[Mkelly]

Good morning

I have a 180 gal reef and my anemones are not doing well. I bought the anemones for 2 TR clowns who BTW won’t go near them. One pink tipped, one green carpet, one sebae leather.

I have some candy cane ( small ) Star polyps ( small ) White bubble ( small ) 4 large elephant ears, moon polyps ( small ) 11 ( small ) green striped mushrooms and 5 red with blue dots mushrooms and blue and brown acapora.

Fish 2 TR perculas, 2 maroon, 1 six line wrasse, 1 green moon wrasse, a dragon blenny, and a hippo tang.

Cleaning crew 40 crabs small various red leg, blue leg, turbo snails 10 or so, peppermint shrimp 6, and a brown serpent sea star.

Tank it's self is 180 gallons, I have a 55 gallon reefugium , pump is a mag drive 700 figure 3 feet of head I'm moving approx 500 GPH, tank constant temp 78 ( I keep it higher for the tang) 1/3 HP chiller, sea clone 150GPH skimmer with a modified head ( Rio 2500 ) lighting 2 175watt MH lamps @ 10K with 4 65 watt atinics at 7100K. 6 1200 power heads on 2 programmable wave makers.

I have 200 pounds live Fiji rock, and 150 or so sand, mixed aragonite.

The tank is 6 months old.

I have a few concerns.

The anemones are not doing well. The pink tip seems to have lost most of his tips no clowns live in him. The brown leather refuses to attach even though the maroon clown calls him home, and the green carpet spends most of his time stump up carpet down. No clowns line in him. All three of them are also pulling back their tips and exposing their mouths. It’s a rather odd protrusion though they haven't turned totally inside out. This is problem 1.

Algae that just won’t go away.

In the beginning I used a lot of additives Strontium/Moly, Iodine, tech 1 LSB all kindsa stuff. All have been scrapped. More on water later. This caused me sooooo much red algae. So I cut the additives increased water movement and poof red algae gone. I have green algae on the rocks hair like grows in clumps. I increased the lighting in the reefugium trying to get it to relocate there but I'm hoping that it doesn’t choke out my plants like the red almost did. I have a couple of nice as of yet unidentified species of micro algae growing. But I still have algae on the back and side glass's that needs to be scrapped once a week or more. Front glass gets done every day or 2 as needed.

The acaporas bleached out thought I did manage to save a few by cutting. They are now doing well.

Everyone seems happy and thriving some multiplied, all but the anemones.

OK water quality this is where things go bad. I have a 3 stage RO @55GPD. I would change the water once a week 15 gallons or so.

Salinity is a nice steady 1.025 no phosphate, no silicate ( thought the algae is probably using it, Nitrite 0, nitrate is very high, 20-50. water changes bring it down. No ammonia. I can not however get my calcium over 350PPM and my alkinity fluctuates between 5 and 8. I removed all bio balls. I have 2 sponges in the overflow get cleaned all the time once or twice a week and a prefilter pad in the reefugium gets cleaned or changed every Saturday.

Two schools of thought on the water changes some say yes frequently some say monthly. What am I doing wrong?

I think that about covers it. Rather long for a first post and I apologize for making your eyes bleed.

Thanks in advance.

Mike

 

[Spanky]

Mike,

I moved your thread to the general forum. The Think Tank crew will still help you. You'll get more responses and ideas here though.

Jerel

 

[uurt]

:beer: WELCOME

Sounds like your nitrates are the problem. Do frequent water changes, that should help. Also try to get rid of the hair algae. It will prolly have to be scraped and vac'd out (when doing water change) when it gets long, my snails won't eat itand I have to pick it off.

As for your anemones, someone else will chime in for more.
Good luck

Lee:beer:

 

[ldmk]

OK water quality this is where things go bad. I have a 3 stage RO @55GPD. I would change the water once a week 15 gallons or so.

Salinity is a nice steady 1.025 no phosphate, no silicate ( thought the algae is probably using it, Nitrite 0, nitrate is very high, 20-50. water changes bring it down. No ammonia. I can not however get my calcium over 350PPM and my alkinity fluctuates between 5 and 8.

Two suggestions:

1. Consider getting an add-on DI unit. That may help with the nitrate (although I would have thought a 3-stage RO unit would help). Have you tested the treated water coming out of the RO unit to see if its got any nitrate?

2. In terms of the Calcium you may want to start treating with Kalkwasser or get a Calcium reactor.

Good luck with beating the water problems. I'm sure others will have suggestions on the anemonae.

