# Serious Help and Advice Needed!!!



## Simz3 (Jul 22, 2015)

Hey guys,

I went on vacation and saw a salt water fish tank not in the best condition. Every time I walk by it, my inner aquarist wanted to do something about it. But I have no knowledge in salt water as I'm a fresh water guy. 

There's lot of red stuff on it and some algae I think. I posted some pictures.

Any help or advice to help fix it will be great.

Thanks in advance!


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## twobytwo (Oct 25, 2014)

Cyano maybe?


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## CoralConnoisseur (Mar 5, 2014)

The green algae looks like hair algae, I have had great success with Mexican turbo snails eating that.

The red appears to by cyano, manual removal is easiest, using a syphon hose and brushing it off with your hand or a toothbrush should work. Turning pumps off first will make it easier to collect it all.

Removing it will only make the tank look good temporarily, kind of a bandaid. You will need to figure out why the tank is growing cyano and fix that problem.
To much light, to much feeding, not enough flow seem to be the 3 big contributers. With a little research and maybe doing a phosphate test you should be able to figure it out.

I'm sure others will chime in here. Good luck!


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## tom g (Jul 8, 2009)

*tank*

its great u want to know but .. is this a tank u have access too or are u just curious on how to fix it 
cause once u go there its all trouble .... welcome to the dark side


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## Bullet (Apr 19, 2014)

tom g said:


> its great u want to know but .. is this a tank u have access too or are u just curious on how to fix it
> cause once u go there its all trouble .... welcome to the dark side


I was thinking the same thing TomG


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## teemee (Aug 29, 2009)

You have no corals in there - I would turn off the lights for a couple of weeks and get some turbo snails.
When you turn the lights back on, reduce the photoperiod.
And maybe consider what or how much you're feeding - i suspect maybe too much.


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## Simz3 (Jul 22, 2015)

Thanks for the replies. They are great help to me!



tom g said:


> its great u want to know but .. is this a tank u have access too or are u just curious on how to fix it
> cause once u go there its all trouble .... welcome to the dark side


Only for another week and a half or so. But yeah that's what I'm scared of and was kinda hesitant to look into it. Cause I KNOW I will get hooked...


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## noy (Nov 19, 2012)

the red stuff is definitely cyanobacteria.

use chemiclean to get rid of it. The green stuff is hair algae. Remove what you can manually. Start testing for nitrates and phospates (PO4). Once you get the levels under control it will disappear.

http://www.reefsupplies.ca/online-store/Boyd-Chemiclean-Red-Slime-Remover-2g.html


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## corpusse (Jan 3, 2011)

This looks like anyone's first tank from 10+ years ago. 

Too much live rock, poor flow and possibly started with tap water which would explain the algae problems. Since there appears to only be a damsel in the tank the easiest solution would likely be start over.

Give the damsel away, and either acid wash or replace the live rock / sand. Open up the rockwork a bit and maybe add an additional powerhead. Given that this is a nano cube or something similar adding the reactors media and other chemicals needed to reduce the phosphates it might be easier to just start fresh.


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## fesso clown (Nov 15, 2011)

corpusse said:


> This looks like anyone's first tank from 10+ years ago.
> 
> Too much live rock, poor flow and possibly started with tap water which would explain the algae problems. Since there appears to only be a damsel in the tank the easiest solution would likely be start over.
> 
> Give the damsel away, and either acid wash or replace the live rock / sand. Open up the rockwork a bit and maybe add an additional powerhead. Given that this is a nano cube or something similar adding the reactors media and other chemicals needed to reduce the phosphates it might be easier to just start fresh.


This ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+100


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## d6d (Feb 27, 2013)

corpusse said:


> This looks like anyone's first tank from 10+ years ago.
> 
> Too much live rock, poor flow and possibly started with tap water which would explain the algae problems. Since there appears to only be a damsel in the tank the easiest solution would likely be start over.
> 
> Give the damsel away, and either acid wash or replace the live rock / sand. Open up the rockwork a bit and maybe add an additional powerhead. Given that this is a nano cube or something similar adding the reactors media and other chemicals needed to reduce the phosphates it might be easier to just start fresh.


+100 start over

have to take another look at the pictures to find the damse.


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