230g a stinky mess :-(

[Dom]

Hi All

Need some help please, I am really loosing the will to keep my reef tank and I really don't want to give up so hoping someone can help solve my problems.

My setup is: 230g Prostar with sump.
2 x Nero 7s
Sicce return pump
Reefmat 1200
Reef Octopus Regal 250 INT
UV Light
Lifegard Aquatics Turbo Reactor with Rowaphos
Sump has chaeto and a led light
Marco rock 40 lbs and Gulf live rock (sorry can't remember quantity right now)
AI Hydra lighting 32,32 and 64

Stocking:
Powder blue tang, Naso tang , Picasso trigger, blue throat trigger, puffer, hawk fish,fox face, file fish and Copperband.

I started the tank last June and the Nitrates are 75 and flashing on the hanna, phosphate .90 flashing on the hanna. I started dosing Nopox in October and it went down to 45 but now upto 75.

My original issue was long hair algae on all the rocks because of the high nitrates and now I am getting a white snotty substance growing over the glass, seems like the algae is getting killed off by the Nopox and stuck in a cycle. It's clogging up the neros as it builds up and causing the water to be misty looking. This junk gets caught everywhere inc the reactor as you can see in the photos.

I have been doing 4 week water changes of about 40% and brushing the rocks.

And OMG the smell, my living room stinks, I am sure the sulfur smell can't just be fish poop alone? Just emptied the skimmer and my wife has to stay in the bedroom it's so bad.

I know I caused all this with lack of the experience, I really thought a bigger tank would be less trouble ..boy was I wrong! Can someone help me reclaim my tank....and living room ;-)

Thanks guys

Judging by the pictures, I think stepping up your husbandry game is a good place to start.

Typically, water changes need to be faithful, weekly and 20%. This will lead to stability in your water chemistry as the chemistry swings will be less drastic in a weekly water change schedule as opposed to a monthly schedule.

This will certainly help with the "stink" you're experiencing.

Also, all other husbandry (think skimmer maintenance and filter media) tend to get stinky when they are left in place for a month, so try to do that weekly as well.

You have a really nice system, it just appears to be a bit neglected.

 

[slingfox]

Do a deep clean of your display tank and sump and get on a more frequent water change schedule. You should also hold off on adding any more fish until things at stabilize for several months. I don't know how large your fish are but you have some high bioload specimens which could make things challenging. Try to feed less if you can.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Thank you, I am dosing 30ml per day as my nitrates were above 10...70 at the time and I have a 230g combined water.

Did you start dosing just because of the level, or were you already having algae problems? Don't chase numbers, ESPECIALLY when you aren't keeping coral.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

And if you continue to use the UV, make sure the flow rate is correct for killing algae... It needs to be on the high end iirc or it simply won't keep up with the algae's reproduction rate.

 

[Isaac Alves]

The fish group is definitely a bunch of big eaters. I’m going to agree with others stating that frequent large water changes are the way to go.

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

Had to reread the brand name of the tank

 

[BOYERZ]

No water changes. Just gonna waste salt.

Remove all from sump except for.

Socks, filter roller
Uv, but don't turn on yet
Carbon reactor.

Power wash your dt with a turkey baster.
Make sure all is clean.

Wait a day and then UV!

 

[Dom]

The fish group is definitely a bunch of big eaters. I’m going to agree with others stating that frequent large water changes are the way to go.

What would you suggest?

 

[Dom]

Water changes should be part of any strategy of getting this tank on track.

 

[crazyfishmom]

I am going to disagree that this is just because of overfeeding. It may be contributing but there’s more going on and more likely than not the heavy feeding did not get these parameters as out of whack as they are. I also have large tangs that eat a lot. I feed 4 times a day and have nori on the clips all day long and I have to add nutrients into the water because my system efficiently consumes them. No, I don’t have a decade old established system that can take anything but it is very stable. I will definitely agree with some previous commenters that have said that biodiversity will be key and that reducing lights and nutrients will get the OP on the path toward a more sustainable system.

