Helllllllllllllp please, my poor tank

[hiccup]

In advance thanks for reading this post. I am about to pull my hair out, I adore and love fish tanks. But since last July I started my first salt water tank( 55 gal). I am having HUGE problems and not a darn fish store around Seattle can tell me how to fix it. Here it is.
First of all I have tested: Nitrates, , phosphates, ph, and specific gravity , and temp is 78. All in normal rang. I have two power heads for my under gravel filter system, and protein skimmer. I have two lights, one consists of four bulbs two 55w blue, and two 65 watts. The other is two 55w. (yes I did reduce the lighting to only the 65watts and 55w blue light)I have only three fishy (Yellow Tang, 2 damsels) and an anemone that is hanging in there since January but hides all the time and always seems dead then comes back.
Now... Since January I’ve had this problem.. Incredible case of red bacteria (algae), its everywhere so I bought chemi clean. It seemed to work a little bit but I had to repeat it a few times. Now I have red, brown and green hairy algae growing. My tank is a mess. I need so much help, I am so new to this so the terminology is even iffy to me. I have reduced lighting, I use to feed them blood worms, they seemed to love them, well i changed that to now briane shrimp. Reduce that to to every other day a cube. Do I need another filtrate system? If so what kind should I use for a 55 gallon tank? And critters to clean, what kind should I buy and how many? yes I don’t have any but a snail and well sea cucumbers must have birthed when the tank was doing better so it seems I have a number of those red things
thanks again for reading

 

[bigarn]

What kind of substrate do you have? The undergravel filtration system has probably turned into a waste factory. I'd get rid of it asap. What kind of lighting ? Do you have powerheads for water movement throughout the tank? Do you overfeed?

 

[ophiura]

Well need to know more specifics on water quality - not just "normal" but actual values for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, alkalinity, calcium, specific gravity....
A lot of this will echo bigarn so sorry for being repetitive where I am -
I agree, your undergravel filter is probably a HUGE problem - not a good choice for a saltwater tank. Also sounds like you have insufficient circulation. What kind of protein skimmer do you have? Do you have live rock? How much and how often (and what) do you feed?
Do you have sand or crushed coral? It is unlikely you have sea cucumbers from the description unless you added them? Can you get a picture?
What sort of lighting do you have? How often do you do water changes and how much...do you siphon the crushed coral (assuming that is what you have with an undergravel filter)? Do you use RO or tap water?

 

[hiccup]

the power heads i have is on the undergravel filtration tubbing, the lights i have are two different units. first one is two sets of 55w blue and two 65 watts.. the next is two 55w. I took out the 55w and reduced the food.

 

[hiccup]

I have crushed coral. The cucumbers (I think) are about inch long and redish looks like stubby earth worm, I could attempt to take a picture but it might take sometime. I have live rock about 40lbs of it. The protein skimmer is Sea Clone 100.

 

[bigarn]

OK, that's a start .... now read our posts throughally and try to answer all the questions the best you can.

OOPS ... you posted again.. sorry. How about exact recent water parameters?

 

[ophiura]

Also, how long are the lights on, and how old are the bulbs? Do you know how many gallons/hour the power heads are?

 

[hiccup]

You guys rock, thanks for this help.
Well the water changes, I just started last month I have done two of them with tap water. I’ve never siphoned out the coral. Lets see the tests levels are this.. Alkalinity= 4.5, nitrite =0, ph=8.2and phosphate= 0 ( this is what it was last monday). now the bulbs and lights are about 3 months old. I dont know how good the power heads are, i bought them used ( 550 it saids ono the top of them)

 

[hiccup]

You guys rock, thanks for this help.
Well the water changes, I just started last month I have done two of them with tap water. I’ve never siphoned out the coral. Lets see the tests levels are this.. Alkalinity= 4.5, nitrite =0, ph=8.2and phosphate= 0 ( this is what it was last monday). now the bulbs and lights are about 3 months old. I dont know how good the power heads are, i bought them used ( 550 it saids ono the top of them) opise and lights are on about 9-10 hours

 

[hiccup]

I think I answerd the above ones ( I hope) anything I miss? You wouldnt blieve that the pet store ower told me to get the under gravel and the stupid gravel.
thanks so much

 

[ophiura]

I am afraid to tell you that your tank will need, IMO, a major overhaul, removing the undergravel filter and potentially replacing the substrate. Waste accumulates under those plates. At the very least, you need to do far more water changes (is it true you've only started recently?!?!?!?!?!?! in a year old tank???).
Do you have a nitrate reading?
Minimum to start:
Water changes (at least 30% a month, maybe more in this case...15% a week or so maybe).
Use RO water!!!!! NOT tape water!!!
Siphon the crushed coral during your water changes.

