Not having success. I need help.

[Llorgon]

This is an uplift design & I imagine it would be successful in your tank. I saw his original (the blue plastic one) & it's nice to see that he has published an updated approach. The best part about DIY is you can follow step by step & get something started quickly then refactor & adjust over time to something that is better suited to your changing environment. It would be easy on your tank to try something like this & it will add air to the water (more on that below).

While I don't have experience working with AIO, if you have the space & are willing to build, a remote refugium would be great. I just looked at your build thread (nice job btw), & you might be able to use a HOB refugium or perhaps you could install a shelf over the top. A refugium is nothing more than 5 - 10gallons, low flow & a plant light that runs off-cycle from your main tank. You could put a 5gallon bucket in a cabinet overhead with a primary & emergency drain if you are concerned about it clogging. I would avoid attempting to put one on the floor next to the tank w/o using gravity as the drain (& the DIY King's over-the-top syphon overflow doesn't work over the long term...I've tried.).

With your current tank, I would imagine you are having pH swings (measure in the morning & after the light cycle at night to confirm). The uplift design will help with that but you might also consider a gravity kalk drip that runs overnight for your topoff water. That will also help keep pH stable.

This is the video I came across.

I would have the space on the wall above the tank for a 2.5 or 5 gallon tank. I think the 10 gallon might be a bit on the large side, but I would have to measure. With the gravity fed drain I guess if the water line isn't too high you wouldn't worry about overflow of the main tank during a power outage, but what if the drain becomes blocked? Rubbermaind under the tank on the shelf to collect water in case of overflow?

Right now that is the one I am leaning towards since I could have the algae scrubber and the refugium in the same tank.

Ya there is quite a bit of ph swing. So this would help with that too!

 

[proxy001]

G5 at 25 % -ALERT- !!!
Get a PAR meter.

 

[Glass Algae]

Hey guys, not really brand new to feeding, but I feel like I could use some new reefer advice.

A bit of a backstory, I have been feeding for 3 years.

First tank(10 gal)
Had some success for a few months corals were growing, minimal algae. Then corals started going downhill and algae took over. I later learned that I had to be dosing alk, call and mag.

Second tank(75 gal)
Had some success for a few months, good coral growth. Then a power head melted in the tank and killed everything. All fish, snails, corals everything.

Second tank.2 electric boogaloo
Restart of the 75 gallon started well. Corals were doing well. I was seeing growth with lps and sps. Then slowly all the growth stopped and corals would go downhill even with parameters in check. I ended up with dinos then gha after getting past dinos. Tank was shut down when I moved.

Current tank(IM 25)
I'm seeing the same problems with my current tank. Gha is taking over and corals are not as happy as they once were. Also all growth of the corals seems to have stopped.

A little about the tank
IM 25
4 fish
6 snails/hermits - I need more cuc, but it's been hard to order here due to covid.
Sicce 1.5 return pump
Ghost protein skimmer
Mp10 - 80% max reef crest mode
Radio xr 30 - on 9am off 9pm, 25% intensity LPS mode
15lbs rock

Tank params are:
Salinity: 1.026
Temp: 79
pH: 8.2
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 1.5
Phosphate: 0.061
Alkalinity: 10.5
Calcium: 470
Magnesium: 1370

Dosing/husbandry
Not dosing any elements. Params stay high with water changes.
5 gal weekly water changes
Vacuum sand every week.
Adding 0.7ml vodka daily to keep nutrients in check.
Weekly dose of waste away
Nightly scrubbing algae off rocks
Change filter socks once a week

Feeding
1/4 cube various frozen foods
Sometimes flake/pellets
Feed corals once a week.

What am I missing? How can I have a successful thriving tank instead of a few months of growth and then everything slowly dying.

I feel like I have missed some sort of very beginner thing here!

Excuse me I'm sorry... Did you say the powerhead MELTED IN THE TANK!?

 

[proxy001]

also I think you high alk low nutrient combo isn't recommended by the experts here.

 

[Llorgon]

G5 at 25 % -ALERT- !!!
Get a PAR meter.

Too high or low?
Anything more and the corals wouldn't open.

