whats wrong with my tank????

[blazing]

sup ya i have a 55 gal reef tank. its been runnin for about 5 months. i have frogspawns, torch coral, some of frags zoas and 2 sps frags. my first frogspawn was doing good when i got it.and would open up really big. for the past week or 2 it hasent been opening up. its stays very small and seems to be getting worse. i just got done battling hair algae and now im starting get red/brown slime algae. i want to know why my frogspawn is not opening up. i think theres somthing wrong with my tank. here are my water prams.

salinity: 1.026
PH: 8
ammonia:0
nitrite: 0
nitrate: 0
phosphate: 5.0
temp: 79
cal:520+
KH:11

i know my phosphate is really high. i just bought a phosban reactor just gotta get some gfo. the only thing that change lately is my cal. its usually at around 480 dont know how it go that high. could my phosphate be the cause of my problems?

[HotHotHot]

How were you battling hair algae?

PO4 is high (you know that)
Ca is a little high (around 450) but not the cause

How do you measure salinity? Swing arm or refractometer?

Do you dose anything?

[blazing]

i have a deep six hydrometer. i was dosing vodka. i started with .1 ml everyday for 4 days. then after 4 days i bumped up to .2 ml a day. i have stop dosing and its been about 2 days. the frogspawn was acting up before i started dosing. and about the hair algae i had a bloom of hair algae that covered most of my tank(75%-80%) but i have that under control. but now i starting to have red/brown slime algae. i also have a anemone in the tank too and it seems to be doing fine. i dont measure my mag. is that something to be concern about?

[HotHotHot]

red slime may have come from the vodka dosing, but usually goes away as you up the dose and it takes effect.

Mag should be around 1350 - 1500. Unless it's grossly out of that range, probably not.

Any of the fish pick at the frgspawn? I have blue tangs that picked at my LPS until they were dead. I think the tangs needed more food. I went all sps this time, and feed them well, so no picking.

[blazing]

i have 2 Picasso clows and one is hosting the frog. the other clown is hosting another frog. the frog that is really acting up is my green/purple tip frog. that clown that hosts that frog seems to have injuries it mouth so he might be biting the frog and getting stung by it but im not sure of that and havent seen it biting it myself. my other frogs and torch dont seem to open up to much either. that stay preety small and i know for sure that they can open up bigger. do u think it could be my lighting? i have 4 54w tek light t5 fixture. i bought it used and was about a year old. maybe i need to change the bulbs?

[Sugar Magnolia]

What is your tank maintenence schedule?

[sebrofjr]

No!! You're a towel.

[thegrun]

While I doubt it is the source of your problems, I would toss the hydrometer and get yourself a refractometer. Hydrometers are notoriously inaccurate. Your salinity is on the high end to begin with, if your hydrometer is off, it will lead to problems. Your issues with algae are related to your phosphate problem.

[jdieck]

Phosphate is extremely high at 5 ppm, you should strive for a level not to exceed 0.03 ppm for which you may need to install a calcium reactor with GFO media, also calcium and alkalinity are on the high side, I would target 420 ppm and 9 dKh. Check your magnesium to the range of 1250 to 1350 ppm.
Light can certainly be an issue if bulbs are old. I would replace them at te 9 mo. to 1 year mark.
Fianlly try keeping water changes at about 15% per week until you notice some improvement.
Finally, Euphylias (frogspawn) need relatively low flow, check that it is not being blasted as it will not expand at higher flow as the polyps can get damaged.

[blazing]

could someone tell me if the Refractometer at bulk reef supplies is a good one? and my tank maintenence schedule is 10 gasl water change every week. the last water change i did was 15 gallons my nect water change im gonna do 20-25 gallons to try and bring my phosphate lower. if the Refractometer is good at BRS then i will buy it since i have to get some gfo from there any ways. and i will also buy a mag. test kit today and test that to see wheres its at. the frog isnt getting too much flow. it gets enought flow to move the tenticles around but not to strong. my zoas are doing really good. at first they were losing their colors buy is slowly gaining it back. i bought 3 head of devils armor and now it 6 heads in just about a month or two. also have 1 head of tubs blue thats was frag on the spot and didnt open for a week and a half and about a week after it open up i can see 4-5 head growing from it. so it seems like my zoas are doing good.

