115 gallon tank going down quick!

[megklink]

Hi,
I purchased this tank from an individual who sold me the fish, corals, sand, etc. The whole tank was awesome! There was huge ricordia mushrooms, xenia, star polyps, everything. There was a little hair algae but not much. Now, six months later, the algae has flourished and the tank had some cyanobacteria about 2 months ago which I have since used chemiclean and it cleared that up. But the problem is all most all the coral have dissapeared, almost overnight. Why is that? I need help getting this hair algae under control and I was wondering if the corals are completely gone or will they come back out? Please help me if you can! BTW, the bulbs were bought brand new when I got the aquarium 6 months ago- 4x65 PC, and I have a refugium with chaeto.

[jon99]

sounds like water quality issues. you run any tests (nitrates, phosphate, ammonia)?? Using chemi clean may seem to solve the cyano problem but you gotta realize it appeared because there is something going on in your water that needs to be addressed (like high phosphate levels). What kinda water are you using (filtered, tap, etc)?

[megklink]

I have been using DI water for about a month now-

[petoonia]

What is your tank maintenace routine? How often are you changing water? How large of a water change are you doing? Did you just start using ro/di water? Are you testing the water? What type of corals do you have have? What type of fish, and how many are in the tank?

[fish guy 40]

run a full set of tests and reply

[fish guy 40]

run a full set of tests and reply

[fish guy 40]

run a full set of tests and reply

[jon99]

both hair algae and cyano grow because there are to many "nutrients" (nitrate, phosphate, silicate) in the water. these also have adverse effects on coral. if you haven't already, get some good test kits (i like saliferit) or take your water to a fish store and have it tested. in the mean time becareful you aren't overfeeding, run some carbon (or better yet polyfilter and some phosban), and do a 20% water change. also test your DI water to make sure it is not the source of the nutrients (if that is indeed the problem). the corals may or may not come back depending if they are simply shriveld up or have died off. if you fix the problem soon, chances are many of them will come back. have you been adding any calcium or carbonate? doing water changes regularly? what is the pH?

[megklink]

pH- 8.2
temperature- around 80
salinity- 1.024
alkalinity- 2.9 milliliter equivalent liter
calcium- 420 ppm
phosphate- .03 ppm
nitrate- 10 ppm
nitrite- 0
ammonia- 0

[megklink]

I did a 45% water change about a couple of months ago and since then I have done a 25% water change-it's due for one this week. The only corals that are left are star polyps and some xenia, and a mushroom leather left. All the mushrooms (ricordia, purple, and something else) have died off. The fish: there's a mandarin, bristletooth tang, lemonpeel angelfish, unicorn tang (about 6"), maroon clownfish, salfin tang (5"), and pixy hawkfish.

I have been adding calcium- the seachem mix kind. I am using purigen and carbon, but I am thinking about buying a phosban reactor 150. Is there something I should be doing that I am not?

[fish guy 40]

phosphate and nitrates should be 0 I'd say water change time for starters

[fish guy 40]

My levels of nitrates where very high on my fresh water not to long ago it was from a dead fish I did'nt know was in there missing anything??

[megklink]

nope, thanks for your help

[jon99]

test your water you are using for the water changes before doing more. u said it was DI water. if you are using the tapwater filter by aquarium pharm, it tends to have short life span. levels in you aquarium seem ok, but that doesn't mean that your topoff water is. I'd also suggest running polyfilter. that stuff pulls a lot of nasty stuff out of the water. anything from metals and medications to chemicals released by coral. when I have a similar problem I can't seem to pinpoint the source of I generally do a water change (test it first!!) and run polyfiter and fresh carbon. IF the problem is with water quality, this should take care of it and u should start noticing improvements in you coral within a few days.

[megklink]

When your carbon is going out, does the water tend to get cloudy? I was just wondering because 2 days ago, I came home and the aquarium was really cloudy, I couldn't think what caused it, so I replaced the carbon and the aquarium was better by morning but it's still a little cloudy- does it matter what kind of carbon you use? Thanks for all your help!!

[petoonia]

I would definitely get a water change done. They should be done weekly. I would start out with a really big water change like 40%-50%, then I would do weekly water changes of about 20%.

I would get the Phosban Reactor you can run carbon , and a phosphate remover in it. I have the 150 on my tank and it works great.

You might want to think about getting rid of one or two of the tangs. They add alot to your bioload, which isnt good for your water quality. The unicorn, and sailfin tang will both eventually outgrow the tank.

Mostly I would just do some really good maintenace on the tank. Manually remove as much of the algae as possible, do regular water changes with ro/di water, you could blow off the live rock really good to get out any trapped detrius.


What type of skimmer are you using? What size sump? Do you have a refuge?

[jon99]

lack of carbon shouldn't result in cloudy aquarium. many people never even use carbon. if your tank is cloudy and it isn't just dust off the sand then you definitely have a water quality issue. Carbon will help clear it up but water changes will be best solution here. If you had a lot of coral die recently, this may be your source for the cloudy water. I like Kent Marine carbon. It's a little more expensiva but far more absorptive than the cheap brands. Plain ole carbon recommends 1/2 cup carbon for 10 gallons of water. Kent recommends 1 cup for 100 gallons. Cheaper in the grand scheme of things

[petoonia]

E.S.V is really good too!!