You must help me... this is serious

[Fish_man]

i have a problem with my 3 marine aquariums... 1 is a FO tank (75 gallon with a lemon tang, ocellaris clownfish, 2 blue damsels, 1 peppermint shrimp, and 2 fourstripe damsels. i plan to keep this tank up and running for a long time. but i have a bunch of problems... i have been in this hobb for quite some time now and i am just now starting to have heartbreaking problems. i researched day and night for 3 mths until i got my first aquarium, this 75 gallon. i had it nice and clean, added 80lbs of cc substrate and cycled the tank with 4 damsels. the ones still in there. now is the tough part... all my params arre perfect ( im a freak about water quality in this tank) PH: 8.3 Ammonia:0 Nitrite:0 Nitrate:0 SG: 1.024 that is all i test for in this tank. i have lost 3 animals in this tank lately for unknown reasons. my prized 8" huma trigger died in the tank a few weeks ago. also my coral beauty died not to long after this. one of my peppermint shrimp has gone missing, though i think i have seen it in the crevaces lately. any ideas what is wrong?? also the biggest problem in all of my largest tanks is ALGAE, brown, green, disgusting algae covers the substrate and the glass. i cant get rid of it. i have reduced the photo period, purchased new bulbs and scrubbed the tank down. this tank has been set-up since january of last year (2002) and i thought i had won the algaew battle in may of this year but it came back. could it be the dead fish products?? how do i get rid of it??

next problem, my prized 45 gallon soon to be reef... i have brand new VHO's on this tank, actinic blues, trichromatics, 5050 and daylight.. each 75 watts. florida cc substrate (about 35 lbs) and around 50-60 lbs of LR from figi. this lr is about 5 years old and i dont think anything is living on it except some corraline (which i dont think anymore because it isnt growing) and some feather dusters... not a pod to be found anywhere. this tank was rescued in p.a. in august and still has the original fish i got with it. i have a very small cleanup crew and the following fish, 2 ocellaris clowns... not a pair and one spotted hawkfish. i had a large 4-5" beautiful sailfin tang in there but he died recently, covered with black and white sores. it wasnt ick because these little things when they went away they laft blackish rings on this pooor fishes body. i have a sponge in the tank growing fine so water quality cant be an issue, ph is 8.3 in this tank, ammonia 0 nitrite and nitrate are near 0 though nitrate is slightly higher than 0 (probably because of the tang dieing and algae is all over this tanks walls as well, though it is not on the substrate. i have just about given up. i have tried to get rid of my 75 gallon or one of my 13 tanks so i can spend more time with my salties. i dont know what is wrong but because it is christmas i have money to spend so i can fix everything. sorry for being so long but i wanted to be thorough if you need anything else, any more info on the tanks please ask. i want these tanks to stay around for a long time i have invested so much money into them already , and i am a teenager without a job so if the fix is going to cost a ton and ton of money then please help me find a cost efficient way. thank you aqnd happy holidays!

-Herb

 

[DougBak]

Are all the tanks in the same area of the house? Are you running a heater in the house? The only thing I can think of that might make sense is CO2 buildup, lowering the oxygen in the tanks dangerously low.

Are you running a skimmer? You don't mention phosphate levels.

I'd start with those two personally.

 

[Fish_man]

i dont know how to check for phosphate but that is probably it... yes i am running skimmers (priz pros) on each tank i have heaters in each tank, 2 in the 75 because it is long and the house is usually about 70 degrees F and all the tanks are in the same general area (basement) should i turn on extra air for the tanks?? i have venturi adapters in my filters

 

[DougBak]

You can buy a phosphate test kit at your LFS or online.

Try that and see where you're at.

 

[Anonymous]

Do you use RO/DI water for top-off, and for water changes? that' would be a good place to start.

B

 

[Anonymous]

Algae - one would tend to look to nutrient control issues first. Phosphorous is one area.. remember, test your make up water, especially if the algal growth in the tank is lush, as it may be fixing available phosphorous in situ which can easily lead to a zero reading. Also, double check your test kits - they're fallible! They can age, moisture can affect them, what brand?

