I'm new

Hi, I have a 150 gallon tank. I used to have an employee who set the tank up and took care of it. He moved about a year ago. He said the tank can care for itself. All I do is feed the fish and anenome. I feel that there must be some water testing that I should do. Is there a website I should go to or can someone offer tips. I am not having any trouble with fish dying. I'm sure I sound stupid but that is why I'm asking questions.
Thanks in advance:-/

 

Welcome!!!

You have come to the right place for help/advise/info/assistance!!!

150 tanks are a great size as they offer general stability given the large volume of water.

That being said it looks like your setup has a lot of the right foundations but can use some sprucing up!

It seems your sand bed has become residence to a large colony of cyanobacteria.

This can really detract from your stability if it gets out of control.

I would suggest contact/checking out reefcleaners.org for a refreshment/replacement clean up crew of snails and other inverts. John Maloney runs the business from FL and he is amazing at what he does - just search for some of his threads on this forum. Everyone here, myself included, have all had resounding success with Johns orders.

As far as testing there are a set of test that are more important to others - but with a reef tank and an anemone I would recommend purchasing the following Salifert Brand test kits:

pH
dkH/Alkalinity
Calcium
Magnesium
Phosphates
Nitrate
Ammonia

Then a refractometer for accurate measuring of the salinity is also helpful to keeping your parameters stable.

Do you mind me asking what the other components of your setup are?

Reason being if someone else was taking care of the tank I would want to make sure you are not sitting on a ticking timebomb (i. e. filter media unchanged, bulbs going bad, dosers/reacters not being maintained, pumps not being cleaned, etc.)

What kinds of lights do you have on there? Unless its an LED setup you will have to change the bulbs periodically otherwise they will be no good for your corals and very good for algae.

What kind of filtration are you running? Do you have a sump?

How about powerheads for moving water? Cyano usually only colonizes that thick when it is not being blown around by good current.

Again welcome and hope we can help you keep a good looking tank!!!

 

Welcome to 3reef

 

Huge cyano outbreak! For a moment I thought that you might have bought your sand black. I'd to a water change (20-50%) and syphon that sand! Have you ever done either of these? Also, checking your parameters is very important. If you have a TRUSTED LFS near you, you might be able to have them test your water. Or, as stated above, you could purchase your own testing kit. hope this helps.

 

Hello and Welcome to 3reef.

 

I recommend gettin that blue fin damsel out too..they get meeeeean.

 

Welcome and You found the right place.

 

welcome! I think you are making a good step joining this site. People on here know a lot, and may correct me on this one, but as far as I understand you want to move slowly as you change your tank. You may have some problems, but your tank is used to the things that are happening and sometimes trying to fix things to fast can just stir things up.

 

Would a PetSmart do it?

 

Thanks. I will start on this in about a week. It has had this color for well over 6 months