Help, please!!

[limontee]

Hi. I have taken on my husband's 75, gallon bow-front reef tank, that he has had for close to four years. His job got way too demanding and he lost control of it. It was in really bad shape, full of long green algae and red slime. I've been using these forums to learn a lot (thank you all!) and decided to join today to get more specific help.

None of the machinery was working, so I took out the fan, the protein skimmer and the bio-wheel and scrubbed them all up and got them to working again. I replaced the filters in the bio-wheel and am cleaning out the protein skimmer every day. I did a fifteen gallon water change and also replaced the lights because they had never been replaced the whole time we've had it. Oh ... and I should mention here, though it will kill you guys ... Dear Hubbie had been topping off the tank with TAP WATER, which I've learned is a huge mistake.

One other thing, there is what I now know is called a shallow sand bed (SSB) about one and a half inches deep. I've read ya'll's discussions about the benefits of a DSB or an SSB and am totally confused! I also have read the discussions about whether or not to clean the sand. The guy at the fish place is adamant that I not mess with the sand, but I fully intend to! I mean, it's been the potty for four years now and looks gross! But I'll ask for more specific help on that topic later.

Here's where I am right now:

I couldn't get the algae under control, so I took out every single live rock and scrubbed them in saltwater in the sink with a soft toothbrush to get all the algae off of them, then rinsed them off and put them in buckets of saltwater until I did them all. Took about a week, probably 100 lbs at least of rock. No heat and no aeration in buckets. Then I took out the coral (and the snails and crabs ... have added 20 of each) and VERY gently got the algae off of them and put them right back in the tank.

In the midst of this I figured out that our water heater was not working and replaced it. Also in the midst of this I got shocked VERY badly and had to have an electrician out to work on it. I then put in a grounding whatever-you-call it. But, in working on the tank, the electrician unplugged the new water heater and it was a couple of days before I realized that!

And ... not naming any names, but SOMEONE tried to replace the bulbs with new ones and somehow or other forgot to turn the power back on! So the tank sat without heat or aeration all night and we lost a flame-tail blenny, two clowns, a sea urchin, and a red-and-white striped shrimp. Current population includes a dragon blenny, a yellow watchman, and a cardinal and a new shrimp, a red-looking sponge, 20 crabs and 20 snails. A mushroom looking coral who does not look happy, some long-stemmed polyp things that don't really move, a broccoli-looking thing, some wavy corals that are just coming back, some ... I don't know ... some other stuff in there.

I then put all the rocks back in and re-arranged them so that there are all sorts of places for the fish to swim around and none of them are on the glass. I dropped the mushroom coral and the broccoli several times in the process, but have apologized profusely.

I then used ChemiClean to kill the red slime algae. I took out the two filters and turned off the protein skimmer for 24 hours. Then I did a 20 gallon water replacement and had to go out of town. But the day we were going out of town, one of the bulbs in the light-thing melted through it's socket, so Hubbie went and bought a crazy-expensive LED light thing and we added live bacteria to the tank. I also replaced the two filters.

We were gone for three days and came back to a very dead sea urchin which I removed from the tank. The ammonia level was 1.0, the ph 8.4, and nitrites 0, and the nitrates 5.0. I added more bacteria, Prime, and Instant Ocean Nitrate Reducer last night. I tested again today and the pH is 8.4, ammonia is 5.0, nitrites 0, nitrate 10. Salt is 1.025.

I know I need to do another water change, but the place where I get R.O. water is about a 20 minute drive and I flat have not had time to go out there yet, but I might be able to tomorrow.

What do I need to do about the ammonia???

I've put in all the details because I've seen that whenever someone writes in with a question, you need a lot more information. So I thought I'd just start with everything I can think of.

Thanks for your help, and for reading this LONG message!

 

[wontonflip]

Welcome to the site :D

I'll answer a few of the items....

For the ammonia, just keep doing many partial water changes. At that high level though, I might even suggest to go ahead and use some amquel to help lower it (it will make your skimmer act up though), but it is awfully high.

So you already know that the tap is not going to help your algae situation. I'd also ditch the biowheel....those are nitrate factories. But your nitrates aren't bad, actually. Did you test for phosphates, too? Testable phosphates lead to more algae as well.

Have you changed your lightbulbs lately? Old bulbs lead to algae blooms.

What are you feeding and how often?

That said, what is in your tank as far as livestock goes? Don't worry; we'll get you back on track!

 

[Smitty]

+1 Wonton...Welcome to the site...glad to have you aboard. Just keep doing water changes, and they'll slowly come down. I commend you for doing a great job on restoring the tank...you're doing all the right things, and it'll pay off later. :)

 

[FishyReef]

Welcome! I'm thinking that when you took the rocks out and scrubbed them and left them in buckets without heat or aeration, you probably killed off a good portion of the bacteria so are now seeing a new cycle with your tank. Wonton's got you covered for dealing with the ammonia.

As for the lights, what type of LEDs did your hubby buy? They can be a lot stronger than regular lights and I'd suggest moving your corals to the bottom of the tank or (if the lights came with a controller) to substantially reduce the percentage of output on the lights while your corals adjust to their new surroundings :)

As far as the sand goes, stirring it will kick up all sorts of nastiness, especially if it hasn't been cleaned in 4 years. Do you have any sand sifting snails in the tank (nassarius snails) or hermit crabs that help to sift the sand? I'd recommend either suctioning out the sand and replacing it with new sand or getting a decent number of sand sifting snails in there to help do the job. I wouldn't recommend stirring it yourself right now - at the very least wait until your ammonia/nitrites/nitrates are stable as stirring the sand can set off another cycle as well, and I think you've already got your hands full getting this one under control!

Just one other question (and you did a great job providing us with info, etc!) - how much, what, and how often are you feeding right now?

And you might also want to look into getting (1) a power strip so that the important things like heaters and powerheads aren't accidentally unplugged (far easier to just flip the switch on the powerstrip), and (2) and RO/DI unit - you can find one for around $130 from Bulk Reef Supply, which should be worth it in the long-term with that size tank and the gas you must spend driving to the store to get water! You can hook them up to your sink at home if you don't have a place to mount it permanently.