Reef Guidance Needed!

[Nitrites]

Hey Reef2Reef!

Im currently battling with algae and some other things, and I thought I would explain everything here and hopefully receive some much-needed help or thoughts on my tank. I have chosen to over-explain everything to hopefully not miss anything that could be causing me issues, I apologize for the rant...

My current reef system is a 40g breeder, it's roughly 6 years old now and the inhabitants are older. (2 Mated clowns, a goby, and a pistol shrimp) The tank was originally in my room at my parent's house, but when I went away for university it needed to be moved when my parents sold the home. We moved it to my dad's office, and that was roughly a year ago during Christmas. It was a difficult move, but all things considered, I would say it went really well. I also made sure to keep the rock placements the same to eliminate any flow issues. It cleared up after a couple of days and the corals all opened up. Throughout the year, I would travel back and forth doing water changes since I was only an hour away, usually about once a month, but sometimes longer and the tank looked great. I came back about a month later, and I did one of those very basic API standard water tests, and it came back something like:

PH: 8.2
Nitrates: 0
Nitrites: 0
SG: 1.025

My ammonia was a bit high, but I figured this was because of the tank move, and I added a bottle of Tim's bacteria which, opened the corals back up. At this time, my ignorance was telling me that my established tank would be just fine at the current rate and that the parameters were good enough to where I didn't have to worry. During these months when I was gone, I told my dad to feed pellets/brine shrimp, (pellets being his best choice since he's busy) once a week. I know some people say to feed way more than this, like several times a day, but I'm going to be honest, I don't know how that makes any sense, they are the healthiest-looking clowns, and I assume they eat a lot of copepods and other stuff in the tank anyways. After this point, I pretty much let the tank sit until summer when I returned from uni. I don't know if this is what caused my issues, but when I finally finished school my tank was looking horrible, the corals looked angry, and everything was very closed up, (and it's much worse now). I was pretty busy the first bit of summer, but I thought that I would order an ICP analysis kit as soon as possible since I could not figure out what was wrong with my tank. I got the kit, and shipped it in to find these parameters: (I have excluded everything that wasn't acceptable levels, and only included the yellow flagged elements, along with one red element. I also attached an image of my results if anyone wants to see).

Bromine: 45.554ppm
Chromium: 0 ppb
Iron: 3.517 ppb
Iodine: 4.492 ppb
Lithium: 116.522 ppb
Nickel: 0.93 ppb
Zinc: 3.046 ppb

The only red number was Manganese, at 20.096 ppb.

I have never heard of manganese but upon looking at everything in my tank as to what could be causing such high levels, I discovered the fish food (New life spectra) had manganese as its last ingredient. I have no idea if that's what's even causing the high levels, but with how steadily my dad was feeding the tank, I assume that's what caused it. This leads me to my first set of questions being,

How do I remove such a high level of manganese?
- My tank has a built-in filter as it was originally designed for crayfish to not be able to climb out, which consists of biological media and filter floss.) Would carbon help remove this?

How many water changes are needed to fix the tank?
- I have done a bunch of water changes this summer and nothing seems to make the corals happy... I have heard that people get away with using just salt as the additives to their reef, and no dosing, so is this just a hobby lie or do I need to do water changes? Keeping in mind, that my tank used to look great when it was in my room.

Should I be seriously worried about the other parameters?
- For some of the parameters the ICP test flagged, it suggested purchasing certain additives to reduce or increase as needed. Is this something I should do? I don't want to ruin anything else, and buying a different additive for each is going to be expensive.

Along with the coral being closed up and unhappy, my clownfish have been laying eggs, with a new clutch every week or so. I really wanted to raise the babies but with everything else going on it just wasn't feasible. Do the eggs hatching and dying harm the tank in any way, or is it too small of a difference?

As mentioned in the beginning, I have a lot of long stringy algae. It comes off the power heads and grows on the glass. It also protrudes off my frogspawn and sometimes my xenia. Is this harmful to the corals? Picture attached. How do I remove it? More flow or nutrient imbalance?

At one point I'm pretty sure my tank had dinos, and I was too scared to dose dinox. The guy at my LFS instructed me to feed more at the time which pretty much solved the issue, but I don't know if that's related to the dark algae of today.

