Michika's 28g long nano-esque tank!

[Skimmerking]

try doing a 100% water change are you running Phosban reactor on the tank..

[Snappy]

Catherine maybe try polyp-labs to reduce the nitrates.

[michika]

Thank you for the suggestions! I'll look into polyp labs when I next get a chance.

[michika]

I'm thinking perhaps this tank needs to be torn down and changed at this point. Things still aren't perking up regardless of what I've tried or done, sadly GHA seems the be the least of my worries right now.

Things I need to figure out how to address;
1) RTN its back! My large colony has RTNed, and two frags I picked up in January have died as well. Both frags were fine yesterday evening and gone this morning.

2) Mystery leak? or crazy evaporation. I am going through about 2g per day of water. While my SG remains constant (when I don't over top off), its a lot of water to be topping off. I'm concerned because of the quantity, however I don't see any negative/positive influences because of this.

3) GHA which is a problem in and of itself. I don't want to discuss it as I feel like I've spoken about it ad nausem.

4) Getting things to thrive and not just live. I've seen a color change in one of my frags, but I have seen no growth, not even nubs on anything else. Birdsnest and digitata has always been a quick grower for me, and nothing is growing.

These are today's parameters; they are also prior to today's water change
SG: 1.023 (low, I want 1.025)
pH: 8.1 (before lights on, same as lights on though)
Ca: 370
Mg: 1170
dKH: 5 (low)
Phos: 0.04 (its going up since last week's 0.01).
Nitrate: 1ppm (stayed the same from last week).
Nitrite: 0
Amm: 0
temp: 80.4

On a positive note though the cyano has disappeared, its only one one patch of zoas, and even then it seems to be receeding slowly. I did try to start dosing Energy Elements again, but I saw the return of cyano and immediately stopped dosing. The filter socks I purchased have also solved the microbubble problem, I'm really happy with this turn out, and gladly accept the trade off of cleaning them every other day. I'm looking into polyp labs right now as a potential solution to my tank's sad state. However, since I don't know what the problem is, I hesitate on how to fix anything. I also worry about constant dosing, I liked having a more or less hands free system. Should my upcoming changes not yeild any results by the end of the month I will be trying this. The bottom line is things aren't doing well. While my fish and clams thrive, nothing else (GHA aside) does, and I need to figure out how to fix this asap before the rest of my SPS die.

I think I will make a post in the reef section to solicite opinions on what else I can do. I am at such a loss and I'm very disapointed in how things are progressing. Depending on the responses I get, I will probably purchase polyp labs at the end of the month or early March and try that system. I will also try to do one major overhaul by removing all the rocks that have GHA and see what happens. Since I suspect the phosphates are being released by those old rocks, I'm going to try and remove them, and see if that solves the issue of GHA.

Photos later of before and after the changes as well as some of the RTN possibly.

[cprowler]

Hey Catherine, sorry to hear things still are not going well.

I wish I had a answer for you but I think the reason I have avoided some of these issues is just dumb luck. It sounds like you have been doing all the right things, doing your homework and getting good advice.

I am a fan of filter socks, I started using them again and have noticed a difference in water quality.

I have been using ReeFresh also and think it's beneficial for sure, I don't see all the benefits they claim but would rather use it than not.

I was having some minor issues with nuisance algae and cyano a while back and started using ozone and ReeFresh and things cleared up quite quickly. I have since taken the ozone off but would and may use it in the future if needed.

I'm sure things will start to turn around for you.

[digital-audiophile]

It's just one thing after another eh? At what point do you decide to just do a total take down, cook the rocks and start over?

[imisky]

hey michika,

when i used to get alot of cyano issues i would just dose carbon sources ( sugar, vinegar, vodka ) they all work after a day or two i usually see the cyano at close to none. and if continued to dose after that the GHA would start to turn white but that takes more time than the GHA, before taking the tank down i would give this a try maybe it'll be worth a shot

[michika]

Originally Posted by digital-audiophile

It's just one thing after another eh? At what point do you decide to just do a total take down, cook the rocks and start over?

Its on the horizon....as in I'm starting my old cube back up in a week or so to try for a 28g tear down and rebuild if I don't have any success at the end of the month or early March. That is assuming I don't go a dosing route.

[Delphinus]

Going with Polyplaps is likely not going to have a profound effect on your tank. It is primarily a nitrate reducer. Since your tank is at 1ppm we pretty much can rule out nitrate as a cause of trouble here.

I don't think we can rule out PO4 though. I'm not sure what to think of the 0.04 reading. I get this kind of reading too on my tanks but the lack of a reference solution gives me this whole "how can I verify this number is correct" thing going on. I've been on the fence about ordering a Merck/D-D test kit but as time goes on and my PO4 numbers all over the map, I'm starting to think I'm going to have to bite the bullet and just order it.

It might not be the PO4 though either. Well, in so much that it's not the PO4 in the water column. There may be PO4 trapped in the rocks though and it's slowly leeching out, fueling the GHA.

The lack of coraline on the one rock to the front left there is something that catches my notice everytime I see a photo of your tank. I realize it has some, but ... I dunno, the rock looks white to me. When I set up my 20g back in December, I pulled rock out of my rubbermaid curing tub. It's been sitting there for months and was devoid of any coraline, was more or less pure white. I did get some minor hair algae growth after a few weeks but after about a month it was mostly pinks and purples due to coraline coverage, and where the coraline takes hold, the GHA doesn't. So it's odd to me that this one rock isn't more covered in reds and pinks and so on.

I think, were this my tank, I'd be looking at swapping out most, if not all of the rock. The existing rock should be thrown into a bucket for cooking (just let it sit in some SW with a heater and change out 100% of the water from time to time). And new rock put into the tank. Maybe not all at once though.

Any idea how many lbs of rock are in there now? You might want to consider upping the amount that's in there too while you're at it (couldn't hurt - except for maybe the cost of course!)

Hard to say if those Ca/Alk #'s tell us the reason for slow growth. They are both lower than what you might want to shoot for, but not hugely so. Try upping the Ca to around 390-400 and the Alk to around 7-8 dKH and see if you notice a difference.

[adidas]

you could always take out the few bad rocks and let them dry out and die, clean em off and re-seed them later?

is that a possibility anyone? or a stupid idea? lol