Who's Into Saltwater?
- Thread starter Tony
- Start date
Tony
Staff member
Did some checking last night and I found something bad that I didn't even know I had in the tank. On the right side of the tank you can see a single head of Torch which has been there for years and has never spread and shortly after I got it, never opened. Well last night, I pulled out the camera so I could zoom in, and there it was, euphyllia eating flatworms. I then started looking closer and they are all over the tank. Little buggers are hard to see which is why I never noticed them. I have a couple options and not sure which way I'm going to go yet.
Tony
Staff member
There are two ways to combat these little turds. The first is to pull each coral frag out and dip them into a solution to kill the worms. However, this is not a good solution as I have over 100 heads of hammer alone in this tank, and the worms are all over the rock as well. So it would not get rid of them.
The second option is to actually treat the tank. However this has some pretty severe risks as when you kill these worms, as they are dying, they release a toxin into the water column that can kill everything in the tank. It's basically ammonia but still a toxin. So if I dose the tank, it will have to be done 3-4 times about every 3-4 days. Each time you dose the tank, you will have to do a 50% water change and you will have to run a butt load of carbon to remove the toxin from the water. So in less than 2 weeks, that is 200 gallons of water that needs to be changed and about $80 worth of carbon.
There is a third option, but that one is still being kept under wraps while we iron out the details. I'm sure you all will like it though. If we are able to do it.
The second option is to actually treat the tank. However this has some pretty severe risks as when you kill these worms, as they are dying, they release a toxin into the water column that can kill everything in the tank. It's basically ammonia but still a toxin. So if I dose the tank, it will have to be done 3-4 times about every 3-4 days. Each time you dose the tank, you will have to do a 50% water change and you will have to run a butt load of carbon to remove the toxin from the water. So in less than 2 weeks, that is 200 gallons of water that needs to be changed and about $80 worth of carbon.
There is a third option, but that one is still being kept under wraps while we iron out the details. I'm sure you all will like it though. If we are able to do it.
D.O.G.
Goblin 380 Supporter
Can't you flush those little turds down the toilet?
I hope you can find a cheap and easy way to fix 
.
Last edited:
Tony
Staff member
None of the ways will be cheap, and definitely not easy. Just one of the downsides to a reef tank. However, this could be a great learning opportunity for others. I will be doing a video on this when it comes time to actually act on removing them. Kind of looking forward to it as a torch can be amazing in the tank fully extended.
D.O.G.
Goblin 380 Supporter
You're so right. I have seen my friend, and once roommate actually cry. Diving was his hobby and every time he got back from the Keys, he always brought back some kind of beautiful fish that cost big $$$$ to put in his tank. I came home from work one evening to a grown man crying and a 100-gallon tank full of dead exotic fish that he caught over the years. Long story short, I turned around and got
out of there, and disappear for the evening.
Tony
Staff member
The wife and I are planning out a dedicated fish and dedicated coral quarantine tank. I want both to be up and running at all times. Coral tank will require high powered lights, however the fish only tank only needs some light, which is easy to do. It's time to start doing the responsible thing, even if our electricity bill goes up by 25% lol. Love the hobby too much. And definitely don't want to toss 10 years down the drain.
Tony
Staff member
Been doing the usual with the tank, nothing really happening at this time. did a water change yesterday, checked the alkalinity and added the required amount and also pulled out my torch coral and did a fresh water dip on it. I just wanted to do a temporary test to see if it would respond, and it did, kind of. This was one large head which has split into two small heads. You can see this in the video below when I zoom out. That large base used to be the coral, now it's those two little heads.
As stated previously, the tank has flatworms in it and they absolutely love the torch. The head on the left is doing okay, the one on the right, I suspect has some small flatworms on it causing it to not open. We are currently weighing our options on what we are going to do. Either start completely over, or try to remove the fish and nuke the tank with some Flatworm Exit. You can leave the fish in the tank, but no need to put them through that kind of stress. I'm sure there are thousands of these worms, so the water quality is going to drop significantly until I do the 48 hour water change.
As stated previously, the tank has flatworms in it and they absolutely love the torch. The head on the left is doing okay, the one on the right, I suspect has some small flatworms on it causing it to not open. We are currently weighing our options on what we are going to do. Either start completely over, or try to remove the fish and nuke the tank with some Flatworm Exit. You can leave the fish in the tank, but no need to put them through that kind of stress. I'm sure there are thousands of these worms, so the water quality is going to drop significantly until I do the 48 hour water change.
Tony
Staff member
Over 2 months since an update. oops.
I have been keeping up with the tank and doing mostly reliable water changes. I have been dosing the usual calc/alk/coral food, and when I am refilling the talk with water, I feed the corals with some "Reef Roids" which the corals love!
