hear algae + browning corals

[KevinK]

i have hear algae slowly messing things up + corals seem to get brown a bit

ok so I occasionally had a fluff of hear algae, once here, once there, nothing out of the ordinary

now the last, about 2 months, it seems to get out of control, and my frag tank is slowly starting to become a big mess. my tank sand on the bottom is 1/8 covered with fluffs of it, and along the overflow I can almost use a mower.

my corals are doing fine, however not that I feel like yes, I feel thy could definitely be better, colors are on the brownish side of som

my values are:
mag 1260
cal 430
ph 7.9 mornings and about 8.2 evening (calibrated)
KH 9
temp 79.6 (0.3 variation)

these numbers are almost 100% steady, maybe calcium some times 20 off ore so, but that's it

my phosphate is 0.00 (salifert test kit, as well as hanna checker), both tested with at least 2 different test !!
amonia = 0
nitrite = 0
nitrate = 0

all tested with new Salifert

my tank:
- 350 Gal main tank
- sump with about 50 gal water
-frag tank with about 50 gal (has a sand bed of about 6 to 8 inches)

- main tank has 3x 250W phounix + 1 LED unit
-frag tank has a 150W phounix

all MH are about 3 months old, and had the same before, I changed each week one bulb

water circulation:
- 7x hydor coralia – 4
- 2x maxi jet 1200 _ upgrade
- 1000 gph pump on sea swirl
- 1000 gph return from sump
- 1 hydro coralia 3 in frag tank

fish:3 tang’s
3 clown’s
2 fire fish
3 damsels

food:
own mix of frozen cubes of:
- Sea food mix,
- misty
- cyclop.

one small cube a day (split out over 3 to 4 times feeding

skimmer:
a DIY 65 inches tall 8inch tube with air pump pushing 2000 L/h

ad ons:
1 L np bio pellets

last 2 weeks I added carbon, now I have to say that I never used carbon, and recently started with a phosban reactor filled wit it (last 2 weeks)
as well as I found out that there was only about 700 ml of pellets left, so added another 1000 ml = 1700 ml (last week added)

water changes I have to admit, I’m always behind what I want to do, so average it is 25 gal each 6 weeks (want to do this amount each 2 weeks, but .... (no excuse)
what have I dun –

what changed:
well in fact not much, other than that I always feel that skimming could be better, but actually he is working gust fine I think (maybe I have this feeling because it is a DIY.

I have a new pomp ready for my skimmer, hoping I can put even more air in it, like 3000L/h,


any idea where the hear algae are coming from ??

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[naesco]

It looks to me that you have a water quality problem. What causes it may be lite skimming, late water changes and overfeeding and poor water coming it.

You can correct it by more dilegent more frequest water changes.
Consider investing in one sea slug to get the algae in control. Acclimatize it very slowly and give it a way when the algae is 90% done or you will starve it to death.
Nice tank pics BTW.

[lorenz0]

how do you feed your frozen food?

thaw it out in water, rinse than feed?

thats the only thing you listed that could be an issue to me

[reefwars]

how do you feed your frozen food?

thaw it out in water, rinse than feed?

thats the only thing you listed that could be an issue to me


My thoughts exactly , if you have algae you have nutrients, frozen food leaches off phosphates... It might not be enough to show in your test but it's there and the algae Is proof.

I rinse my frozen then blotch it and squeeze out any juices using paper towel.

Also I assume your using ro water???

I would seriously consider the frizen food to every other day, my tank shows zero phosphates but I still get algae and I've came to the conclusion alot of it is coming from wet foods , I've drastically stopped and it still shows zero but my lh algae is dissappearing:):)

[ScubaSteve]

I'm going to agree with the above two. It totally seems like water quality to me. You might not be measuring any nitrates or phosphate but that's probably because all your hair algae and zooxanthallae are taking it up... hence brown corals and hair algae all over the place.

Cubes of frozen seafood are PACKED full of nutrients which your fish eat and then poop back out, or don't eat all together and the algae will take this up. Cut back on your feeding for a bit and try increasing your skimming. It'll take a few weeks of this to get hair algae down and bring colours back.

[KevinK]

it in deed must be a combination of things, it is gust that I cant measure it, frustrates me, as I thought that the hanna checker would pick it up

the feeding, I gust measured, is a tea spoon

I get a bag from the super store (frozen) and ad frozen mysty and dry syclop.

I mix it all a bit and put it in the blender to chop it up so it is nice and fine.

than I fill up the ice cubes and directly in the freezer.

when feeding, I put a cube in a little can and put some tank water in it,

this water / food mix I ad over the day

as everything is in frozen state up to the point where I feed it, it could leach phosphate, but never thought it could be as much.

I started in deed today to lower it to 1/2 the amount = 1/2 tea spoon



my top of water is RO DI all new cartridges about 2 months ago (our tap water reads 0.00 phosphate (hanna checker)

my water change I will also increase to what I wanted (each 2 weeks)

added also GFO today (800 ml) gust to lower things I cant measure – I will keep a close eye on my KH


as mentioned, my coral are fine, but not exceptional.

my monty cap is growing really well, some acro’s as well, however for instance milly’s may grow 1/2 inch in 10 months,

my digitalis gerw about 2 inches in about 6 weeks, and than for the last 8 months, not a 1/4 inch to it.

