Also my nitrites and nitrates.The problem is the macro algae that is getting bigger and bigger and it is covering 1/4 of my tank.The macro algae in fact eats all the nitrite and nitrate and is growing very fast,making my nano looks like a jungle! My eheim is running for about 2 months now and I clean it up every 3 weeks.I also use substrate and efhimech inside the filter and activated carbon pad that I replace every 2 weeks.What do you man do when you shave your macros ?

[NEVER SATISFIED REFFER]

My ammonia levels are normal.Also my nitrites and nitrates.The problem is the macro algae that is getting bigger and bigger and it is covering 1/4 of my tank.The macro algae in fact eats all the nitrite and nitrate and is growing very fast,making my nano looks like a jungle! My eheim is running for about 2 months now and I clean it up every 3 weeks.I also use substrate and efhimech inside the filter and activated carbon pad that I replace every 2 weeks.What do you man do when you shave your macros ?

 

 

sounds like u got high phosphates, thats what makes algae grow. its coming from those types of media u have in that filter. I would do some major water changes and add rowaphos media to the filter only, carbon leaches ph back into the tank. thats why when i use it i remove it after a few days. and ur sal should be 1.025, dont care who told u what, thats where it needs to be. I assume ur using a ro filter to make ur saltwater to right???

[c est ma]

Do you have a "clean up crew," such as a variety of snails and maybe a hermit crab or two?

 

You may also want to cut down on your photoperiod. If your lights are on 12 hours/day, try reducing it to 10 hours/day while you have algae problems.

 

--Diane

[reffer9391]

Cutting out lights are the best way for algea problems. Once all levels are back to a safe range. (including all the stuff a test kit doesnt have like phosphates I would get a clean up crew before you try and more shrimp or fish they cost more $.

[Six]

15 gallons of water should be able to house two small common clowns (percs or ocellaris) for a while at least.

 

The only qualms I'd have are:

 

crushed coral has jagged edges and will thus collect detritus easily. Anthony Calfo gave a speech at a convention once about tank set ups and how 'sharper' grains will hold in and collect dirt easier. it's better to have a 'rounder' substrate, like sand. You will have probalems down the road with nitrates when using crushed coral, depsding on grain size and how much you *want* to vacuum the aquarium substrate. (we all know no one wants to do that )

 

You're pruning a single celled macro algae and it is releasing its internal structure into the aquarium and thus basicaly acting like it is "going sexual". you get invasive growth from the cuts on the algae, a cloudy tank, and it growing EVERYWHERE. Although I'd seriously doubt with all that filtration, an eheim is a lot of 15 gallons and a skimmer to boot, the algae bloom was to blame for the fish deaths.

 

Did you leave any of your surgical instruments in the tank? i dunno if they would relase a metalic substance, but it is possible.

 

You're probably getting your fist macro growth spurt from nitates being up, then the pruning will have made it worse. although without a water test it's hard to say, but nothing youre describing as happenings in and to the tank should have killed anything. i'd look at the water quality and fix that as needed.

 

get the caulerpa out, burn it, literally as it's invasive, and get some cheatomorpha, gracilaria, or kelp as a macroalgae instead, if you want it.

 

 

HTH-GL

6

[ALexpsycho]

Dear users!Thanks for the reply`s.I`am working on a 30lt sump to add some more filtration in the tank.I am planning to tranfer all the macro algae there in order to control it better.The surgical equipment is 100% for surgical use.That means that it is made from noble metals,stainless not possible to oxydize in a salt water tank,and to consume any damage.While prunning the Caulerpaceae was releasing white liquid and the peniculus blue!!!Now that I`ve lost my poor little fishes I am seeing a lot of tiny pods eating the algae from the glass.I didn`t know that I had any pods! I am going to raise the salinity of my tank to 1,025 as told.The crashed coral looks very good and the only problem that I had was while cycling the tank, I had diatomics and it was a bit brown ,but after 2 weeks the diatomics dissapeared and the tank was fine again.Now it has a bit of green algae that can be removed with a vacuum cleaner and for me cleaning my tank is not a problem at all.The sand of course has better behavior in a tank (my 200lt fresh water tank that has sand instead of gravel and doesn`t need a vacuum cleaner at all). I`ve reduced the time of photoperiod as told.The tank is not cloudy and looks very clean.My tests have shown NO2 0,1 and NO3 low (<1mg/lt) and ammonia levels low.For PO4 I don`t have any tests since I`ve used rena phosfate removal stars in the hang up filter that is returning the water back to the tank from the external filter,but I `ve ordered a red see reef tank lab test including Phosphate

-Nitrate

-Calcium

-Calcium

-Strontium

-Molybdenum

-Iodine

-Trace & Green

That could be enough for making measurments before adding any livestock again?

