# Hello And .. Help?



## Announce (Aug 27, 2008)

Hello everyone,

In early January we purchased a 29 gallon Bio cube, with the intent of starting up a salt water aquarium. We did so and everything started great, we have been through our ups and downs. But it seems like mainly downs.

When the tank was first set up we had no problems and up until around march we had lost next to no live stock (maybe a few snails - due to crabs, a six line wrasse, and a frog spawn)

But it was then that we got some horrible advice

"Take everything out of the tank clean it, put everything back in."

Although it seemed like the best thing to do it was definitely not.

During the process of taking everything out (we were careful) our flame angel had swam under a rock and moved it thus crushing and killing himself, our anenome got sick(and eventually died) from the move, and the other livestock were of course stressed.

after moving everything back into the tank soon after we had a huge increase in temperature with the change in temperature outside (you are all from the GTA you know how fast it warmed up this year) which had killed most of our zenia, our 2nd anenome, and of course stressed the live stock further causing..

Ick

We lost all but one of our fish (watchmen goby, got a pistol shrimp aswell they are awesome), 2 tomato clowns, 1 yellow clown goby, algae blenny.

So boom back to the start, this time we went slow very slow. but with all the increase in nitrates from the death of our live stock we were granted, hair algae (which i will get to in a second)

We recently decided to buy two more clown fish, two true perculas for $80 a very small pair, we had them about a week, and adored them (they hosted the feather duster ) they were doing amazing! we went away for 2 days and they disappeared, both of them! Any idea what happened to them? we though maybe our large brain coral could have gotten one but both?!

Now we didnt plan on buying any new clown fish but we saw a very unique maroon clown with a spot! yes a poka dot!

Any way, we can't get rid of this damn Hair algae! although we are putting up a good fight, so i would like to know if any one has some ideas on how to get rid of this stuff.

A few things we have done:
Purchased a pin needle urchin (he does a really good job)
Ripped it off, cup, by cup (can normaly rip of about a cup worth per week)
and recently i just took out any non-essential rocks and put them in a bucket with no light.

Thanks for reading, and in advance for any input!


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

Welcome!  Thanks so much for taking the time to join!

Geeze announce i am so sorry for your rocky start with the tank  i've had a few losses here and there and it really hurt. (i just adore my fish)

I had a massive hair algae issue when i first started as well, I kept up on it for a long while and i seemed to beat it. I changed the times of the lights and water would help too.

Whats your photo period on the tank?
What kind of water are you using?

I hope someone is able to help you out, feel free to start a tank log, i would love to see it :3


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## Announce (Aug 27, 2008)

Ciddian said:


> Welcome!  Thanks so much for taking the time to join!
> 
> Geeze announce i am so sorry for your rocky start with the tank  i've had a few losses here and there and it really hurt. (i just adore my fish)
> 
> ...


I will take some photos i suppose, just embarrassing atm with all the damn hair algae, it killed what was left of my zenia to, but i will definitely try and get a few pics of my new maroon clown.

I am using Tap water (I am bad  ) Along with a two part supplement for the corals (I can't remember the exact name)

The lights run for 12 hours everyday, how much would you suggest i reduce it by?

I am also trying to do 1 gallon water changes every few days because what i figure is happening is, the nitrates are gone, the hair algae dies, the dead hair algae causes nitrates to form the old hair algae grows back.


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## blossom112 (Mar 19, 2008)

Where to start ............lol
When and how often do you waterchange ?
Honestly i think this could be the issue as well as testing .
It is very important to WC.
Algea boom is normal for new tanks dont worrie about it sypon and take out as much as you can and all i can say is wait it out .its important at those time to cut light time .
YIP is isn t pretty ,manual removal is needed too and its a pain .

I myself took everything out of my 90 gl to get it off but i kept the water and filtered it through a spot sock lol scrubbed it off the tank and pulled it off the rock and put everything back the same night and i had no ill effect .

When you clean the glass i would suggest using a microcloth (they have them in the dollar store) that way it will cling to the cloth instead of floating around the tank and land somewhere else .
when you do big cleanings or move things around its a good idea to run carbon and amm lock as this will clean crap out that can harm fish and corals .

You said you got ick ........ poor you ,and ick is on your rock i wouldnt suggest getting any new fish for 8 to 12 weeks to be sure the ick on the rock is dead , thats only if you have no fish in the tank .
I would leave the rock in the tank personally and take any fish out .
If you dont let the tank run with no fish im afraid any future fish will get ick .
And QT any new fish also for 8 to 12 weeks b4 you put them in with your LR .
LR cost so much more then the fish lol best to protect that !
You could run a HOB and a cannister filter on SW too !

Yes the heat ........... it so sucks i lost my goby's that way grrrrrrrrrrr.
we now freeze water to put into the tank .

Good luck and really sorry for all the mess


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## Announce (Aug 27, 2008)

blossom112 said:


> Where to start ............lol
> When and how often do you waterchange ?
> Honestly i think this could be the issue as well as testing .
> It is very important to WC.
> ...


