help, i'm dying

[ophiura]

First of all, they should not have been siphoning the sand...a bit counterproductive. Is there a reason they were doing this? Lots of food on the bottom...lots of red slime algae? Anyway, not good...no need to and hence no need to take the tank apart to get to the sand under the rocks. I would suggest that you look into a "deep sand bed" thread, aka DSB. But many people have a few inches, at least, of sand in their tanks including under the rocks. Crushed coral, however, would be different...that needs to be siphoned.
Had they done this recently?
I am worried about dosing with so many products. These same minerals can become toxic in higher concentrations. I recommend doing regular water changes and cutting back on the dosing, except kalkwasser for calcium. Most of these additives are not tested for and are already relatively higher in artificial seawater. Overdosing them can definitely cause issues.

 

[wbradenpt]

sand was siphoned on 10/22, 11/12, and 12/4. so that was a waste of money, huh? since they've not been cleaning the tank properly, what should the cleaning consist of? i usually keep the front and side panes clean using the mag float cleaner anyway. just keep the protein skimmer cup clean, and occasionally clean the filter and maybe vacuum the stuff from the bottom of the sump? let me know, since i'm not sure which things they did were right, and which were wrong.

 

[ophiura]

I should ask how much you feed and how often. Definitely not real good to siphon the live sand...you should have little tiny critters to help do that (or you can buy enrichment packages). Also sand sifting snails will help a lot. Siphoning gunk out of the sump isn't bad but again it may be good to figure out why there is a lot there (if there is).
So we're looking for about a 30% water change a month...you can break this down if desired, but you should really aim for it. Keep the skimmer going well and nice and clean. Make sure tank parameters remain stable (temperature, salinity, etc). The mag float is fine for the algae on the glass. Otherwise there isn't a lot of elbow grease involved like siphoning. Many people just stick a siphon hose in there and let it suck water out.
But gotta run I am afraid. Hopefully someone else will chime in with their typical tank maint. stuff!

 

[msd2]

Originally posted by wbradenpt
i use quite a few of the kent supplements, like iodine, strontium, essential elements, coralvite, tech cb buffer a and b, calcium. have been using combovite, which is spectravite and blackpowder - supposed to make stuff grow out of live rock.
they were cleaning sand with vaccuum thing.
If your doing regular water changes this could clearly be part of the problem. Any decent salt mix has most of the supplements u listed. And if your changing the water and adding these religiously you could be overdosing your tank. IMHO you need to be testing for the alk of the tank and also bring up or Ca level. Long story short that could partially account for one of the corals problems, he can't pull enough ca out of the water. Do a search for 'balancing table' this will give you a ballpark figure of where you want things. I keep mine around 4.5/460 Here is the info from it:
Alk/ dKH/ Calcium
0.00 0.00 360
0.50 1.40 370
1.00 2.80 380
1.50 4.20 390
2.00 5.60 400
2.50 7.00 410
3.00 8.40 420 (Near sea water)
3.50 9.80 430 (My average)
4.00 11.20 440 (My goal)
4.50 12.60 450
5.00 14.00 460
5.50 15.40 470
6.00 16.80 480 (My goal for my frag tank)
6.50 18.20 490
7.00 19.60 500
You may want to consider making up a few batches of saltwater and after a few days do a water change, then again on the weekend. Reason being if the water has too much additives this will start to bring the down.
As far as maint. its pretty simple, I scrub the acrylic, take a bottle cleaner to the overflow, give the sump/fuge a quick cleaning and that about it. All done monthly except the cleaning of the acrylic. You only vac. the sand if its for display only, if you have a dsb thats a very bad idea to vac. it. It literally damages the bacteria growing in it, which u want to grow and be part of the ecosystem.

 

[msd2]

One last thing I noticed the water on top looks like glass, which brings up concern about the amount of water turnover in the tank. You may want to consider a Tunze or a couple Seio powerheads to help mix things up.

 

[wbradenpt]

thanks for all your help. i'll have to figure out how to test for alkalinity. probably just another test kit. no problem if that's the case. i think i already have a test kit for hardness. definitely have one to test calcium level. will stop adding all those kent additives, they are expensive anyway - probably just another moneymaker for the lfs. will stop siphoning of the live sand, which is probably dead by now from all the siphoning. have a couple of sand sifting stars and a couple of cleaner clams anyway. will also look into getting some water movement at top of tank, especially since that's where my corals will have to be to get some light until i figure out what i want to do with that. thanks again.

 

[cnlight]

You said sand sifting stars, but you would really want to get sand sifting snails. The best for that would be cerith and nassirius(sp?) snails, which live in the sand bed. Its great to watch these guys when you feed, they come out of the sand, one by one catching whatever food they roll over.

 

[wbradenpt]

thanks for input. will get some sand sifting snails.

