Need Help From Experts Please!!!

[Johny Cash]

Hello,

I am fairly new to R2R, and also fairly new to reef tank,

Please read carefully

Long story short,
I bought a Red sea max e-170 last year January/20/2019 from LFS, this tank was in there showroom as DT, I loved it and bought it as is, I think they had it for good period of time lets just say it was well established tank.
They delivered the tank and set it up my house.

For good 3-4 months everything was great, of course i didn't do ****, no water changes no testings, had a new kid, new job, no time to research, no time to do anything, i think i just prayed and hoped for it to be a miracle tank.

EVERYTHING DIED!!!, except my 2 clown fish, and a yellow watchmen goby (which only has one eye)

It had LR, fine crushed coral bed, after all my corals died, I just cleaned the glass and filled it with tap water for evaporation for about a good 10 months.

Just recently end of March I decided that I was going to learn and try to understand about reefing. BRS TV inspired me truth be told.

So ive started to spend a lot of time on the web, youtoube videos, google searches and R2R forums learning,

March 23,2020 I did 4-5 50% water changes in 2-3 days of part, and was able to bring my nitrate from 160ppm down to 10ppm, i had an Api tester for phosphate reading was 0.50 and i was able to bring that lower level of 0.15 (bought me a hana checker afer), Calcium levels were 360, ph 8.4, Kh 10, salinity was 1.023, never tested mag.

i purchased my first coral a toadstool green leather, hes doing great, then i purchased mantipora doing great, added 3 acan lords (with 5-6 heads), torch coral, mushrooms, 4 zoas with each had no more then 2 polyps.

Everything is thriving growing, my acans now each have 4 new heads, 2 of my zoas have one new polyp, toadstool is larger, torch is doing great.

but my question is My live rocks has coralline algae also very saturated colored and very short green algae, i will post multiple pictures down below, please note these pictures were taken after the led lights off, just my room lights all corals were at sleep.

Please i want try to understand A. what is this saturated short green algae?, B. short brownish fuzz looking algae i want to hear some of experts/ long time reefers thoughts and advice.

Thank you

My water parameters
3/30/20=====No3- 100 , P04- 0.50, Calc- 460, Ph 8.4, Salinity 1.024, KH- N/A,

4/10/20==== No3- 5 , Po4- 0.15, Calc- 360, PH 8.4, Salinity 1.022, KH-10

4/12/20==== Calc- 380, Kh 12

4/13/20==== No3- 10, Po4- 0.15, Calc- 400, Ph 8.4, Salinity 1.022, KH-12

4/15/20==== No3- 10, Po4- 0.07, Calc- 400, PH 8.4, Salinity 1.023, KH-12

4/17/20=== No3- 10, Po4- 0.04, Calc- 400, PH 8.4, Salinity 1.022, KH-12

4/19/20=== Calc- 400, PH 8.4, Salinity 1.022, KH 11

4/20/20=== No3- 10, Calc- 440, PH 8.4, Salinity 1.022, KH-11

4/23/20=== No3- 10, Po4- 0.04, Calc- 420, Salinity 1.024, KH-11

4/26/20=== No3- 15, Po4- 0.12, Calc- 440, PH 8.3 Salinity 1.024, KH-10

 

[Johny Cash]

Pics

 

[AnneO]

The algae you have there just looks like regular green hair algae (GHA) in its early stages. I cant really see the fuzz brown stuff you mention but it could well be GHA dying off as your system gets cleaner. It grows when there are high nutrients (nitrates, phosphates) in the tank and these nutrients can build up over time in the rocks (before you started your testing regime, I cant see dates but the first reading with No3 at 100 and Po4 at .5 suggests you came from elevated levels) and will take a long time to fully leech back out.

Are you still using tapwater? This can also contain chlorine, plus phosphates and other things that are not ideal and could have contributed to the demise of your livestock and feed the algae now. I would get this tested by your LFS and most likely it wont be good enough long term even if you put some chemicals in it to make it safe to the level that a freshwater tank would be ok.

 

[Zionas]

Second that tap water is a bad idea. I’m surprised your clowns and YWG survived (these little fellas are tough as nails). At the very least, get the best distilled water you can. RO water is the best, a must if you can find it or get an RODI machine.