Excuse me I'm sorry... Did you say the powerhead MELTED IN THE TANK!?

Yep. Bits of melted plastic everywhere in the tank. Whole apartment had that burnt plastic smell. The tank was actually smoking when I lifted the lid.

also I think you high alk low nutrient combo isn't recommended by the experts here.

Working on fixing that. Open to all suggestions on how to get things back on track!

 

[proxy001]

Too high or low?
Anything more and the corals wouldn't open.



Yep. Bits of melted plastic everywhere in the tank. Whole apartment had that burnt plastic smell. The tank was actually smoking when I lifted the lid.



Working on fixing that. Open to all suggestions on how to get things back on track!

Melted plastic in a reef tank... you may have toxic chemicals in there now.
Corals may open with low light yet not have enough light. You really should get a par meter.
Like you I had my G5 set low at the beginning and my corals went down hill. I assumed I had too much light right? Well, it was the opposite, I didn't have nearly enough.
There is no way, NO WAY, of knowing by looking at it. The human eye is a terrible PAR reader. Also some corals might close when you change something giving you a false information for a few days, specially soft corals.
I don't know the specific of your tank, but 25 % sounds awfully low. (What does your mobius graph show? 25% or less?)

 

[Llorgon]

The melted power head was in the 75 gallon. Not my current tank that is running. I got rid of the sand and rocks so hopefully when I do set it up again it will be chemical free.... I hope.

The radio is a G4 I think. Got it used with the tank. I will look for the cable and get a screenshot of the settings. If I remember correctly it's the coral labs LPS setting, bumped down to 25% with added blue period at the begining and end of the day.

Par meter might be hard to track down right now. I will ask around and see if I can find one to borrow.

 

[Glass Algae]

Too high or low?
Anything more and the corals wouldn't open.



Yep. Bits of melted plastic everywhere in the tank. Whole apartment had that burnt plastic smell. The tank was actually smoking when I lifted the lid.



Working on fixing that. Open to all suggestions on how to get things back on track!

OMG how did that happen! I didn't think it could get to the melt point while submerged like that! What was the make and model on the wave maker? Did you find the source of why? Very scary.

 

[Llorgon]

OMG how did that happen! I didn't think it could get to the melt point while submerged like that! What was the make and model on the wave maker? Did you find the source of why? Very scary.

It was a hydor koralia, not sure of the exact model. I'm assuming it was just old. I had them on my 125gal freshwater tank for 3 or 4 years. Then used them on the 75 gal until that happened.

 

[MaxxuM]

Dosing/husbandry
Vacuum sand every week.
Adding 0.7ml vodka daily to keep nutrients in check.
Weekly dose of waste away
Nightly scrubbing algae off rocks
Change filter socks once a week

Feeding
1/4 cube various frozen foods
Sometimes flake/pellets
Feed corals once a week.

Confess that I didn't read everyone's responses so if there's any repeats sorry.

A bunch of alarm bells sounded when I read the bold red text. All of this is way too much or too little.

If you're going to have a sand bed you need to have something like nassarius snails to turn it. Disturbing the sand bed isn't advisable in my experience - at least until six-eight months down the road. If there's a lot of accumulation of waste/detritus then you're feeding too much.

Vodka is an advanced method. I wouldn't advise it at this point. If you're nutrients are out of control you're feeding too much.

Waste Away isn't needed.

If you're having to scrub your rocks nightly you're feeding too much or too much is dying.

You need to change your filter socks every 3 days, maybe sooner if your nutrients are getting out of control.

1/4 Frozen foods plus flake/pellets is likely too much for your tank to handle (even though it may be enough for your fish). Scale back feeding. Thaw out some food, rinse it out, put a drop of vits on the whole cube and let it sit for a while in the fridge so it marinades. Buy a bottle of Tigger Pods and serve a teaspoon of them to your tank during feedings (Pods should last around 3-5 months). Any that get away will help with algae control or be eaten later. Bonus, they won't increase your nutrients vs other food types. And drop the pellets/flakes for a few months.

Your corals are probably already getting enough nutrients from all that food you're putting in there.

