[rrandellusa]

http://www.reefland.com/myaqlog/public.php?userid=5344

I filled out my log as best as I could. I just got this tank and set up from a neighbor for free and he gave me no advice. I am used to freshwater fish so this is all new. Any help or comments would be so appreciated. especially about foaming in protiens skimmer and good and bad algae.

[Reefer769]

i think wed all like to know what kind of equipment u have for it(filtration wise, and lighting). then i am certain you will get many replys. oh and just a heads up your salinity is way to high, it should only be somewhere around 1.022-1.025. also yoour nitrates, nitrites, and amonia should be undetectable. ill let some other guys take it from here

[Brian35]

Welcome!

Im sure you will get lots of good coaching here

Ask away, someone will have your answer.

Brian

[Reefland]

Hi rrandellusa, Welcome to Reefland!

Looking at your log, your nitrates are extremely high and your salinity measurement needs to be reviewed.

Can you tell us some more about this tank? What kind of equipment do you have for filtration (i.e. skimmer, mechanical, etc.)? How long was this tank set up before you got it and how long have you had it set up?

To answer some of your specific questions, there should be a lot of foam in a protein skimmer and there should be a dark tea colored or darker product being collected by it.

For algae, typically red mats of algae, hair algae (long green hair) and red macro algae ( inside joke) are problematic and considered undesirable.

[Meric]

Actually if you did test your Salinity in PPM it is way too low. Natural sea water contains about 35,000 ppm of salt. But since I do not know of a test that uses PPM to test salt water I am not sure what you used to come to the 300 ppm result for Salanity. Also your Damsels and Brain coral would be dead since Freshwater is considered to be anything with less than 1000ppm of salt in it.

To acurately measure salintiy your need either a Hydrometer or refractometer.
your SG should be 1.022 to 1.026. I keep my tank right at 1.026. The lower levels may not be good for corals and other invertabrates.

Your nitrates are too high for the brain coral. You need to get your nitrates to 10 PPM or less. This can be done through water changes or by adding macro algae's to consume the nitrates. Water changes must be with premixed saltwater set to the same SG as your tank.

I believe the ALK test you used is a General Hardness (GH) test and not a Carbonate Hardness (KH) test. Your KH needs to be around 8 - 13 dkh. General Hardness is good for Freshwater, but the GH of Saltwater tanks are often 100+ and is not a good measurement of the type of buffers you need for saltwater (Calcium Carbonate). In saltwater ALK usually means the KH of the tank.

The first thing to do is to take accurate tests of all your parameters. With a coral you will need to also know your Calcium levels are also.

You should also take inventory of all equipment you have including lighting and filtration.

After you know what you've got and what your current conditions are in the tank then you will be able to decide what needs to be done in order to maintain your tank. Also it will help in deciding if you need additional equipment or have some issues with the tank.

One other thing some test kits that you use for Fresh Water will give you different (inaccurate) results in Saltwater if they are not designed for it. I know this cause when I switched to saltwater, I used the same tests I had for Fresh Water without reading the directions and thought all my parameters were correct until the tank crashed. Just a heads up if you are using your freshwater test kits on the saltwater tank.

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by rrandellusa

http://www.reefland.com/myaqlog/public.php?userid=5344

I filled out my log as best as I could. I just got this tank and set up from a neighbor for free and he gave me no advice. I am used to freshwater fish so this is all new. Any help or comments would be so appreciated. especially about foaming in protiens skimmer and good and bad algae.

Hi rrandellusa, welcome to Reefland!

I checked your numbers in your log and the 79 degrees Fahrenheit water temperature is fine.

The 180 ppm CaCO3 alkalinity reading is also fine. Most people would report that as either 3.6 mEq/L or 10.08 dKH rather than the 180 ppm but all three mean the same thing.

Your salinity cannot be 300.00 ppm but perhaps you mean 30 ppt, which is a bit on the low side for a reef tank but acceptable for a fish-only aquarium. Some people prefer to keep their fish-only aquariums around 30-32 ppt salinity but most people keep their reef tanks in a range of 33-35 ppt. I recommend 33-35 ppt salinity for all tanks, fish-only and reef tanks.

Your 8.2 pH is fine.

Your nitrate reading of 160 ppm is on the high side but it will not be a problem in a fish-only tank. You should get this down before adding any corals, if it is your intention to set up a reef tank. Even if you intend running just a fish-only tank, you would want to get your nitrates down around 25-40 ppm or thereabouts. If you want a reef tank, you need to get your nitrates down as much as possible. You could start adding soft corals and some LPS (large polyp scleractian) corals once your nitrate reading is down around 25 ppm but you should hold off on adding any SPS (small polyp scleractian) corals until your nitrate reading is <10 ppm.

I don't think it is possible to succeed with a new aquarium without reading at least one good beginner's book on the subject. Robert Fenner's Conscientious Marine Aquarist or John Tullock's Natural Reef Aquariums are both good for beginners. Fenner's book has a lot more information on reef fish. If you want something a bit more advanced with detailed information on how to maintain corals, then I highly recommend Eric Borneman's Aquarium Corals.

Good luck!

[rrandellusa]

75 gal tank
50 - 75lbs of live rock
one possibly dead brain coral
2 Clownfish, 6 Damsels
24 x 8 x 12 Amiracle wet dry filter w/ blue balls
870gph return to tank
370gph to protien skimmer
No visible brand name on protien skimmer
overflow box
20lbs Argonite sand
1 powerhead keeping current in tank
light 46" dual 40w florescent bulbs
2 bags of chemi-pure in the bio balls

the tank was set up for 18 years before I got it when i took it i took 25% of the original water and then added all new water. I have had it set up for 1 week and all the fish seem healthy and happy.

more questions

can i clean out the protien skimmer and remove all the green stuff or should i leave it.