 

[najer]

What clean up crew cuc have you got in there?

 

[AnneO]

And you know what.. I would go to a different LFS.. I cannot believe they sold you a whole system and didn't bother to tell you anything about how to keep it thriving. These are sensitive ecosystems as you will have gathered from your recent research!

 

[homer1475]

And you know what.. I would go to a different LFS.. I cannot believe they sold you a whole system and didn't bother to tell you anything about how to keep it thriving. These are sensitive ecosystems as you will have gathered from your recent research!

Why jump to conclusions? The OP did not tell us what the LFS told him when he sold him the running system. For all we know they did educate him on how to keep the system stable.

OP you have the start of green hair algae(very common algae, and very easy to combat), judging from the numbers you posted. If you notice your nitrate and phosphates keep climbing with every test, lest get them stable, then we'll deal with the algae.

Best guess on the reason for climbing numbers, your probably over feeding. You also did not mention any clean up crew(CUC). Do you have and snails/crabs in the system?

 

[AnneO]

Why jump to conclusions? The OP did not tell us what the LFS told him when he sold him the running system. For all we know they did educate him on how to keep the system stable.

OP you have the start of green hair algae(very common algae, and very easy to combat), judging from the numbers you posted. If you notice your nitrate and phosphates keep climbing with every test, lest get them stable, then we'll deal with the algae.

Best guess on the reason for climbing numbers, your probably over feeding. You also did not mention any clean up crew(CUC). Do you have and snails/crabs in the system?

Well, tapwater seemed like the original sin to me, that any LFS would tell their customer about, but I could be wrong

 

[Euphyllia97]

Hi! Looks like some GHA. Most likely due to the nutrients in your rocks. It will get better once it has all leached out. You can also look to introduce some algae grzing fish that will take care of it like a blenny.

I also don’t agree with the fact that some people advice you to go to another lfs as in my opinion they delivered you a nice tank. It was you responsibility to know how to take care of a marine tank before buying one. I guess they didn’t really consider someone paying quite some money for a red sea aquarium with rock and fish without knowing how to care for it.

Glad youare maintaining the right course now and I’m pretty sure with enough time you will have a nice looking reef!

 

[homer1475]

Many successful tanks are run on tap water, no sin in that. Just depends on whats in your tap. I'm waiting to hear back from the OP on his current CUC. A decent CUC and some algae grazers would do wonders.

Never assume, you know what they say about that word?(never assume, you make an "donkeys behind" out of you and me).

 

[Zionas]

I live in China. I wouldn’t trust my tap water. Distilled or RODI all the way for me. Heck if I lived in some remote regions I could get sick and die from flukes.

 

[homer1475]

Where I live I could use my TAP. I have 20TDS incoming which after testing is nothing harmful. But I have copper pipes, and we all know thats a no no. So I use a RO/DI, but could easily get away with TAP.


Years ago all we used was tap water, no one knew any different, and tanks ran fine.

 

[Johny Cash]

The algae you have there just looks like regular green hair algae (GHA) in its early stages. I cant really see the fuzz brown stuff you mention but it could well be GHA dying off as your system gets cleaner. It grows when there are high nutrients (nitrates, phosphates) in the tank and these nutrients can build up over time in the rocks (before you started your testing regime, I cant see dates but the first reading with No3 at 100 and Po4 at .5 suggests you came from elevated levels) and will take a long time to fully leech back out.

Are you still using tapwater? This can also contain chlorine, plus phosphates and other things that are not ideal and could have contributed to the demise of your livestock and feed the algae now. I would get this tested by your LFS and most likely it wont be good enough long term even if you put some chemicals in it to make it safe to the level that a freshwater tank would be ok.

I have been using Ro/di water ever since I started since mid March

 

[Johny Cash]

Second that tap water is a bad idea. I’m surprised your clowns and YWG survived (these little fellas are tough as nails). At the very least, get the best distilled water you can. RO water is the best, a must if you can find it or get an RODI machine.

I only use ro/di water ever since I took over recently,

 

[Johny Cash]

Why jump to conclusions? The OP did not tell us what the LFS told him when he sold him the running system. For all we know they did educate him on how to keep the system stable.