 

[Isaac Alves]

What would you suggest?

If I was in this situation my thought process would probably be the following:

• I would’nt be too worried about the .9 PO4. And 75 Nitrates is not an emergency in a FOWLR.
• I’d be more concerned with the smell, which is either the water itself or it’s the roll of the ReefMat rotting which happens to me when I feed heavier — when i get a whiff of something odd from the sump I cutout the used portion of the roll to throw out and pull the unused portion back through the spindle and the smell is gone.
• The white snotty stuff is from NoPOx — there’s too much going in that the bacteria is blooming and the colonies are actually binding up and some of it will dye and smell awful. You can pull some of the snot out and smell it. I usually find that If it’s pink it’s probably alive but if it’s white it usually died — sort of like a culture crash.
• My first thought here is to change water, and get some alternative bacterial products like Dr. Tim’s Refresh or Wast Away and follow the directions on those bottles.

My action plan

• Here’s where I would think about stopping NoPOX or dropping the dose down to nothing over a few days. Not sure if it matters since the bacteria would burn off once the carbon source is gone.
• I’d get a cheap shop vac, something like the bucket head from Home Depot, and vacuum out my sump and get rid of the fuge. It would be collecting a lot of the bacterial bloom and other detritus.
• At the same time I’d get two clean Brute trash cans and mix up 50 gallons of new salt between the two of them. Bring them up to salinity and temp.
• I’d be basically removing that much water and replacing it with new saltwater
• After this first water change I would dose that first dosing of whichever dr. Tims product I get.
• The next day I would test my water parameters. And then I’d just replace one brute trash can of water for another ~25 to 30 gallons of water again. My thinking here is to pull the nutrients down and give some buffer to my current feeding regimen.
• Test again the following day
• Follow the dr. Tims bottle directions
• Ensure I’m feeding what the animals need
• Monitor the nutrients over the next few day until I feel the nutrients are balancing

I don’t recall if there is bio media in the sump but I would add some type of bio media that can easily pass water through. And that I can see when there’s too much build up on them. With a puffer that needs some meaty foods, and tangs, you’ve got some major poopers. A tight water change schedule is probably key until I can slowly add some soft corals to eat up some of that excess ammonia and urea up before it breaks down into nitrate.

I’m not sure if this helps or if I confused the OP. Good luck. Keep us posted.

 

[Dom]

If I was in this situation my thought process would probably be the following:

• I would’nt be too worried about the .9 PO4. And 75 Nitrates is not an emergency in a FOWLR.
• I’d be more concerned with the smell, which is either the water itself or it’s the roll of the ReefMat rotting which happens to me when I feed heavier — when i get a whiff of something odd from the sump I cutout the used portion of the roll to throw out and pull the unused portion back through the spindle and the smell is gone.
• The white snotty stuff is from NoPOx — there’s too much going in that the bacteria is blooming and the colonies are actually binding up and some of it will dye and smell awful. You can pull some of the snot out and smell it. I usually find that If it’s pink it’s probably alive but if it’s white it usually died — sort of like a culture crash.
• My first thought here is to change water, and get some alternative bacterial products like Dr. Tim’s Refresh or Wast Away and follow the directions on those bottles.

My action plan

• Here’s where I would think about stopping NoPOX or dropping the dose down to nothing over a few days. Not sure if it matters since the bacteria would burn off once the carbon source is gone.
• I’d get a cheap shop vac, something like the bucket head from Home Depot, and vacuum out my sump and get rid of the fuge. It would be collecting a lot of the bacterial bloom and other detritus.
• At the same time I’d get two clean Brute trash cans and mix up 50 gallons of new salt between the two of them. Bring them up to salinity and temp.
• I’d be basically removing that much water and replacing it with new saltwater
• After this first water change I would dose that first dosing of whichever dr. Tims product I get.
• The next day I would test my water parameters. And then I’d just replace one brute trash can of water for another ~25 to 30 gallons of water again. My thinking here is to pull the nutrients down and give some buffer to my current feeding regimen.
• Test again the following day
• Follow the dr. Tims bottle directions
• Ensure I’m feeding what the animals need
• Monitor the nutrients over the next few day until I feel the nutrients are balancing

