Should I restart my tank?

[Cjtabares]

I am having issues with my tank, and not sure the best way to fix them. I think I have cyanobacteria, maybe diatoms, bubble algae(not too bad right now, and does not seem to be spreading too much), and aiptasia. I had the tank looking pretty good for a few months, but then ,what I think is, cyano came back, I thought it was from low nitrates, I had them before and got rid of them by dosing ammonia, it is not helping this time, my nitrates are usually pretty low, <1, I have them up to 3.1 with the ammonia dosing. I had aiptasia before as well, but bought some nudibranchs, and that seemed to take care of them, but they are back. Thinking of maybe getting more nudibranchs, but not sure they actually took care of them and would like to find a way to eradicate the aiptasia it possible. I do not know what to do about the bubble algae, I have some hammers, an acan lord, and frogspawn, so I am a little worried about getting an emeral crab.

I don’t know what to do. I don’t have a microscope to identify the cyano, maybe I will get one. Any suggestions. Think I should just reset the tank?

 

[Mixed Reefer]

I am having issues with my tank, and not sure the best way to fix them. I think I have cyanobacteria, maybe diatoms, bubble algae(not too bad right now, and does not seem to be spreading too much), and aiptasia. I had the tank looking pretty good for a few months, but then ,what I think is, cyano came back, I thought it was from low nitrates, I had them before and got rid of them by dosing ammonia, it is not helping this time, my nitrates are usually pretty low, <1, I have them up to 3.1 with the ammonia dosing. I had aiptasia before as well, but bought some nudibranchs, and that seemed to take care of them, but they are back. Thinking of maybe getting more nudibranchs, but not sure they actually took care of them and would like to find a way to eradicate the aiptasia it possible. I do not know what to do about the bubble algae, I have some hammers, an acan lord, and frogspawn, so I am a little worried about getting an emeral crab.

I don’t know what to do. I don’t have a microscope to identify the cyano, maybe I will get one. Any suggestions. Think I should just reset the tank?

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Looks like you could increase flow for cyano. You can suck out bubble algae when vacuuming your sand bed. Add another fish to increase nitrates. Get your self on a weekly routine for maintenance. Apatasia nudi’s work best in my opinion to eradicate. You should list your test results to further help.

 

[TPhan]

How big is the tank and age? If u turkey baste it and it comes off in sheets thats cyano. I have emerald crabs and never had a problem with any corals including the ones u have. That doesnt mean the emerald crabs u get wont bother any of your corals but its definitely worth a try instead of allowing the bubble algae to get out of control. In the past when i see an aptasia i immediately put putty over it or make a kalkwasser paste to squirt over it before it multiples.

edited
I would not restart because a restart wont solve any of your issues. The issues ur having are very common in the reefing community just be patient and u will get through it.

 

[Cjtabares]

Looks like you could increase flow for cyano. You can suck out bubble algae when vacuuming your sand bed. Add another fish to increase nitrates. Get your self on a weekly routine for maintenance. Apatasia nudi’s work best in my opinion to eradicate. You should list your test results to further help.

How big is the tank and age? If u turkey baste it and it comes off in sheets thats cyano. I have emerald crabs and never had a problem with any corals including the ones u have. That doesnt mean the emerald crabs u get wont bother any of your corals but its definitely worth a try instead of allowing the bubble algae to get out of control. In the past when i see an aptasia i immediately put putty over it or make a kalkwasser paste to squirt over it before it multiples.

Tank is 45gal(24”x24”x18”), with 2 10 gal tanks for sumps, would guess another 10 gals of water volume. I do a 7 gal water changes every other week, I have been blowing off the rocks every other day. I feed pellets everyday, and a mix of mysis, rotifers, and a homemade fish food every other day. I test weekly, more often with the ammonia dosing. My parameters: alk is 9.2 dkh, calcium is 410, phosphates are .05.

For flow I have an mp10, a maxspec gyre, and a jebao slw-5. Maybe I will move the jebao lower to blow right at the rock work, and closer to the sand.

 

[TPhan]

Tank is 45gal(24”x24”x18”), with 2 10 gal tanks for sumps, would guess another 10 gals of water volume. I do a 7 gal water changes every other week, I have been blowing off the rocks every other day. I feed pellets everyday, and a mix of mysis, rotifers, and a homemade fish food every other day. I test weekly, more often with the ammonia dosing. My parameters: alk is 9.2 dkh, calcium is 410, phosphates are .05.