Disease - in my opinion it's time to set up a hospital/quarantine system and get the fish into hypo. IIRC, fishbase has a fish disease sister site.. try these to see if you can find something about what you describe with that sailfin...
http://www.biofilter.com/diseases.htm
http://www.fishdisease.net/

Then, we have to look to husbandry itself.

 

[Fish_man]

hello, more information here

i use RO/DI water for top offs, i really need to test for phospahtes.. and i have way to many fish for my hospital tank... no more problems with the fish, just the algae. i will be looking for the disease that killed my sailfin. it may have been flukes though because i have a new hawkfish which was in QT with the tang shortly before the tang cought the disease. i use seatest water quality kits and i tested my RO water which has the same exact params as the tanks do, except SG and ph, those are changed before i add the water.. except for top offs

 

[Fast Fred]

First off...Crushed coral is a nutrient trap! Get rid of it and get some oolitic sand.

Second: An 8" Tigger in a 75g tank is pushing it. He MIGHT have enough room to swim, but the waste he produces is enormous!

Third: If your peppermint is missing, it's because the Huma had it for a snack! I feed my triggers live shrimp often...they act like it's a steak and lobster dinner!

Algae problem: Needs nutrients to grow. Over feeding, high bio-load, high phosphates all cause algae problems. Whatever nutrients you put into the tank, you have to find a way to get them back out. The more you put in, the more you need to take out. Simple. Do a phosphate test on your tank and on your make-up water. Skimming helps. but if you are not exporting enough nutrients, maybe more frequent water changes or a bigger/better skimmer would help. A refuguium is also an excelent way to export nutrients - grow the algae someplace else..be it micro or macro.
Good luck.

 

[getsteppin]

I use the rule of thumb method here in this part of the country where we live...NO MORE THAN 80 GALLONS and the filter cartridge for the IO needs changed. I got that info from our LFS....same place where I buy the cartridge replacements. the phospahte levels creep up quickly around here.
We have a DIY converted, 11gal trickle/wet, dry filter, with no skimmer for a 55 gal LR and FO tank. I use a filter sock wih a polishing block, prefilter siphon. A 250 W titanium heater, 1ea 175 W/10k MH. Use ESV B-IONIC every day.
Lotts of sponges and tube fans. A pair of Peculia clowns, blue spotted MALE goby, a red dragonette and a green serpent star. 15 red Mexican hermits and 6 blue leggs. 5 or 7 trocus snails. Live argonite, 3" base and 60 lbs of live figi rock...had some hitchhikers on the 12lbs of Marshall rock we got from our LFS.... Orange sponges and some tan SPS leather coral and some copepods whch have ran amuck within the tank. As their population goes up, I cutt back on the CyclopsEze and brine shrimp
Feed only CyclopEze frozen with brine shrimp .05ml 2X a day....feed the Old man..the Green serpent,,, krill 3X a week

I can go to 90gal filtered water, and the red/maroon slime bulid up on the glass begins

Beyond the 90 gallons, a deep yellow algae to brown begins on the substrate floor of the tank

Change the IO filter...VIOLA!!... the algae begins to disapate, at the same time, I do a 15% water change.
I do 10% water change and clean all filters and the 4 power heads every Sunday nite.
I siphon off what ugly algae is left and all is great..until the filter records 80 gallons

I keep a strip of masking tape on the cartridge to record the gallons filtered at any given time.

ps. We plan on moving this spring into our new home. Iam sticking with our 55gal tank. Going to have it drilled for reef ready and going with a Life Reef LF 125 sump/skimmer. Gettin the big one for upgrade later to a 100 gal tank down the road. Putting in an R/O system with auto top off. Will skip the calc reactor for now and continue with the ESV B-IONIC.
Puting the tank in the wall adjoining the garage. We....meaning my wife and I , have gone thru the basic's of reef keeping, actually this was the first salt tank we've had.
BTY, the green serpent star is going into his own 30gal tank, along with some Mantis Shrimp we've come across. We lost an entire school of Blue Chromis to "The Ol Man" in a 8 month time.

Hope this helped

 

[i2ik]

You should get more info on what you buy to see if its compatible. OFr your phosphate, that is surely your problem. Algea is form on phophate and lights. You seem to be in FO so i would suggest to turn the lights on only for a few hours. (lets see 3 hours/day)
There is some product on the market to get rid of phosphate. you should try to find something.
Good luck