I do have some bad news to report though. My Bangi Cardinal is now nowhere to be found and I'm pretty sure he ended up dying behind a rock and the hermits took care of him for me. He was an old fish, one of the first we ever purchased, so not too bummed about that one. This isn't the first time a fish just vanished from the tank with no idea where they went. I also lost a Diamond Goby the same way. Gobies are known to jump, and I had to fish him out of the overflow more than once, but one day I looked and he was just gone. Pretty sure he died in his cave and critters took care of the dirty work.
The corals are loving it though. In the video in the post above, the body of the Torch is white which is not its normal color. Now, the torch is starting to grow back and the body under the green tips is a brownish color, which is normal.
My Monti plate coral is also growing with signs of healthy white tips on the edge. I have another Monti (pretty sure, but not 100% as I have no idea how it got there) is also growing now as well. This new Monti started out (when I found it) as 4 polyps which are very small (1mm-1.5mm) and it has grown to 1/2" to 3/4". Very good growth for not much light in that area.
The hammer coral... Well, it's multiplying exponentially. And I already have too much! As of last count, before the heads fully split to make 2, I had over 100 heads of hammer! So I need to start thinking about a run to the coral store in OKC (because F the one in Norman, they only want it for free while the other store will give you $7/head for hammer, or at lease they did). Yea, that's not a typo, a coral store that actually supports their customers and gives them their cost per head to their customers to purchase more coral in their store. And with some new plans in the works, I will need new coral soon.
That brings me to another topic that I"m not sure I have touched on above (the whole TLDR...). I have not changed anything about the way I take care of this tank. I still skip weeks, sometimes 2, I still feed everything, I'm still not running any kind of mechanical filter media, it's the same lights, some tank, same rock, corals, fish... Everything is the same except the Salt I'm using.
A long time ago I ordered 4 boxes of reef salt from a company that was very well known in the industry. So I wanted to use their salt because the price was just dirt cheap. And they use it on their own corals. When I learned that they went out of business and I cannot purchase more salt, I was kind of bummed as I was on my last bag of salt and I needed more. So I reached out to Amazon, gave them a few bucks, and they shipped 2 160 gallon buckets of salt for about $35 each. Just slightly more than the other salt. But this salt actually grew corals, it gave the torch its color back, and the tank just seems happier. I'm not sure if there was something that was super low in the salt that I just didn't realize since I don't test everything in my water, but this dirty AF Reef Crystals is doing amazingly. I do have to put a filter in the new salt water barrel and let it run for a few days to get rid of the brownish hue but IMO, it's worth it.
So that's my update as of now. Nothing too exciting. I look at it on my breaks every day and watch the other fish swim around and the coral banded shrimp swell up because he thinks he is a badass, and it's funny lol.
I have been keeping up with the tank and doing mostly reliable water changes. I have been dosing the usual calc/alk/coral food, and when I am refilling the talk with water, I feed the corals with some "Reef Roids" which the corals love!
I do have some bad news to report though. My Bangi Cardinal is now nowhere to be found and I'm pretty sure he ended up dying behind a rock and the hermits took care of him for me. He was an old fish, one of the first we ever purchased, so not too bummed about that one. This isn't the first time a fish just vanished from the tank with no idea where they went. I also lost a Diamond Goby the same way. Gobies are known to jump, and I had to fish him out of the overflow more than once, but one day I looked and he was just gone. Pretty sure he died in his cave and critters took care of the dirty work.
The corals are loving it though. In the video in the post above, the body of the Torch is white which is not its normal color. Now, the torch is starting to grow back and the body under the green tips is a brownish color, which is normal.
My Monti plate coral is also growing with signs of healthy white tips on the edge. I have another Monti (pretty sure, but not 100% as I have no idea how it got there) is also growing now as well. This new Monti started out (when I found it) as 4 polyps which are very small (1mm-1.5mm) and it has grown to 1/2" to 3/4". Very good growth for not much light in that area.
The hammer coral... Well, it's multiplying exponentially. And I already have too much! As of last count, before the heads fully split to make 2, I had over 100 heads of hammer! So I need to start thinking about a run to the coral store in OKC (because F the one in Norman, they only want it for free while the other store will give you $7/head for hammer, or at lease they did). Yea, that's not a typo, a coral store that actually supports their customers and gives them their cost per head to their customers to purchase more coral in their store. And with some new plans in the works, I will need new coral soon.
That brings me to another topic that I"m not sure I have touched on above (the whole TLDR...). I have not changed anything about the way I take care of this tank. I still skip weeks, sometimes 2, I still feed everything, I'm still not running any kind of mechanical filter media, it's the same lights, some tank, same rock, corals, fish... Everything is the same except the Salt I'm using.