[spw4949]

What's your water source? Do you use ro/di water? With PO4 of 5 that could definately be stressing the corals out.....

[blazing]

I get ro/di water from the grocery store. When I first started my tank I used tap water and then did about 2 water changes with tap water too. But after that I always used ro/di water.

[w16227]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15243323#post15243323 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by blazedapurp
I get ro/di water from the grocery store. When I first started my tank I used tap water and then did about 2 water changes with tap water too. But after that I always used ro/di water.

Do a phosphate test on the RO/DI - grocery stores are not always up to snuff on changing out the filters. Do a TDS test as well if you can. Both should be zero.

As others have said, get a good refractomener.

http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewItem~category~Marine_Depot_Aquarium_Refractometer_Refractometers_for_Saltwater_Aquariums~vend or~Marine_Depot~idProduct~MD2101~idCategory~FITEOPRF.html

Most likely candidates are the phosphates and possibly salinity.



Another thing to check - look with a red light at night. If something is coming out and snacking, that will be the best time to catch them in the act. Wait at least 2 hours after the lights go out.

[sharky's machin]

"Slimy algae" makes me think dinoflanges but hard to tell without photos. There are some threads about it with some good pics. You need to identify what the problem is first, since the 'cure' is different for each. For instance, water changes are actually counter-productive if you have dinos.

[seapug]

As others have said, your PO4 levels are off the chart and likely the primary source of all your problems. Buy a few extra containers of GFO and replace the media in your reactors once every couple weeks for a while. It can take a month or two to do its magic, but I'm willing to bet once the Phosphate levels are under control, the other problems will subside as well.

Keep up a good maintenance routine and take it easy on the food inputs, too.

[romsoccer12]

i think your frogspawn has a disease. you said your anemone is doing fine and anemones love good water quality and if your anemone is doing fine, i dont think its anything wrong with your water/tank

[blazing]

That might be the case but it seems like all my lps are acting up. I have a frog wit two heads that are green/purple tips and a frog with 11 head brown/green tips and also 1 head of a hammer. The brown/green tip I got from a fellow reefer on RC. When I went to pick it up it was huge when it opens up. And now it only opens about half the size of what it was when I got it. Same with the hammer. At the store it would open a lot bigger and now it bearly opens. And this morning before I left to work I moved the green/purple tip frog to the other side of the tank and notice it had tiny little holes on its tentacles.

[saltyguppie]

ro/di is your friend.

[blazing]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15243373#post15243373 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by w16227
Do a phosphate test on the RO/DI - grocery stores are not always up to snuff on changing out the filters. Do a TDS test as well if you can. Both should be zero.

As others have said, get a good refractomener.

http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewItem~category~Marine_Depot_Aquarium_Refractometer_Refractometers_for_Saltwater_Aquariums~vend or~Marine_Depot~idProduct~MD2101~idCategory~FITEOPRF.html

Most likely candidates are the phosphates and possibly salinity.



Another thing to check - look with a red light at night. If something is coming out and snacking, that will be the best time to catch them in the act. Wait at least 2 hours after the lights go out.

i willtest the water that i am useing when io get home. i know i tested it before and if i remeber right it think the phosphate was pretty low. and i will try the red light thing as soon as i get a red light. anyone know if the refractomener from bulkreefsupplies is any good?

[romsoccer12]

now that you said it is all your lps, a disease seems even more a possibility. diseases in lps are pretty common and they can spread through all your lps corals.

[blazing]

So if they do have a disease then what should I be looking for?

[blazing]

so i got home today and i see more red slime. my nem was completely close. i will test my water and give ya an update.