I don’t recall if there is bio media in the sump but I would add some type of bio media that can easily pass water through. And that I can see when there’s too much build up on them. With a puffer that needs some meaty foods, and tangs, you’ve got some major poopers. A tight water change schedule is probably key until I can slowly add some soft corals to eat up some of that excess ammonia and urea up before it breaks down into nitrate.

I’m not sure if this helps or if I confused the OP. Good luck. Keep us posted.

An well thought out plan; I like it.

 

[Devaji]

you got some really good advise here. I guess everybody has a way they would go about getting this tank back on track.

the good news it doable.

here's what I would do. ( take it with a grain of salt) but you got this!

~stop using the nopx for now.
~turn lights off or 10% just so you can see the fish and algae.
~ Deep clean the tank pumps, sump and sand.
~ do large Water changes
~ manually remove as much of the algae as you can. if you can remove the rocks do so one at a time and scrub them down with a tooth brush ( new one) then rinse and repeat. it will be a slow process but it will work. elbow grease goes a long way.
~ run GFO in a reactor for now. if you dont have one GFO in a mess bag in the filter sock will do it too.
~ I would add ozone and an algae truf scrubber. something about your fuge is not working -I believe ATS are better anyway with the lights down low in the DT algae will grow great on the screen.

thanks how I would tackle it. the plus side is you dont have corals so you can be a bit aggressive with WC adding GFO etc. but dont bottom out the n&P then you will have other problems.

 

[witchywoman725]

Looks to me like a bacterial bloom from the NOPOX which is a carbon source. Keep an eye on the fish as the bacteria could deplete oxygen. Leave the skimmer running even if you have to remove the cup due to overflowing.

if you do a google NOPOX bacteria bloom, you will find all the info you need better than I can explain it

We’ve had good luck with maracyn for bacterial blooms in our 210g predator tank… you can get it in the larger quantities you will need for your big tank on chewy for a reasonable price. We keep some on hand all the time now just in case…

 

[Sleeping Giant]

have you tried to not dose anything and just do weekly water changes for a month. give your system a break from adding anything but new saltwater

 

[Delatedlotus]

I just saw the pictures... Didn't read much with that being said/ THIS is simple, simple.. Search here in Reef to Reef all about Diatom Filters, they clean using Diatomaceous Earth. This problem can be cleaned up in 2 days totally. Not that the problems are solved all together. BUT you can find in here how to build a Diatom Filter and use it for two days by blowing ALL that crud around. And it will do it very quickly suck-up all of it completely right out of the water column your tank. This is a VERY EASY fix. Cleaner tank in two days total....! You can run it a lot longer if needed as well. Then you both can see and address all and any problems what so ever at that point... It will be crystal clear... Completely clear promise you this. Build one for not much monies as well. IMO I would not go tearing my tank apart massively by any means what so ever until I did just what I am telling you about. IMO - The Diatomaceous Earth Filter is the very best cleaner that has ever been introduced into this hobby ever a fact!!. Most don't know about it / nor ever even heard about it, they even remove ick rite out of the water column. And cheaper than any chemicals on the market as totally reef safe 1000%. Google it and read about one of these. At that point you can choose to use any algae remover you want to. Again simple fix... Clean up all your water first in your main tank. Then start by setting it up in your sump. Turn your main pump off. Use a small piece of Plexiglas as a scraper as it will not scratch your sump up at all. By blowing with it loosen all that you can into the water while running your diatom filter, it WILL remove it all every bit of it. This will put you on the right track in shear days. Don't tear it all apart, kill all the live in it that does not make any sense to me at all. why? And your smells will be gone as well.... Any questions tag me..?