Lastly, I'm willing to do almost anything to get the tank back in check, I love these clowns as I've pretty much grown up with them and giving them away is something I don't think I can bring myself to do. Would love any assistance with this tank, and if anyone has read this far thanks for listening. Pictures are attached.

 

[littlefoxx]

Okay so that stringy stuff on your corals is probably hair algae, if left out of control it will smother corals. Remove that from the corals to start, and keep up with regular water changes. As far as dosing and stuff Im not sure, I dont dose anything to my tank so I wouldnt know. I really only test for ph, ammonia, nitrite, nirtates not the other stuff. So maybe someone can help out but I would start feeding some good quality food and get some coral food (reed roids, red sea AB+) or others to give the corals some nutrients

 

[blecki]

Once a week is not enough feeding. Your dinos went away when you fed more probably because nitrate had bottomed out and the organisms that out-compete dino died off, allowing the dino to take over.

Anyway, it's probably not a good idea to chase the results of the ICP test. Anything you dose now is just going to be tossed when you do water changes, and your current results are irrelevant post-water change anyway. And that's the first thing you should do.

 

[Doctorgori]

I re-read that, did something die?

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I agree you are not feeding enough. An aquarium is an ecosystem, our aquariums have thousands of lives (pods, worms, etc...). If you want a healthy system, then feed the system, not just the fish. Just my 2 cents, good luck

 

[Nitrites]

I re-read that, did something die?

Nothing has died yet, just corals looking sad. Sorry if it sounded that way, just don't want anything to die

 

[Nitrites]

I agree you are not feeding enough. An aquarium is an ecosystem, our aquariums have thousands of lives (pods, worms, etc...). If you want a healthy system, then feed the system, not just the fish. Just my 2 cents, good luck

Okay!

 

[Nitrites]

Once a week is not enough feeding. Your dinos went away when you fed more probably because nitrate had bottomed out and the organisms that out-compete dino died off, allowing the dino to take over.

Anyway, it's probably not a good idea to chase the results of the ICP test. Anything you dose now is just going to be tossed when you do water changes, and your current results are irrelevant post-water change anyway. And that's the first thing you should do.

Doing a water change tomorrow and probably a few more in the coming weeks. We'll see what happens!

 

[Nitrites]

Okay so that stringy stuff on your corals is probably hair algae, if left out of control it will smother corals. Remove that from the corals to start, and keep up with regular water changes. As far as dosing and stuff Im not sure, I dont dose anything to my tank so I wouldnt know. I really only test for ph, ammonia, nitrite, nirtates not the other stuff. So maybe someone can help out but I would start feeding some good quality food and get some coral food (reed roids, red sea AB+) or others to give the corals some nutrients

The food I feed should be decent quality, the new life spectra were recommended by like a bunch of forums I read. Will definitely remove the algae I can on my water change tomorrow. I've heard of reef roids but thought they were more for sps, will definitely look into getting some for my frogspawn and hammer. Does reef roids/ redsea AB+ work for rbtas?

 

[littlefoxx]

The food I feed should be decent quality, the new life spectra were recommended by like a bunch of forums I read. Will definitely remove the algae I can on my water change tomorrow. I've heard of reef roids but thought they were more for sps, will definitely look into getting some for my frogspawn and hammer. Does reef roids/ redsea AB+ work for rbtas?

Does for mine, but they need feedings of meaty food as well

 

[Nitrites]

Does for mine, but they need feedings of meaty food as well

I have some brine shrimp I feed as well, but I'll go to my lfs and get more variety.

 

[littlefoxx]

I have some brine shrimp I feed as well, but I'll go to my lfs and get more variety.

Are there clownfish in there hosting the nem?

 

[00W]

Don't chase numbers. You'll go nuts.
Regular water changes. Stability. Patience.
Trying to starve out the yuck only makes it worse. And the creatures suffer in the meantime.
Go slow and have some fun. Manually remove what you don't like.
The tank doesn't look that bad to me and if you have spawning clowns, something is going right.
Someone on here smarter than me (that's a lot of people) might understand that ICP test but nothing in yellow is anything I've ever tested for.
My two cents as well.

I agree you are not feeding enough. An aquarium is an ecosystem, our aquariums have thousands of lives (pods, worms, etc...). If you want a healthy system, then feed the system, not just the fish. Just my 2 cents, good luck

^
Couldn't have said it better.

