HELP...Gunky Tank Needs OVERHAUL!!!!!!!

[Northmole]

Hi All! I Hope you can give me a hand here. Please understand before thinking I am a terrible neglectful person, that my life over the past year has been completely hectic (pregnancy,birth and other ailing pets) And my tank has been my last priority, so please bear with me here... Now to it--- I have had a 65 Gall. Saltwater setup for 6 years now. I have about 3" depth live sand mix w/agrognite, appx 80-90lbs. of live rock. I currently run a Remora skimmer w/rio pump, Angstrom 8watt UV sterilizer, 96 watt X 2 powercompact Smartlite and I had an Eheim professional filter but removed it on earlier advice that it may be flooding nitrates. Stock are (yes, I was overly zealous in the beginning and probably overstocked, but all have been with me the 6 years) : 4-5" Yellow Tang, 4-5" Niger Trigger, 4" tomato Clown, 3" Coral Beauty, royal Gramma, a few now-I think the trigger ate them- snails and crabs, will the trigger eat larger shrimp? Now the bad part- I do water changes every 3 months if I am lucky- with just adding fresh RO for evap in between. shame,shame I know and now my gravel/sand has a nice sludge coating and the live rock is getting a thick "skin" of burgundy crap that I peeled off! I feed lightly once/day. Anyway I finally have some more time now and want to tear down or start over with better equip if needed. I have an empty 29 gall acrylic I could use the old equipment on for one or two fish maybe. I dont know if I need filtration, I've seen differing views, some say the wet drys are nitrate factories and even when I was doing a better upkeep my sand was never nice and white on the bottom and any critters I bought for this purpose disappeared and never "stirred". I just want an easy upkeep tank or two with nice bright sand and healthy fish of course. How can I keep nice white sand??? What is a sump and how do I use it/set up if needed??? I just want someone to tell me in simple terms- yes I am easily confused :? , exactly what equipment, even the brand, everythng that works for you! Do I need biological and mechanical filtration? I am cluless. Any ideas for what I need to do to get this thing looking great would so appreciated! I need any ideas!!! Just tell me what you would do! I would like to keep it under $500 for now. THANKS SO MUCH!!!

 

[HClH2OFish]

Why not just do some maintenance to get your tank back to a state where it looks nice?

I'd start by doing a nice vacuuming of the tank..try and suck up as much of the gunk as you can.

The sludge sounds like it may be cyano...if it's a slimy coat that pulls right off that's what I'd think it is.

What are your levels? You may need to do a 30-50% water change if nitrates are high.

Also, what kind of flow patterns do you have in the tank?

 

[Northmole]

I run the skimmer on one end and the UV and powerhead on the other end. This this will make you cringe- I know-I apologize- but I've never tested any levels. I tried in the early days but I could never get consistant or believable reults.

 

[ChrisRD]

Personally, I don't think you need to change much as far as equipment. I agree that the canister filter could have been causing problems if you were not cleaning it out regularly, so, it was good to stop running it IMO.

Also, you could seriously reduce the nutrient load on the system by trading-in the trigger and possibly even the tang for some store credit at the LFS. IMO your system is a bit small for them anyway. If the trigger is eating the grazing animals, that's likely contributing to the problems.

Some people like to use macros as another option for nutrient export. You could look into setting up that extra tank as a fuge for growing macros. If you go this route, I'd recommend against Caulerpa sp. for several reasons, but there are other, more suitable types (do a search on the board).

Running a high quality activated carbon and increasing your water change schedule will also help. Also, increasing circulation may help. Generally the red slime (cyano) favors low flow conditions.

Of course, keep in mind that it probably took a long time to create the problem, so you will not see instant results while fixing it.

HTH

 

[Anonymous]

That's a huge bioload! I'd go with reducing the fish poop being generated and up the flow as the long term solution.

Right now I'd do some 30% water changes and as far as the red gook, siphon as much out as possible during the changes.

Then I'd hook the canister back up with good grade carbon in it, jack up the water flow to like hurricaine force to create a snowstorm effect to get the gook out from the nooks and crannys and run it 24 hours at a time, then change the filter.

HTH and good luck

 

[Anonymous]

I would look into a refugium growing plant life you like (macros or true marine plants). The refugium can even be part of your main tank if you want to keep it inexpensive and basically maintenance free.

If you already have a refugium growing plant life then I would recommend more frequent harvesting or expanding the amount of macros or true marine plants to help.

the red algaes are probably cyano bacteria. That actually could be a sign your system has low nitrates with some remaining phosphates. I had a cyano bloom when nitrAtes appraoched 0.0. Then eventually the red went away. I specualte the phosphates finally were consumed by the green plant life. It just took a little long than the plant life took to consume the nitrAtes.

HTH

 

[HClH2OFish]

Bob, I have to agree that it looks like you are cutting and pasting your responses!!