 

[wbradenpt]

have what would best be described as red slime algae. it is slimy looking and is sort of burgundy in color. wondering if it is good or bad, and what to do for it if it is bad.

 

[msd2]

Originally posted by wbradenpt
have what would best be described as red slime algae. it is slimy looking and is sort of burgundy in color. wondering if it is good or bad, and what to do for it if it is bad.
Increase the flow n watch it go
Just means you need to have more water flow, it wont stick around when its churning. remember you want somewhere around 15x tank volume an hour turnover so your 180 should have 2700gph moving around. I personally like it closer to 20x (3600gph for ur setup) and I noticed I had less problems with a higher turnover rate. Tunze powerhead might be a good choice for you, they are kinda pricey but work well and move huge amounts of water. Other option is the Seio's. I personally use a pair of Seio 620's great little powerheads and move a lot of water in a wide beam. No problems running 24/7 now at least 3 or 4 months. Great, cheap alternative (45 bucks) to the tunze (+130).
Your on your way to a beautiful tank!!
Hardness test could be kdh/alk test. Take a look at it and see, you might save a trip. BTW some test kits are better than others, salfert seems to be a good comprimise between quality and cost.
You have gotten a lot of info here and Kudos to you for keeping an open mind to it all. It can be a bit overwhelming at first but in no time you will have saltwater in ur veins

 

[wbradenpt]

thanks again, only wish you guys worked at the lfs. would've saved me a lot of headaches.

 

[msd2]

Originally posted by wbradenpt
thanks again, only wish you guys worked at the lfs. would've saved me a lot of headaches.
LOL I don't think the LFS could support what many of us would charge an hour, unless u minded spending say $200 for a damsel All kidding aside there are a lot of great ppl lurking around here all with different areas of interest so your bound to find a pro w/ lots of knowledge floating around (pun intended). LFS have a bad habit of overselling you equipment/chemicals. I get all my supplies online, much much cheaper. I do get my livestock from LFS, just not brave enough yet to get it online yet. I like to see the animal first and I prefer to add animals slowly over time, which getting online prohibits due to shipping costs.

 

[ophiura]

I agree with what has been said...but I would not get the sand sifting stars! These are a very bad choice. Return them if possible. They will eat the tiny "good" critters like worms and crustaceans in the sand that will be eating the detritus and stuff. So I don't recommend them...many eventually starve though I reckon they might take to feeding. Still, the rest of the time they will be eating things you want to cultivate. If you can take them back or trade them into an LFS somewhere, that would be good!

 

[areijin]

I totally agree with these guys. I have five pwer heads running for a good flow plus the return pump. There is an attachment you can put on the end of the return pump called a circle flow assembly under plumbing parts. I think this is the same place you found that hood lights since I was looking at that one myself. This assemble is a long flexable pipe with lots of holes in it that allow for many current iun many derection. Alkalinity is just a Test kit and if your going to get that you should also buy a Phosphate test kit as well. Also a good salt mix should have all of the things that corals need to live and as long as you change enough water often enough they will be replenished. From there you should test what your adding. A good exaple is the Calcium.
So your problems are: Not changing enough water, over dosing, weak lighting, bad sand cleaning, low flow. Man aren't tanks a

[hr]
some times.

 

[wbradenpt]

guess i'll be busy after vacation then. shouldn't be too bad. actually the best part is not having to siphon the sand. talk about a pain in the butt. that alone offsets any of the new work i have to do.

 

[areijin]

Sorry monitors for using the B word. A slip of the tongue.

 

[msd2]

Originally posted by wbradenpt
guess i'll be busy after vacation then. shouldn't be too bad. actually the best part is not having to siphon the sand. talk about a pain in the butt. that alone offsets any of the new work i have to do.
LOL totally, I remember doing this in freshwater tanks, I can't imagine trying to do it to the sand in my tank. Honestly in my experience once you get your biosystems pretty balanced out the tank is amazingly self sufficient and low maintance. Pretty soon you will get to set back and watch it all grow
BTW you may want to think about a closed loop for circulation. Many reefers use them. Simple build and can add a lot of flow. You can create alternating current with something called a scwd. The other nice thing is they are waaay easyto maintane. Really what a closed loop is a pump that pulls water from the tank then pushes it back out at the ends alternating via the scwd. I like this system for several reasons, one its high flow w/minimal physically in the tank. and secondly its highly adjustable to you can tweek the direction of the flow many different ways and any height u want in the tank. If your interested you can do a search on closed loop, or scwd. If you cant find it let me know there is a link, but i dont recall it off the top of my head.

 

[wbradenpt]

thanks bunches. will check into it after xmas. speaking of which, have a merry one.

 

[cre8or23]

i havent read throught the entire post do to so many, so if some one metioned this sorry for the repeat........
Maybe you stocked to much to fast.