water change

[parrotchute]

too much too fast, not listening to good advice, and charging ahead without research.

Patience! If you keep doing it the way "you want to do it", the problems will persist and you'll lose livestock, corals, and eventually you'll give up the tank, because it simply won't be fun. Think of it like a puzzle you're slowly solving. The satisfaction will come, when, having not rushed, your tank looks great.

Your corals were not irritated by "sand worms". Red flags like having an anemone and pulling out all that sand indicate that you're being a little rash.

Not trying to bust your balls, but it will come back to haunt you.

 

[qxcontinuum]

ok i understand i shouldn't do it but it's done already.
The rocks i had were simple plain rocks. Nothing spectacular and there were full of phosphates algae etc.
I have the oportunity to buy nice Fijiji rocks for 3$/pund. I must use sand instead of crushed corals for snails and other cleaners. So my tank was set up bad at first.

Now i have sand and a few live rocks. All corals are in a small refugium tank.
What would be the advise from now on ? I filled the tank with RO water mixed with Instant Ocean 1.025 salinity

The only problem is that i must ad my fishies and they are sitting in a container.
Can i ad the fishes? and

1) Leaving the new tank staying without lights or low light many days?
2) should i ad brittle worms in my tank?

 

[bjohanson1234]

If you get that fiji rock, then you will have bristle worms on it.

Adding the fish now will just create more problems since the tank is not cycled. See if the LFS will hold onto them for a while?

 

[qxcontinuum]

my only concern right now is the fishes.
I must put the big clowns in the tank. I will only have 3 of them.
I don't really believe this would be a big problem for a 90 g tank
Then the rest of them i'll adding them to the small 15 gallons refugium, where corals and snails and all other inverts are. This little one has start looking like a nano reef loaded with all sort of stuf.
The fijiji rock is gorgeos but the reason of this price 3$ pound is only because was only wet (not cure in the water).
I must add some bacteria to tha tank. Can I ad some water from the old lot i saved (where the fish are), is this a good idea? I am only affraid that i will add all that crappy stuff algaes again

 

[daugherty]

you will when you are buing uncured rock just keep what you have and slow down. it takes time to beat alage

 

[parrotchute]

Qx, with the changes to your bioload etc, your tank might be in for a rough patch; there is an additive the lfs sells that helps reduce ammonia (I forget the name) - it's sort of a band-aid instead of a fix, but it might help your fish whether out the storm. Keep up with many but small water changes over the next week or so until the levels stay stable.

You're going to get a ton of algae again most likely, but we'll help you get through that stage and fix it!

Did the fish make it?

 

[Bifferwine]

there is an additive the lfs sells that helps reduce ammonia (I forget the name)

AmQuel is one I can think of off the top of my head. But it should only be used in an emergency, as it can often have bad side effects.

 

[parrotchute]

yeah, like I said, a short term solution. I used mine when I moved my tank to mitigate a possible cycle.

 

[parrotchute]

Here's an old shot of my tank with algae and one without; believe me, it looked so ugly I wanted to trash my tank. But, take the time, and it will improve.

 

[Melosu58]

FantasyReef Databases-Viewing item "10 Step Plan for Nuisance Algae Control"

 

[qxcontinuum]

my understanding was that Prime is the best.er.

It removes chlorine, chloramine, ammonia, nitrates and some other stuff. It does all at once. My fishies were staying these two days in a buket of 5 gallons water. The water was yellowish many times and i have just added prime and whitin minutes i've noticed the water is crystal clear again. (i was using an airstone and air pump this whole time)
I've added some live bacteria who supposely must cycle my tank faster.
Now there is no die off in my tank since the rocks weren't live. However the most astonished fact to me is seeing a ultra thiny baby snail on my glass screen.

The aquarium was washed with hot fresh water. All the stones were taken dry and washed in hot fresh water. Nothing from the old tank was added to this load.
Only the aragonite sand i bought was a little wet and was washed in hot fresh water as well.
And interesting , here is the baby snail speeding on my glass. Nature is amazing.

So now i am starting from scratch; no more crushed corals, beautiful sand was added, rocks with no algae on them, no more canister filters.
Related to this, i have noticed all the canister are having shit load in them and organic matter but no air. This is a big problem i guess, it stays for days there and it roots and probbaly eliminating phosphates and nitrates etc.... I get rid of al my canisters and bought a Penguin Emperor 400 with bio wheels. I was reading extrordinary reviews about it, there is no die of since air it's mixed with water, There are compartiments for all sort of media i'd like to ad, and it's filtering 400 gallons/hour. I have one on my fresh water and the water is crystal clear.

I must ad the fishes since i do not have a place for them , fortunately without overfeeding they will be ok in the whole cycling process.
I'll ad some photos later.

 

[qxcontinuum]

Here's an old shot of my tank with algae and one without; believe me, it looked so ugly I wanted to trash my tank. But, take the time, and it will improve.

how have you managed to clear all that stuff? Manual or it cleared by itself?

 

[parrotchute]

Couple of things:
A foxface rabbitfish (loves algae, but couldn't get it all, and poops out algae anyway)
Hang-on-back refugium with lots of culpera in it (outcompetes hair algae for nitrates/phosphates)
Good water (in my old house I had good well water, and didn't even use RODI) - my new house I use it, but make sure you use good filters, replacing them when required)

I didn't need to run charcoal, reduce lighting, add any phosban, a huge sump, nor did I remove any by hand. I really think the trick is consistent water changes and the refugium. Once the macroalgae fills your refugium, remove half of it, as a way of permanently exporting the phosphates.

 

[qxcontinuum]

i don't have a sump :-(
i only have a refugium but isn't linked by the main tank.
This is a future project but for now i must stick with what i have.
I am sure this time i'l keep the phosphates down using phosphate ban.
I'll see how weill survive this time

 

[qxcontinuum]

been few days since the water change and i can see coralline algae on almost all the rocks in the tank. (I still must ad live rocks)
The rocks were dry at that moment when i purchased them and white color. I haven't noticed having coralline. However the sand i bought was full of coraline. So far no signs of any algae.
In the second day after adding cycle bacterias i noticed an odour coming from water. I have added a bag of activated carbon in filter and it was gone whitin a few hours.
No ammonia and no nitrates is recorded so far. No signs of algae and i am running 45 grams of phosban
The only invert in the tank is my anemone who grew huge. I am remember first when i bought it was smaller as a 1$ canadian coin and had 8 tentacles. Who can count them now? She is gorgeous however she is a puss*** in the night time. She is hiding nad pulling back her tentacles.