IMO you're over compensating. Every time you stick your hands in the tank it bothers the animals. Stress can manifest in a lot of ways. Sometimes weeks or months later. So, in my opinion, I'd pull back a bit and reduce the feedings, don't disturb the sand, target feed the fish with pipette, and change the filter socks sooner. A bag of ChemiPure wouldn't hurt either.

Hope that helps. Sending good vibes to your tank too

 

[R.Weller]

This is the video I came across.

I would have the space on the wall above the tank for a 2.5 or 5 gallon tank. I think the 10 gallon might be a bit on the large side, but I would have to measure. With the gravity fed drain I guess if the water line isn't too high you wouldn't worry about overflow of the main tank during a power outage, but what if the drain becomes blocked? Rubbermaind under the tank on the shelf to collect water in case of overflow?

Right now that is the one I am leaning towards since I could have the algae scrubber and the refugium in the same tank.

Ya there is quite a bit of ph swing. So this would help with that too!

I think that's a great design. Using glass, you will be able to enjoy the diversity found only in a refugium. I doubt it would ever end up blocked (you could snake it every few months as part of your maintenance plan), but just in case, I always provide at least two routes for water. Drill two holes in the side of the refugium & use an elbow with a standpipe inside the refugium as the drain. This might be a little nosiy, but the height of the backup should be 1/4" higher than the primary drain. It should always be dry, but in the event the main drain is clogged, you will know it. When plumbing the emergency drain back into your IM25, if you can, keep the emergency pipe just above the water line so water will splash if it is every used. This will give you an audio queue that something is wrong.

If you go this route, I would go ahead & get the scrubber installed first on the side of your IM25. Be sure to use sandpaper on the plastic mesh so the algae has something to grip on for growth. We scrap ours every 4 - 6 weeks depending on growth. You will see brown growth after about 7 days, & if you run it opposite the primary light cycle, your pH should stabilize after algae is established on the scrubber. Other than cosmetic, there's no reason to use an expensive refugium light. A $10 LED grow blub & a timer accomplishes the same at a fraction of the cost.

 

[EMeyer]

10.5 alk by itself can kill corals. I'd bring that back to 7.

When things go bad in an aquarium, I think the best thing is to stop dosing anything besides ca and alk until you sort it out.

 

[R.Weller]

While I don't follow their program exactly, the system seems on target with the guidance from RedSea.

Reference:

Reef Care Recipes - Red Sea

Red Sea's recipes for easy & successful Reef-Keeping, Our Reef Care Recipes offer easy-to-understand and simple-to-implement instructions for reef maintenance, tailored to each type of aquarium.

www.redseafish.com

This is one of the reasons why I suspect that it's a nutrition & balance issue.

 

[Llorgon]

Confess that I didn't read everyone's responses so if there's any repeats sorry.

A bunch of alarm bells sounded when I read the bold red text. All of this is way too much or too little.

If you're going to have a sand bed you need to have something like nassarius snails to turn it. Disturbing the sand bed isn't advisable in my experience - at least until six-eight months down the road. If there's a lot of accumulation of waste/detritus then you're feeding too much.

Vodka is an advanced method. I wouldn't advise it at this point. If you're nutrients are out of control you're feeding too much.

Waste Away isn't needed.

If you're having to scrub your rocks nightly you're feeding too much or too much is dying.

You need to change your filter socks every 3 days, maybe sooner if your nutrients are getting out of control.

1/4 Frozen foods plus flake/pellets is likely too much for your tank to handle (even though it may be enough for your fish). Scale back feeding. Thaw out some food, rinse it out, put a drop of vits on the whole cube and let it sit for a while in the fridge so it marinades. Buy a bottle of Tigger Pods and serve a teaspoon of them to your tank during feedings (Pods should last around 3-5 months). Any that get away will help with algae control or be eaten later. Bonus, they won't increase your nutrients vs other food types. And drop the pellets/flakes for a few months.

Your corals are probably already getting enough nutrients from all that food you're putting in there.

