Hi. I have taken on my husband's 75, gallon bow-front reef tank, that he has had for close to four years. His job got way too demanding and he lost control of it. It was in really bad shape, full of long green algae and red slime. I've been using these forums to learn a lot (thank you all!) and decided to join today to get more specific help.
None of the machinery was working, so I took out the fan, the protein skimmer and the bio-wheel and scrubbed them all up and got them to working again. I replaced the filters in the bio-wheel and am cleaning out the protein skimmer every day. I did a fifteen gallon water change and also replaced the lights because they had never been replaced the whole time we've had it. Oh ... and I should mention here, though it will kill you guys ... Dear Hubbie had been topping off the tank with TAP WATER, which I've learned is a huge mistake.
One other thing, there is what I now know is called a shallow sand bed (SSB) about one and a half inches deep. I've read ya'll's discussions about the benefits of a DSB or an SSB and am totally confused! I also have read the discussions about whether or not to clean the sand. The guy at the fish place is adamant that I not mess with the sand, but I fully intend to! I mean, it's been the potty for four years now and looks gross! But I'll ask for more specific help on that topic later.
Here's where I am right now:
I couldn't get the algae under control, so I took out every single live rock and scrubbed them in saltwater in the sink with a soft toothbrush to get all the algae off of them, then rinsed them off and put them in buckets of saltwater until I did them all. Took about a week, probably 100 lbs at least of rock. No heat and no aeration in buckets. Then I took out the coral (and the snails and crabs ... have added 20 of each) and VERY gently got the algae off of them and put them right back in the tank.
In the midst of this I figured out that our water heater was not working and replaced it. Also in the midst of this I got shocked VERY badly and had to have an electrician out to work on it. I then put in a grounding whatever-you-call it. But, in working on the tank, the electrician unplugged the new water heater and it was a couple of days before I realized that!
And ... not naming any names, but SOMEONE tried to replace the bulbs with new ones and somehow or other forgot to turn the power back on! So the tank sat without heat or aeration all night and we lost a flame-tail blenny, two clowns, a sea urchin, and a red-and-white striped shrimp. Current population includes a dragon blenny, a yellow watchman, and a cardinal and a new shrimp, a red-looking sponge, 20 crabs and 20 snails. A mushroom looking coral who does not look happy, some long-stemmed polyp things that don't really move, a broccoli-looking thing, some wavy corals that are just coming back, some ... I don't know ... some other stuff in there.
I then put all the rocks back in and re-arranged them so that there are all sorts of places for the fish to swim around and none of them are on the glass. I dropped the mushroom coral and the broccoli several times in the process, but have apologized profusely.
I then used ChemiClean to kill the red slime algae. I took out the two filters and turned off the protein skimmer for 24 hours. Then I did a 20 gallon water replacement and had to go out of town. But the day we were going out of town, one of the bulbs in the light-thing melted through it's socket, so Hubbie went and bought a crazy-expensive LED light thing and we added live bacteria to the tank. I also replaced the two filters.
We were gone for three days and came back to a very dead sea urchin which I removed from the tank. The ammonia level was 1.0, the ph 8.4, and nitrites 0, and the nitrates 5.0. I added more bacteria, Prime, and Instant Ocean Nitrate Reducer last night. I tested again today and the pH is 8.4, ammonia is 5.0, nitrites 0, nitrate 10. Salt is 1.025.
I know I need to do another water change, but the place where I get R.O. water is about a 20 minute drive and I flat have not had time to go out there yet, but I might be able to tomorrow.
What do I need to do about the ammonia???
I've put in all the details because I've seen that whenever someone writes in with a question, you need a lot more information. So I thought I'd just start with everything I can think of.
Thanks for your help, and for reading this LONG message!
None of the machinery was working, so I took out the fan, the protein skimmer and the bio-wheel and scrubbed them all up and got them to working again. I replaced the filters in the bio-wheel and am cleaning out the protein skimmer every day. I did a fifteen gallon water change and also replaced the lights because they had never been replaced the whole time we've had it. Oh ... and I should mention here, though it will kill you guys ... Dear Hubbie had been topping off the tank with TAP WATER, which I've learned is a huge mistake.
One other thing, there is what I now know is called a shallow sand bed (SSB) about one and a half inches deep. I've read ya'll's discussions about the benefits of a DSB or an SSB and am totally confused! I also have read the discussions about whether or not to clean the sand. The guy at the fish place is adamant that I not mess with the sand, but I fully intend to! I mean, it's been the potty for four years now and looks gross! But I'll ask for more specific help on that topic later.
Here's where I am right now:
I couldn't get the algae under control, so I took out every single live rock and scrubbed them in saltwater in the sink with a soft toothbrush to get all the algae off of them, then rinsed them off and put them in buckets of saltwater until I did them all. Took about a week, probably 100 lbs at least of rock. No heat and no aeration in buckets. Then I took out the coral (and the snails and crabs ... have added 20 of each) and VERY gently got the algae off of them and put them right back in the tank.
In the midst of this I figured out that our water heater was not working and replaced it. Also in the midst of this I got shocked VERY badly and had to have an electrician out to work on it. I then put in a grounding whatever-you-call it. But, in working on the tank, the electrician unplugged the new water heater and it was a couple of days before I realized that!
And ... not naming any names, but SOMEONE tried to replace the bulbs with new ones and somehow or other forgot to turn the power back on! So the tank sat without heat or aeration all night and we lost a flame-tail blenny, two clowns, a sea urchin, and a red-and-white striped shrimp. Current population includes a dragon blenny, a yellow watchman, and a cardinal and a new shrimp, a red-looking sponge, 20 crabs and 20 snails. A mushroom looking coral who does not look happy, some long-stemmed polyp things that don't really move, a broccoli-looking thing, some wavy corals that are just coming back, some ... I don't know ... some other stuff in there.
I then put all the rocks back in and re-arranged them so that there are all sorts of places for the fish to swim around and none of them are on the glass. I dropped the mushroom coral and the broccoli several times in the process, but have apologized profusely.
I then used ChemiClean to kill the red slime algae. I took out the two filters and turned off the protein skimmer for 24 hours. Then I did a 20 gallon water replacement and had to go out of town. But the day we were going out of town, one of the bulbs in the light-thing melted through it's socket, so Hubbie went and bought a crazy-expensive LED light thing and we added live bacteria to the tank. I also replaced the two filters.
We were gone for three days and came back to a very dead sea urchin which I removed from the tank. The ammonia level was 1.0, the ph 8.4, and nitrites 0, and the nitrates 5.0. I added more bacteria, Prime, and Instant Ocean Nitrate Reducer last night. I tested again today and the pH is 8.4, ammonia is 5.0, nitrites 0, nitrate 10. Salt is 1.025.
I know I need to do another water change, but the place where I get R.O. water is about a 20 minute drive and I flat have not had time to go out there yet, but I might be able to tomorrow.
What do I need to do about the ammonia???
I've put in all the details because I've seen that whenever someone writes in with a question, you need a lot more information. So I thought I'd just start with everything I can think of.
Thanks for your help, and for reading this LONG message!