For flow I have an mp10, a maxspec gyre, and a jebao slw-5. Maybe I will move the jebao lower to blow right at the rock work, and closer to the sand.

Looks like u have plenty of flow. Get an ID on what u have on the sandbed first. Then if able, get a diamond goby to keep the sand bed clean. I will always have a diamond goby in my tank if i have sand. It always keep my sandbed spotless.

 

[Cjtabares]

Looks like u have plenty of flow. Get an ID on what u have on the sandbed first. Then if able, get a diamond goby to keep the sand bed clean. I will always have a diamond goby in my tank if i have sand. It always keep my sandbed spotless.

Thank you. I will look into getting a microscope to ID it. I will look into the goby, thanks for the suggestion.

 

[Chrisnnemo]

I wouldn’t reset it, I’d get a bigger clean up crew and move water changes to every week. I’ve had my 45gl tank w/ a 20gl sump going for around 7 years. My tank is healthiest when I do a 5gl water change every week. If I miss a week, I do 10gls the next. I use a 3/8” tube and siphon the 5gl’s out, as I suck up detritus and any algae growth. I keep a pistol shrimp(super cool to watch) who’s always moving sand like a madman, make sure your rockwork is steady. Mine isn’t glued together. He’s been burrowing for prob 4 years now with no issues. I also keep a couple nassarius, blue legged hermit crabs, a tiger conch, a turbo snail,4-5 bumble bee snails(for vermatid snails) and a few astraea snails. These guys in tandem with the 3/8”hose vacuuming any algae once a week keep my tank clean. The tiger conch, pistol shrimp and nassarius move the sand bed enough to keep the sand bed clean in my tank. The astraea and turbo munch on algae surprisingly well. Whenever I see the smallest aptasia I buy a couple peppermint shrimp if I don’t have any. Those used in tandem with tropic Marin elimi-aptasia or aptasia x takes care of it. After 13 years of keeping a reef tank I’ve accepted these pests/nuisance algae are just as much of a part of keeping a reef tank as buying a light for it, at least for me anyway. If I was tearing my tank down over the years every time I see the stuff you listed, I would be tearing down the tank to the point I wouldn’t have one lol. I dont think it’s possible to NEVER get these things. Mother Nature always finds a way. I keep hammers, frogspawn, btas, mushrooms and Zoas. I also have two clownfish that are 13yrs old. Ive never fed my corals and I feed my clowns a cube of the frozen mysis once every other day. As for the bubble algae, some just showed up from the last zoa frags I recently acquired, scraped some bubbles off with razor blade into trash and some I sucked up during water change. We’ll see what happens. I’m sure they’ll be more. Haven’t kept an emerald crab in years so can’t comment on them. Bottom line is I wouldn’t get to discouraged over it, don’t let the challenge of keeping these things at bay take away from the beauty and fun of having a tank.

 

[Cjtabares]

I wouldn’t reset it, I’d get a bigger clean up crew and move water changes to every week. I’ve had my 45gl tank w/ a 20gl sump going for around 7 years. My tank is healthiest when I do a 5gl water change every week. If I miss a week, I do 10gls the next. I use a 3/8” tube and siphon the 5gl’s out, as I suck up detritus and any algae growth. I keep a pistol shrimp(super cool to watch) who’s always moving sand like a madman, make sure your rockwork is steady. Mine isn’t glued together. He’s been burrowing for prob 4 years now with no issues. I also keep a couple nassarius, blue legged hermit crabs, a tiger conch, a turbo snail,4-5 bumble bee snails(for vermatid snails) and a few astraea snails. These guys in tandem with the 3/8”hose vacuuming any algae once a week keep my tank clean. The tiger conch, pistol shrimp and nassarius move the sand bed enough to keep the sand bed clean in my tank. The astraea and turbo munch on algae surprisingly well. Whenever I see the smallest aptasia I buy a couple peppermint shrimp if I don’t have any. Those used in tandem with tropic Marin elimi-aptasia or aptasia x takes care of it. After 13 years of keeping a reef tank I’ve accepted these pests/nuisance algae are just as much of a part of keeping a reef tank as buying a light for it, at least for me anyway. If I was tearing my tank down over the years every time I see the stuff you listed, I would be tearing down the tank to the point I wouldn’t have one lol. I dont think it’s possible to NEVER get these things. Mother Nature always finds a way. I keep hammers, frogspawn, btas, mushrooms and Zoas. I also have two clownfish that are 13yrs old. Ive never fed my corals and I feed my clowns a cube of the frozen mysis once every other day. As for the bubble algae, some just showed up from the last zoa frags I recently acquired, scraped some bubbles off with razor blade into trash and some I sucked up during water change. We’ll see what happens. I’m sure they’ll be more. Haven’t kept an emerald crab in years so can’t comment on them. Bottom line is I wouldn’t get to discouraged over it, don’t let the challenge of keeping these things at bay take away from the beauty and fun of having a tank.

