How To Fix Problems In A Saltwater Aquarium (5 Steps)

In this video, I show you the 5 steps I take to identify and fix any problem in my saltwater aquariums. I do this by showing you a case study of my nano saltwater tank, which currently has cyanobacteria after being neglected for a few months.
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0:00 Hello
0:29 Step 1: visual ID
1:51 Step 2: test everything!
3:48 Step 3: find the cause
5:20 Step 4: fix the problem
9:09 Step 5: ongoing maintenance

[@Richs_reef]

0.9ppm of phosphate is really surprising given your stocking! Fascinated to know how long it takes to bring down at a sensible rate and how the corals adapt👍🏻

[@joselazarogil6324]

Awesome video!

[@tman2299]

Your videos always help me out!!

[@VinceNysse]

Legend mate. I’ve let my tank go over the last few weeks as I’ve got a broken shoulder. Haven’t been doing water changes, dosing is out of whack etc… phosphates through the roof. I’ve got a 525ltr system. As soon as I’m better, I’ll do 20% per week water changes while testing again every week. I’ll also try some GFO. Tank is covered in green algae, but hoping to get it sorted👍

[@mattb2906]

Excellent video explaining how you reason through a potential issue

[@artistic_spaz3724]

Good lessons to learn in this one!

[@discol76]

Nice, straightforward and easy to follow advice. Especially liked the part about attacking it from loads of different angles straight away, potentially causing more harm. 👍

[@thechickenwizard8172]

Right now I'm having the opposite issue in my 20 gallon macroalgae tank; there seem to be hardly any phosphate and nitrate in my tank, causing both an outbreak of diatoms and killing off some of my macroalgae from lack of nutrients and being covered with diatoms. So far it's started to improve with daily phos and nitrate dosing and scrubbing the algae fronds clean, but I really need to add some fish as well as find some good film-eating snails soon to keep the tank healthy.

[@jaysrealreefuk]

Great watch...we've all been there with some of these issues at some point. Happy New Year to you and your family ✨🎇 🙂👍

[@qwbo]

amazing keep doing this

[@cakesmithofnorwich]

I appreciate the guidance and I have the Fluval 13.5. My only worry is that the primary encouragement should be stay on top of your tanks rather than let things slip and whether you let this one slip intentionally or not. After all we are keeping living creatures right!? Thanks

[@utterchaosreefer4808]

Love it

[@supermotoxcw7695]

Keep it up Alex

[@hakman239]

Could you just use a skimmer as the sole filter on a evo or a tank similar size I have an internal filter on mine but wat to replace it with a skimmer

[@marcopalazzo9349]

I'm in the same boat. Same tank. Although mine had been neglected for a year!

[@Harolddespui]

If you set the Hannah salinity checker to ppt it is much more precise as you get an extra digit.

[@nanoreefer1622]

Phosphate RX 👍 best thing ever

[@josephposada1830]

Once again, a most excellent presentation Alex. My curiosity lies with the salinity tester you use. Is it readily available in the US? Thanks again, truthfully, you are the wonderful teacher that has helped me stay in this hobby.

[@ReefDork]

The hanna salinity checker? Yep, I've seen BRS selling it before 🙂

[@TomoBishBosh]

Love this, got to love the satisfaction of fixing something also! Where do you get your aquarium covers from? Looking for a PVC/netting one for my RSR170 but all i can find is the netting one they sell that feels naff

[@ReefDork]

Reef Tops on Facebook was this one, my others were from London Aquatic Design.

[@TomoBishBosh]

@@ReefDork Nice, they both look good! Are the feeding cups from LAD worth it?

[@Brad.Hobbies]

Cheers

[@foxglovemead]

Nice video, but Hanna SG readings can be "bettered" by switching to PPT. Getting around 35 ppt e.g. 34.9, 35.0 or 35.1 sensitivity is better than around 1.026 e.g. 25, 26 or 27? Any of the numbers would be OK, but accuracy of other Hanna readings will be directly proportional to salinity. With a 10% water change you have the option to mix new water slightly higher/lower to achieve stability and testing after a water change allows other readings to show up trends more easily.

[@forrestlea4515]

Hey I have the exact same tank and light setup with the AI prime. Please please please what is your light settings and schedule I can't seem to find a good one. Also this was extremely helpful because I was also neglecting my tank and lately have been trying to fix things so glad I got some good information to go forward with!

[@ReefDork]

I made a video showing my lighting schedule on the Reef Dork Xtra channel...

[@forrestlea4515]

@@ReefDork thank you!

[@IndoorReef]

Very informative walk through to help people starting out with a neglected tank! Is that an R&R custom scape by any chance? If so, I had similar scary high phosphate (1 to 2mg/l!!!) in the early months of the tank and I think it's highly likely from the scape. I think they're amazing scapes and would definitely recommend them but phosphate is something I'd suggest people watch out for and actively manage with them! Not sure if you've ever ran an ICP on that tank but I also found aluminium up at around 200ug/l in the early phases which I suspect came from the scape too although not convinced it ever actually caused a problem.

