I am getting Really *>

[lubeck]

I am noooooo quiter but......... this is really getting anoying.
I have posted on this site hundreds of times since the inception of my "reef" tank.
I have not had stable parameters ever since I made the swicth over to Live Sand. I have religously done 15% water changes for the last 5 months and when parameters were really bad up to 50%.
110 gallon reef tank 48-18-30; built in overflow; 20 gallon sump. 150 seaclone.
My upgrades in December
140lbs of sand
650 watts of DE metal halide
20# lr
2-1100 seios
It took about a month to cycle my tank after all of those changes and did not loose any fish or corals. Although, every 2 weeks or so my ENTIRE TANK goes to crap. Meaning, my sand gets swooshed around and causes a cycle or something. The sand gets cyno my rocks and sand get thousands of micro bubbles and algae.
I only feed every other day starting last week, before it was once a day.
I thought my tank was rocking all corals fully opened my anemones were getting HUGE and now my freakin corals are struggling and I have ALGAE AND MICRO BUBBLES ALL OVER. My protein skimmer is not producing them either, nor is it coming from my return line to the DT.
I just want this STUPID tank to settle the DOWN for once.
I am going to take some readings now. Oh I also just started using tropic marin pro reef salt and using all salifert test kits. it sucks i am spending all this money on good salt good tests, doing more than frequent water changes and all the money is going down the drain.

 

[weberian]

Possible scenario: your lights are powerful and on too long every day, you only just started feeding every other day - you probably have a lot of nutrients in the system, which means more tank cleaning. I only clean my 30g main tank and 20g sump. I would imagine your tank being bigger would be more work to clean. AND you have bubbles - You HAVE to determine the cause of micro bubbles. With those powerful lights, how high is your temp.? Try to keep temp stable but maybe decrease it a little if it's 80 or above.

 

[wax32]

Sounds like phosphates...

 

[lubeck]

here are the results
mag-1290
s.g.-1.025
temp-80.1
ph-8.2
posphates- 0.25 I can't tell if there is color or not so at the most .25 but i say 0 plus i have changes over about 200 gallon in the last month
trites-0.1
trates-2.5
amonia-<.25
calcium-425
alk- 3.3
Another thing, I have never seen so many amphiod pods I have thousands and thousands and their big.

 

[weberian]

How many days in a row have you had detectable ammonia?

 

[lubeck]

I could'nt really tell you that. The salifert test kits don't show a 0, they show <.25 as a reading. I don't think it is showing amonia.

 

[dragonladylea]

How much live rock do you have and what kind of sand sifters? How many?

 

[weberian]

Dr Holmes-Farley says your phosphate should be less than 0.03
You are at 0.25
You need better sourcewater, or better food rinsing, or install a GFO upflow reactor.

 

[lubeck]

Originally Posted by Dragonladylea
How much live rock do you have and what kind of sand sifters? How many?
About 80lbs
2 red starry hermits
10 nassaurius snails

 

[lubeck]

I use a 3 month old ro/di unit. I have tested all the fresh water and it is perfect
What is better food rinsing
Where can i get one of those reactors?
I don't think i feed too much, but i must. My bioload really is'nt that much

 

[dragonladylea]

Your pretty low on clean up crew - you might want to look into a invert clean up crew package. also maybe some spagetti worms, sand sifting stars etc. and if you have a friend that can give you a little bit of their sand (helps to get a variety of critters). Also watch how long you have your lights on, your lights are pretty strong which will increase your algae growth. You could add a little rwophos in case you do have high phosphates.

 

[fallnhorse]

When your tank starts to produce algae. Do you stop it or let it grow? Do you see tiny air bubbles in your sand start to form? Does your sand get stirred alot? Sound like your tank keeps crashing hard. Like there is a major kill off of bacteria. You don't want your sand to be stirred up too much. The little air bubbles in the sand are Nitrogen gas. Hopefully there are aneoboric bacteria in there that will turn the final nitrates into nitrogen. Then get big enough to push it to the top of the sand and expell. Only happens in sand since there is not much oxygen in sand. That's the point of not having sand stirred up. This is contray to nitrofying bacteria in the cycle. They are Aeroboric bacteria needing oxygen. So you need the ying and yang. Keep the balance. Down fall of sand if you get swifter animals. They can stirr up too much sand and kill the bacteria. Here come train wreck. I grow plently of algae in my tank on purpose and havest it. When i do my water changes. Algae need phosphates and nitrates to grow. They grow and i suck them out. Problem solved :cheer: . I do 38% water changes. I do little more water changes than most people. This is a great method and has my tanks the best quality i ever had them.

