Neptune Aquatics

Take a look at my tank in exchange for mushrooms?

borker

Supporting Member
Hey folks,

Hoping someone in SF or South San Francisco might be willing to come take a look at my 90G set up and maybe bring testing kits. My test kits (Salifert) seem unreliable. Looking for thoughts on the overall set up, feeding and maintenance routine.

My maintenance has been on auto-mode and my tank has lots more algae than I’d like. My corals grow but very slowly. I feed probably once or twice a week and do a 20% water change once every couple of weeks.

I’ve not had great success lowering my algae and would love an experienced reefer to come take a look and help me get back on track. My wife is getting frustrated that the tank ‘isn’t pretty’.

As a thank you, happy to provide a good bit of this neon green / purple mushroom pictured (though I know it’s not super rare). Or basically a frag of whatever is in my tank.
8155694eee45eb8b14a011ae7ad45825.jpg


I’m in Silver Terrace in SF and available most weeknight evenings from 5-8pm. More flexible on weekends.

Thanks in advance for any help!


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Hopefully someone close by can help, but in the meantime you can get a lot of help by giving us more info. You say your Salifert test kits aren't accurate? Why do you think that? What's their expiration dates and which kits are you using? What about the rest of your equipment and your maintenance practices and schedule? How often do you do water changes? What salt and are you using RO? Are you using just the one power head in a 90g? You have a lot of Coralline growth so that's good, but two Kessil 160's aren't going to give you much growth in a tank that size. With the Trigger I'm not sure what other corals you'd want anyway.
 
There are many things that would be good for you to state.
Salifert kits are a good choice for testing.
Perhaps a little more detail on what your tank is telling you?
Algae normally indicates higher levels of nutrients (phosphate, nitrate...)
You need to run numbers first; pH, DKH/alkalinity, Calcium,Magnesium (if you have stony corals/clams)
Feeding habits, how many fish, type of food.
Type of water you use for top-off, type of SW for water changes, mixed at home or store purchase.
 
I'm nearby you.
How many hours of light are you using? Do you run a skimmer?
Have you gotten any reading for nitrate and or phosphate?
Do you use any gfo?
 
Hopefully someone close by can help, but in the meantime you can get a lot of help by giving us more info. You say your Salifert test kits aren't accurate? Why do you think that? What's their expiration dates and which kits are you using? What about the rest of your equipment and your maintenance practices and schedule? How often do you do water changes? What salt and are you using RO? Are you using just the one power head in a 90g? You have a lot of Coralline growth so that's good, but two Kessil 160's aren't going to give you much growth in a tank that size. With the Trigger I'm not sure what other corals you'd want anyway.

Thanks for everyone’s quick help!

Test kits

Because they showed nitrates in SF tap water which is notoriously clean and TDS-free. Even after an RODI filter it showed nitrates and phosphates and the RODI filter was new. It’s possible my water still has nitrates but given reliability I’d still say the kits are likely culprits.

Water quality:
This is a comprehensive LFS result but it is admittedly old

ca 400
alk 8.6 dkh
mg 1200
ph 8.3
nitrate 60 (High)
Ammonia 0
nitrite 0

Maintenance and changes
I try to do 30G water changes every week but honestly it’s probably closer to every 2-3 weeks.

I use RO water (my DI is tapped out will probably get a new one soonish ) and use Reef Crystals.

I have 3 power heads in there but 2 are small/ not that good. The return gives a bit of flow too. I’m adding an extra power head this week too. Probably an OW-25...



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There are many things that would be good for you to state.
Salifert kits are a good choice for testing.
Perhaps a little more detail on what your tank is telling you?
Algae normally indicates higher levels of nutrients (phosphate, nitrate...)
You need to run numbers first; pH, DKH/alkalinity, Calcium,Magnesium (if you have stony corals/clams)
Feeding habits, how many fish, type of food.
Type of water you use for top-off, type of SW for water changes, mixed at home or store purchase.
For food I used to make my own mix. I’ve gotten super lazy and use these beauties.
4393119df5901108b74b199c6da5e6c7.jpg


I have 3 fish: Spanish hogfish Picasso trigger and a HUGE black spotted grouper.
d6c5371a88513a7213f9f4090920f80f.jpg


I had an ATO system Jerry-rigged using RO water and a float valve. Waiting for plumbers putty this week to repair that but it worked pretty well.

I have a kessil controller and 2x a160w tuna blue.

My light pattern looks like this:
e3acdb709d8996cbd198473526eb11c3.jpg


I dialed the light way back because I wasn’t seeing coral growth but algae was growing.

Have had some die off but a few coral are doing OK, see the orange spreading here in the back :
b3e851e1cbfb6bea7bd5042e900c8b2c.jpg



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I'm nearby you.
How many hours of light are you using? Do you run a skimmer?
Have you gotten any reading for nitrate and or phosphate?
Do you use any gfo?

Hey mate, would love any help. Let me know if you can swing by.

I’ve got a bit (1 - 1.5 cups) of PhosGuard in the tank. And a couple baggies of Purigen.




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I'm putting the money on the food as main culprit, what doesn't get eaten has to roth and what has been eaten, has to be pooped and if you feed those fish judging by their size, my money is still on the feeding.
Your tank is a 90/120g?
Seems a skimmer is running; perhaps try to set the skimmer to run more "wet" skimate ?
That orange coral has an interesting neighbor in front of it, hope is not a majano anemone.
The DI unit, disconnect it from the main unit; if the resin is depleted, might be something to add to the problem.
 
More light, more flow, get stuff off of the sand bed. 2x Kessil 150/160 barely enough for a 40 breeder. Probably need stronger light, not longer duration.

Let’s see a picture of the sump - filter sock?
Phosguard / purigen - not really useful unless changing it out regularly and often more a bandaid to a larger problem IMO.

Let’s see this thing return to “pretty” ;)
 
I'll send a picture of the sump - but should be no surprises:
- Filter Sock, Skimmer, lots of LR.

Light may be an issue - curious if folks come by if that's what they see.
 
Seems pretty clean, Do I spot some red gracillaria?
If you were to direct a pump into the partition with the rock, do you think detritus will blow?
Do you change the filter sock often?
I think you can remove some rock there and add macro algae, that should help bring the nutrients down.
 
+1 ^^
Ditch the filter sock!

I clean the sock like 1x / month.

Does anyone have some extra macro they’d be willing to trade for some rock?

Also realized my trigger and Spanish hogfish are gonna keep eating my cleaning crew unless I get bigger stuff.

Anyone interested in trading rock for some bigger // hardier cleaners?

Thanks for all of the advice!!


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I clean the sock like 1x / month.

Does anyone have some extra macro they’d be willing to trade for some rock?

Also realized my trigger and Spanish hogfish are gonna keep eating my cleaning crew unless I get bigger stuff.

Anyone interested in trading rock for some bigger // hardier cleaners?

Thanks for all of the advice!!


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+1 on ditching the socks. If you're not going to change them regularly (every 2-3 days), don't bother with them.

 
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