[@ReefDork]

It is, yes - entirely possible that's the cause. Gfo removes aluminium so with a bit of luck, that'll take care of itself 🤞

[@lindawilliams7264]

Where did you purchase those trays that your Hanna checkers are in

[@ReefDork]

I sell them at ReefDork.Etsy.com 🙂

[@The1NdNly]

Great vid, Where can i get my hand on some of those hanna checker stands? i assume they are 3d printed? .STL files would be amazing!

[@ReefDork]

The stl for the alk checker is on Thingiverse but I bought the others. Reckon they'd be easy to design though...

[@ADDeaN1983]

Where did you find those organizer things for the Hannah checkers??

[@ReefDork]

ReefParts.co.uk

[@jakubmotloch445]

Hi Alex im currently dealing with dino's again and my question is because i have low nitrate almost zero and low phosphate should i turn off my skimmer during this time to help raise my nitrate because i have been dosing phosphate slowly NeoPhos into my tank but i don't have bottled nitrate to dose. thanks in advance

[@mattb2906]

I would say yes, or feed a little bit more

[@ekoed]

Hey Alex that looks like a Nero 3. That’s not enough flow for a 13.5 gallon? You think a Nero 5 would be more appropriate for that size tank, or are you just going to add an additional one?

[@ReefDork]

It's a Jecod SLW-10 which is about half the power of a Nero 3. The Nero 3 is what I've gone for...

[@frankchong5585]

So wait, After the episode that you added 1st fish, I can't find any episode that what other coral and clean up crew you add in after. Did i miss anything?

[@ReefDork]

I also did a couple of updates on the Reef Dork Xtra channel but I shut it down recently and moved it over to the Cade Nano tank

[@geofflee216]

Running into same issue right now. My fault for not maintaining the tank properly

[@sumit0380]

@Alex, I am getting too much velvet problem in every 3 months, could you please suggest what could be the reason..

[@ReefDork]

If it's coming back, I'd be tempted to strip the tank down and start again. Otherwise, look up going fallow for velvet to see if that's possible.

[@sumit0380]

@@ReefDork Alex is it possible that Valvet is not moving out from aquarium even after complete treatment and stay /stick back to sand or rocks..

[@sumit0380]

@@ReefDork @Alex should the change the sand bed or existing sand can be cleaned by some chemical..??

[@patrickkoelbl11]

Great Video, how u call the Korall in Step 5 @9:11 ?

[@ReefDork]

Jack o'lantern leptoseris

[@patrickkoelbl11]

@@ReefDork thanks

[@Victor-kl3cy]

What’s the best way to lower the calcium in my reef tank. Everything else is at great levels but my calcium is usually around 550-600

[@ReefDork]

Your corals will absorb it and your water changes will bring it down over time.

[@codiroyall]

I'm having the same problem. Nothing is fixing my phosphate. Im going to try GFO. My algea is down but the phosphate reading is still way too high.

[@ReefDork]

My phosphate is starting to come down now - the problems are fixed though so I'm taking it slowly. Nothing good happens quickly in a reef tank!

[@sunnygoold9449]

Shocking! My QT looked much worse so I can't say anything :D

[@EIY_Kumar]

So was it the rock that was leaching Phosphate in the tank ?

[@ReefDork]

Don't know for sure but I think probably yes

[@simplereef4854]

In every one single of my reef tanks, Nitrate is always down to below 1 ppm and Phosphate is always sky-high. GFO is my friend until I could find a better solution elsewhere.

[@PnCBio]

In my experience my phosphates go up when I dose aminos. Try cutting back on those a bit and see how it affects your phosphate. It’s way more noticeable in a nano tank. You are reeefing in large puddle, treat it like one. I have an SPS nano, and dose five drops of aminos in 60L. It’s full of coral… I wouldn’t be putting amino acids in that tank at all.

[@ReefDork]

I don't dose aminos in this tank - the clip with acropower in it was from my main tank...

[@PnCBio]

@@ReefDorkThat’ll teach me to only be half paying attention 😅

[@amazingaquaticsandexotics3030]

cant say i am particularly interested in marines compared to freshwater but useful info tho

[@OceansPiece]

In the video, you mentioned that if you have snail deaths, then adding more snails would lead to more snail deaths. Why is this? I feel like this has been happening to me. I just can’t seem to keep snails anymore for some reason.

[@ReefDork]

Systems can only support so many snails so I think I might have reached the limit in this tank...

[@landongara837]

Can’t keep snails either ever find any solutions ?

[@phsc12]

Get some microalgae

[@pattycbproper1080]

Pouring that much salt all in at once is problematic. Mix it in slowly

[@Sammy31Dee]

Had a tank doing the same thing...Fortunately a water transfer from a more mature more in line system killed the dino outbreak as it was starting up....just add some nitrate and remove the po4 ....the dinos thrive below 5 ppm no4 and above 1.0 po4....you can also consider adding more fish to produce more nitrate naturally while chasing po4 down....chemi pure elite works wonders for a nano tank ....

[@utterchaosreefer4808]

Love it