The following is not my tank. It is a tank that someone is asking me to help them on.
220 gallon system (rectangular with center island overflow...vomit) and what looks like around a undersized 20 gallon sump. Protein skimmer looks undersized as well probably a 4 inch cup head (not sure what it is really rated for, have to do some more searching). Water parameters are all out of whack. Diatoms are constantly a problem. Other corals are dead, the only one that seems to be thriving and took over is a sort of pink hairy mushroom (and I mean this stuff is all over the tank). Fish seem to be ok and are not currently croaking off except for a Pin Cushion Sea Urchin. They really didn't know what they are doing and are now asking for help. Sump had 6 inches of waste. Sand bed was horribly full of detritus. Rock is not on the bottom of tank, it is sitting on the sand bed (what the heck!!), and looks to also have detritus on it. Heater (one single 300W) and thermostat were failing. Thermostat was reading 74F and heater was stuck on. Temp was actually 82F.
Water parameters were the following when I first went there and tested:
Ammonia-0 ppm API
Nitritie-0 ppm API
Nitrate-between 10-20 ppm API
Phosphate-0.25 ppm Hanna Checker
Calcium-260 ppm API
Alkalinity- 21 dKH!!! Hanna Checker, confirmed this with API and at a LFS
Magnesium-1200 ppm NYOS
Salinity-1.02 Refractometer
PH-8.3 Hanna Checker
Inhabitants are of the following:
Orchid dottyback
Pajama cardinalfish-2
Orange butterflyfish
Clownfish-2
Yellow spotted goby
Blue sapphire damselfish-2
Black ice clownfish
Black snowflake clownfish
Blue hippo tang
Yellow tang
Flame angel
Niger triggerfish
Paisley goby
Six line wrasse
Snails and hermits (very small assortment, could really be a couple snails if any and a couple hermits)
I have since done a 30% water change, then a couple weeks later 50% water change and cleaned out the sump removing 6 inches of what looked like clay (detritus and expired Miracle Mud). I have each time also cleaned the entire sand bed (I don't normally do the whole bed, but these numbers are crazy). Alkalinity has come down to about 18 dKH. Salinity was up to 1.022. Calcium and Magnesium stayed the same. Talking them into letting me come in and and do a weekly water change. I drove over to Petco and got in an emergency, a single 300W heater and a digital thermostat to monitor. Temp is now 76.8. I have ordered two Finnex 500W heaters and an Ink Bird thermostat. I want them to let me remove the larger granules of sand bed and switch to a smaller granule. Also, I want to put the rock on the bottom against the glass and glue it together (did I mention the rock was not glued?). Changing the aquascape would also have to happen to allow better flow and blast detritus off of the rocks.
I have multiple questions. Is this the worse you have ever seen for dKH!?! How are the hairy mushrooms thriving so much? Wouldn't the high Alkalinity mess with the fish as well? Why do they seem to be doing fine? What would you do from here? If I only dose Calcium and Magnesium, would the Alkalinity come down some more. I always two part dose and never had this kind of craziness. So new to me, I am learning. What I am seeing is high Phosphate, high Alkalinity, low Calcium, low Magnesium, low Salinity. They feed using froze Brine Shrimp cubes during the weekday and use a auto feeder on the weekend and use New Life Spectrum Marine Fish pellets in the feeder. 4 stage RODI is in place feeding directly to the sump. DI canister is next for me to change as it has 25% left. Other ones I have no idea and neither do they, so I am ordering new replacements for them as well (I really need to test the water coming out). I don't know what kind of salt was being used before, but I am using Instant Ocean Reef Crystals.
I am about to install the new heaters and thermostat. Water change is happening again this weekend, testing and possibly dosing based on the comments in this forum. Also testing the water coming out of the RODI system. Ordering new filtration for the RODI. Ordering more variety of snails and hermits. Once numbers adjust I will be pulling out some snails and hermits so they don't mess up the numbers again when they die. What's next?? Let me know what to try, or maybe something I need to make sure I don't do.
