Hello from Everett

[Saltwater Stu]

Hey, pretty new to the world of forums, but been keeping saltwater tanks for 10+ years and have just started reef keeping. So far my results have not been good, well not bad but not smooth. For the most part my problem is RO/DI water, which I don't use, I use grocery store water, which I'm not sure I trust. Used tap water for years but obviously that's not going to work anymore.
So I guess I'll just tell ya the story and my problems.
75g with 2 false perc clowns, powder blue tang, and a small shoal of chromis, healthy for years.
Tank no algae and continuously running for years, then I got some LED reef lights from Marineland, algae explosions now!!!
Then I upgrade my filter to wet/dry, 600gph, added an extra protein skimmer (was built into the sump), while still using my old seaclone (hey don't knock it, given me 10 years of great service), figured more skimming the better(?). Also running a marineland biowheel filter (also 10 years of service and I'm sad to let it go)
So far I've only added 2 frags, a green ricordea mushroom and some kind of tree coral (guy called it tree of life). The mushroom immediately started degrading and only lasted a week. The tree coral is thriving and growing though, so I'm very confused as to what my problem is.
Algae being a major problem now with the more intense lighting I've stepped up the water changes from bi weekly to weekly just to get the organic material out of the water but its still not working to my advantage.
I've tested just about everything I could, but didn't have a pH monitor or test kit so couldn't test everything but what I did test came back fine. When keeping FOWLR I monitored virtually nothing but salinity and temp and have had great results, guessing that's not going to be the case with reef.

So my questions now:
How often do you guys with lightly to moderately stocked and light tanks do water changes?
Does anyone else top off their tank on a daily or bi-daily basis? Due to evap and skimming? (This has also greatly increased with the new filter and open tank top I'm running now.)
If I'm using a high quality salt mix (aquavitro) and doing weekly 10% water changes, should I even need to dose? Or is this something a tank full of coral would require and not so much if you only had a sparse few in the tank?

My goal is to be active on this site, I can't beleive it took me this long to find something like this. I really am the only keeper of marine tanks that I know, so this is my new favorite resource for information!!!

 

[Saltwater Stu]

Just realized this probably should have gone in the new to reef keeping section, sorry

 

[Raamiah]

Welcome to the forums!
I'm no expert so I'll let others address the issues you seem to have but you should invest in some quality test kits because without knowing things like:
SG
pH
Ammonia
Nitrites
Nitrates
Calcium
and others...it will be hard to tell what exactly might be causing the issues with your tank.
Also LEDs can be pretty intense lights so depending on how far it is from the tank it may be too intense for the coral you are trying to keep.

Anyway I'll let others chime in but good call on coming on here there are some great people who are VERY knowledgeable.

 

[1guydude]

ive heard the marineland led fixtures are powered with 1w leds so its not that intense but im sure its brighter than watever u had... since u dont have any real coral, u could do some light off time! Maybe 3 days and see wat ur algae looks like. Have u always used tap or the water from the store? When i tested ro water from safeway it was like 2-5ppm TDS so not to bad but depending on how long uve been using the water the solvents could be adding up. U could also be getting a false reading from ur tests because the algae or HA or watever is eating all the nutrients out of the water so it reads good but really isnt. People only really dose cal, mag, and maybe some alk or ph buffer... Soft corals however like beginner coral shouldnt require dosing. Watch ur temp and salt levels and try to keep em as constant as possible. I top my tanks off early in the morning and when i get home from work, maybe even before i go to bed...I do w/c's when there needed... prob like once a month maybe. Ive heard great things about aquavitro salt! HTHs and this is all imoe so others will prob say diff. No question is to silly or dumb so ask away...-d

 

[NC2WA]

Moved to New to Reefkeeping section..

 

[NC2WA]

Welcome to RF!!

Unfortunately with this hobby, my answer is depends.



I need some more information.

Do you know your water parameter levels (that is, Ammonia, Nitrates, Mg, Ca, pH, Salinity,temp)
What type of skimmer do you have?
Are you emptying the collection cup at least once a week?
How large is your powder blue tang?? (tangs eat and poop all day, so this may be a source of nutrients that you would want your skimmer to remove).

With a reef tank, getting good test kits is a needed, esp to get a baseline of where the levels are in your tank. then as you gain experience in the hobby, you can gauge from your tank whether you need to test or not.

Personally, I have a 375g mostly FOWLR tank with a RBTA farm. The only values Im testing now is PO4 and Nitrates as I would like to eventually have a couple of leathers.

 

[Saltwater Stu]

Just went to the LFS and got a pH kit and a copper test kit, so i'll test all my levels and get back to ya in a bit. Sorry for the vagueness of the post to. I will post more details as well.

 

[Peppie]

Do you have bio balls in your wet dry filter????

 

[Saltwater Stu]

Running 2 skimmers, first one is the seaclone (maybe marineland) 100 and the other is built into the sump, with a 600 gph pump running it. I run my lights for 10 hours a day and the blue night lights all through the night. Temp is a constant 77 F, Salinity is 1.024 some times as high as 1.026, Ca is 460 ppm, KH is 8 degrees, phosphate is 0 (which surprises me every time cause I always thought that's what caused algae outbreaks.), nitrate is 0, pH is 8.2-8.4 (little hard to tell with these cheesy color cards), and thankfully copper is 0 too, but then I tested my tap water AND my water source (grocery store dispenser) both of them showed 0 too, so anyone wanna weigh in on the accuracy of the API test kits?

 

[Saltwater Stu]

There are bio balls in the wet/dry. Should I replace those with some base rock I have? Its rock that I pulled out of the tank about 2 years ago because I felt like it had to much in it (probably over 100 lbs in a 75), they have just been in the shed, and I'm sure I'd have to cure it before just putting it back in the tank.
The tang is about 4 inches, not big at all, and I do think a major part of my problem may be over feeding, I do feed at least 3 times a day, I know the tang is a grazer and I like to provide food as often as needed (i.e. little bits many times a day). But it doesn't show that to be the case from my test results

 

[1guydude]

i feed my tanks once a day. Urs tests sound fine...most people with ro/di units have a TDS meter that measures the total dissolved solvents in FRESH water. Theyre cheap and useful. Ive never had a trickle filter or a tang so idk wat to say bout that...

 

[Saltwater Stu]

Trying to post pictures, not working, will keep trying

there we go

 

[Saltwater Stu]

http://i1259.photobucket.com/albums/ii547/troutbrandon/75 Gallon Reef Baby stages/005.jpg

 

[Saltwater Stu]

 

[Raamiah]

What kind of Clean up Crew do you have in there?

Most mushrooms are pretty hardy. I asked someone to give me some corraline algae to seed my tank and he ended up giving me some red shrooms on a rock that had corraline and they survived the last week of my tank cycling.

If you can't find anything wrong with the tanks parameters then it might have just been an unhealthy piece of coral or it might have had parasites. Do you have a coral dip to clean the coral before you put it in there?

Just a few more random thoughts.

 

[Saltwater Stu]

A few blue leg hermits, and a few other smaller hermits, an emerald crab, and a dozen or so snails of various sizes and types. I really like inverts, shrimp and what not, I want a sea star but have read that most aren't reef safe, know of any that are safe?
Coral dip? You'll have to fill me in on that? I've tried the fresh water dip with fish but I know nothing of dipping corals.

 

[TJL]

Hey Stu, Welcome aboard RF and sure that we all can get you on track here. I live just 1 mile East of Silver lake in Pioneer Trails dev. and you are more than welcome to stop by for a reeftank tutorial plus can send ya home with a few corals for the tank as well. Shoot me a pm with contact # if interested.

Cheers, Todd