 

[Nitrites]

Are there clownfish in there hosting the nem?

There are two nems in the tank both BTAS, they are only about an inch wide so I think they are too small but I would say the clowns are technically hosting them as they brush against them every now and then. Not sure why they have never grown bigger, tbh I think it might be a lighting problem.

 

[Nitrites]

Don't chase numbers. You'll go nuts.
Regular water changes. Stability. Patience.
Trying to starve out the yuck only makes it worse. And the creatures suffer in the meantime.
Go slow and have some fun. Manually remove what you don't like.
The tank doesn't look that bad to me and if you have spawning clowns, something is going right.
Someone on here smarter than me (that's a lot of people) might understand that ICP test but nothing in yellow is anything I've ever tested for.
My two cents as well.

^
Couldn't have said it better.

This is really reassuring to hear! I appreciate the thoughts, I'll make sure they are fed more per week. I'll get started on those water changes!

 

[BaliReefBox]

really only test for ph, ammonia, nitrite, nirtates not the other stuff.

Hi can I ask why you test ammonia and nitrite? My understanding is that once the tank is cycled it is a waste testing these.

 

[Roatan Reef]

Get a Toothbrush and Scrub the rocks and corals, Do water changes twice weekly, rinse repeat until it gets under control, also vac your sandbed.

I have a 40B also, currently 1.6 years old, believe me, I went through all of it...but hard work and perseverance paid off in the long run. Now, I only do water changes every few weeks, at 10%, and most of the problem algae has died and don't come back.

 

[littlefoxx]

Hi can I ask why you test ammonia and nitrite? My understanding is that once the tank is cycled it is a waste testing these.

No no. Ammonia is toxic, you need to keep it at 0. So testing and water changes do that. Nitrites because thats harmful to corals. This will very quickly kill things in the tank if you dont test and they get to toxic levels

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

No no. Ammonia is toxic, you need to keep it at 0. So testing and water changes do that. Nitrites because thats harmful to corals. This will very quickly kill things in the tank if you dont test and they get to toxic levels

Ammonia is toxic, but unless the tank is not cycled or there’s a major die-off in the tank, you shouldn’t have any sort of buildup of ammonia, as the bacteria in the tank should be converting it to Nitrate (as a note here, some tests are known for reading/appearing to read 0.25-0.5 ammonia when there’s actually no ammonia in the tank):

the Nitrogen Cycle goes:

Ammonia to Nitrite to Nitrate ( and then to Nitrogen Gas)

"This conversion from ammonia to nitrite to nitrate to nitrogen gas is known as the nitrogen cycle."*

Nitrites on the other hand are essentially non-toxic in marine aquaria: Randy Holmes-Farley has written quite a bit about Nitrites in reef tanks, but here are some relevant quotes:

No. Nitrite at 1 ppm is not toxic.

In a not fully cycled system, nitrite might possible get high enough to be an issue and I wouldn't put in fish at 10+ ppm nitrite. The lowest tox level I've seen reported for rapid toxicity of nitrite to fish >100 ppm. The 10 ppm gives a protective buffer.

Nitrite and the Reef Aquarium by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

For these reasons, most people don’t bother testing Ammonia or Nitrites on e the tank is cycled (i.e. once the tank has completed the Nitrogen Cycle), though some people will test Ammonia in emergencies/if livestock died in the tank.

 

[littlefoxx]

Ammonia is toxic, but unless the tank is not cycled or there’s a major die-off in the tank, you shouldn’t have any sort of buildup of ammonia, as the bacteria in the tank should be converting it to Nitrate (as a note here, some tests are known for reading/appearing to read 0.25-0.5 ammonia when there’s actually no ammonia in the tank):

Nitrites on the other hand are essentially non-toxic in marine aquaria: Randy Holmes-Farley has written quite a bit about Nitrites in reef tanks, but here are some relevant quotes:


For these reasons, most people don’t bother testing Ammonia or Nitrites on e the tank is cycled (i.e. once the tank has completed the Nitrogen Cycle), though some people will test Ammonia in emergencies/if livestock died in the tank.

My tests always read higher ammonia every two weeks or so, so I do water changes when it does that, I use fluval test kits…