Thanks
220 gallon system (rectangular with center island overflow...vomit) and what looks like around a undersized 20 gallon sump. Protein skimmer looks undersized as well probably a 4 inch cup head (not sure what it is really rated for, have to do some more searching). Water parameters are all out of whack. Diatoms are constantly a problem. Other corals are dead, the only one that seems to be thriving and took over is a sort of pink hairy mushroom (and I mean this stuff is all over the tank). Fish seem to be ok and are not currently croaking off except for a Pin Cushion Sea Urchin. They really didn't know what they are doing and are now asking for help. Sump had 6 inches of waste. Sand bed was horribly full of detritus. Rock is not on the bottom of tank, it is sitting on the sand bed (what the heck!!), and looks to also have detritus on it. Heater (one single 300W) and thermostat were failing. Thermostat was reading 74F and heater was stuck on. Temp was actually 82F.
Water parameters were the following when I first went there and tested:
Ammonia-0 ppm API
Nitritie-0 ppm API
Nitrate-between 10-20 ppm API
Phosphate-0.25 ppm Hanna Checker
Calcium-260 ppm API
Alkalinity- 21 dKH!!! Hanna Checker, confirmed this with API and at a LFS
Magnesium-1200 ppm NYOS
Salinity-1.02 Refractometer
PH-8.3 Hanna Checker
Inhabitants are of the following:
Orchid dottyback
Pajama cardinalfish-2
Orange butterflyfish
Clownfish-2
Yellow spotted goby
Blue sapphire damselfish-2
Black ice clownfish
Black snowflake clownfish
Blue hippo tang
Yellow tang
Flame angel
Niger triggerfish
Paisley goby
Six line wrasse
Snails and hermits (very small assortment, could really be a couple snails if any and a couple hermits)
I have since done a 30% water change, then a couple weeks later 50% water change and cleaned out the sump removing 6 inches of what looked like clay (detritus and expired Miracle Mud). I have each time also cleaned the entire sand bed (I don't normally do the whole bed, but these numbers are crazy). Alkalinity has come down to about 18 dKH. Salinity was up to 1.022. Calcium and Magnesium stayed the same. Talking them into letting me come in and and do a weekly water change. I drove over to Petco and got in an emergency, a single 300W heater and a digital thermostat to monitor. Temp is now 76.8. I have ordered two Finnex 500W heaters and an Ink Bird thermostat. I want them to let me remove the larger granules of sand bed and switch to a smaller granule. Also, I want to put the rock on the bottom against the glass and glue it together (did I mention the rock was not glued?). Changing the aquascape would also have to happen to allow better flow and blast detritus off of the rocks.
I have multiple questions. Is this the worse you have ever seen for dKH!?! How are the hairy mushrooms thriving so much? Wouldn't the high Alkalinity mess with the fish as well? Why do they seem to be doing fine? What would you do from here? If I only dose Calcium and Magnesium, would the Alkalinity come down some more. I always two part dose and never had this kind of craziness. So new to me, I am learning. What I am seeing is high Phosphate, high Alkalinity, low Calcium, low Magnesium, low Salinity. They feed using froze Brine Shrimp cubes during the weekday and use a auto feeder on the weekend and use New Life Spectrum Marine Fish pellets in the feeder. 4 stage RODI is in place feeding directly to the sump. DI canister is next for me to change as it has 25% left. Other ones I have no idea and neither do they, so I am ordering new replacements for them as well (I really need to test the water coming out). I don't know what kind of salt was being used before, but I am using Instant Ocean Reef Crystals.
I am about to install the new heaters and thermostat. Water change is happening again this weekend, testing and possibly dosing based on the comments in this forum. Also testing the water coming out of the RODI system. Ordering new filtration for the RODI. Ordering more variety of snails and hermits. Once numbers adjust I will be pulling out some snails and hermits so they don't mess up the numbers again when they die. What's next?? Let me know what to try, or maybe something I need to make sure I don't do.
Thanks
