help with sw tank

[emtchris1231]

i need some questions answered about my sw tank
i got a 55 gallon tank i have in it now two clowns 1 tomato clown 1 tang here in the last three weeks my inverts have been dieing
i lost my sea cucumber first then about three days later i lost my starfish and then finally i lost my decorator crab and anemone. this has taken place in about a month or so
now i had my water tested
my ph was around 7.6 and wont seem to go higher nitrates were fine nitrite was fine amonia was fine salinity was fine
everything checked out with the tank
but i cant keep anything but fish in it
there is red slime looking algea all over the live rocks and green on the glass whats going on with the tank that i cant keep anemones starfish or anything else but fish in it?
im in desperate need of help all of my sw specialists are stumped cause my water and tank check out fine

 

[emtchris1231]

o i forgot they also did a copper test and it was fine too

 

[di0nysus]

when you say your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate were fine what did they actually read at?

o i forgot they also did a copper test and it was fine too

did you take your water to your lfs to test? i would try investing in your own test kit how long have you had your tank running already?
the red slime algae is probably from lack of water movement or some kind of dead spot same thing happend to me i just rearranged my powerhead and it all worked out fine

 

[emtchris1231]

yes i got a kit and i also took it to my local saltwater guy he said everything checked out nothing was wrong my tank has been running for about 11 months
but i might have just found a problem
i got a very small trace of phosphate
gonna get the phosphate pad tomorrow to clear it up
i hope that was the problem

 

[emtchris1231]

i got a smaller second powerhead should i add it?

 

[Fishmonger70]

How many powerheads do you have in there now? And what is your rate of water flow? You can never have too much water flow. I have a 75 gal tank and I am turning over about 2700 GPH. That's nearly 40 times my water volume.

 

[Lorna]

a trace amount of phosphates won't cause the die off that you had. I suspect that the cucumber dying may have nuked you. Cucumbers are notorious for poisoning tanks when they die. The resulting die off may have spiked ammonia which may have done in a few others. Nitrates can possibly read zero even though you have them, this is caused by the algae in the tank actually using it up. I would increase the flow, do a massive water change, you don't mention any corals is there any? if not try turningout the lights for 3-4 days and let you get a handle on the cyano. (Which is bacteria not actually algae) you need to remove as much of it as you can before the water change. I would not get another anemone or cucumber until you have this under control.......good luck

 

[TRe]

i think lorna hit the nail on the head! when i heard u mention the cuc that was my first thought! u mention a anem but u didnt say what type of lighting u have? id do a 50% water change and take it from there.... not only is the red slime caused by lack of flow but it also means youve got phosphates aswell which u say r present IME only thing thats worked asfar as ridding the tank fom phosphates other than religous water changes was when i got my phos reactor and filled it up with ROWAphos.... also are u using tapwater or ro/di? btw this is why i stay away from cucumbers

 

[Joe Fish]

Cucumbers are awesome in my book, but not when they die... Some are worse than others though. Along with what Lorna, and Tre said I would add some activated carbon to help remove some of the nasties.

 

[emtchris1231]

ok ill take that advice im gonna add the other power head right now there is a 402 powerhead in there and i need more flow i think
the lighting i got right now is 10000k and acintic but i did a water change and so far no red algea growing for a few days oops red bacteria
so i will see
my ph is now 8.2
so thats better
i got phosphate filter media coming
and had the water tested again the live rocks look normal now that theres none of that red crap on them i cleaned them off in a 5 gallon bucket and used a gravel vac on the crushed coral to clean the rest of the red crud on it
so two days now the tank looks normal again lol

 

[Lorna]

one other thing, I would recommend that you slowly replace all of your substrate crushed coral with fine oolite sand. Crushed coral is a notorious nitrate trap and is only contributing to your problem you should remove it.

 

[Lorna]

Cucumbers are usually sand movers and ingest the sand and process it expelling cleaned sand out the other end. I would think that if you had a black or pink/black or tiger etc. they need to have a sand bed to eat. I think that having crushed coral substrate rather than sand is probably the cause of this animals demise........It also sounds as if you just have pc lighting which isn't sufficient to support an anemone and hence the demise of the anemone........all these things together are probably your problem.... you are now on the right track though

 

[TRe]

r u using tapwater?

 

[emtchris1231]

ok i will replace the crushed coral with the live sand
i like the sand better anyways