HTH.

K.M.

 

[Junkzoo]

First things first.....
WELCOME! :dance: :dance:
i agree, a DI added to the RO would help a LOT.
you say 15 gal. water changes ,,any way to up that a bit?
seems to be not much on a 180 with 55 sump,,,
would think 15 gallons would get lost in the "mix"
think you need to get a rubbermaid container, bigger the better(55g) if you have the room for it, and make up your (hopefully) DI water in that with your salt for w/c's.
if not a 55g, then maybe something smaller,,,do a search on "rubbermaid" or w/c containers here at TRT, there are a couple threads on which ones are the ones you want to use that are safe for your use,,
good luck , and keep us posted,,,,
Again, Welcome here to TRT,,i think you'll like it here!

 

[Mkelly]

I can certainly up the water changes. I do have a 55 gallon HD rubber drum. I'm an old Discus man and huge water changers are no stranger to me. I have been a little more copnservative with this .since its new to me. So whats a bit 15% 20% whats suggested? 15 gallons is 3 gallons under 10%. Not a huge number I know considering I did 50 gallons every other day with discus.

Also have been using kalk, maybe not enough? Or is it possiable the animals and coraline algae are using it as fast as it gets added? I wanted to avoid a calcium reactor but that maybe next. I would perfer one without Co2, any suggestions?

I have taken a very conservative approach to everything thus far for fear of making a mistake and over dosing.

Thank you all for the warm welcome and advice.

Spanky sorry about that I wasn't thinking when I posted just grabbed a topic and hit add thread

Mike

 

[Minnreefer]

welcome Mike,

My feeling is if you have good source water and you get the paramaters the same then you can do as big of a water change as you can/want There are a few people on this board that do large water changes a lot and there are others that don't do water changes.

Welcome again to TRT

Jon

 

[Geoff]

Welcome!!!

it took my tank about 6 months before all of the different forms a algae had thier turn in my tank. after 9 months almost all of mine are gone. some of the algae you have could be a part of the new system.

how often do you feed the tank? how much do you feed? if you are overfeeding this could fuel you nitrates. your moon wrasse is a beast of a fish. it can eat you out of house and home. does anybody else in the tank get any food during feeding time. you may be overcompensating the feedings because of the wrasse. in order to give the other fish some food.

G~

 

[Junkzoo]

Mike, IMO,,,
w/c's -15-20% monthly,maybe more often for a bit at first,
get a DI added to your RO,that will help,,,,,
sorry no help here on the anem......
remove what you can of the algae, watch your feeding etc.
you still have a "new" tank,and almost everyone has gone thru what you are going thru,,,,
give it time , keep up on the tank,,,alot of times,,,,,time is the best thing for the tank,just help it out along the way,and the tank will "fix" itself in time,,,
another thing,,,maybe a second opinion/test of the water might be a good idea, i've seen it more than once where a shop's test kits are not on the money.
either find another shop to test , or invest in a good ,known for it's accuracy brand of test kit for yourself,Salifert is one of those that are used and liked my a lot of us
same thing goes for S.G of the tank water.
i for one , have seen MANY times that a hydrometer (mostly swing arm types) that are way off , out of the box,,(had 4 of them, new/used,) ALL read different AND inconsistant readings.
a refractometer is a great investment,,,
hope this helps somewhat,,
good luck ,and keep us posted!

 

[Mkelly]

you still have a "new" tank,and almost everyone has gone thru what you are going thru,,,,
give it time , keep up on the tank,,,alot of times,,,,,time is the best thing for the tank,just help it out along the way,and the tank will "fix" itself in time,,,

This is the answer I was looking for. What is the time frame though, a year? What is the time before it's an established tank? When I kept fresh water your looking at a month , month and a half to cycle out a tank. Salt is very new to me and no matter how much you read there is nothing like pratical experience.

I would much prefer to weather it out and let the tank cycle and not interfear but, I also dont want the cycling timeframe to harm the animals. I would really rather let mother nature do her thing

I double checked my test kits for accuracy. I have been using the seachem kits and so far they seem accurate. I use the reference chemicals they give you and it's all good. For salt I use a swing arm and a floating hydrometer. When the kits are gone I'll look at investing in some digital meters.

I'm making a new batch of water as we speak and I'm going to roll the dice and take Jon's advice and do a 50 gallon water change. Maybe she needs a nice big fresh cleaning. Couldn't hurt really.