The original owner was saying that the tank had some sort of special 8 year algae that was good what would that look like.

How can I cut my nitrates fast so i can add cleaners, corals, and inverts.

Thanks for all you help guys

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by rrandellusa

75 gal tank
50 - 75lbs of live rock
one possibly dead brain coral
2 Clownfish, 6 Damsels
24 x 8 x 12 Amiracle wet dry filter w/ blue balls
870gph return to tank
370gph to protien skimmer
No visible brand name on protien skimmer
overflow box
20lbs Argonite sand
1 powerhead keeping current in tank
light 46" dual 40w florescent bulbs
2 bags of chemi-pure in the bio balls

the tank was set up for 18 years before I got it when i took it i took 25% of the original water and then added all new water. I have had it set up for 1 week and all the fish seem healthy and happy.

What about the 20 lbs. of aragonite sand? Did that come out of the 18-yr-old tank or is that new sand? Twenty pounds of sand doesn't seem like very much for a 75-gal tank. There are several different approaches when it comes to substrate for a reef tank. You will have to decide for yourself which approach you would like to use after you have researched the topic.

more questions

can i clean out the protien skimmer and remove all the green stuff or should i leave it.

I think you should clean out the skimmer thoroughly.

The original owner was saying that the tank had some sort of special 8 year algae that was good what would that look like.

I have no idea what he's talking about unless there is some 8-yr-old macroalgae on the live rock???

How can I cut my nitrates fast so i can add cleaners, corals, and inverts.

Thanks for all you help guys

The quickest way to improve undesirable water conditions is to do a water change. If you do a 40% water change, you will reduce your nitrates by 40%. However, this will not correct the underlying cause of the problem and the high nitrates may be back before you know it.

There are several possible reasons why you are experiencing high nitrates:

• You may be experiencing normal dieoff associated with moving the live rock in and out of the water when you moved the tank.
  
  
• You may be experiencing problems caused by your sand if you reused sand from his previous setup.
  
  
• You may be experiencing problems caused by your bio-balls if they have accumulated a lot of detritus buildup.

It's really hard to say without actually seeing what you have. Clean the skimmer completely and do a substantial water change (at least 30%) and then see if you can find any experienced reefkeepers in your area who could come over and take a look at what you have.

The most important bit of advice would be to have patience. Do NOT rush things. You do not want to add corals, other than a few hardy soft corals, until your tank has been up and running for at least six weeks, possibly longer.

Good luck,

[rrandellusa]

the argonite substrate is new I just bought it.

the 8-year alagae is growing on the live rock supposedly.

thanks again for everybody's help it is much appreciated.

[rrandellusa]

i see up hear alot people are not using the blue bio-balls if they have live rock . I went to the salwater store near my house and the guy told me to take care of my nitrates i should put a power compact light on the bio-balls in my sump 24hrs aday to grow algae in there to elimate some of the nitrate.

[Reefland]

Another piece of advice for a beginner in the hobby, do not listen to anything the local stores tell you; always do research on their advice to determine if they're out to make a buck or really help you out (the first is more often the case).

Putting expensive lighting over bio-media is ludicrous. Follow Ninong's advice and do a substatial water change of 30-40% total volume and at the same time, do some equipment cleaning. Skimmers should be cleaned frequently (I clean our skimmer completely every 2 weeks) as should any pumps, powerheads or mechanical filtration.

The next thing you should consider is removing the bio-balls. Typically bio-media in a wet/dry filter is a recipe for high nitrates. Detritus builds up in the bio-media if not frequently cleaned and if frequently cleaned, your killing off what bacteria has developed. Therefore in my opinion, removing the bio-media is soemthing to consider.

Lastly, what the LFS may have been trying to communicate to you is that incorporating a section of your sump to grow macro and micro algaes is used by many hobbyist to reduce nitrates naturally. As a beginner, I wouldn't recommend using this approach until you get some time under your belt.

[ick sucks]

If you do not know this yet but to save you time and heartache get a quality heater. Temperature is the #1 casue of fish death from an icreased suseptability to disease. in my opinion fish saltwater fish get sick very easy when tempurature does not reamian stable.

Rememeber fish are cold blooded... you make them cold or hot so does there internals(body tempureature of the fish). You would not want your blood to get hot or cold all the time right?thats what i thought so focus on water tempureature.

So #1 get a quality heater

[rrandellusa]

I took out my bio-balls and i am only using the chemi-pure and protien skimmer. I did a 40% water change. all tests were same nitrates still very high after cleaning everything. Algae is slowly taking over the live rock. Deep red non stringy algae.

P.S. you guys are seriously the best and this is one of the coolest most helpful sites ive been to.

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by rrandellusa

I took out my bio-balls and i am only using the chemi-pure and protien skimmer. I did a 40% water change. all tests were same nitrates still very high after cleaning everything. Algae is slowly taking over the live rock. Deep red non stringy algae.

P.S. you guys are seriously the best and this is one of the coolest most helpful sites ive been to.

I think your problem may be that your tank is cycling right now. You mentioned that you have only had it set up for one week a couple of days ago so it wouldn't be too shocking to see high nitrate readings right now. That just means that there are things inside the live rock that are still dying as a result of the relocation process. I wouldn't be too concerned at this point.

Nitrates in the range of 160-200 ppm are not a problem for the fish at all and those levels should come down in the next week or two as the dieoff subsides. Those levels would only be a serious threat to SPS corals. Many of the other corals can tolerate high nitrate levels for some time before experiencing irreversible negative effects.