OP you have the start of green hair algae(very common algae, and very easy to combat), judging from the numbers you posted. If you notice your nitrate and phosphates keep climbing with every test, lest get them stable, then we'll deal with the algae.

Best guess on the reason for climbing numbers, your probably over feeding. You also did not mention any clean up crew(CUC). Do you have and snails/crabs in the system?

lfs

The algae you have there just looks like regular green hair algae (GHA) in its early stages. I cant really see the fuzz brown stuff you mention but it could well be GHA dying off as your system gets cleaner. It grows when there are high nutrients (nitrates, phosphates) in the tank and these nutrients can build up over time in the rocks (before you started your testing regime, I cant see dates but the first reading with No3 at 100 and Po4 at .5 suggests you came from elevated levels) and will take a long time to fully leech back out.

Are you still using tapwater? This can also contain chlorine, plus phosphates and other things that are not ideal and could have contributed to the demise of your livestock and feed the algae now. I would get this tested by your LFS and most likely it wont be good enough long term even if you put some chemicals in it to make it safe to the level that a freshwater tank would be ok.

I have not used tap water every since i have been doing research, so answer is no, only Ro/di water.

 

[Johny Cash]

What clean up crew cuc have you got in there?

I have 6 hermits, couple snails,

 

[Johny Cash]

And you know what.. I would go to a different LFS.. I cannot believe they sold you a whole system and didn't bother to tell you anything about how to keep it thriving. These are sensitive ecosystems as you will have gathered from your recent research!

MY LFS is no good, after doing ton of research with knowledge i had, went to get my water from them, both salt mix and ro water, and i took a look around, i saw aiptaisa on there corals for sale, more aiptasia in there DT, and no they only told me what to do when i was in trouble never got a one on one info. I only go there to get my water mix but i invested in an ro system and bought my own salt. And i buy my corals from Cherry corals. They come clean and dip, i dont have QT tank but i inspect and trust cherry coral lot more then my LFS

 

[Johny Cash]

Hi! Looks like some GHA. Most likely due to the nutrients in your rocks. It will get better once it has all leached out. You can also look to introduce some algae grzing fish that will take care of it like a blenny.

I also don’t agree with the fact that some people advice you to go to another lfs as in my opinion they delivered you a nice tank. It was you responsibility to know how to take care of a marine tank before buying one. I guess they didn’t really consider someone paying quite some money for a red sea aquarium with rock and fish without knowing how to care for it.

Glad youare maintaining the right course now and I’m pretty sure with enough time you will have a nice looking reef!

Yes most definitly was my responsiblity and i failed miserably, however i am more aware of the science behind it now and trying my best to become a succesfull reefer. But my LFS as good of people they are, i saw aiptasia on there corals for sale, long hair algae, etc... from what i read and see they are in for the money vs care for there corals and customers reef tanks.
I know we all in it for the money when it comes to business, but there should be some level of win win, IN conclusion i wont be purchasing corals or fish from them.

 

[Johny Cash]

I want to note something here, I appreciat all of your advices,

I had this green looking algae, since one month and still at the same height, some even told me it was green corralline algae,
I ordered me noya nitrate test kit, and hana phosphate ulr, iam going to do a water change today 15%, and i will check my water parameters friday once my test instruments get here and post it. I do have a foxface in there and it grazes on whatever he can find but its so short that he cant eat anything. So if it is green algae, I will do my best to bring my nitrates down, i just recently but fluval ceramic rings in my media basket a week ago, along with chemi pure that has been in there for over a month, with carbon, and filter floss, I bought my media basket from inTank.

I get very little algae in my glass, i dont have to clean it hardly ever.

I syphon my sand bed, i run a pump for detritus vacuum once a week in to a filter sock.

I guess in a month period should of not this green algae had grown??? or how long does it take, I mean its very short as if its encrusting my rocks but no hair no fuzz other then brown stuff but also very short.

thank you

 

[AnneO]

It might not be gone in a month, but you should start to see it die off. As it does it releases all the consumed phosphates back into the water so keeping on top of water changes and testing is important through this process. Don't try to force everything close to zero quickly or you can get some other nasties instead, just a steady reduction is good. I can recommend a tuxedo urchin for thorough grazing including the short bits of GHA, but he might eat some of the coralline too. It sounds like you are well on the way to getting your tank back! Good luck