Thanks for your time people!

[Six]

Sometimes even "low" ammonia will cause some major fish health problems in sea water.

 

Sounds like youre back on track. I'd give it a few weeksn just to let the pod population grow. they are great scavengers and detritivors. When you have any fish in the tank their numbers automatically go down. A refugium is a great idea.

 

GL! and youre welcome.

6

[ALexpsycho]

I`ve already bought a seachem ammonia sensor and already installed in the tank! Waiting for the results !

 

My regards user Six!

[reffer9391]

Get the crushed coral out too trust us you will regreat it on down the road.

[ALexpsycho]

Now that my tank is running how can I change the coral with live sand?

[Six]

I would just get as much of the crushed coral out as you can. it's OK to have a little. then buy some live sand and add it slowly. you dont have to have your sand bed situated in one day, although that does mean you'll have to wait until the cloudyness, which is normal when you move sand or CC, to disipate before adding any new livestock.

 

GL

[ALexpsycho]

I have the sand! tomorow my refugium is ready!I need to get rid of the macroalgae that is growing on my live rocks.How to clean my live rock from them?and to maintain the live on the rocks...

[Six]

it's not going to work 100%, but i'd get a bucket and fill it 1/4-1/2 with tank water. then take the rock out and rip the caulerpa off, but the macro in a trashbag and then dip the rinse the rock in the water. depending on how long it will take you to go through all the rock, i'd just put the 'cleaned' rock in another empty bucket, no water unless there's a finiky coral growing on it. (most soft croal can withstand being out of the water, some sps also although i personally wouldnt me comfortable keeping sps out of the water for long.)

 

thats what i'd do. you'll get most of the macro off and keep most of it from coming back. when it does come back, take the rock out, prune it, maybe scrub the area with a toothbrush if its repetatively growing at a certain spot, rinse and put back.

 

usually you can prune in the tank, but it sounds like you've had bad luck with that.

 

GL

6

[ALexpsycho]

Dear friends.I did a lot of work in my nano since my last post.My refugium is ready but not installed yet,and so is the water to fill it with.I also got 10kg of live sand.The happy news is that my red fire shrimp gave me a birth before she died!!!! I have about 7-8 tiny red fire shrimps in my tank growing up!!!I also got my live rock cleaned from the macro algae that was covered(got it out of the tank and pulled it out with surgical equipment)The result is that my tank looks very healthy!I think that when I finally install the refugium it will be even better.Now that I have those tiny little shrimps growing HOW CAN I ADD THE SAND?I want to replace the crashed coral with the sand and to put some of the coral in the refugium...Could please anyone give me some ideas about how can I make this possible and not to lose any shrimps?

[Six]

fire shrimp are easier to raise than cleaner shrimp fry, but they are still almost impoassible unless you are QTing and feeding regularly.

 

honestly i'm guessing you've got mysis shrimp in the tank which resemble what could be baby fire shrimp. did you have a pair of fire shrimp? because they need a partner to spawn. if you just had one, you're seeing mysis shrimp for sure. they come on live rock.

 

if you still think they are fire shrimp, and really want to raise them, i wouldnt add sand, they may get squashed and or accidently muffled in the storm.

 

tho, like i said, i seriously doubt they are fire shrimp fry. those animals wouldnt be $50 a pop if they were that easy to breed.

 

GL

[ALexpsycho]

What if I install the refugium with the live sand that I already have.And not to remove anything from the main tank for about 2-3 months...Is it safe now to raise the salinity to 1.025?Soon I`ll post some pics of the fry.

[Six]

ok, i see. sorry i must have misread, lol.

 

that should be fine then. as for the SG do it slowly and you'll be fine.

 

GL

[ALexpsycho]

I am cycling the refugium! already added live sand and filled 3/4 of the tank with water! The tank looks realy cloudy now.My sensor tells me that the water is ammonia safe. The salinity inside the refugium is 1.023 and in the main tank is 1.021-22...I guess that when the cloud goes away I can install the refugium on the main tank.Everything is ready and a powerhead and a heater is taken place inside the refugium.I am waiting for the right time.How many days does a tank with salt water and live sand to be stabilized?