Going on Vacation ... need your thoughts

[midland texas]

This Saturday I am leaving on a 7 day vacation, I have a 180gal saltwater aquarium that is cycling as we speak, I have no life in it, just brown algae, its not completely gone. I am not sure if I should leave the LED lights on the whole time I am gone or should I just leave them off?

Thanks for your input

 

[jay0705]

Leave um off

 

[Jesterrace]

Definitely leave them off. Otherwise you will have an insane algae bloom waiting for you when you get home. It sounds like your tank is about at the end of the cycle and the algae would likely disappear in a few days anyways. The lack of light won't hurt anything at this point since it would just be live rock/sand and water.

 

[midland texas]

Ok so I am back from vacation and now my tank is completely clear. there are no signs of the brown algae anywhere. thou there is some mossy gray stuff on one live rock. looks like dust on the mossy but none anywhere else.
Now in my refugium on the other hand is like crazy brown. I have several kinds of green red and other leafy green in there. I left the Red/Blue LED light on the whole time. it looks great as far as the green algae goes and I did see of creatures in there, they look like shrimp but the size of a sugar ant. very small. (possibly copepods)? the brown is also on the green algae as well. is that ok or normal?
and would my refugium cycle by itself? separate from my DT?

My nitrates are like 180 ammonia is 0-.05
salinity is 1.027
temp is 73 with no heater in any part of my system.

would if be ok to add a CUC now? my tank is 180gal tall. I was thinking of buying $163.00 CUC package today or tomorrow. Mostly thinking of shrimp crabs and snails, maybe a starfish or something like that. then next week add some fish.

any thoughts welcome thanks...

 

[jay0705]

You have to watch the shrimp and stars with ammonia

 

[Jesterrace]

The Ammonia should be 0 and the nitrates at 0 if it is truly done cycling. I would say it's not done yet if you still have a trace of Ammonia and 180 on the nitrates (that is really high, I start getting nervous around 20).

 

[lmforbis]

I'd agree the nitrates are too high. I don't worry till they go above 50. They won't go to zero alone. It will take a couple large water changes to bring them down low enough. This won't bring them to zero though. You definitely don't want any measurable ammonia. Often people challenge the bacteria with an ammonia source to make sure it goes away fast.

 

[Jesterrace]

I'd agree the nitrates are too high. I don't worry till they go above 50. They won't go to zero alone. It will take a couple large water changes to bring them down low enough. This won't bring them to zero though. You definitely don't want any measurable ammonia. Often people challenge the bacteria with an ammonia source to make sure it goes away fast.

For a tank that has no life in it though it seems odd that his nitrates are so high unless it's not done cycling and the fact that he still has trace ammonia says it isn't done yet. I would be curious to see what he is getting for nitrites.

 

[lmforbis]

With out knowing what the starting materials are it would be hard to know. Did he start with dry rock? Lots of dead stuff to cause ammonia ending with nitrates.
Did he dump a raw shrimp or two in to rot. A lot of unknowns involved. If you could describe how you set up the tank, how you started the cycle, how you fed the bacteria, etc it would help us figure out what is going on.

 

[midland texas]

I had the aquarium for a few years with live sand and live rock, everything was going great till I had several tank crashes. I had the aquarium sitting in my living room for the last 1 1/2 years, just sitting. no life no lights, no water circulation. when the water would start to evaporate I would always refill with tap water to keep the seals from drying out and the keep the rock and sand wet.
About 2 or 3 months ago I turned everything back on. and let it circulate and turned on the lights for 12 hours a day. pumps, powerheads, the whole bit. when I tested the water at that time it was surprising.
ammonia was 0 nitrites 0 nitrates 200+ salinity 1.027 temp. with no heater was 73*.

during this period ( the first month) I rearranged the rock and kept stirring up the sand to clean the sediments and re-level the sand.

then after a month or so I let it run...lights on water circulating and all that. that brings me to my current spot.

about 3 or weeks ago I went to LFS and purchased a 12LB live rock and set it in the middle of my tank. very soon after that the tank started to cycle and the brown algae was everywhere. the day before I went on vacation Aug 5th, I turned off the lights and was gone for a week. when I came back the tank was spotless of brown algae. but my refugium where I have green algae (chateo) growing I left the LED light on. and that was brown with algae.

two days ago I did a 30gal water exchange. and have CUC in the mail on its way.