Geoff you'd be supprised, the little six line wrasse I have is the king of the tank he's the more agressive feeder then the Moon. I'm very cautious of feedings never more then they can consume at a time. Everyone else like then unoccupied anemones get hand fed. I also feed with plankton once or twice a week. It's a little concoction I cooked up plankton and black powder.

Thank you all for the info,encouragement and help

Mike

 

[kestrel]

Mike,

Welcome to TRT!

Have you considered adding some more snails? To me, it looks like you are still aging the tank, and that you could use some more help from a clean-up crew. I know some will suggest 1-2 snails per gallon, which I think is a bit heavy, but then again I'm battling algae right now, too, in a 5+ year old tank.

Try a variety of snail types. You can do a search here to get opinions on all of the available types. I'd suggest staying away from any more hermits, since some are good and peaceful, but others are notorious snail eaters, and you never seem to know until you get them home.

Also on the anemones, try doing some more research on prefered location. Some types/idividuals like having their foot in the rocks, other like sand. Also you may need to keep moving them around until they find a "happy spot" It can take a while, but they should eventually settle, and hopefully not in a PH, or on top of a nice coral.

Good luck, and hang in there. Come back with your questions.

Daryl

 

[Guest]

For your calcium kalk will not raise it, get some calcium to dose get it up to where it is suposed to be then drip kalk, kalk keeps it steady does not raise...

 

[Mkelly]

For your calcium kalk will not raise it, get some calcium to dose get it up to where it is suposed to be then drip kalk, kalk keeps it steady does not raise...

Ahhhhhhh Thank you!

 

[Guest]

np and welcome tp trt

 

[Junkzoo]

Mike , you probably have a year of "newness" to look forward to.
new/cycled/established are all pretty much different terms, my reef tank . in it's current state,has been running for 5-6 yrs,(had it for 15) and i like to think of it as "established"(or overgrown with stuff LOL)
along the lines of everything looks like it's been there forever, not just stuff/placed in the tank,,,the tank , for the most part is "balanced"as far as problems go(i hope)
i agree with Jon, a decent w/c could only help.remember , you have a fairly large tank there, everything else has to matched accordingly,,ie: w/c's etc.
i think others will agree , you have a yr , if not 2, to deal with cyano, hair , water parameter swings etc.
watch your test results, get a feel for the tank,,,and sit back and relax, watch your tank,enjoy,,,and let it mature,,it'll come around,,,
oh ya,,,,go to your LFS(Local Fish Store) and pick up a pound of "patience",,,,that's the best thing for your tank LOL.
take it slow, let it happen,,,

sounds like you are on the right track, just stay on the road,,

 

[Mkelly]

You guys/gals are great Thank you.

Just did a 50gal water change. Now we wait. I have the RO going again will probably change another 50 saturday. Got it all nice and mixed up in the drum and pumped it right in.

Also did some reading today on anemones. None of it was very encouraging. I bought some books that are suggest here they arrived today, so guess what I'm doing tonight

 

[Alice]

A belated Welcome to TRT!

A better skimmer wouldn't hurt, either. I'd say you're underpowered in the skimming department.

Alice

 

[ylmaya]

Hi - as all above stated - I think you are just "aging" - my 65G is also 3 months old and I am having "issues" as well.

I think you need to ad DI to your RO. Unfortunately you are probably not removing the silicates from the water (no DI) so you are actually feeding the algae a fresh crop of food with each water change. (I learned this on a previous thread).

I have a flame angel and a yellow tang which are both constantly picking at the hair algae so that may help too if you can (0r want to) ad more fish.

How is the temp of your tank? That is one of my main problems right now. - I get a 3 degree shift from lights on to lights off......I think the warm water is helping my algae grow as well.

Good luck. And hopefully you will have more patience than I do!

 

[Mkelly]

Ok things are not good. While I did manage to get the calcium up and the nitrates down the anemones just dont look good. The Sabae flattened himself and he looks like he's coming apart. I dont know if hes splitting or dying. Same with the green carpet. The carpet area it's self shows no sign of splitting but he seems to be shedding his outter skin and looks like he's turning inside out I have searech and searched and bought books but I dont see anything that shows this type of behavior.

They dont appear dead they havent changed color and show no signs of decay theres no smell, ya know that smell of dead SW animal? Thats not present. So whats happening?

I'm afraid to remove them or touch them for fear that maybe they are doing something they are supposed to, on the other hand if they are dying or dead then I have to get them out

I feel kinda stupid here. Clue please!

Thanks
Mike