Thank you. Yeah, I am not giving up, I honestly still love it with all of this, just want to get it under control. For clean up crew I have some nassarius snails,not sure how many, a pincushion and a tuxedo urchin, 2 astraea snails left, a good amount of dwarf and Florida cerith snails, and a tiger conch.

I also have a tiger pistol shrimp paired with a yellow watchman goby. I love the pair, one of the coolest things to watch in the tank.

I was doing the 7 gal water changes every week, but with the low nitrate I went to every other week. It was looking good, maybe I will go back to once a week and see how that goes.

 

[Mixed Reefer]

I wouldn’t reset either. These issues are common in reef tanks. You need a bit better husbandry and these issues will take care of themselves. Aptasia you know the answer.
Water changes are for exporting. Be careful here with nitrates being low. You could bottom out pretty quick doing water changes.
I would vacuum your sand bed often. Probably everyday until better results. I know it’s a pita but it works. If you have socks, siphon your sand/vacum into your sump sock. That means you can filter your vacuum through your sock and when your done replace the sock with a new one. You could do this through other media also to get the sh** out of your tank. Do this without removing tank water. Your nitrates are low so be careful exporting.
Turkey baste twice a day. This will knock things around. For a goby that works but if you don’t have one now you need to be the clean up crew. There’s a fix for everything. Choose wisely

 

[Cjtabares]

I wouldn’t reset either. These issues are common in reef tanks. You need a bit better husbandry and these issues will take care of themselves. Aptasia you know the answer.
Water changes are for exporting. Be careful here with nitrates being low. You could bottom out pretty quick doing water changes.
I would vacuum your sand bed often. Probably everyday until better results. I know it’s a pita but it works. If you have socks, siphon your sand/vacum into your sump sock. That means you can filter your vacuum through your sock and when your done replace the sock with a new one. You could do this through other media also to get the sh** out of your tank. Do this without removing tank water. Your nitrates are low so be careful exporting.
Turkey baste twice a day. This will knock things around. For a goby that works but if you don’t have one now you need to be the clean up crew. There’s a fix for everything. Choose wisely

Sounds good. I have done that before, not sure why I have not done it this time. I do blow the sand with the turkey baster daily with the rocks, and let everything flow into the filter sock. I like this idea though. I also do plan on beefing up my clean up crew again as well.

 

[nickeg79]

A fighting conch or two will clear the sandbed.
Your biggest friend in fixing diatoms and cyano is your lighting.

Try doing a 3 day no lights on in the tank. You don’t have to be completely dark just no lights on the usual schedule

Then for a few weeks do

Monday off
Tuesday on
Wednesday off
Thursday off
Friday on
Saturday on
Sunday on.

The diatoms and cyano are light dependent. If you mess up their cycle they can’t grow correctly or as fast. During this time add nitrifying bacteria. This will help out compete the cyano and diatoms. You can also add pods to help.

This strategy also helps with algea issues. For the bubble algea buy 4 emerald crabs and remove as much as you can manually.

Aptasiax works ok but I think it makes aptasia spread.
Peppermints work but once they eat regular food they aren’t as hungry for aptasia.
I use filefish but I’ve also had to rip my tank apart to remove one that turned my sandbed up so much it started a mini cycle in my tank. It was eating pods out of the sandbed and blowing it around.

If you start using all the dinox and chemiclean it just makes a mess of the nitrogen cycle and your good bacteria population. They will definitely work but then you will get another problem.

 

[dz6t]

May be adding a few pieces of live rocks from a seasoned hobbyist’s tank will help.

 

[TPhan]

May be adding a few pieces of live rocks from a seasoned hobbyist’s tank will help.

From your decades old tank.

 

[Killarsox]

Add a powerhead for flow to help reduce the cyano, a peppermint shrimp to keep the aptasia in check, a few snails to help with the diatoms, and maybe an emerald crab to help with the bubble algae. If you restart you're still going to have 1/2 the issues you have now.