Back From Vacation To A Brown And Dead Tank!!!!!

bluephi115

bluephi115

Member
So I get back from vacation to find my 75 gal aquarium covered in brown algae. I searched for my sally light foot crab, emerald crab, and anenome crab and they are all gone....5 of my 10 hermits died......the brown is all over my live rock and walls. All I have remaining is a coral banded shrimp a cc starfish and 5 hermits. WHAT HAPPENED!!!! Why the brown algae and HOW do I get rid of it. Everything was great and all the levels were about perfect before I left!
I dont know I am enjopying this hobby in the least.
SOMEONE PLEASE HELP!
 
bluephi115

bluephi115

Member
thanks for all the help!!!
I have sunk $1200 into this hobby in just 10 or 12 weeks...what a waste! Everything I get dies like this!
 
squidd

squidd

Active Member
Hey, lighten up a bit...
Sounds like a new tank, probably not compleatly cycled
all the levels were about perfect before I left!
meaning what, they weren't yet "0s" across the board...? Probably an ammonia spike killed the crabs..did you feed heavy before you left...?
The brown crud is diatoms and common in new tanks...would have showed up even if you stayed home, and should eventually go away on it's own as long as your using RO water for top offs and WCs..
 
bluephi115

bluephi115

Member
why would it still be cycling after 10-12 weeks? I dont get it. Lighten up a bit? Sorry, but I keep sinking money into this thing and it is getting worse...everytime I ask I get a million in one responses so its hard to really know what is right. My tank fully cycled so I added this $100 cleaning crew last month and now most of it is dead.
Should I scrape the brown off and then water change??
 
mikeyjer

mikeyjer

Active Member
We got the brown algae at first too, it took about 3-4 months before it all went away. It would take you probably up to 6 months before everything is in good shape. Things like this happen. Sorry to hear about your loss.
 
squidd

squidd

Active Member
why would it still be cycling after 10-12 weeks? I don't get it.
Sounds like you don't have any fish in the tank yet...so what have you been doing to "maintain" the populations of biological bacteria and keep the tank from going through another cycle...?
Scrape the brown off the glass, blow it off the rocks with a turkey baster or power head to get it suspended and then run fresh carbon in your filter to "polish" the water to crystal clear...
Regular partial water changes with aged and aerated SW, salinity, pH and temp adjusted are always a good idea and should be part of a regular maintenance schedual...
Do you have/use an RO filter (or buy RO water) for WCs and top off...?
Have you tested the tank levels lately...?
And really, what have you done to maintain healthy levels of biological bacteria in the tank...the population levels will rise and fall (self adjust) to the level of food they have to process...if the current levels were low and excess food was added, a secondary "spike" could have occured...
Did you feed heavy before you left...? Did you have someone come in to feed the tank while you were gone...? Did you leave them a "premeasured" amount of food to feed or did you leave them on their own...?
The delicate ecosystem of a Young tank is prone to some pretty wild swings until they mature and become a bit more stable and forgiving...and as the experience of the new aquariest increases, the "frustrations" proportionally decrease..
It'll get better...just hang in there...
 
bluephi115

bluephi115

Member
Sounds like you don't have any fish in the tank yet...so what have you been doing to "maintain" the populations of biological bacteria and keep the tank from going through another cycle...?
I placed two damsels in 3 weeks ago and they got ick! I was told to take them out and quarentine for one month.
Do you have/use an RO filter (or buy RO water) for WCs and top off...?
I dont have a clue what you are talking about...sorry. I have a very large carbon filter. The water I am using to refill and fill is tap water with chemicals to remove all minerals and such and also use proper 8.2 ph and salt to 1.25.
Have you tested the tank levels lately...?
last week before I left and everythign was fine............I JUST got home from vacation.
And really, what have you done to maintain healthy levels of biological bacteria in the tank...the population levels will rise and fall (self adjust) to the level of food they have to process...if the current levels were low and excess food was added, a secondary "spike" could have occured...
I add only two small shrimp pellets daily and typically the cc star eats those. I added two damsels and got ick within a day! so really...what else am i supposed to do.
Did you feed heavy before you left...? Did you have someone come in to feed the tank while you were gone...? Did you leave them a "premeasured" amount of food to feed or did you leave them on their own...?
YES someone fed the tank two small shrimp pellets and turned lights on and off daily.
 