The ick is long gone! That happened in late march, we actually only waited 2 weeks though, because that's what the aquarium store advised if there were no signs of it on our watchmen goby


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## UnderTheSea (Jun 2, 2008)

How old are your bulbs?

Did you mod your cube? Filtration or Lighting?

What are your parameters including temp?

What kind of rock are you using?

What subtrate?

Reduce your photoperiod right down to about 3-4 hrs and then work your way back up. 12hrs for full lighting is a little excessive.

For the amount of waterchanges you really need to do (big debate and there is no right answer, but for me on my total water volume of 275g, I do about a 35g water change every 3 months) I would look at buying some RO/DI water from something like a health food store or grocery store. Most sell it in 5g jugs just like spring water, ensure you are not buying distilled water as this usually contains high levels of copper. Do what ever works for you and makes you comfortible. Definitely invest in an RO unit. Have a look at the spectrapure units as they are one of the most efficient or you can get a way with something like AquaSafe which I have been using since setup ( I will be investing in a spectrapure maxcap very soon) Are you using any chemicals in your water to purify. I'd suggest not using anything. Aerate the water for a couple of hours prior to mixing in the salt water.

It doesn't take long for the fish to disappear if they are left in the water dead. 48hrs is lots of time for the fish to go missing in the water, other than that maybe the fish jumped?

HTH's
Chris


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## Announce (Aug 27, 2008)

UnderTheSea said:


> How old are your bulbs? - Just replaced both of them a few weeks ago
> 
> Did you mod your cube? Filtration or Lighting? - New lights, Removed Filter to put in Biocube Protein Skimmer
> 
> ...


See above


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## wtac (Mar 17, 2006)

~1cup of HA...that's alot! I apologize in advance if I seemed scatter brained...

I'm not sure how many corals that you have left but the best method is to scrub the HA covered rock in a separate container and put them back. 

To add to UTS's suggestion:
If you have no coral, black out the aquarium for a week or two. If you have a few that are hanging in there, you can put them in a separate container with a piece of LR, drop an airstone and put a FS light above the container while the BC29 is being blacked out. Add a heater if needed as the cooler nights are coming.

Add carbon and phosphate removing media in the sump area and do a few water changes to help remove the "liquified" reminants. 

When you are satisfied with the decline in HA, start with a 1-2hr photoperiod and every few days increase it by an hour. At the same time, start adding some coral. Sounds counter intuitive but if corals aren't there to use the light energy and whatever nutrients available in the water, algae will. Don't worry about the coral not getting enough light timewise...they are pretty resilient in that aspect. Since you are increasing the photoperiod it's all good . Once you notice some nuscience algae creeping in, reduce the photoperiod by an hr or two and remove the algae. It's going to be a bit of tinkering to get to know the new set of nuances .

Agreeing w/UTS, a photoperiod of 12hrs is a bit much, IMHO/E. I prefer 8hrs for all the lights and ~1-2hrs of just actinics prior to and after the "full spec light" for the dawn/dusk effect. 

I recommend that you find a new home for the urchin, as neat as they are as I like them too, they will not only be chomping away at the coralline algae but will knock coral off the LR aquascape. I prefer snails for algae control as well as algae eating blennies.

Another tip to keep in mind the next time you replace the bulbs, reduce the photoperiod by a few hours as the intensity of the new lamps will be higher compared to the old lamps.

Best of luck and hang in there


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## Announce (Aug 27, 2008)

wtac said:


> ~1cup of HA...that's alot! I apologize in advance if I seemed scatter brained...
> 
> I'm not sure how many corals that you have left but the best method is to scrub the HA covered rock in a separate container and put them back.
> 
> ...


Yikes, okay well i have a bunch of coral (2 gonaporia's, 1 leather, sun polyps, large open brain, greenstripe musroom, octobubble) So I am not sure if i can remove them from the tank, but I can / will definitely lower the photo period. Also it is very difficult to take out the last remaining live rock because the 2 of them are quit large and the pistol shrimp lives under them, one has a feather duster, and the mushroom coral, but i may be able to remove the other remaining piece of rock.

Also my new maroon clown has begun living in the feather duster, is this safe? We plan on getting an anenome soon if not.


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## wtac (Mar 17, 2006)

Hmmm...that's a fair bit of coral and it would be nice not to disturb Mr. Pistols' burrow...no need to be too invasive for the inhabitants...LOL! 

If you don't have the equipment handy...no need to spend extra $$$ on it if you don't have to...just takes a bit more patience and elbow grease .

Go w/UTS's 3-4 hr photoperiod and start using carbon and phosphate removing media placed in the upflow portion of the sump...~1/8-1/4 cup of each in a media bag and change weekly/bi weekly.

In a separate container of SW, scrub what pieces of LR you can remove w/o disturbing the inhabitants too much. What you can't remove, if you have a spare HOB filter hook it on the side and get it running. Use a tooth brush and scrub what you can. Use a turkey baster and blow into the nooks and crannies to suspend into the water column for the HOB filter to trap. Rinse the inserts when clogged. 

The feather duster will be fine...I have a client that has 6 Ocellaris clowns hosting in a grouping of feather dusters for the past year.

HTH and best of luck on the war on HA


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