IMO you're over compensating. Every time you stick your hands in the tank it bothers the animals. Stress can manifest in a lot of ways. Sometimes weeks or months later. So, in my opinion, I'd pull back a bit and reduce the feedings, don't disturb the sand, target feed the fish with pipette, and change the filter socks sooner. A bag of ChemiPure wouldn't hurt either.

Hope that helps. Sending good vibes to your tank too

Appreciate the good vibes. I need it!

Ok so I shouldn't be vacuuming the sand?!

I am slowly phasing out the vodka dosing and I will stop the weekly waste away dosing.

The feeding is 1/4 of a cube of frozen or flakes or pellets. Should have been more specific. Not feeding all 3 at the same time. Interesting on the tigger pods. Never thought of using them for food. I will order some and give that a try.

I think that's a great design. Using glass, you will be able to enjoy the diversity found only in a refugium. I doubt it would ever end up blocked (you could snake it every few months as part of your maintenance plan), but just in case, I always provide at least two routes for water. Drill two holes in the side of the refugium & use an elbow with a standpipe inside the refugium as the drain. This might be a little nosiy, but the height of the backup should be 1/4" higher than the primary drain. It should always be dry, but in the event the main drain is clogged, you will know it. When plumbing the emergency drain back into your IM25, if you can, keep the emergency pipe just above the water line so water will splash if it is every used. This will give you an audio queue that something is wrong.

If you go this route, I would go ahead & get the scrubber installed first on the side of your IM25. Be sure to use sandpaper on the plastic mesh so the algae has something to grip on for growth. We scrap ours every 4 - 6 weeks depending on growth. You will see brown growth after about 7 days, & if you run it opposite the primary light cycle, your pH should stabilize after algae is established on the scrubber. Other than cosmetic, there's no reason to use an expensive refugium light. A $10 LED grow blub & a timer accomplishes the same at a fraction of the cost.

Standpipe! That's a good idea. I think I will go with that. I should be able to fit a 10 gallon above the tank so I think I will go with that. I may need to move this part over to the DIY section.

I plan to pickup parts for the algae scrubber on the weekend. I need to go to home depot anyways.

10.5 alk by itself can kill corals. I'd bring that back to 7.

When things go bad in an aquarium, I think the best thing is to stop dosing anything besides ca and alk until you sort it out.

The alk being at 10.5 is just from weekly water changes. I think if I was to try and bring that down then I would have to cut back on water changes.

 

[MaxxuM]

Appreciate the good vibes. I need it!

Ok so I shouldn't be vacuuming the sand?!

I am slowly phasing out the vodka dosing and I will stop the weekly waste away dosing.

The feeding is 1/4 of a cube of frozen or flakes or pellets. Should have been more specific. Not feeding all 3 at the same time. Interesting on the tigger pods. Never thought of using them for food. I will order some and give that a try.

I've been using this hybrid feeding method for some years now. Tigger pods hibernate for long periods of time so they'll keep in the fridge for months, they eat algae, and they add to the bio-diversity of the tank. Win, win , win.

Sand bed = complicated. I'm going to try to compress a lot of information into one paragraph. Siphoning your sand bed shouldn't be necessary often and could be counter productive. The sand bed is an integral part of your biological system. It probably accounts for 1/3 or more of total biological filtration. So, messing with it constantly will 1. prevent it from establishing itself and 2. will release nutrients into your system. This is why tanks without sand beds are so reliant on constant maintenance and larger amounts of live rock/media - they lack stability of sand initially. Creatures that stir the bed are more likely to help the maturation of the sand bed by burying and releasing nutrients at a manageable rate.

Chemicals should be the very last resort and are usually indicators that we are doing something too fast, to slow or not at all. Hand's off should be your first instinct unless it's an emergency. If detritus is accumulating then adjust your pumps so it will blow it up into the water column. If your rocks are growing algae so fast that you have to scrub them nightly then setup a QT tank and remove your fish and let the tank burn off the nutrients by not feed anything for a few weeks while doing water changes, changing filter socks often, and using something like NOPOX as a last resort. Most fish can go with feeding every other day while some cannot. Whenever I feed pellets I soak 5-6 of them in aminos/vitamins for ten minutes then feed one at a time to each fish. It sounds tedious, but in a weird way it kinda connects you to the aquarium even more.

