Hi everyone,
New to this hobby and looking for some advice on my specific situation as I’m stumped. Here is the background info:
-got into the hobby by acquiring a 55 gallon with fish and live rock. (2 adult clowns, 1 lawnmower blenny, 1 green chromis - now dead presumably due to stress from transfer) previous owner used well water. Tank had significant green hair algae - see photo. Also just running off a hob filter with protein skimmer.
- been attempting to clean this tank by doing weekly 40-50% water changes with rodi water and good sand vacuuming. Also removed the live rocks the first week and scrubbed them with bristled brushes to remove the overgrowth of gha. Been doing this for about a month and can’t seem to get the nitrates and phosphates to come down at all. Nitrates look to be at about 100 ppm (Salifert) and phosphates have been over .9 (Hanna) even after doing large water change.
I have a new tank that I want to transfer everything over to and make it a reef tank. It is a 40g with overflow and sump - see photos.
my question is: should I start over with new rock or can I transfer my live rock from 55 gal with new water? It seems something in the 55 gal is causing excessively high nitrates and phosphates and I’ve done so many water changes I am beginning to think it may be the live rock.
thanks for any and all input! I would like to start a solid reef tank in the 40g and am just trying to decide if I need a full restart to correct this water issue.
New to this hobby and looking for some advice on my specific situation as I’m stumped. Here is the background info:
-got into the hobby by acquiring a 55 gallon with fish and live rock. (2 adult clowns, 1 lawnmower blenny, 1 green chromis - now dead presumably due to stress from transfer) previous owner used well water. Tank had significant green hair algae - see photo. Also just running off a hob filter with protein skimmer.
- been attempting to clean this tank by doing weekly 40-50% water changes with rodi water and good sand vacuuming. Also removed the live rocks the first week and scrubbed them with bristled brushes to remove the overgrowth of gha. Been doing this for about a month and can’t seem to get the nitrates and phosphates to come down at all. Nitrates look to be at about 100 ppm (Salifert) and phosphates have been over .9 (Hanna) even after doing large water change.
I have a new tank that I want to transfer everything over to and make it a reef tank. It is a 40g with overflow and sump - see photos.
my question is: should I start over with new rock or can I transfer my live rock from 55 gal with new water? It seems something in the 55 gal is causing excessively high nitrates and phosphates and I’ve done so many water changes I am beginning to think it may be the live rock.
thanks for any and all input! I would like to start a solid reef tank in the 40g and am just trying to decide if I need a full restart to correct this water issue.