Need some advice... Tank not doing well.

Oxymoron · #1 04-13-2011, 12:58 AM

Long story short, I have been out of town working all winter and have had someone else looking after my tank for me.

After returning home my tank is in horrible shape..
Over the winter I had several losses including a mandarin goby, sixline wrasse and a pseudochromis that jumped to his death.

As far as corals I have lost a toadstool, and all of my zoos and mushrooms are in horrible shape.

Everything has a layer of green algae over everything and the sandbed looks like crap with spots of cyano.

I have performed 2 large water changes over the last week of 45 gallons each and have hand harvested as much of the crap i can get out, by constantly blowing it around and catching what I can with a net.

There is a fair bit of hair algae built up and the rocks still have all of they're coraline algae covered with green algae.

Any ideas where to start on this?
Ill be adding water parameters shortly and have another 45 gals mixed up in the basement. Going to be bringing carbon and phosphate remover online tomorrow.

Am I going in the right direction here or am I already too late?

cathyg_99 · #2 04-13-2011, 01:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oxymoron

Long story short, I have been out of town working all winter and have had someone else looking after my tank for me.

After returning home my tank is in horrible shape..
Over the winter I had several losses including a mandarin goby, sixline wrasse and a pseudochromis that jumped to his death.

As far as corals I have lost a toadstool, and all of my zoos and mushrooms are in horrible shape.

Everything has a layer of green algae over everything and the sandbed looks like crap with spots of cyano.

I have performed 2 large water changes over the last week of 45 gallons each and have hand harvested as much of the crap i can get out, by constantly blowing it around and catching what I can with a net.

There is a fair bit of hair algae built up and the rocks still have all of they're coraline algae covered with green algae.

Any ideas where to start on this?
Ill be adding water parameters shortly and have another 45 gals mixed up in the basement. Going to be bringing carbon and phosphate remover online tomorrow.

Am I going in the right direction here or am I already too late?

i would def add carbon straight away... is it just a hair algae? if so you could also throw in a sea hare to help get rid of that, i would also check to see if your skimmer is working as well... you can also turkey baste your corals to try and get the algae off, i would also throw on a filter sock or filter floss over your drain to your sump(if you have a sump) so its catching all the crap instead of being recycled through the tank

i had bad hair algae when i wasnt using RO water... are you using straight tap? if you dont have a RO unit just swing into safeway and get the culligan bottles its a B*#&$ to lug them back and forth but its worked for me i have NO hair algae

cathyg_99 · #3 04-13-2011, 01:26 AM

my only other thinking is that the hair algae may be sucking the air out of the water suffocating the fish and corals? it wouldnt hurt you to add a air stone for a day or two....

can anyone else chime in?

Oxymoron · #4 04-13-2011, 01:38 AM

Hi Cathy,
While I was away the tank was topped up with tap water, Since arriving home I have installed a ro/di system and have been topping it up with ro/di water. The two water changes were done with RO/DI.

ScubaSteve · #5 04-13-2011, 01:40 AM

Depending on how bad it is, I personally would rip it down and rebuild. Sometimes the uphill battle to get back to the former glory is actually just a losing battle. Pull it all out into rubbermaids, pitch the substrate, scrub down the tank, rinse. Repeat. While all of your rock is in the tubs you can scrub the s*** out of them an demolish as much algae as possible without worrying about it spreading in your tank. Rinse Bam! Half the battle is done right there.

Put it all back together and get back on the track of good husbandry. Sometimes the reset button is the best option.

cathyg_99 · #6 04-13-2011, 01:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oxymoron

Hi Cathy,
While I was away the tank was topped up with tap water, Since arriving home I have installed a ro/di system and have been topping it up with ro/di water. The two water changes were done with RO/DI.

yeah with the snow melting and everything else its just not a good idea to use tap water (for me anyways) so stick with the RO add some phospholoc and carbon and other than scraping it off by hand (i used a travel toothbrush haha) and add an airstone that should help with the fish at least... what are your parameters? when i had bad algae my phosphate was at 0, dont bother buying the hair algae treatments they never worked for me you just have to ride it out... if by chance you cant find any filter socks its not a longterm fix but just get a tube sock and put it over the drain to the sump it will catch the big chunks your scraping off...

Oxymoron · #7 04-13-2011, 01:48 AM

Part of me was worried about hearing that while another part is relieved.
With recent changes to my job, I will be around town and be able to maintain the tank on my own as intended.

I have a dream of upgrading to a 6 foot shallow tank and have already started entertaining the idea.

But If I can save this setup and possibly trade it or sell it I would rather go that route then tear it down?

Oxymoron · #8 04-13-2011, 01:51 AM

Im waiting on a test kit to arrive from a friend and am continuing to scrub tonight.
I do admit I have made some huge progress in teh overall look of the tank but it still does not look good. I am fairly certain it is not at risk of further livestock loss atm though.
Just is overwhelmed with algae.

ScubaSteve · #9 04-13-2011, 01:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oxymoron

Part of me was worried about hearing that while another part is relieved.
With recent changes to my job, I will be around town and be able to maintain the tank on my own as intended.

I have a dream of upgrading to a 6 foot shallow tank and have already started entertaining the idea.

But If I can save this setup and possibly trade it or sell it I would rather go that route then tear it down?

Think of it more as a re-scape than a complete rebuild. No need to completely rip apart the system. Just clean the problem areas and put it back together. This will save the system!

Myka · #10 04-13-2011, 02:04 AM

Got pics? Scale of the problem would be good to see. I understand exactly where you're coming from as I was in the same situation this winter, but I left my tank to a professional maintenance company. My tank is also in what I consider poor shape, but it sounds much, much milder than your issues. My first plan of attack while doing a 15% waterchange was to use a turkey baster to blast any detritus off the rocks and use gravel vacuum to clean the sand. I have a shallow sandbed...you can't just vacuum a deep sandbed out of nowhere like that. A couple days later I replaced the carbon with fresh stuff. A couple days after that I replaced the GFO with fresh stuff. A few days after that the tank was ready for its weekly 10% waterchange where I thoroughly cleaned the sand and rocks again. My tank perked up in a couple weeks.