Need some advice for a wonderful friend's tank

[Coralreefdiver]

Okay, all you smart reefers. I have been asked to help with a friends tank, and while I know some things, I wanted to get some advice from the experts.

She has some major water issues, and I need to come in and make everything better, and she wants to upgrade her lighting and be able to have some soft corals.

Here's the jist:

45 gallon bowfront (i know not a nano, but you guys are sooo good!)

Under tank sump, with bioballs still in.

Protein Skimmer

2 Powerheads for water movement

One stock strip light with a flouescent light (dont think its even a reef light)

1 pajama cardinal
1 bangi cardinal
Couple hermits (red legs, and some blue legs)
Coral Beauty dwarf angel


Here's her water parameters, tested tonight...BEWARE they are not good!

Temp: 81F
S.G.: 1.025
PH: 7.7
KH: 5
PO4: 1.5
Ca: 550
NO2: 0.1
NO3: OVER and I mean wayyy over 100mg/l
NH3+NH4: 1.0

So...how are the fish even still alive?

She's got Grape Caupelara (sp) all OVER the tank..., and not much life on the rocks other than a huge amount of coraline algae...so much that her rocks are pure pink!

Here's what I was going to do with her tank to start off, but would really like advice on this. I was going to come in and clean all her sponges, and filter hoses and sump. Clean the glass and all that too. Do a 75% water change, siphoning the sand a bit while I siphon the water out. Remove her bioballs and replace with live rock rubble. Place some chemi pure in the sump. Pull all the grape stuff out of the tank.

So....what products can I use to help her water out a bit? Anyone have any ideas how her Ca can be so high? She adds nothing to the tank water.


Thanks for the help in advance!

Khara

 

[Anonymous]

what your suggesting is a good start
pulling the bioballs is a good idea but you don't need to replace it with rubble - in a larger tank like this, there is plenty of rock in the main display to handle a normal bioload (and hers is fine) - maybe place a light with some of that caulerpa in the sump instead (or cheato, caulerpa has a bad rep for "crashing")
does the sand bed have a plenum or is it just on the bottom? what type of skimmer?
high NO3 levels generally doesn't effect fish (or corals in most cases) reef tanks strive for low levels to keep unwanted algae growth down mostly.....many people blaim high NO3 levels for there troubles but really its the poor husbandry practices that leads to high nitrates that causes the problem not the NO3 itself. i'm actually quite surprised that with high NO3 and PO4 levels she doesn't have an algae farm - that caulerpa maybe helping to avoid that. A massive set of water changes is a good idea and vacuuming just the surface of the sand to get out collected detritus will help. but since this is an established tank, i would do 4 weekly 20gal changes in a row though so as not to make a big change at once.
the high Ca reading may because of the low pH and DkH readings. i wouldn't worry about adjusting them though untill after the water change regiment. if the tests remain out of balance, then maybe a bit of buffer is in order.
removing that caulerpa may be a challenge though, its "roots" will be embedded in the rock - you may have to take some rock out and scrub with a toothbrush
all in all though i don't think there is too much trouble here - just get her on a monthly water change regiment after you've done all this and you'll be ready to start looking for a light set to keep corals

 

[TimSchmidt]

I second the idea of more frequent smaller water changes instead of one huge one. Gives the tank time to adjust to the changing water parameters. Cheato all the way, why give the caulerpa a chance to unload everything it's absorbed? JMO

 

[skipm]

Where is she getting her water from? I suspect that she isn't using a good water source with the PO4 present.
The water changes as already mentioned are a good starting point.
I would definitely try to get some chaetomorpha established in place of the bio-balls.
If her sandbed is more than an inch deep I would use caution not to disturb the lower layer of sand, siphoning detritous off of the sands surface is highly desireable.
Give the skimmer a major cleaning and make sure it is working at its best, a skimmers job is to pull organics out of the water column before they start breaking down and end up as excessive nitrates.
After doing a couple of water changes then recheck the water parameters and then you may consider adding buffers to get ther pH up to 8.1-8.3 (at least 8.0).

 

[Jennie]

I think everyone else have already hit the high points! With the water changes I agree with everyone else, since there needs to be a drastic change the slower you go the better to avoid a shock.

And again, go with Cheato. There might be problems with the caulpra that is already in the tank if it has sunk its roots in the rock That stuff is hard to get out of a tank once it has been allowed to grow unchecked.

 

[Coralreefdiver]

I will find out what skimmer she has. I will definatley go slow on the water changes, perhaps changing 10 gallons at a time over a month period. I will clean all her mechanical parts, and pull the bioballs and try and come up with a light system to work with her sump. I will look for some of that cheato your talking about, I have seen it.

I will also scrub her rocks if I have to to get the capulera off. I had some of the grape variety in my tank, and luckily it came off very easily...now the other type, that is flat and more grass like......thats a different story!

I do not know where she is getting her water from, I will find out the source. She says she does do water changes, but perhaps she's just using tap and salt mix for the tank...(which I HOPE not...FL water is way full of Chlorine and crap). I will suggest her to use what I use. I switch sometimes....because I have a nanotank, I use the bottled seawater, but for her, where it would cost too much to use that, I also buy from a LFS who's water has always tested perfect for me when I do water changes. I always test the new water before placing it in my tank.

Thanks so much for the information. While I think I had a start in mind, I know you all know best. I will keep you updated on it.

 

[TimSchmidt]

EBay has RO/DI units for about 100 bucks. The filters are just the same as the more expensive types, just the casing isn't quite as solid (still works great though). For cost purposes it's worth it's weight in gold for a larger tank. Just an idea.