 

[hiccup]

could you tell me what does IMO means and substrate ( im feeling stupid ). Should i just remove the underwater gravel system and get another filter. and should i remove the gravel and get sand? Embarssing enough yes to me a newbie is a year old in this stuff. I just recently had a baby, so i was dealing with my pregancy and not my tank. But i tried just the pet stores ive went to never even stated the things you both did in the last 5 mins.

 

[bigarn]

The best advice I can offer is to remove the CC and undergravel filter. It'll be alot of work and just like starting over, but well worth it in the long run. Get LS and some good LR and let the tank cycle again. Be sure you have a good test kit for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates for starters. This is just what I'd do... you might get other valuable opinions.
Good Luck

IMO = In My Opinion
Substrate is the sand or gravel at the bottom of the tank.

 

[hiccup]

what does your abbveations stand for? and what filteration should i get?

 

[bigarn]

Originally Posted by hiccup
what does your abbveations stand for? and what filteration should i get?

CC=Crushed Coral
LR=Live Rock
LS=Live Sand
Sorry, I'll leave the filter question up to the experts. I'm a Nano guy.

 

[trainfever]

Until you are able to completely remove the UGF=under gravel filter, I would move the PH=powerheads away form the UGF. By leaving the PH connected to the UGF, you are just making things worse. Keep the PH but only for water circulation. For filtration it depends on how much money you want to invest. The cheapest and quickest way would be to just buy a power filter. These are the boxes that hang on the back of your tank. There are more filter options but it depends on your limitations. Do you have space under your tank for a sump? or a wet/dry filter? or a refugium? We need to know more about your set up and intentions to help you better.

 

[hiccup]

well i have a place under the tamk for a sump, i was starting looking into them. what is a wet / dry filter or refugium, i have always wanted to ask that. My intentions is to have a coral reef someday. any of you know what the pale red inch worm things are in my gravel are?
thanks

 

[ophiura]

Hard to tell without a picture. maybe bristleworms.
I would suggest at this point that you read through the threads at the top of this forum for new hobbyists, advice, etc...and also read through some of the threads in the Archive forum. Those may help with some terminology too.

 

[murph145]

most people have major cases of algae break out due to excessive nutrients in the water.... ie nitrates and phosphates.... i didnt read to see if you were checking for phosphates yet?? phosphates come into your aquarium through different sources.... first through doing water changes using tap water... tap water contains many heavy metals and bad elements for saltwater tanks.... u always need to use distilled water when doing water changes... i had a case of red slime algae brown diatom and hair algae break out about 3-4 months ago and my tank has been up and running for over 2 years... eneded up being phosphates in my case due to overfeeding and the fish waste also contains phosphates since phosphate is basically a product of manuer or crap lol... so i would get a phos test too.... there are many ways to reduce this from water changes to less feeding to adding sponges and filter medias to remove the phosphates from the water... i sude phosguard and it removed it right away and i have no more algae at all...
as for a filter most people here either run a sump where they keep extra live rock or macro algae to help reduce the nitrates... more or less a natural filter system.. or others use some type of canister/wheel filter.... i use 2 fluval 404's on my 100g reef and run a high grade activated carbon to keep the water crystal clear and remove all impurities... this filter process has worked well for me
pretty much every one agrees the under gravel filter is bad so i would also toss that....
as for a filter you could get a canister filter such as a fluval 304 or 404 and that should be a lot better and easier maintenance.... u should also consider getting some sort of hang on back skimmer which helps eliminate much of the fish waste before it has a chance to go through the whole nitrate cycle...
once ur tank has stabilized i would add the lights back .... lighting really doesnt change the fact that algae is going to be in your tank.... the only thing it does is promote algae to grow if the conditions are right .... once your tank is stable u should be able to have your lights on all day if u wanted too...
i would also look into a good clean up crew for your tank.... some more snails and hermits they really do a great job keeping tanks clean....
i hope this helped some what ...
good luck! :jumping:

 

[bigarn]

Good Advice Ophiura. I second it.