[JSB]

I switched my filtration setup on my tank. I had an emperor filter with a bio wheel, and an AquaC Skimmer. I took the bio wheel out, and the carbons in the filter. I use it now for circulation, and let the skimmer do all the work. My reason behind this was the bio wheel, and the carbons, are nitrate factories, and I couldn't get rid of my algea problem. With that said you may want a little bit of tank info. It's a 37gal, with about 60 lbs of sand, about 50 lbs of Live Rock. The AquaC has a maxijet 1200 pushing it. I also have a maxijet 900, and a 400 something or other power head(I can't remember the brand) I've been in the current set up (the removal of bio wheel and carbons) for about 2 months. With in that two months I've been super busy, and haven't watched my levels very well. Anyway during the first month just about all the algea died. But in the past week I've noticed a very small amount of growth. Yesterday I checked my levels and my nitrates are up. Should I use the carbons more...say like a few days a month? I've heard that's a good idea to capture the amonias in the water. I did a water change of about 5 gallons last night, and will do another one this week to pull the nitrates down. Any suggestions would be great. Thanks.

To top it off, my water was low (evaporation), it had been hot so I lowered my heater, this past week its' been cool so my water was colder than it should been, my salinty was high 1.026, and my trates are up. What does that equal...one dead $30 coral beauty...D@MN IT!!

 

[jacksonpt]

Have you ever had an algae free tank?
What do you have in the tank - fish and inverts?
What type of water do you use for top-off?
How much light do you have over the tank?
How often do you feed? How much? What do you feed?
Do you use any supplements/additives?

As the seasons change, the sun gets lower in the sky and can put more ambient day light in a room causing algae blooms. Could this be an issue for you? The best solution is to find out where the trates are coming from... that's the only way to really fix the problem. Otherwise you're just masking the problem.

In the short term, run new carbon for 1-2 days as often as you want... but it will need to be changed out. Since you're fighting algae, I'd change it a bit more often than it probably needs to be changed just to be on the safe side. Continue doing water changes IF your fresh water is clean. Have you tested your fresh water?

 

[JSB]

What do you have in the tank - fish and inverts? Yes.
What type of water do you use for top-off? RO. It has been tested, and it is clean.
How much light do you have over the tank? Not enough to matter. It's just a regular fixture with an blue, and a regular florescent.
How often do you feed? every other day.
How much? What do you feed? less than a quarter cube of mysis, less than a quarter cube of Angle food, and a 5 or so flakes.
Do you use any supplements/additives? Yes. I've been dosing Kents Alk., I've been dosing Algramilk Cal.(sp), and or C balance Cal. A smidge of Mag., and trace elements.

I don't think the sun is a problem. I keep that room pretty dark. The blooms I'm getting put together would be about the size of a nickel. The algea, to me at least, doesn't seem to be much of an issue anymore. But for some reason my nitrates are higher than usual. Would this be because there isn't much algea to consume the nitrates? The past couple of feeding I probably over fed, because it looked as if my CB was getting much food. Maybe that had something to add to the spike as well. Anyway, I picked up some carbons on lunch. I just wanted your opinion you see if I was over looking anything. What do you think? Do a few water changes watch a little closer, and see how the water settles?

Thanks Jackson - JSB

Have you ever had an algae free tank?
What do you have in the tank - fish and inverts?
What type of water do you use for top-off?
How much light do you have over the tank?
How often do you feed? How much? What do you feed?
Do you use any supplements/additives?

As the seasons change, the sun gets lower in the sky and can put more ambient day light in a room causing algae blooms. Could this be an issue for you? The best solution is to find out where the trates are coming from... that's the only way to really fix the problem. Otherwise you're just masking the problem.

In the short term, run new carbon for 1-2 days as often as you want... but it will need to be changed out. Since you're fighting algae, I'd change it a bit more often than it probably needs to be changed just to be on the safe side. Continue doing water changes IF your fresh water is clean. Have you tested your fresh water?

