Water Parameters

[Saltysteve]

Just wondering, I finished the weeekend water change and testing etc. Is it normal for water parameters to never change? I do not add anything (anymore) accept RO water (top off) and water changes.
PH 8.3
Calcium 420
ALk 9.6 (3.43)
Temp 76
Nitrate 0

I am getting little growth accept hair algae and coraline!
I would post a picture of my results from 9months, if I knew how

[martym]

how old is the tank, what is in it? Now that corilline is growing watch your calicium, it will probably dip alittle. Been monitoring my 2 nano's daily for the past week. The older one (10g)dipped a bit in the CA and Alk. but the newer(20) one didn't move at all, except for the nitrite and nitrate climbed a bit, but that was expected.

[Saltysteve]

The tank is 9 months old. Lots of coraline growing, has been for quite awhile. I have a few soft coral frags that I am wanting to see grow especially my devils hand. Fuzzy green and blue/red mushrooms etc are doing well. One SPS birdsnest that is actually doing quite well, still little growth though. A few LPS, neon green trumpets large and small heads, doing well but little growth again. A brain-moon frag that does nothing anymore, no tenatacles visible etc. Grape Caulerpa used to grow very fast but now it has slowed down (this may be a good thing though). Pulsing Xenia has disapeared overnight as well as my Colt Coral
Everything seems to be just staying the same, suspended animation if you will
Water condition is always good,seem to be getting lots of Cyano though,
Livestock
I have a medium sized happy Yellow Tang
2 false percs
Lawn mower Blenny (he's cool)
and I just picked up a fire Goby

I want to go MH but I can't find what I need yet !

[Saltysteve]

No news is good news I guess.
Must have a good balance

[vertex]

What are you feeding the fish? how often? This might be the cause of cyano if you overfeed?

Otherwise, you might try some other foods or phytoplankton (DT's) for boosting your corals. My tank is not quite that old, some stuff does well (zoos, mushrooms, yellow polyps, open brain) and some is slowly (several months now) dissappearing or shrinking (cabbage leather and finger leather, Acropora frag).

I have same water parameters as you and decent coraline growth also. I have 192W on 33g, what is you light and size of tank?

[Jack]

Have you tested phosphate?

[Saltysteve]

In the beginning up until recently, I have over fed, big time. I did feed flake food twice a day plus brine shrimp mixed with reef plus as well as frozen plankton and the odd piece of seaweed on a clip for my Tang. Now I feed once every three days or so. I have also left my actinics on 24/7 for 4 plus months. I recently installed new bulbs and decided to adopt an 8 hour 10k and 12 hour actinic schedule. Phosphates, too low for the SeaTest kit's scale. I only use Culligan RO bottled water.
I have a 48 Gallon tank with a 20 gallon sump and I currently have 2x65 watt 10k and 2x65 watt actinic, 70Lbs of LR etc etc.....

[Beverly]

Your yellow tang will need a larger tank soon. 48g is too small for one, imo.

Your alk and Ca readings look okay. Also test for magnesium.

How often do you do water changes? How many gallons at a time? Do you have mechanical filtration on this tank? If so, how often do you clean the filter media?

[Saltysteve]

I agree, Tang will need a bigger tank soon, all part of the plan
Water changes get done every Sunday, 3 gallons of RO water at a time. I use Instant Ocean Salt and I vaccum the 1-1.5 inch sand bed. I do have a lot of evaporation as well, I add RO water every evening to the sump, total is 3-5 gallons per week. I have 65-70Lbs of Live Rock and no mechanical filtration. My tank is drilled in the right upper back panel. The piping is setup so the surface is skimmed and the return line (quietone 4000) is moving the surface. I also use 1 other powerhead on the opposite side. Skimming with a Seaclone 150. Have to play with it to keep it going once or twice a day. I get 3/4's of a cup a week and it stinks, real bad. Very thick and black. I use to have a sponge on the end of my overflow in the sump, never cleaned much out of it so I slowly stopped putting it back in
Temperature was always 82 to 84. I lowered it to 76-78 and I have changed my feeding patterns.
Never tested for Magnesium though!

[Beverly]

If this was my tank with cyano, I would do 30-40% water changes twice a week for two weeks. I would also throw on some sort of mechanical filtration and do some serious turkey basting of rock and sandbed. If you have never basted your tank before, be ready for serious cloudiness. Don't worry about the cloudiness, it will not harm your tank.

Anyway, once the tank cleared, remove and clean the media in the mechanical filter, then basted the rock some more. Also gently basted the sandbed where the cyano grows, not so much as to cause a sand storm, but enough to loosen the cyano and some of the detritus into the water column. When the tank clears again, clean the filter media again. Your skimmer may also need the collection cup cleaned more frequently during basting, so keep an eye on it as well.

Do this basting and filter media cleaning thing at least once a day for as long as the tank gets cloudy during basting. By the end of the basting period, you will have exported tons of detritus which helped fuel your cyano problems.

Once you get things under control with the large water changes, continue basting your tank before doing weekly water changes of at least 15%.