I Need Help!!!!

L

lilacbutterflymom

Reefing newb
What I think is I might have red slime algae forming again but my protien skimmer a SEACLONE PROTEIN SKIMMER is not working the bubbles are not flowing. I took it apart tonight to look around in it and everything and didn't find a thing.
I have RED SEA water test kits
params are
Ammonia 0.25
Nitrate/nitrites 0
Alk normal
Ph 8.0
Fish skunk clown and velvet damsel condi anemone star fish and snails live sand and 30 pounds of live rock. biowheel filter.
If i do a water change how much water should i change? i have 10 premade RO ready.
 
I have very little experience with that skimmer, but make sure your air line isn't clogged and check the adjustment. Everybody on this board says that seaclones are junk and that you should buy an aqua c remora.

You said again, do you know how to get rid of the red slime?
 
Sea clones are one of the worst skimmers to have. I have one and upgraded because it hardly worked, however there are mods for it. You can find the mods on reefcentral.com, on the home page go to diy, then scroll down to skimmers there will be a thread for modding your seaclone. I have tried to do the mod of cutting the inner pipe, but not for nothing could I get the pipe to come out. Good luck and keep us posted. If you decide to try it let us know how it turned out. The writer of the forum said with these mods its really not a bad skimmer at all, so let me know.

On my 30 I do any were from 5 to 10 gal change a week. Chemiclean will kill the red slim, and its not a antibactierial chemical so it wont kill any thing in the tank, I have used it to kill red slime and it worked for that, however its only a band aid you need to find the cause.

you shouldnt have any amonia in the tank for it to be 4 years old, so becarfull with the animals and keep a eye on it. Also ph can use to come up to about 8.2 to 8.3 or so. Just my 0.2 cents though.
 
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Up to a 20% water change will be okay, you should probably do that since you have ammonia (bad news).

Definitely look into getting a new skimmer. The Sea Clone is the biggest waste of money I ever spent on my tank. Aqua C Remora Pro is the way to go.

Bobby's right about the pH, get that up to 8.2, doing a water change may help that too (make sure your new water is at the correct pH and temperature).
 
i haven't done a big water change in a while how do i make sure the ph is right and do i need to add salt how much thats how i killed all my fish the last time.
 
If you are just adding top-off water to replace water that has evaporated, then you do not need to add salt (since salt does not evaporate with the water).

If you take out water and replace it with new water, then yes, you need to add salt. The salt has instructions on the back about how much to add (for example, add xxx cups salt for xxx gallons of water). Mix in the salt, test the salinity to make sure it's correct using a hydrometer or refractometer. You need to let the freshly made water sit for a day or two (use an airstone or a powerhead to keep it mixed). Keep a heater in the new water to get it up to the right temperature (you will get a wrong salinity and pH reading if the temp is too low). Test the pH and salinity again before you add it to the tank. Most salts contain something that brings it up to 8.2. If it's lower, you can add pH Up or something like that (you can find stuff to bring pH up at your fish store or pet store). Usually that's unnecessary because the salt brings it up to the correct pH on its own.

In an emergency, you can add the freshly made water right away, it's not very good for the fish as freshly made water can be caustic, but in my opinion, there are instances where it's just more important to dilute out the toxins in the water. Someone may disagree with me, but there was one time when I thought I could not wait the day for the water and salt to mix properly and I added it right away with no ill effects. It's better to not get into a habit of this though.

Hope this helps, let us know how it goes. Doing regular water change will help to keep your water parameters in good shape. Do you know why your ammonia went up? Did you add a new animal or did something die?
 
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They could have caused the ammonia to go up. A dead snail has never made a difference in my tank, but maybe since yours is smaller they might have... Alternatively, they may have died as a result from the ammonia. Inverts are more sensitive to it than fish are. Do you have a place you can move your anemone, star and remaining inverts to until you get your water params back in line? If the ammonia stays high you might want to think about that.
 
Yes definitely. Overfeeding is probably the most likely culprit if nothing big died and you didn't add anything. You will probably have to do some big water changes several days in a row to get the water back to normal, and in the meantime try cutting down on the amount you feed to try and keep the water stable.

What do you feed and how much/how often?
 
well ive been feeding 2 cubes of spirula frozen brine every other day with invertebrae smorgasboard and on the opposite just one cube dissolved in now what my hubby said is osmosis water
 
you know i was thinking i split the feeding between the tanks i have a 20 gallon also i feed them both equal amounts of food each day. both have snails and two fish and an anemone is that still considered overfeeding?
 
lilacbutterflymom said:
how can i make sure the heater i put in the water is working the red light was on when i plugged it in then it turned off when it put it in the water
Click to expand...

What is the temperature of your tank? Whenever you add your heater to the tank you should leave it off, put it in the water for about 10 or 15 minutes, and then turn it on. Thats so there won't be a sudden change in temp. and crack the heater.
 
Yes, I think you are way overfeeding. I have 13 fish and they get fed 1 cube frozen food once a day. So if you are feeding 2 fish 2 cubes every day, then it sounds like you are overfeeding. I think this is probably why your ammonia went up. The goal is for the fish to eat everything. You don't want any leftover food hitting the bottom, because then it will rot and mess up your water. Try feeding your fish a little at a time, only what they will eat. If food starts hitting the bottom, don't feed them anymore.
 
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re-evaluate your feeding schedule. cut back on the amount and feed small portions several times a day when you get your water parameters back on track, until then feed small portions once a day for 6 days and skip the 7th day. do a 20 percent water change. top off the water with fresh water no salt, when mixed well shiphon out 20 percent and replace with fresh salt water you mixed up the day before. test your water before and after the water changes. keep a log so you can see what the system is doing. If the water change helps, do another water change in 3 days, and again if parameters are still out. after two weeks go to 20 percent weekly for two weeks and if your water parameters are good cut back to 10 percent weekly and if water parameters are still good for couple weeks go to 5 percent weekly. at some point you will see the nitrates start to increase and when you see this you need to either increase the amount of water changed or the frequency. (it is assumed the new salt water will have the proper salinity and ph, etc.). keep us posted.
 

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