 

[jacksonpt]

Give me a rundown of the critters in your tank - fish and inverts. I want to get a feel for what your bioload is like.

If the algae is small and contained (which it sounds like it is), then I doubt your bioload is a big problem. When did the coral beauty die, and when did you notice your trates were high? The feeding could definitely cause it, especially considering the amount and the frequency with which you feed (though that's kind of a blind statement without know what's in your tank). I used to feed my tanks 2-3 times a week at most and everything was happy.

Your CBS will find food without any trouble... there's usually little need to acutally feed them. The only think you should keep an eye out for is smaller/shy/slower fish who might not be able to get to the food if you have more aggressive feeders in the tank.

 

[JSB]

Well here's the rundown. I had more than I have. All of which has changed in the past 3 months. Currently I have 4 red hermits, one turbo, a clown, a cardinal, red sea star, and a million little hitch hiker snails. I had two emeralds, but I haven't seem them forever. I had three other turbos but they killed over, and the CB. Which was dead yesterday. The cardinal and the clown eat like mad. They appear to be hungry all the time.

Give me a rundown of the critters in your tank - fish and inverts. I want to get a feel for what your bioload is like.

If the algae is small and contained (which it sounds like it is), then I doubt your bioload is a big problem. When did the coral beauty die, and when did you notice your trates were high? The feeding could definitely cause it, especially considering the amount and the frequency with which you feed (though that's kind of a blind statement without know what's in your tank). I used to feed my tanks 2-3 times a week at most and everything was happy.

Your CBS will find food without any trouble... there's usually little need to acutally feed them. The only think you should keep an eye out for is smaller/shy/slower fish who might not be able to get to the food if you have more aggressive feeders in the tank.

 

[jacksonpt]

Every time something dies, you'll see a spike in levels... even if you get it out fairly quickly. Clowns are like dogs... they will eat as long as there's food - they don't get full. I have no first hand experience with Cardinals, but I've read they are the same way.

Your bioload is very small, so the problem is most likely the dying critters. You may have another problem - parasite, disease, etc.. I've never been able to keep emerald crabs because they can be very finicky about the types of algae they eat. If they starved (which mine always did), you might have had one die in the rock pile which would have caused the initial spike.

Do you have your LR piled up? It's not uncommon to get areas of little to no water flow in the center of rock piles. Waste can build up in these areas and cause water problems. You may want to take a turkey baster and squirt some water in the caves and cracks of all the rocks... just to be on the safe side. It's also a good practice to use a turkey baster or a power head to blow off the LR every now and again. This assumes that your LR isn't covered with corals.

From a bioload standpoint, you don't have much to worry about. But the deaths will cause the water to get worse before it gets better. Do you have any corals? How do they look? Often times corals are a good indication of water quality - they are however expensive testers.

 

[JSB]

Yep the rock is piled. I've never tried the turkey baster. I probably should do that. I don't have any corals. It's probably a combination of things. Things which you mentioned, and the fact that I've neglected maintenance the past two months. It's time to get back on track with this thing, or I'm going to loose more than my Coral Beauty. I'm so pissed about that. It was such a nice looking CB. Here is a pic of the piled LR before I got the algea under control.

And here is a pic of my CB before it died. It had great color.

Any how, thanks for the help. I'll see if I can't get this thing back to normal. I haven't bought any corals yet, because I don't have the lighting. A friend of mine built this over drive fixture, with some Home Depot lights. It is doing really well. I'm thinking of going that route since it's so much cheaper. Have you experiemented with lights in that fashion?

 

[jacksonpt]

cheap lights always scared me... I went right from standard flourscent to MH. Ideally, you should be able to get to the point where you can go 6 weeks or so without touching the tank (except for feedings) and not have to worry about it.

Every tank is different, but without corals in there, you shouldn't have to dose much... maybe a bit of kalk, but...