HELP! Multiple questions!

[MamaZooKeeper]

I have had my tank set up since Feb of this year. I have a few questions about it that I am unable to figure out!!

Why is my coral not multiplying? I believe they are "zoas" but I am not 100% sure (they came with the tank). I have 4 on a "stump" and they are healthy it seems. Open fully and are bright, but they have not multiplied. Why?!

Why is the Coralline algae not covering my rocks? I have spots of it on my back wall and the sides and corners. On the rocks you can see both green and purplish color, but it never gets bright and doesnt spread. When will my live rock be pretty?!

What is the algea I am fighting and how do I get rid of it? I have an algea that grows on the sand and makes it look "dirty" brown. Also it gets on the glass and if I leave it long enough it will be fuzzy and sway in the current. I have it to where i only have to clean the glass about twice a week now. Last week I covered the tank and kept it dark for 4 days and that has helped its not coming back as bad at all.

Should I add more fish or invertibrates? I am thinking maybe my bioload is to small cause the skimmer is just clear liquid and not the yucky stinky stuff I was geting out of it. I was emptying every day, but now its only every week.

I am getting frustrated with this whole thing and just want a pretty tank!!!!!! HELP!!!!!

[Microcosmos]

Nothing good happens fast in this hobby!

[Pittsburgh]

Sounds like a water quality issue. brown algae swaying in the water means some pretty high levels of phosphates, possibly nitrates as well. Coralline algae and zoas won't multiply in such an environment.

Find out what your water quality is, fix it and the tank will look much better.

I would advise against adding more bioload before the quality issue's addressed.

[plapczynski]

+1 on the phosphates for the coralline. But you need to measure for it and not just dose a reef additive. Water changes can help here too as well as lighting.

[MamaZooKeeper]

OK so I need to figure out how to get rid of the phosphates. Does a normal testing kit test for this?? I have Tetra complete test strips and for ammonia and it all tests within the "normal" range. Do these not test for what I am fighting? I use the pink instant ocean salt and buy bottled water at the store for the tank. I have also been adding "AmQuel Plus Instant Water Detoxifier" to the tank. Thank you for your help!! I want to get this right!

[Pittsburgh]

Hmm... no, test strips won't cut it. If you plan on having any kinds of corals, you should invest in good testing equipment... there's just no way around it. I used to run a fish only tank and I could get by with basic test kits, but I once I switched to corals I quickly realized that I need a much better idea of what's in my tank water.

I can't recommended Hanna's digital Phosphate checker high enough. Hand's down the best tester I've ever used. Also get a high and a low range nitrate test kits. API nitrates kit is fine for high range, which you probably have now. Once you figure out how to lower your nitrates, you'll need a low range test kit. Red sea and salifert both make excellent low range kits.

You can also take a sample of your tank water to your LFS and have them test it for you if you want a quick answer. But long term it's more cost effective to just get your own kits.

[downbeach]

I think one of the first thing's you should do is to get a good RO/DI unit, in the long run, it will be cheaper than buying bottled water, and give you the type of water quality you need for this type of tank. What kind of bottled water are you using, i.e. distilled, mineral, spring, etc.? What are you using to measure your salinity? Are you testing your Ca, Mg and Alk?

[MamaZooKeeper]

I guess Ill have to look into better testing kits. What kind of RO unit can i get thats good but cheap. I dont really have hundreds right now to get a complete unit. I do test with the all in one test strips that test for: Complete Test Strip Kit measures 7 test parameters - ammonia, chlorine, nitrite, nitrate, alkalinity, hardness, and pH. I also have a Deep Six Hydrometer to test the salinity. As far as the water I have been getting distilled I believe.

[Pittsburgh]

Distilled water is good enough, not as cheap as making your own but it's sufficient. You may find a real cheap rodi unit on craigslist, but if it's used it will probably need all of its filters and membranes replaced, which will bring the cost up to a comparable brand new unit. You can get a brand new rodi unit on ebay for about $100, it won't have DTS meter and other cool things, but it will produce rodi water. BRS, filterguys, MD all carry basic rodi units as well.

I wouldn't worry about Cal,Alk,Mag right now for two reasons. First, phosphates/nitrates is a more oppressing issue. Second, since you don't have any stony corals yet, these parameters are probably ok anyway. In any case, I would get the water quality fixed first, this involves getting good kits, figuring out what equipment to get to tackle high readings depending on test results, eventually get a rodi unit and Cal/Alk/Mag test kits to help maintain proper chemistry levels.

Just curious. You mentioned that you have a nitrate test strip. What does it say your current nitrate level is?

[billdogg]

As mentioned above - test strips are not really worth the paper they are put on. I am a big fan of Salifert tests - they use titration to accuratley measure the levels of various things in your tank. At a bare minimum, I would get Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, Calcium, Alkalinity, Phosphate, and pH. The kets are very easy to use, and more than accuarte enough for our needs.