E

exile415

Guest
you should scrape off the algae on the walls
the tap water could be the culprit of why you have this algae. tap water isn't good. It may have copper .. other chems that are bad for saltwater aquariums. I also use r/o DI water for freshwater. It's only .25 cents a gallon at my LFS and grocery stores at my place. it's cheap and it is much better than tap water.
 
E

exile415

Guest
It can actually save you money, you have to buy the liquid chemicals that really just TAKE away chlorine.
 
squidd

squidd

Active Member
RO is Reverse Osmosis filtration a super fine(molecular level) filtration device that removes up to 99% of the impurities from Tap water..including "silicates" a leading cause of Diatom outbreaks...Most Tap water anywhere in the country will test high in silicates...
Damsels are pretty hardy fish and usually aren't prone to Ick, unlesss they were highly stressed and/or had it when you got them..How are they doing now, in QT...? Are you doing anything to "treat" them..hypo..copper..?
 
mikeyjer

mikeyjer

Active Member
Originally Posted by Squidd
RO is Reverse Osmosis filtration a super fine(molecular level) filtration device that removes up to 99% of the impurities from Tap water..including "silicates" a leading cause of Diatom outbreaks...Most Tap water anywhere in the country will test high in silicates...
Damsels are pretty hardy fish and usually aren't prone to Ick, unlesss they were highly stressed and/or had it when you got them..How are they doing now, in QT...? Are you doing anything to "treat" them..hypo..copper..?
I agree with this post saying that Damsels are hardy fish. Something else must be going on with your tank. You can buy premixed water at *****, it's like $5.99 for 5 gallon. DI is Distilled water. When you add RO water (Quoting this from Doctor's Choice) it CAN lower PH level. IT IS written inside. Someone else from this forum says to top it off with RO water without buffer until we read that quote last night from the new magazine we got in the mail yesterday. If it's small amount top offs would be ok, but PH and other levels should be tested often. Good Luck!
 
squidd

squidd

Active Member
DI usually refers to "De-Ionized" water, a filtration process (ion level) that can remove the 1-2% impurities left from RO...
 
puffer32

puffer32

Active Member
So you cycled your tank with damsels? Are you sure your tank cycled before you added the cleanup crew? If not, then thats what killed them, and cycling with the damsels might have given them ich if they were stressed from it. You haven't posted your numbers, what is your ammonia, trites and trates? salinity? Every thing needs to be almost perfect for inverts, and i suspect they weren't. The algae is from your tap water, no matter what you put in the tap to get rid of chemicals, it judt doesn't completely. Check your numbers, do a large water change with RO water and if your tank is truely cycled get some algae eaters to help get rid of it.
 
robert dri

robert dri

Member
Bluephi -
If I could recommend a book that really helped me in the beginning. And it is availabe on this site (for much cheaper than I paid)
THE SIMPLE GUIDE TO MARINE AQUARIUMS
By: JEFFERY KURTZ
 
lennon

lennon

Member
Another GREAT book is "The Conscientious Aquarist" By Fenner.
Great book with TONS of info. Many here would swear by it..I do too
 
bluephi115

bluephi115

Member
thanks for all the help everyone!!! I will post my water levels tomorrow and we can see what changed. I have the two damsels in a quarentine with a copper treatment and they are doing great! One more week...maybe haha.
The lfs checks my water levels for me anytime I need.
 
squidd

squidd

Active Member
The lfs checks my water levels for me anytime I need.

I will post my water levels tomorrow
Except for when you needed the information last night .... and today they are closed...
I highly recommend you spend a couple more dollars to protect your already costly investment by purchasing your OWN set of test kits and testing on an "as needed" basis, rather than when it's convenient for the LFS (their hours) or waiting till you have the chance to get a sample down to them...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top