tanks getting ugly loosing colors

H

hawkster

Guest
I have a 55 reef that has been established for some time but it,s looking uglier now, after a bout with slime, and hair algae.I use a compact flour. along with an 10K actinic.nitrates 0 nitrites 0 sal.1.10 two snails two bl claw crabs 2 more crabs and a lawnmower blennie, along with a perc clown, and a cardinal. I used a product called Poly Ox to help get rid of the red stuff, and it seems to be gone from the rocks and sand, but hair algae set in all over the rocks, I brushed is off syphoned off a lot of bad and replaced with deionozed H2O, and cut back on the lighting a bit.I started using a product called Coral Life to help with trying to reestablish the color there once was. with all the polyps,anenomes, and mushrooms that was everywhere.I brushed the hair algae from the rocks and the olnly thing wanting to come back is grrrreen , it's short and brighter than hair, but no polyps or shrooms seem to be emerging, are they gome forever? can one lawnmower be able to clean off all the rock( a lot) will the coreline return? Is the low salinity the cause, I am slowly increasing it to 1,23 The lights are less than I year old and I have a lot of movement, should I scrub rocks again? Help.... I want color : :mad: Hawkster
 
H

hawkster

Guest
Nitrates registered 0 as did Nitrites, salinity was low, Phosphates were fine but I'll check again to be sure, then what?
 
L

lbaskball

Guest
Originally Posted by hawkster
Nitrates registered 0 as did Nitrites, salinity was low, Phosphates were fine but I'll check again to be sure, then what?
Start putting bunch of snails, specially turbos to kick start with the algae problem. Check phosphates, use phosphate remover pads. Keep using Ro/di water and also make sure your lights arnt over a year old if they are metal halides. Make sure your tank is not getting sunlight either. Keep your calcium around 420ppm.
 
D

dennis210

Guest
First - your tank has been up and running (awhile). Specifically how long?
Need to know parameters - not just okay - but what actually they are!
temp, pH, SG, NO3, NO2, NH3, PO4, Alk, Ca, and Mg & Iodine if you record these. What salt brand you use, how often to do top up for evaporation, how often and how much water do you change. Then once we can determine
if your parameters are in line I would suggest feeding what you may think is a starvation diet to the tank. Most people cannot beilive that the bottom 1/2 - 5/8 inch of a standard test tube feeds all fish, inverts, and filter feeders in my 210 reef quite well - and I have chubby fish. Most algae outbreaks have to get a jump from excess nutrients somewhere in the system. If you feed heavily more water changes will be needed. To recover the system more water changes will be needed. Once you have a balanced system and a balanced maintainance schedule of cleaning and feeding then yes once a month water change will suffice. You need to get a handle on what you are putting into the system that is throwing it out of balance.
 
jjboods

jjboods

Member
Do you have more info about the lights? Exactly how old? What brand?
I had a problem with fairly new bulbs. Tried everything else. Finally relaced them with a different brand and everything was fine.
You might even find my old threads with the brand of the bulb in them.
 
db

db

Member
I know phosphates could be an issue for this tank, but how about your specific gravity? You should be running it up around 1.25 to 1.26. You are way low and it is probably a major factor in your problems.
 
L

lbaskball

Guest
Originally Posted by tylersalzman
My lights are like 6 years old.. is this bad?
yes
 
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