 

[lubeck]

Yes my sand got stirred up by my powerheads. It keeps happening. I don't think its my sand sifters they only take care of the top inch.
This crash, and like the rest, have been initiated by my STUPID power heads. They keep moving, I am afraid if I take them out it will also start a cycle. I think i have them pretty well planted now. I do plan on doing a closed loop soon.
I am on my 3 day with the outbreak. I plan on doing another water change monday. I just did a 30% water change today. Thursday I did a 50% and last sunday I did 40%. i have not lost any corals yet and I hope I don't .
You have know I idea how aggrivating this is. I have tried so hard and it just keeps crashing. What a waste of money (salt) time. I have changed over 450 gallons of water in the last 3 months do to these crashes. And I think its all because of the power heads stirring up the sand.

 

[fallnhorse]

i agree that sounds like the problem. Would explain it all. Hope you have better luck. :happyfish
"chance favors the prepared"

 

[weberian]

Originally Posted by Lubeck
What is better food rinsing
Where can i get one of those reactors?
Frozen foods should be thoroughly rinsed (I use tap water through a shrimp net) because they can be a source of phosphate. In addition, IMO, it is worse if you keep them around and they are smelly; I sometime save some in an ice slurry container and occasionally they need to be re-rinsed if not used soon.
Reactors are $40 but you'll have to add a power head. Two Little Fishies, The Dr's, or PetSolutions has them and the GFO to go in them. I still haven't tested MY phosphate with the new kit that just came.

 

[lubeck]

Well, this cycle should only last another day or so. I hope nothing gets moved (power heads).

 

[andretti]

First of all you need WAY MORE LIVE ROCK!!!! about 1.5 pounds per gallon. That means you need about 175 lbs of L/R. Live rocks acts as a biological filter and breaks down ammonia & nitrites and then turns them into nitrates. You are basically crashing each time you do a water change because that new water is being cycled again, but does not have anything to absorb to toxins. It's like you living in a sealed air-tight closet and then once a week or so a little more oxygen gets brought in, but as soon as it does, it's used up by your lungs and converted to harmful carbon monoxide. Hope you understand the anology Second, do you still have a Seaclone skimmer? That right there my friend is the source of your troubles. Seaclones are not known for their efficiency...in fact (in my opinion) they're worthless, that's why they're so cheap; especially on a 110 Hope this helps.

 

[fishamajig]

cut your photoperiod in half
run a crap load of a phos remover in a reactor
secure your powerheads
feed every 4th day
stop doing so mant dang water changes and let things settle down
my 2 cents

 

[dejaco]

First off - what kind of flow or turnover rate do you have? If you have cyano or
red slime it usually means dead areas without enough current. You definately need a larger clean up / janitor crew. Feeding - I had this problem and Wax32 solved it for me.
Pre measure your food into a test vial - that way you can see how much you are
actually feeding! Just enough for a bite or two for each inhabitant that gets fed. My Maxi
jets used to fall alot too! Try this, remove from glass, scrape glass clean, clean suction
cups, replace, and then tie off power cords so if they do come loose they can't fall or
angle down to the sand bed. It worked for me. Also what kind of filtration are you running? My tanks has been up for 165 days and I always show zero on NH3, NO2, and NO3. Addatives are another problem IMO, don't add anything while tank is maturing and stablizing. Your water changes should keep everything up. Good luck and keep us posted. We all have had our own trials, don't feel like the lone ranger! Stick with it,
and when ya really get fustrated remember why ya started into this!

 

[lubeck]

My current is 28x turnover. Although, my powerheads changed direction which gives a "slower" current on the left side of the tank for anemone, rics, colt coral.
My clean up crew is alot bigger than what my sand cleaners are:
20 asetra snails
10 blue leg hermits
10 zebra hermits
2 peppermint shrimp
2 red starry hermit crabs
2 emerald crabs
There are alot of ideas and suggestions; but which one to choose??? I agree with powerheads and feedings.
Water changes, live rock ect... I don't know?