This tank is making me mad...

[Turk30213]

My tank is getting bad... I have a wet/dry with a protein skimmer. I was told not to do water changes, as it's not needed? It's really frustrating me. I look at other people's tanks and theirs are soooo clean. But they are doing nothing different. Please help... Oh and some pictures for your reference.

This is the what it looked like before...

And this is what it looks like now...

 

[eb0]

big red x's... now that is a problem, i suggest tear it down and start all over.

 

[Turk30213]

Sorry, fixed the picture problem...

 

[Great Lakes]

Turk, when I started my 90gal a few years back, the "green stuff" got so bad I could not even see into the tank!

Off with the lights, throw a blanket over it for a day, day and a half, all should be better.

Your bloom is likely caused by excessive phosphates.

 

[Navarre]

Great lakes is right, probably high phosphates and nitrates. You havent given any readings for the water quality in the tank but algea needs light and nutrients to survive.

By turning off the lights and placing a blanket over the tank will stop the algea as it will not have the light (will stil have nutrients of course but it has to have both).

Once the lights go back on however the process could well start again unless you address the excessive nutrient level.

As for "never" changing the water. I do not recoment this. I have known people keep a tank for over 12 months without a single water change, the tank seem to be thriving then for some unknown reason the tank crashes

Basically we simply dont know what gets use up in the salt by fishes and more importantly the corals. Some of the trace eliments in salt water are very very tiny indeed. We have no real way of measuring these eliments to see if they are being used by something within the tank. IF these eliments are completeld gone then the tank willl be in danger of crashing.

I would recomend little and often.. perhaps 5-10% 1xper week. This will also help keep nutrient levels down too.

 

[lavan]

hi,

i agree with everyone else, i think you have excessive phosphates, you can never really get rid of algae as they will always be around and be the first to take up any excess nutrients, in some ways it's quit beneficial as they do help reduce phosphates and nitrates.

you could also do with more live rock, this will allow beneficial algae to colonise on the rock and allow plants to grow as well. plus it helps with filtration

you can get clean water from stm-shop.co.uk to absorb phosphates. i've used it and it seems to work as it takes a lot longer for the algae to grow on the tank.

i don't do a water change, but i do add about 1-2 tea spoons of salt mixed in with the tank water every week, so that i can add trace minerals back in, so that way i don't have to dose the tank. i haven't had any problems so far i've been running it for about 4 months.

hope that helps

 

[Navarre]

i don't do a water change, but i do add about 1-2 tea spoons of salt mixed in with the tank water every week, so that i can add trace minerals back in, so that way i don't have to dose the tank. i haven't had any problems so far i've been running it for about 4 months.

Have you been taking regular SG readings? If you add salt mixed with water to the system without removing the same amount of water from the tank at the same time then your SG will increase slowly over time.

 

[impur]

How long has the tank been setup? All tanks go through algae blooms, all of them. When you start out, the tank is balancing its little ecosystem and growing bacteria as well as pods and other little critters.

Also, you HAVE to do WCs. This is how we replace nutrients in the tank. This is also how we export nasties. What do you use to topoff?

That aside, you definately have some water parameter problems. Your SG is most likely high, as well as nitrates and/or phosphates. Do you test your water? Run some tests and get us the results. Increase the flow in the tank. I see a HOB filter and possibly a canister? Definately not enough flow. What do you want to keep in this tank? FOWLR? Reef? I think you need some more LR for better biological filtration.

 

[Max]

a UV sterilizer could help too...