troybuckle
Reefing newb
Sorry for the long read, but I have a few concerns with my tank.
Well, I got back from my Christmas vacation and I have some good news and some bad news. Might as well start with the good I guess. My ATO worked awesome, the power went twice and everything started up fine with no floods. My clowns have gotten bigger and so have my zoas.
Now the bad - I had my first lost, though it’s not confirmed, I expect that my lawnmower blenny has died. He was large when I got him, and for the first week he ate a lot then after that he didn’t eat anything at all. I even tried spot feeding him algae disk, but it didn’t work and before I left for Christmas his belly was shrunken. My pineapple brain is defiantly starting to fade white and I don’t know why? Worst of all my sand bed and a rock is completely covered in a black/red slime. (see pics). This was something I have been battling for a while now and it has gotten much worst and I don’t know what it is, but I think it might be Cyanobacteria. My friend who was watching the tank called me one night and said that I had a big outbreak of scum on top of the water, so I told him to point the powerheads at the surface and it cleaned it up, but when I got back my skimmer collection cup was basically overflowing.
So I went ahead and did water test yesterday and my results were:
PH: 7.8 (This never goes higher, maybe to 8.0)
Ammonia = 0
Nitrate = 0
Nitrite = 0
Sg 1.024
Calcium 400 – 440 (This has been low, so I have been dosing lately)
Temp = 78
Antic lights run for 12 hours and daylights for 10
This is almost exactly what I get all the time when I test my water, to me it seems good. However, I am beginning to grow suspicious of my low PH, could this lead to the black/red slime I have? Or could it be the lights. Even though, I didn’t think I over fed, could this cause this as well? I’m a bit sad about all this because I wanted to add some corals this week.
What I plan to do and have done now is:
I picked up some red slime Cyanobacteria remover and dosed the tank last night. Will does the tank again on Thursday.
I also have a water change ready to go for tonight.
Going to pull as much of it out by hand as i can.
I have some PH buffer and will begin dosing then tank during the water change; I will also dose Calcium as well.
I picked up another 7 nass sails for the sand bed.
I am going to cut the lights back to: antics for 10 hours and daylights for 8.
I am going to raise my sg to 1.026.
Pick up more rock (I have like 70ish lbs in their now, would this help raise the ph)
Do another water change Saturday.
This is all I can think of doing. I was considering picking up a magnesium test kit as well, any input or suggestions on this problem would be appreciated. Again sorry for the long read. Thanks guys.
Well, I got back from my Christmas vacation and I have some good news and some bad news. Might as well start with the good I guess. My ATO worked awesome, the power went twice and everything started up fine with no floods. My clowns have gotten bigger and so have my zoas.
Now the bad - I had my first lost, though it’s not confirmed, I expect that my lawnmower blenny has died. He was large when I got him, and for the first week he ate a lot then after that he didn’t eat anything at all. I even tried spot feeding him algae disk, but it didn’t work and before I left for Christmas his belly was shrunken. My pineapple brain is defiantly starting to fade white and I don’t know why? Worst of all my sand bed and a rock is completely covered in a black/red slime. (see pics). This was something I have been battling for a while now and it has gotten much worst and I don’t know what it is, but I think it might be Cyanobacteria. My friend who was watching the tank called me one night and said that I had a big outbreak of scum on top of the water, so I told him to point the powerheads at the surface and it cleaned it up, but when I got back my skimmer collection cup was basically overflowing.
So I went ahead and did water test yesterday and my results were:
PH: 7.8 (This never goes higher, maybe to 8.0)
Ammonia = 0
Nitrate = 0
Nitrite = 0
Sg 1.024
Calcium 400 – 440 (This has been low, so I have been dosing lately)
Temp = 78
Antic lights run for 12 hours and daylights for 10
This is almost exactly what I get all the time when I test my water, to me it seems good. However, I am beginning to grow suspicious of my low PH, could this lead to the black/red slime I have? Or could it be the lights. Even though, I didn’t think I over fed, could this cause this as well? I’m a bit sad about all this because I wanted to add some corals this week.
What I plan to do and have done now is:
I picked up some red slime Cyanobacteria remover and dosed the tank last night. Will does the tank again on Thursday.
I also have a water change ready to go for tonight.
Going to pull as much of it out by hand as i can.
I have some PH buffer and will begin dosing then tank during the water change; I will also dose Calcium as well.
I picked up another 7 nass sails for the sand bed.
I am going to cut the lights back to: antics for 10 hours and daylights for 8.
I am going to raise my sg to 1.026.
Pick up more rock (I have like 70ish lbs in their now, would this help raise the ph)
Do another water change Saturday.
This is all I can think of doing. I was considering picking up a magnesium test kit as well, any input or suggestions on this problem would be appreciated. Again sorry for the long read. Thanks guys.
![photo[1].webp](/data/attachments/8/8847-11879af155a5caa4a77d8f7b889e237b.jpg?hash=a7vixAhMVM)