I haven't checked the water since I did the water change I wanted to give it time to circulate, I will check it this afternoon.

hope this helps a bit, let me know if you need more info.

 

[lmforbis]

All the stirred up old sand is likely the source of the nitrates. Are you still using tap water to mix your salt water? Additionally all that time of just topping off not changing water will cause nitrates phosphates and other waste products to build up.
I dealt with brown algae for months after I moved everything over to a bigger tank. I will never use old sand again. In my case it was cyanogen bacteria. It is often red. It can also be green to brown. It tends to get better with no lights is is most often found where there is less flow.
I don't remember how big your tank is. I'd suggest several large water changes (25-50%) to start to make a dent in the issue. With nitrates that high you will have algae.

 

[midland texas]

I am currently using RO water, my tank size is 180Gal tall . the refugium is 75gal of which I have partitioned it into 50 / 25 the 50 side has the return pump and the protein skimmer, the 25 side has the green algae and the LED lights to help it grow.

 

[midland texas]

So I got home and checked my water levels. They are:

Salinaty was 1.027 now 1.023
Ammonia was 0 - .05 now 0
Nitrates was 0 now 0
Nitrates was 200+ now 160-180
And the brown algae is starting to grow again

 

[lmforbis]

As long as your nitrates are high you have food for the algae. I'd work on doing large water changes and nurturing the macro algae in your fudge. They will come down but it may take a while. don't add any animals until the nitrates are much lower.

 

[midland texas]

ok, but I have a CUC coming today in the mail. any tips on what I can do to salvage them. I don't trust my LFS
would it make a difference if I put all my return water from the DT into the algae part of my refugium? I have the ability to divert the water. I have a small amount of water going to the algae part and the rest is going into the section with the protein skimmer. my water pump is 1350gal. model 600 quiet one.

 

[lmforbis]

In the long term more flow to the fuge would help. It will take a while though for the algae to remove the nitrates already there and any new that may develop.
If you could set up another tank (can be small like 5 gal) and put the cuc in there with a hob filter a heater and a rock from the tank you can keep them in there until nitrates are lower. Then you can use that as a QT for future fish so you don't introduce diseases.
You could remove all or most of the sand to get rid of the source of the nitrates. This would probably be where I'd start.
Continue with 25-50%water changes. That is a lot of salt water but the larger the change the faster the nitrates will fall.

If I was in your situation I would start by removing as much of the sand as I could. I'd replace it with new sand. I don't use live sand just regular argonite sand, not too fine though because it will fly all over at every disturbance. I would then drain the water and start re filling with new salt water. Because you only topped off the tank with tap water for a couple years all kinds of other contaminants will have built up over that time. since only the water evaporates the trace minerals, metals, and Other pollutants stayed in the tank and every top off adds more. During this time I'd house the cuc in something else. Once you have enough new salt water in the tank, doesn't have to be more than a couple inches deep, you should be able to add the cuc. They will be fine as you slowly make and add more water.

 

[midland texas]

OK I will get started on that. I have a 55gal drum I am not sure on how clean it is I had it sitting in my garage for a long time. but was thinki could use a plastic drum liner and go to my local RO store and get some good water to start with. would using a trash bag liner be ok to use? I just don't trust the drum by itself. I have a cover that will secure it and I can then just syphon it into the aquarium and add salt to it.

what do you think?

 

[lmforbis]

I wouldn't use the drum. You can get a couple brut trash cans pretty cheap. Mix the salt water first then add to the tank.

 

[beaslbob]

This Saturday I am leaving on a 7 day vacation, I have a 180gal saltwater aquarium that is cycling as we speak, I have no life in it, just brown algae, its not completely gone. I am not sure if I should leave the LED lights on the whole time I am gone or should I just leave them off?

Thanks for your input

I would put the lights on a timer. But that's just me and my
.02