Brown Algae

6

613ReefGuy

Reefing newb
So........I am not sure where I went wrong. LFS said to feed my tank with half a cube of frozen food/day. I have a clown, royalgramma, and coral beauty angelfish. I also have 1 candy cane coral, rose anenome, and very small zoathids. 1 snail, 18 crabs and a peppermint shrimp.

I came home today and the zoa's werent opened as much as they have been, which then made me look at the anemone which seems shrunk up....which then made me realize the insane brown stuff on my sand and the 2 pieces of dry rock that are in there.

I have not done any tests yet as I just got home, but I think it is https://www.livingreefs.com/got-brown-algae-t581.html

How much water should I replace, and how picky do I need to be on getting the sand out? Will the crabs eventually clean it up?

Am I over feeding this tank right now? There are often small particles floating around.

Thanks for your help guys
 
I think you are overfeeding. I would cut back to 1/4 cube every day. Your fish will act hungry, but they will no matter what you feed them! To put things in perspective, I have 15 fish in my tank, and feed them 3 cubes every other day.

When you test, what are your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels? I would do a 20% water change or so. Have you been doing regular water changes? If not, 10% to 20% a week or every other week will be beneficial.
 
I just picked the tank up and set it up on Friday. I kept 60% of the other guys water......I had to do a vicious clean on the tank, and threw out all of his sand because it was filthy.

I am not a fan of these test kits, its so hard to get clear readings as my eyes play tricks on me. From what I just took.....I have ammonia closer to 0.25, PH closer to 8.2, Nitrite at 0, and Nitrate closer to 5ppm (This was the hardest one to read), a part of me wants to call it 0, but another part says go with the next one at 5.

I will cut back the feeding for sure. Should I black out the tank after I do a water change tonight (Also....will a 20% change drastically affect the water temp?) If I clean up the sand, and do a black out will the corals die?

I am moving up 5 floors in my building next week, so I will be breaking it down to move unfortunately.....The guy I bought it off of wasnt willing to hold it for 2 weeks, so I had to set it up. It is going to be the last thing to move, and the first thing to set up.

What do you think Biff? 28 Gallon, do 5 gallons tonight? (I have to go to the store to buy the water, and mix it still), I can toss a power head in for a few hours, and then put it in. I swear I am going to name my first born daughter after you, lol
 
If you have ammonia, then your tank is cycling. If you threw out the old sand and put in new you may have caused an ammonia spike, and even if you had live rock, there is die off from the rocks....probably explains why everything closed up.
 
I would return the nem until you get your tank set up in a more permeant situation. with the mini cycle and the moves, and they are just so fickle anyways, it can stress them to the point they die and then they nuke the whole tank.
 
Okay update......

I clued in a realized that I have a perfectly good sump, so no need for a rubbermaid container. I drained 5 gallons from the 28 gallon nanocube, and put that water into the sump. I have my lights set up 19 1/2" from the top of the tank, 31 1/2" from the bottom of the tank. I put in a spare heater set to 78, and a powerhead. The lights are currently only on the T5's which are 39watts x4. Is this way too much light at this height? I just need to keep this alive and healthy until Saturday.

In the nanocube, I am mixing 5 gallons of water now which I will add to it. If i have to do another water change before next week I will, and then when I move I will do another 20% change then. I will continue to remove the brown algae during water changes, as I go.

In the meantime.....I hope my candy cane, and zoas live through this, and I really hope my fish and crabs live.

Huge lesson learned.

Any tips would be great, I hope I am going about this right.
 

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Realized T5's are switched for pairs....it is now 2 T5's on. I took out the powerhead that was way too powerful in that small area and put in one of the nano powerheads.
 
So the nem is dead......I had to learn the hard way that when you start something on your own, you should not have someone jump in part way through to help you.

While the water for my nanocube was mixing I had a heater and powerhead in the bucket. At some point last night the girlfriend said she was going to turn up the temp to heat it up quicker, I said not to bother since every minute we spend heating the new water is a minute that the nanocube has a chance to cool down. I wasnt looking for a perfect temp, I just needed to get the water in.

Once I added the water to the nanocube I cleaned up my mess from the evening and I put the heater back into tank for the anemone. Before bed it was looking much better. It had move on the rock to block some of the light, but was looking much better already.

I woke up this morning to see it floating around the bottom of the tank. No longer on the rock and wiltered up. I only had the moonlights on during the night, so it made no sense to me. I then looked at the heater.......I guess my girlfriend didnt understand when I said to leave the temp alone....She had it set to 86!!

So lesson learned now...See absolutely everything through, so you only have your own actions to fix and dont have to look out for something someone else has done.

The worst part is that I posted it up for sale on a local aquarium forum, and immediately had a buyer for it.....It would have been gone by tonight and I would have only been out $10.
 
About your girlfriend: most non-hobbyists have no idea at all how sensitive a reef system can be. You really need to educate them.
 
I have been trying to. This all started with her wanting an aquarium, saltwater in perticular. She claimed to know how to do it...........I agreed to do the diy projects, and began shelling out lots of money assuming she would take over at some point and know what was going on. I have now become the active one on here, and it is fair to say that after many diy projects, about $2200 invested into this, and some time reading up on things.....I think my knowledge has far surpassed hers, lol. She sold me on the idea of "add salt and fun a hob filter, its that easy".

The plus side is, I have become drastically interested in the hobby now. Some things are trial and error, but only if you dont research enough...either way you still learn though. Not only will I be able to care to our system, I will know it inside and out in order to properly maintain it. I guess her and I flipped roles somewhere becuase I was just looking for something nice to stare at originally, but now the satisfaction of accomplishing something that looks like the systems we all set up is just as equal to the visuals.

On another note....The anemone has attached itself back on to the rock?? My girlfriend sent me a text, so I asked her to turn the lights on for it just in case it actually survived its 7 hour hot tub experience.
 
86 isn't so hot that it's going to kill everything in the tank -- only some things! :lol: So there's a chance your anemone will be just fine. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you!
 
Looks really bad......She really doesnt get this temperature thing. I came home and she had it set to 68. Lights are on it, but it doesnt look so good.

I also have a royal gramma who is M.I.A. Must have found a great hiding spot.
 
I think I am slowing getting that point across, having over 2000 invested in the 3 of them (no water in 2 of them, nothing but a tank for the other) makes it an easy battle to win :)
 
Would any of you know how long I should be doing a black out on my aquarium for? I did the 20% water change 2 nights ago, and havent turned the lights on since. I just dont want to do harm to the candy cane and the zoas that are still in there.

Thank you
 
I am curious about the nem did you throw it out or give it a chance? I dont think that would have killed it and I believe when they die they turn inside out.
 
Amber, it was completely inside out with nothing but its stem left floating around. I seriously tried my best with it. A few errors, but I really did try to save it and I had a buyer for it right away (I would have given it away if I had to in order to save it, but getting some of my money back would have been a bonus.)

Will do Biff, tomorrow will be day 3. Do you think I should do another water change on day 4?
 
Yes. Keep up with frequent water changes during the black out. Any algae that dies is just going to release its nutrients back into the water, which will fuel more algae. So you need to do water changes to remove that.
 

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