A long time ago I ordered 4 boxes of reef salt from a company that was very well known in the industry. So I wanted to use their salt because the price was just dirt cheap. And they use it on their own corals. When I learned that they went out of business and I cannot purchase more salt, I was kind of bummed as I was on my last bag of salt and I needed more. So I reached out to Amazon, gave them a few bucks, and they shipped 2 160 gallon buckets of salt for about $35 each. Just slightly more than the other salt. But this salt actually grew corals, it gave the torch its color back, and the tank just seems happier. I'm not sure if there was something that was super low in the salt that I just didn't realize since I don't test everything in my water, but this dirty AF Reef Crystals is doing amazingly. I do have to put a filter in the new salt water barrel and let it run for a few days to get rid of the brownish hue but IMO, it's worth it.
So that's my update as of now. Nothing too exciting. I look at it on my breaks every day and watch the other fish swim around and the coral banded shrimp swell up because he thinks he is a badass, and it's funny lol.
Tony
Staff member
Well it's official, the 90 gallon mixed reef tank is coming to the end of it's life for what it is now. The wife and I have been talking for years about upgrading to a better tank and setup, and thanks to some very heavy discounts during black friday, The time has come. We have saved up for this for a long time and we are now about to embark on a brand new aquarium build.
This thread spans over 10 years of wanting, locating, purchasing and building the 90 gallon tank that we have now. 10 years! To me, that is pretty amazing. However, A new tank is ready to be built into an even better mixed reef tank with better equipment, better filtration (or should I say "with filtration" lol, I quit running filter socks a few years ago on the 90), better lights and more of them, dosing pumps, new skimmer, new rock and sand, new plumbing, it's all new. And we are starting from step 1, and going through the entire cycle process. This is a "New Build" in every sense of the phrase. Once the cycle is complete, I will start transferring the fish and after quarantine, I will add the coral. The sand and rock in the 90 will be trashed.
I'm not sure if I will post the new build here like I did this one. I think I may post it over on my other site that I need to do something with, OkieTony If you are interested, come on over and sign up. It's going to be a long build process and I'm hoping to get everything on video.
This thread spans over 10 years of wanting, locating, purchasing and building the 90 gallon tank that we have now. 10 years! To me, that is pretty amazing. However, A new tank is ready to be built into an even better mixed reef tank with better equipment, better filtration (or should I say "with filtration" lol, I quit running filter socks a few years ago on the 90), better lights and more of them, dosing pumps, new skimmer, new rock and sand, new plumbing, it's all new. And we are starting from step 1, and going through the entire cycle process. This is a "New Build" in every sense of the phrase. Once the cycle is complete, I will start transferring the fish and after quarantine, I will add the coral. The sand and rock in the 90 will be trashed.
I'm not sure if I will post the new build here like I did this one. I think I may post it over on my other site that I need to do something with, OkieTony If you are interested, come on over and sign up. It's going to be a long build process and I'm hoping to get everything on video.
James M. Lewis
Armed Forces
Since we introduce our grandson on your series, he's really enjoys them. His parents did their research and it has taken off. For a 9 year old, he'll be on the computer looking at this as a new hobby. Thank you Tony.
Tony
Staff member
That's awesome James! This tank is definitely turning around and if I didn't have plans for a new build, this one would be growing like crazy for years to come now that I know what the issue was. Might be time to set the little one up with a Pico or Nano tank to get his feet "wet" lol.
James M. Lewis
Armed Forces
Sure will pass this along to them. 
Tony
Staff member
This thread is not done yet, however the new build is starting at the link below!
www.rc-help.com
150 Gallon Saltwater Tank Build
Hello everyone. I will be the first to say, the build thread on the 90 gallon tank went way better on here than I thought it would. That thread (LINKED HERE) went from Sept 28th 2012, and is still going because it will not be taken down for a while. However, it will be coming down, at least...
Tony
Staff member
Surprise, I still have this tank lol. Today is water test and change day and something just happened that has me scratching my head.
Last night, I went ahead and cleaned out the water barrel and made up a fresh batch of saltwater (about 40 gallons). The barrel is right next to the microwave and toaster oven, and I opened one of those shredded beef burrito's and about 3 pieces of the tortilla fell in the 15-20 gallons of water that was in the tank. I should have just done a water change right then, but I waited a week and sure enough, there was a film on the surface of the water in the barrel which was oil and other contaminants. In hindsight, I might should have left it and used that water. You will see why here in a bit lol.
I did clean out the barrel with hot water and a towel (never use soap, I could have used vinegar but didn't) and I put my big AC pump in the barrel to mix the salt because it actually heats the water while it circulates. Welcome to AC pumps and the reason I like DC. I put in 23 cups of salt into the barrel and it came out with a salinity of 1.025, and I need to be at a 1.026, so I added one more cup of salt and it's perfect.
