Congrats Casey!! YahoO
Thanks guys, I’m pretty pumped be looking for a new build thread for the little one on the way haha.
congrats
WOW, that is awesome news. Congrats to you and your wife. PoM PBJ!
sure the wife will approve of the big build thread?
and congrats from here too!
Thank you all we are very excited.
I never said a big build thread. Every kid needs a memo tank right? Lol
Congrats from me too! Show this to your wife, Got a Baby? Why You Need a Saltwater Tank
Thanks rosti I will def show her that.
Hey guys, Im having HA outbreak in the new tank already. I ordered a BRS gfo reactor and some GFO. Hope this will help cut it down. Ive only been feeding every 3 days and im using grade A RO water idk what im doing wrong but hoping running gfo will help out. I went in the tank with a tooth brush today and scrubbed alot of it off the rock and off frags so fingers crossed.
Any ideas?
I never had any sucess with the algeafix and i dosed it for nearly 10 doses.
Thanks guys
could try the “3 day lights out trick”. try to kill what u got.
obviously the best solution is to find and remedy the cause of the h/a and kill it from there.
maybe try some macro in the sump or fuge, just to feed on whatever nutrients is feeding the algae… starve it out if u will.
algaefix dosed at correct dosage? 5 ml/50 gallons? new bottle? scrubbing?
Wish I can have an answer for you casey. I’m having a same problem. Algaefix won’t work for me either. I’m at around 20 something dosage and I’ve giving up on the algaefix. I’m still trying to find the source of where my high nitrate is coming from. I think that’s the cause of the HA out brake
Casey - congrats on the pending arrival!!
Hair Algae is part of the “New Tank Syndrome” everyone that gets in to this hobby curses about. I’m still convinced that this phase is what chases out 60% of people that break their tanks down in the first year.
5 places to check for nitrates.
Source water - what are the nitrates/phosphates in your RODI water? Do you store water or make it fresh as needed?
Salt - What are your nitrates/phosphates after you mix your salt water?
Food - what are you feeding? Flake, pellet, prepared foods are notorious for adding nitrates and phosphates.
Skimmer - Is your skimmer functioning properly taing organics out of the tank? If you’re under-skimming you can end up with a build up of organics that will continue to feed your algae issues.
Animals - Anything missing? Snails, crabs, anything you haven’t seen in a while? Decaying protein will increase nitrates as well.
Keep in mind that if you are having an algae outbreak (especially hair algae) and are still able to find detectable nitrates in the water than your numbers are WAY higher than your test results. The reason being the algae is using the nitrates and phosphates for food and fertilizer, what your detecting is what’s in excess and the exsisting algae can’t use.
I have tried the 3 days no lighting before and seemed to lighten it up a bit but then I think it pissed it off cause it came back heavy lol.
Moliken yes I did dose correct it it just never seemed to do any work.
A- I’m with ya I’ll get it under control just gotta keep workin to find where it’s coming from. I’m pretty convinced that running gfo will help, don’t get me wrong I’m not saying that will knock it out.
Craig- thanks we are really excited, looks like we are looking at a christmas baby.I agree this issue can def drive people outta this hobby in a heart beat. I’ve been on this hobby for 7 years so I’ve got the patience to stick with it and try to fight it. I’m skimming heavy, nothings missing except for a couple crabs because my sixline snacked when I didn’t feed for a few days.
Thank you for the extra ideas and thoughts. I will keep you guys posted.
[quote=“BigCase, post:74, topic:4002”]
I have tried the 3 days no lighting before and seemed to lighten it up a bit but then I think it pissed it off cause it came back heavy lol.[/quote]
I’m sure it did - the part of the process everyone forgets is a heavy water change on day 3.
The 3 days without lights starves the algae out, which causes it to break up and decompose - thus releasing any nutrients it absorbed back in to the water column where it becomes food for the remaining algae.
Craig would u suggest tryin 3 days of darkness again and doin a large WC?
Are you talking about “only” hair algae?
Yes sir
I had it over-run my fuge, i manually removed it, but its easy to get it off glass and baffles. I took all my macro out, and left the light off for a week, that worked. i think the manual removal first is key though. (Is yours on rocks? can they be put in a tub of saltwater and get scrub brushed??) …And all the other treatments that can be done??? well, in my first year i’ve tried everything to get rid of brown crap growing on my sand, and they was always a bit of HA somewhere in the system. nothing seemed to matter, feedings, flow, chemi-clean, gfo, phosgaurd, changing socks daily ughh…,lighting cycles, wetter/ dryer skimming, tons on wc’s,lower lighting schedule and lights out periods. I couldn’t, and still can’t quite put a finger on the culprit. But its at its all time low in my 13 months of this tank. The only thing i’ve done diff lately is maintain the dkh at 10 instead of 8-9, larger amounts and more frequent changing of carbon in a reactor, and replaced all my bulbs. ( not too old, but not great spectrums for coral color/growth). And none of these things changed it quick, if it even was that…i think mainly its a system maturing issue.
PH is another part i’d like to start keeping a log of, to see how it plays a part, but i need a new probe for my meter, and i wouldn’t recommend “adjusting” ph if your using a test kit to measure. Anyway, i’ve completely ignored my ph for the past 6 months. I was doing more harm then good chasing ph all over the place
Damn sounds like youve been down this road and back.lol.
I think im gonna try lights out one more time and heres how imma try it.
-gfo and reactor will be here wed.
-lights out till after i get the reactor setup then back to schedule on thursday
-large water change before lights come back on thursday
-reactor should be running before lights come back on so hopefully if they release lots of phosphate the media will take it out.
Only thing i dont like about lights out is my corals look awful and i havent tried this with my clam yet.
We will see what happens, fingers crossed.