I recently got corals from Reefer Rob, and as nom other corals I have, thy are browning a bit (polyps are still coloured, but lets say the picolopora is getting a brownish skeleton, as well as the green stylo

[KevinK]

fish on a diet, and me a slap on my fingers, and going out to get more salt for more water changes,

you always learn the hard way, now I have to live with it for a while before things get better

[ScubaSteve]

First mistake is using frozen seafood. Most contain a ton of nitrates and phosphate. I did a big post on this a while ago. Search for the explaination. Use fresh to prepare your food mix then freeze it.

Again, you're not going to be able to measure it because the corals and algae are using it up. The 'trates are being used up as fast as they are being produced or added, so you're not going to see a build up in the water but you ARE going to get brown corals and lots of algae.

[MitchM]

That's a nice looking tank, full of life.

I think there is a detritus buildup happening, between your display tank sandbed and live rock pile.
Between coral secretions, fish excretions and premium food, your tank could be "full". There's no room left for the detritus to go now except for back into the water column.
Excess phosphate will retard coral growth.

I have a few suggestions:
-Turn your frag tank into a 24/7 lit refugium where you could harvest macro algae.
-Use a powerhead to blow out detritus buildup from in behind the rock setup on a regular basis
-vacuum your display tank shallow sandbed on a regular basis (what you can get to, anyways)
-Increase your GFO use.
-Increase your activated carbon use
-Increase water change routine (maybe increase it to 2 X 10%/month)
-Keep harvesting your hair algae. That's essentially what your refugium will be for, except the algae will be kept to the refugium.

The real difficult thing will be the sandbed that is under the rock pile. There is no simple way of cleaning that. That will continually leach out accumulated algae nutrients.
Hopefully you will have some success by running a refugium that can keep up.



Mitch

[KevinK]

That's a nice looking tank, full of life.

I think there is a detritus buildup happening, between your display tank sandbed and live rock pile.
Between coral secretions, fish excretions and premium food, your tank could be "full". There's no room left for the detritus to go now except for back into the water column.
Excess phosphate will retard coral growth.

I have a few suggestions:
-Turn your frag tank into a 24/7 lit refugium where you could harvest macro algae.
-Use a powerhead to blow out detritus buildup from in behind the rock setup on a regular basis
-vacuum your display tank shallow sandbed on a regular basis (what you can get to, anyways)
-Increase your GFO use.
-Increase your activated carbon use
-Increase water change routine (maybe increase it to 2 X 10%/month)
-Keep harvesting your hair algae. That's essentially what your refugium will be for, except the algae will be kept to the refugium.

The real difficult thing will be the sandbed that is under the rock pile. There is no simple way of cleaning that. That will continually leach out accumulated algae nutrients.
Hopefully you will have some success by running a refugium that can keep up.



Mitch


forgot to mention that I have a fudge, with a package of about 4 gallon of cheato

what you cant see is how the tank was build up, I will ad some pictures, underneathe the, call it rock face there is a 1 inch perforated pipe
- one under the back rock face
-one on the left rock face
- one onder the island rock face

the rock sit on the pipe, and sand was spread around it, there might be some sand here and there, but where I could not reach it, I did not put it

these pipes are conected to a 1000 g/h pump and I once a week turn each induvidual pump on to stir things from underneath.

each rock face is only one rock deep and staged against egg crate, so there is in fact no pile of rock, but only the one you see.

the back rock face is stagged against the egg crate, bihind it there is I have a maxi jet 1200+ mod, to blow things out

as bihind the tank there is the filter room, I left the part that is behind the rock open, so I can se what is happening behind my rock, and as I can se behind the entire length of the back face (4 feet) there is non buiuld up, as there is a fair amount of curent.

my sand bed in deed, I can clean when water changing

- as I never used carbon, I started this 2 weeks ago (one phosban reactor full) planning to change it each 3 weeks

- I never used GFO, so I also started that (800 ml, and wil change it each 3 weeks)

- my bio pellets where almost gone so I added 1000 ml

- water changing wil be incresed to each 2 weeks

- I will get away from the frozen food for a while and feed a bit les (only have about 12 ore 14 fish)

- I will rip the cheto apart so itis not one big clumb, and so it can grow easyer




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[MitchM]

Glad to hear that!:smile:

You may just have all the systems in place and only need to increase your maintenance frequency.

Looking forward to more pictures.

Mitch

[KevinK]

ok so I mesured my phosphate with the hanna check, and mesure 0.00 ppm,

I removed the hear algea from the sand by siphoning it off, the 25 gal of water had a phosp. of 0.06, hmmmmm.

so thinking of removing more sand as I do my water changes, to avoid leaching.

my mech wheel mod on the laguna is working gust great, se http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=70820

I stoped feeding frosen food (thy only get it once a week) and started with small pellets.

below some new pic.


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