I would stop witht he Amquel - it really does not do much, if anything, to help, IMO

You can get a very good ro/di unit from www.bulkreefsupply.com or from www.buckeyefieldsupply.com I got mine from BFS - Russ will answer any question you might have and get you set up with a quality unit at a very good price.

I would not add anything at this point - get your water parameters under control, then slowly add a fish or coral at a time.
hth

[ebacon]

Originally Posted by MamaZooKeeper

I have had my tank set up since Feb of this year. I have a few questions about it that I am unable to figure out!!

Why is my coral not multiplying? I believe they are "zoas" but I am not 100% sure (they came with the tank). I have 4 on a "stump" and they are healthy it seems. Open fully and are bright, but they have not multiplied. Why?!

Why is the Coralline algae not covering my rocks? I have spots of it on my back wall and the sides and corners. On the rocks you can see both green and purplish color, but it never gets bright and doesnt spread. When will my live rock be pretty?!

What is the algea I am fighting and how do I get rid of it? I have an algea that grows on the sand and makes it look "dirty" brown. Also it gets on the glass and if I leave it long enough it will be fuzzy and sway in the current. I have it to where i only have to clean the glass about twice a week now. Last week I covered the tank and kept it dark for 4 days and that has helped its not coming back as bad at all.

Should I add more fish or invertibrates? I am thinking maybe my bioload is to small cause the skimmer is just clear liquid and not the yucky stinky stuff I was geting out of it. I was emptying every day, but now its only every week.

I am getting frustrated with this whole thing and just want a pretty tank!!!!!! HELP!!!!!

The dirty brown is growing as a reflection of the stuff in the water your putting in, it will also kill or stunt any livestock or coral.

1)Buy a ro/di and a Tss meter,
2) measure the output for 000Tds
3) drain the tank
4) mix up a fresh batch of saltwater using the ro/di water
5) refill tank

It will need to cycle again and you will also need to run GFO in a media reactor to get rid of the rest of the crap in your sand and rock, but after about 6 months you will see drastic improvement.

[billdogg]

Originally Posted by ebacon

The dirty brown is growing as a reflection of the stuff in the water your putting in, it will also kill or stunt any livestock or coral.

1)Buy a ro/di and a Tss meter,
2) measure the output for 000Tds
3) drain the tank
4) mix up a fresh batch of saltwater using the ro/di water
5) refill tank

It will need to cycle again and you will also need to run GFO in a media reactor to get rid of the rest of the crap in your sand and rock, but after about 6 months you will see drastic improvement.

I am not trying to flame anyone, but it is, at least IMHO, totally unnecessary to go to such a huge effort to take care of what sounds like a minor algae and/or diaton issue in a tank that is, in reality, still becoming established.

You do not HAVE to use ro/di water - until the early this year, I used only Columbus, Ohio tap water in all my tanks. (since 1988 or thereabouts) Yes, I have switched to ro/di, but I really have not noticed a big difference. When I did make the switch, I did it by just using the ro/di water as my regular makeup/water change water. Drain the tank and start over??? Really??? Maybe the OP should toss all the rock and sand too???

Remember - there are absolutley NO absolutes in this hobby other than one - NOTHING good happens FAST!!! Figure out what is going on in the tank by using quality test kits, and then make small changes over time, allowing those changes to actually have a chance to make a difference before making another change. Think of your system as an ongoing biology experiment - if you change everything, all at once, you will have no idea at all what change had what effect on a givien part of the whole.

Once again - I AM NOT trying to start a fight here - just urging the OP to go SLOWLY - determine what the causes are, and then make changes to improve the system.

hth

[ebacon]

Billdogg,

I ageree that changes in a reef are best made slowly, however there also some "rookie mistakes" that can be easily corrected. Using poor quality water is one of them. Simply doing water changes to remove the "bad water" in this case will take years. It's good that you can se tap water in Ohio. And I know several fish only systems that do so. Since they do not require high intensity lighting that corals demand there is no nuisance algae growth. But if they were to put a coral or high intensity lit in that tank it would be a different story. And not here in Mo. I know folks that even started out using well water and switched to rodi. If for no other reason than to eliminate the unknown variable when troubleshooting an issue of nuisance growth, dead fish or no coral growth.

This is all speculation of course, and the opinions expressed here are just that, my opinions. They are offered for no other purpose than as a guide for others to learn things that took me time and money to figure out the hard way.

[MamaZooKeeper]

Originally Posted by ebacon

The dirty brown is growing as a reflection of the stuff in the water your putting in, it will also kill or stunt any livestock or coral.

1)Buy a ro/di and a Tss meter,
2) measure the output for 000Tds
3) drain the tank
4) mix up a fresh batch of saltwater using the ro/di water
5) refill tank

It will need to cycle again and you will also need to run GFO in a media reactor to get rid of the rest of the crap in your sand and rock, but after about 6 months you will see drastic improvement.

This is not an option I am sorry. I am not starting all over. Im sure I can figure out some other way than going back to scratch. Everything is living nothing is dying so im not sure this is really what I need....but ty for helping!