 

[LegendaryCG]

Do you have an ATO? I didn’t see that mentioned although I didn’t read all posts. IMO the *most* important tool.

 

[Llorgon]

I've been using this hybrid feeding method for some years now. Tigger pods hibernate for long periods of time so they'll keep in the fridge for months, they eat algae, and they add to the bio-diversity of the tank. Win, win , win.

Sand bed = complicated. I'm going to try to compress a lot of information into one paragraph. Siphoning your sand bed shouldn't be necessary often and could be counter productive. The sand bed is an integral part of your biological system. It probably accounts for 1/3 or more of total biological filtration. So, messing with it constantly will 1. prevent it from establishing itself and 2. will release nutrients into your system. This is why tanks without sand beds are so reliant on constant maintenance and larger amounts of live rock/media - they lack stability of sand initially. Creatures that stir the bed are more likely to help the maturation of the sand bed by burying and releasing nutrients at a manageable rate.

Chemicals should be the very last resort and are usually indicators that we are doing something too fast, to slow or not at all. Hand's off should be your first instinct unless it's an emergency. If detritus is accumulating then adjust your pumps so it will blow it up into the water column. If your rocks are growing algae so fast that you have to scrub them nightly then setup a QT tank and remove your fish and let the tank burn off the nutrients by not feed anything for a few weeks while doing water changes, changing filter socks often, and using something like NOPOX as a last resort. Most fish can go with feeding every other day while some cannot. Whenever I feed pellets I soak 5-6 of them in aminos/vitamins for ten minutes then feed one at a time to each fish. It sounds tedious, but in a weird way it kinda connects you to the aquarium even more.

Ok I will give the tiger pods a try. What sort of vitamins do you add to the food?

So much varying info on the sand bed. I was always told to siphon it. I will leave it alone for awhile. Makes water changes quicker.

Hand feeding the fish works for 3 of the 4, but the royal Gramma hides whenever I take the lid off the tank. I will give it a try though.

Do you have an ATO? I didn’t see that mentioned although I didn’t read all posts. IMO the *most* important tool.

Yep I have ATO.

 

[MaxxuM]

Ok I will give the tiger pods a try. What sort of vitamins do you add to the food?

So much varying info on the sand bed. I was always told to siphon it. I will leave it alone for awhile. Makes water changes quicker.

Hand feeding the fish works for 3 of the 4, but the royal Gramma hides whenever I take the lid off the tank. I will give it a try though.

I use Brightwell Vitamarine-M, GarlicPower and CoralAmino randomly (alternatively you can use Red Sea Nutrition AB+). Fish poop most of it out anyway and that will feed the corals, bacteria and CUC. Yeah, fickle fish can be an issue. Try this. Feed two teaspoons of Tigger Pods with 1/10 of a rinsed out cube of mysis which is soaked in vits every other day. The Tiggers swim around for at least 3-5 minutes before they hit the ground. They really activate the feeding response. Don't feed all at once. Use a dropper like this to feed them slowly over 5 minutes. Once there is no food in the water column do it again. Should take 3-6 times to do two teaspoons.

 

[Dom]

My corals grow like weeds with proper lighting. Never feed my corals.

 

[Llorgon]

I use Brightwell Vitamarine-M, GarlicPower and CoralAmino randomly (alternatively you can use Red Sea Nutrition AB+). Fish poop most of it out anyway and that will feed the corals, bacteria and CUC. Yeah, fickle fish can be an issue. Try this. Feed two teaspoons of Tigger Pods with 1/10 of a rinsed out cube of mysis which is soaked in vits every other day. The Tiggers swim around for at least 3-5 minutes before they hit the ground. They really activate the feeding response. Don't feed all at once. Use a dropper like this to feed them slowly over 5 minutes. Once there is no food in the water column do it again. Should take 3-6 times to do two teaspoons.

ok cool. I will pick some of that up and give it a try!

My corals grow like weeds with proper lighting. Never feed my corals.

Lucky. Maybe my lighting is super off?