2 weeks and smellin' like roses much to my suprise

Otherone

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Feb 2, 2009
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Lancaster,PA USA
Went down south ( Mrtyle Beach + Daytona) for 10 days with a tank full of ick treating with herbtana to buy me these few weeks -much to my suprise - it's seemingly gone. The atlantic blue tang was in a real bad way when I left - you couldn't tell now, he looks great! Not only did the fish do well but my diatom issue is gone, 90% of the red slime algae in the sand is gone, and a very obnoxious red coraline outbreak is dying. Both Anemones are fine but did loose an encrusting gorganian. Total that was lost - 1 coral 1 cole Tang. The Skimmer, reactors, and dosing was stopped for a total of 24 days. I'm starting to believe that dosing vodka does way more harm than good, I will not resume doing it as I believe it helped fuel the red slime, red coraline, and diatoms. the benefits were minimal as far as I can tell. It did it's job with growing B+B but time will do this as well as my nitrates are 40ppm from 13 fish with no help from w/c's or gadgets. All the equipment is running now - the skimmer went nutz, I musta emptied it 10x lastnite before a 25% w/c.Threw in 2lbs carbon and refilled with fresh GFO this morning the tank is crystal. Prior to leaving the tank looked like @$$ totally covered in garbage even the glass - somehow it disappeared - fell into a pile of crap and came out smellin' like roses. The tank was sooo bad when I left I was
ready to call it quits.
 

BigCountry

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 6, 2009
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Charlotte, NC
Awesome bro. yeah in my experience so far, salt fish seem to recoop better than fresh. I have not lost a salt fish yet. Inverts, not so much (of course I am not accilmating them good so it's my fault), but the fish are pretty tough!
 

rusland005

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Jan 1, 2011
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Here, there, everywhere.
Your Diatoms will burn themselves out once they have fed off the remaining silica in the substrate.

To help rid your Cyano (red slime algae - if it's not totally gone, or comes back) black the tank out for 3-4 days. Your corals may sulk a bit but they'll be fine.

What lights are you using?
 

Otherone

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Feb 2, 2009
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Lancaster,PA USA
Actually the diatoms were being fueled by the w/c's even with RO - added on with a DI + silica buster filter, also added chem-pure elite to the sump.

Wish getting rid of Cyano was as simple as that, it wasn't. Had to shut the system down, scrub as much of it off the rocks and glass as possible, catch it with a net then use cyano killer chemical to get it under control. Thought when Nitrates + Phosphates disappeared cyano die off, Cyano is not only photosynthetic but creates it's own nitrogen food base. Perhaps 4 days of no lights might work if you 1st see it but when it establishes gotta go with a chemi-killer. Fortunately I had some experience behind me aswell as a 55 gal w/c tank and carbon reactor to get it out after 48 hours when this occured as the chemi-killer can do a job on B+B if your not careful.

Lights are 12bulb T5HO w/13 3-watt LED moon lights, 4 fans , and timer.
 

rusland005

Feeder Fish
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Jan 1, 2011
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0
Here, there, everywhere.
Man you must have some bad water then if you're having issues after everything you said you do to it!
Fresh DI resin alone should be taking that water to 0.

With Cyano the best thing you can do is not move it and just treat it in situ, if it's moved it will spread quicker. Also even if your no3 and no4 were reading zero it doesn't mean there wasn't any in your tank. Cyano feeding on it would make it appear to be traceless....

Glad it's away anyway.

How old were the bulbs in the light at the time?
 

Otherone

Feeder Fish
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Feb 2, 2009
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Lancaster,PA USA
The bulbs were less than 6 months old - and yes I live within' a mile from a large spring and a granite quarry. Our water is basically very hard. Outta the tap PH is 8.4 pretty much lime water that's full of silicates. I've pretty much made every mistake in the book thinkin' for some reason I know better. A year of tapwater before switching to RO really taught me a lesson. A year of being overstocked also taught me alot of lessons.

The cyano is still present but not a whole back panel full like it was last year. Now I'm probably overstocked with anemones but they don't damage proper coral water parameters, creating endless problems, like having too many fish does.
 
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