30g Nano Cube

[kadaytar]

Those are some lovely frags, awsome colors. Did you take the sand from your old tank and put in new cube without giving it a good freshwater wash? Did you notice any ammonia spike at the begining? If this is the case it may be the reason of algea problem.

[michika]

It was brand new sand, which I rinsed extremely well. Sorry, I doubt my new sand is the source of my GHA issues. Any other thoughts?

[michika]

I forgot to include today's parameters:
Temp: 80.3
pH: 8.2
SG: 1.025
dKH: 11 (Oie! I've turned down my Calcium reactor)
Ca: 480
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 0ppm
Ammonia: 0ppm
Magnesium: ~1200ppm

I also forgot to mention that I clean out about 1-3 cups of hair algae every few days.

Here are a few more photos from today, I'm trying to refamiliarize myself with our old camera.

[Mik_101]

Wow Cathrine congrats on the tank it is a very attractive tank. I relay, relay like the frags in the tank. I am starting to add frags to my tank slowly but surely as well.
PS your tank makes me jealous

[Der_Iron_Chef]

Have you tested the TDS of your tap water? Have you considered running a phosban reactor? And...I know I keep throwing this out there for people, but sea hares are the best! Maybe if someone has one, you can borrow it for a few weeks. I'd lend you mine if we lived in the same city.

[michika]

I'm not using tap water anymore, just RO/DI. No I'm sorry I don't know what the TDS is of the tap water in the building I'm in.

I have too many frags for a seahare. I debated one about one yesterday, and settled on the longspine urchin instead.

I guess I should have included a quick recap of what I've tried in regards to the GHA.

1) Changing out all bulbs, everything is new now within a few months.
2) Macro algae, I tried to avoid pruning it until it got to the point where it was almost too big for my 'fuge hoping that the bigger surface area would absorb more of whatever is triggering the GHA. It didn't seem to make a difference.
3) Switched back to RO/DI water
4) Manual removal of the algae
5) Running the tank with a reduced photo period, I now run for only 5 hours a day with MH for a total of 7 hours of light.
6) A Blackout period, I kept the tank completely dark for 3 days, there was no reduction in algae, and it got worse after I was done.
7) Run a phosphate remover in a high flow area, just below the return. I'm still doing this.
8) Larger water changes, I do 10g over the course of a week.
9) Ensure all my water parameters are in order, hence the addition of the calcium reactior.
10) Added additional members to my clean up crew, and added a longspine urchin
11) Remove my rocks and scrub them all down and pluck them clean. Only three rocks weren't scrubed, but it was because they have clams on them. They were however picked clean.

Other options:
1) Changing my salt brand, I don't seem to have any phosphates, nitrates, nitriates, or ammonia after mixing up fresh salt water. Aside from low alkalinity, I really hesitate to change my salt brands. This is a total shot on the dark I feel.
2) Learn to love GHA
3) Go crazy and tear down the tank.

Other thoughts?

[Redrover]

When I transfered most of my stuff from my 150 to the 120...noticed hair forming on a couple rocks...foxface to the rescue.
Catherine, he cleaned up everything in two days and it's never returned.
I have since passed him on to help others...He saved me hours and hours of work.

RJ

[michika]

Maybe my foxface was the reason for which I never had GHA in my other larger tanks. I miss having a large tank for the sole reason of having big fish, and more room for clams!

I wish I could accomidate a foxface. Maybe I could aquire a really tiny one for a few weeks, and then pass it on to a new and much more appropriate home.

[kadaytar]

Your water parameters look fine. I had a similar issue in a 35 gal. almost 4 years ago.A friend of mine gave me some CarribSea base rock that he used in his fish only tank and kept dry after parting off the tank. Within a few weeks all my LR, glass, and SPS corals covered by hair algea and cyano. It was nasty. After making a big amount of water change and trimming i put 250 ml Seachem Phos Guard in a filter bag (more than reccomended amount) and started to run it in an AC 500 HOB filter. I also used Red Slime Remover for cyano. I don't know which one worked for me but within a week or so both were gone and never had any problem after that. Maybe none of them worked it was just a miracle It sucks but when GHA is introduced to the tank it is realy hard to get rid of it since it can utilize the minerals in the salt and proper light etc. and continue to grow even if everything is fine.

[michika]

So the urchin is doing a pretty good job. He completely cleans off the rock or clam shell were he stops. He moves in a very jerky fashion over my rocks so we call him Lurchin Urch.



Since my last update I've changed how I administer my phosphate spong. I switched my kalk. reactor from my DIY phosban reator back to my old kalk reactor with a stirrer from the 230g. I'm now using the phosban reactor to run Rowaphos and hopefully it will make some sort of difference.

I'm trying to be better about photo documenting changes in my tank, so I plan to take a photo every couple days, or a week, for a month and then I will have a visual and data record to refer back to.

This photo is from today, day 2 of the phosban reactor, and day 4 with Lurchin Urch.