I still have about a degree to go on the temp so I thought I would go ahead and check my parameters. I'm not too worried about Calcium, but may still check it later, so I did Alkalinity, Nitrate and Phosphate.
The Alkalinity was the lowest it has ever been at 5.7dKh. This is NOT good and is the reason the new tank will have a dosing pump on it that will run every evening. So I will be spending the next few days getting this back up to 9.5 where I like it to sit. This just goes to show how much growth is happening in the tank with my hard corals, which is definitely a good thing. But need to get that number up.
The water barrel and the dKh have nothing to do with the reason I started this thread though lol. The reason for this post is the Nitrate and Phosphate
I have been feeding quite heavily and because the skimmer kept overflowing, I have turned the skimmer off and there is no filtration in the tank. I say this to set the image that I have been putting nutrients into the tank via food in which may not all get eaten because I don't turn off the pumps, and with fish waste. But also with no filter socks and the skimmer turned off, there is no nutrient export (nitrate and phosphates).
In checking the nitrates, I tested at a 5.1ppm, which is low'ish, but mostly acceptable. I would like it to be a bit higher, somewhere around 7, but 5.1 is fine. But again, I have no nutrient export and I have not done a water change in 2 weeks.
I then tested the Phosphates, and with my low range test kit that is brand new (just open the new reagents today), I tested Phosphate at 0.00. Now I know why I'm getting black algae on my sandbed. There is an imbalance in nutrients. My corals don't seem to mind (refer to my dKh above lol) and are still growing, so I may have to start dosing Nitrate and Phosphate, which is just crazy to me. I used to battle to keep them low, now I can't keep them at good levels and I don't know why...
I will do another test after the water change and see where we are sitting then, however the nitrate and phosphate will likely remain the same. I'm thinking if I would have left the food in the change water, it may have raised the nitrate and phosphate
Last night, I went ahead and cleaned out the water barrel and made up a fresh batch of saltwater (about 40 gallons). The barrel is right next to the microwave and toaster oven, and I opened one of those shredded beef burrito's and about 3 pieces of the tortilla fell in the 15-20 gallons of water that was in the tank. I should have just done a water change right then, but I waited a week and sure enough, there was a film on the surface of the water in the barrel which was oil and other contaminants. In hindsight, I might should have left it and used that water. You will see why here in a bit lol.
I did clean out the barrel with hot water and a towel (never use soap, I could have used vinegar but didn't) and I put my big AC pump in the barrel to mix the salt because it actually heats the water while it circulates. Welcome to AC pumps and the reason I like DC. I put in 23 cups of salt into the barrel and it came out with a salinity of 1.025, and I need to be at a 1.026, so I added one more cup of salt and it's perfect.
I still have about a degree to go on the temp so I thought I would go ahead and check my parameters. I'm not too worried about Calcium, but may still check it later, so I did Alkalinity, Nitrate and Phosphate.
The Alkalinity was the lowest it has ever been at 5.7dKh. This is NOT good and is the reason the new tank will have a dosing pump on it that will run every evening. So I will be spending the next few days getting this back up to 9.5 where I like it to sit. This just goes to show how much growth is happening in the tank with my hard corals, which is definitely a good thing. But need to get that number up.
The water barrel and the dKh have nothing to do with the reason I started this thread though lol. The reason for this post is the Nitrate and Phosphate
I have been feeding quite heavily and because the skimmer kept overflowing, I have turned the skimmer off and there is no filtration in the tank. I say this to set the image that I have been putting nutrients into the tank via food in which may not all get eaten because I don't turn off the pumps, and with fish waste. But also with no filter socks and the skimmer turned off, there is no nutrient export (nitrate and phosphates).
In checking the nitrates, I tested at a 5.1ppm, which is low'ish, but mostly acceptable. I would like it to be a bit higher, somewhere around 7, but 5.1 is fine. But again, I have no nutrient export and I have not done a water change in 2 weeks.
I then tested the Phosphates, and with my low range test kit that is brand new (just open the new reagents today), I tested Phosphate at 0.00. Now I know why I'm getting black algae on my sandbed. There is an imbalance in nutrients. My corals don't seem to mind (refer to my dKh above lol) and are still growing, so I may have to start dosing Nitrate and Phosphate, which is just crazy to me. I used to battle to keep them low, now I can't keep them at good levels and I don't know why...
I will do another test after the water change and see where we are sitting then, however the nitrate and phosphate will likely remain the same. I'm thinking if I would have left the food in the change water, it may have raised the nitrate and phosphate