Quote:
Originally Posted by reefwithareefer
First off, thanks for your responses.
I am not sure about my nutrients. I have no algae growing on anything but the glass. If I spray the rocks etc with a baster, very little, to nothing comes off the item
If I have not changed my husbandry methods and there is more algae now then in then summer, does that not imply that the sunlight does play a factor. It does seem to make sense.
I feed mysis, brine and copepods in the a.m. I have 12 fish, about 24" total for a 180 DT. The food is gone within 1 min. I have the apex feeder that dishes out about 20 pellets twice a day. once at 12 and again at 5. The pellets are gone within 30 seconds.
I either add phyto, fuel, coral frenzy, reefroids etc once a day and less than what is recommended.
I have a bubble king 180 skimmer that is never overworking in my limited experience.
I have all my equipment in the basement. The sump and refugium have zero amount of algae on the glass. The refugium runs halides and CF. Halides are on while they are of in the DT, as are the CFs
I set up a reverse algae scubber in the hopes of not using any carbon. I can not get algae to grow, no matter how many different setups I try. It barely even grows on the glass where the lights are against it. Whats does grow is the typical green slimy algae, not the reddish brown stuff that is like dust, that grows on my DT
Does this not say I have no nutrient issue?
Still at a loss as to why LPS have died and acted funny, while everything else is flourishing.
I love this hobby, but sometimes a simple reason/solution would be nice.
Once again, I do appreciate all the different opions. Thanks
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Why not try and take those coral foods offline for awhile and see if that helps With the algae. Those foods are not necessary and I assure you, if your fish have fat bellys your shrimp your crabs your etc etc. are all getting fed, your corals are getting there share too.
The ats can be really tricky to get to take. Especially a reverse. I've ran an ats but for the opposite reasons I assume you are wanting to. But maybe i should ask why you are wanting to run one? Like any form of life, algae needs To feed. You need to create that envioroment where it can thrive. Do you really want to be promoting an environment where it can thrive? Or would you rather promote an environment where it's not so ideal for it? non the less there can be certain benefits from doing so (also negatives) if you choose but just keep in mind that they can be tricky to get going and maintain. So your attempts may or may not have been limited by available nutrients. The algae on the glass can find a meal so there is food to be had.
I understand you seem to be only limited to the algae on the glass. Which you very well may be, and being the tank is receiving more sunlight recently it could very well be the cause for an increase in growth. But as I said before, the only way the algae that is growing on your glass can get an availabe meal is through the water column. So your water has algae fertilizer floating around in it. Is this a nutrient problem? I don't know. Is the algae doing you a favor and consuming 100% of the extra nutrients that are availabe? or is there a percent of the extra not being consumed and is getting sinked someplace else? When you clean your glass of the algae is 100% of that algae and the nutrients they consumed being removed and filtered out?
The algae problem really could be a s simple as your just fertilizing the tank with too much of that fancy "food". Ditch all the extra for while and see if that helps. I'm only trying to stress that the nutrients are there. Work to fix it before those nutrients start to be stored elsewhere else.
I am on board with the gallon a day water change ; ) that be what I do! I don't have mine automated though. Takes about 20 seconds and I'm done. Made maintenance so much more simple for me.
The loss of the corals. Strange indeed. Contamination, disease, etc. all a possible cause.