I'm frustrated!! Ready to give up saltwater.

sixers3

sixers3

Member
Hello All.
I started a 26 gallon saltwater tank about a year and a half ago. Everything has been great, i turned it into a reef and i have learned a lot. Now, however, i am so frustrated.
Over the past few months i have lost several fish and live corals. My nitrates have been through the roof for over 2 months and i have done everything and i can't fix the problem. My LFS said that saltwater tanks crash every 5 years. Here's what i have been doing and what i have:
26 gallon bowfront
seaclone skimmer
130 PC lighting (2 daylight, 2 actinic) on timers
I use RO/DI water
i have 2 powerheads for movement
i use a Tidepool SOS overflow
I have about 25-30 lbs of live rock
I do weekly 4-5 gallon water changes
i only feed my fish in the morning
I just set up a 10 gallon refugium to help with the nitrates
i have:
coral banded shrimp
purple pseudochromis
dead fish in the past month:
percula clown
reef chromis
various snails
I have green algae growing all over the tank over my good coraline algae. It has overtaken some of my corals and i think it is killing my finger leather.
I'm ready to give up and just scrap the whole tank. My LFS said the sandbed is the problem and that is why it is crashing. I have lots of red leg hermits and astrea snails and turbo snails as my cleanup crew. My LFS said the way to go is no sand or coral. They said to go bare bottom or starboard for a reef, because the sand is just a "poop trap". They said i should be mixing my sand up every week.
What should i do?? I'm so frustrated and it has really got me down. My tank looked so nice and now everything is dying.
How long will the refugium i set up take to reduce the nitrates. I put some calerpa (macro algae) in it and have the lights on it 24/7. I was told to remove some when it grows to prevent it from going sexual.
Someone....anyone...please help!
Thanks.
sixers3
Very frustrated hobbyist
 
elvictre

elvictre

Member
Your problem is most likely phosphates. There are the detectable ones as well as the ones that are just hiding in your sand bed and live rock. I would try a water change every week for the next few and run rowaphos or phosban. Also make sure you run it in a reactor, getting the water to flow through it is very important.
Vic
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
How deep is your sand bed? Your LFS could be partially right. Deeps sand beds are not known to work well on small tanks.
You said you have lost several fish. How many is that? Overstocking a small tank is the most common problem. A few small fish turn into a few larger fish as time goes by.
 
sixers3

sixers3

Member
I do weekly water changes. I also was running a phospate sponge, but stopped using it because it wasn't working.
I tested my phosphates and they were virtually none.
 
T

tizzo

Guest
My LFS said that saltwater tanks crash every 5 years
Course they would say that...

I kinda skimmed over your thread but some questions that come to mind are...
Are you using a refractometer or hydrometer??
What's your tank temp? Is it stable?
How much do you feed? How often?
Is now a good time for a better skimmer? Cause you should get one...
How old are the bulbs on your tank, and here's why I ask./ After a while your bulbs will start to emit more light from the red side of the spectrum and grass and algae and other "greens" need that red light, so if the bulbs are old, replace them to even out your spectrum again...
Your fuge will not really reduce the trates, it is more useful in "maintaining" a low level. Water changes and eliminating the source will work much faster.
 
sixers3

sixers3

Member
my salinity is 1.022
my temp is pretty stable. it goes up during the day 1-2 degrees due to the lights. it is at about 78-79
my skimmer works very well. i clean it often and it continues to pull stuff from the water.
i feed once a day in the morning. i don't overfeed. i barely feed anything.
my bulbs are about 6 months old.
 
danedodger

danedodger

Member
I think your LFS is steering you wrong! You shouldn't disturb sandbeds usually. It seems that would just mix any detrius and stuff down into it! The advantage to sand over crushed coral is the poop and stuff will stay on top! In crushed coral it falls down between the cracks and has to be vacumed out regularly.
I also have no idea why a properly maintained salt tank would crash every five years??? Besides, you said you've had it set up a year and a half or so so why would they say 5 yrs???? Weird...
I don't want to disagree with Vic because I'm a relative newbie to all of this so instead I'll just ADD that it sounds like your nitrates are definitely a problem. Snails and other inverts like corals are very sensitive to nitrate levels and high nitrates will fuel algae growth so it would explain lots that's going on.
It looks like the only filtration you have going really is that Seaclone and liverock, right? I can tell you from experience and many other opinions that the Seaclone STINKS!!! I'd be very tempted to put some other kind of filtration on there because it doesn't sound like you have enough. That Seaclone is just not pulling enough "junk" out of the water for you.
For the algae, getting control of the nitrates will definitely help cut down on that and you should maybe shorten the amount of time you have your lights on to help kill it (keep the lighting needs of your corals in mind though if you have any left that really need the lighting). Do some extra water changes with RO/DI water. Until those nitrates come down maybe you could up your weekly water changes to 8 gallons or so.
Daily get in there and see what you can do to manually remove some of the algae. If you pass a powerhead over it or wave your hand over it will it blow off or is it an algae that you'd have to rub off?
 
bronco300

bronco300

Active Member
maybe some narriuss snails, or however you spell em would help?? sifting the sand and what not??
have you been stirring your sand like the LFS told you?? I thought mixing the sand only releases toxic gases back into the tank....??
wish i had more info for you, but i dont know if i would trust the lfs...i'm sure these here will be able to help you much more, they're my second family
 
T

tizzo

Guest
Originally Posted by sixers3
my salinity is 1.022
my temp is pretty stable. it goes up during the day 1-2 degrees due to the lights. it is at about 78-79
my skimmer works very well. i clean it often and it continues to pull stuff from the water.
i feed once a day in the morning. i don't overfeed. i barely feed anything.
my bulbs are about 6 months old.

The salinity would explain the dying snail and maybe, just maybe (reaching here) the dying snails would explain the trates??
But everythiing else looks OK pertainintg to the questions I asked you... :notsure:
 
golfish

golfish

Active Member
How deep is the sand bed?
Rather then setting up a lighted fuge, how about just filling the 10 gal tank with sugar size arragonite sand..make it as deep as you can, maybe an inch or two from the top and run the water slowly over the top of it.
 
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