Advice on tank flirtation

[truckTech95]

Hey Y’all!
I’m looking for filtration ideas for my 60 cube,
Tank has been set up for coming up on a year now 11 months, and I’m struggling with keeping Nitrates in check, my goal is under 10 PPM, I run a reef octo HOB skimmer set to a wet skim best I could get it, tank was used and came with what I believe to be Fiji cube over flow box for a 40 gallon breeder tank which I’m not in love with, I don’t have a sump. I also run High Capacity GFO from BRS in a dual chamber reactor with activated carbon in the second chamber. The filter sock holder was MIA when I got the tank and all I can run in the box far as I’m aware is filter floss which I change out daily. Nitrates in this tank have always been out of control, I find myself doing a 50% water change weekly to keep the value in my range of below ten ppm, would like to break the tank down and install a DIY sump but it’s just not in my budget right now, I need advice on keeping nutrients down, I don’t feed much but one cube of mysis shrimp per day which I’d like to feed more I have 4 fish a scopas tang, clown a 6 line wrasse and a royal gramma.
As you can see in the pics what I believe to be either Bryopsis or GHA has basically consumed the tank I try and manually remove as much I can with my syphon every week but it always comes back faster than I can suck it out, tank looks terrible and I’m getting frustrated with the fight, I have 6 urchins 5 tuxedos and 1 pencil urchin and they don’t seem to even put a dent in it or even keep the algae at bay, I even got a lettuce nudibranch thinking maybe it would do something to help in the fight, these additions were all in vein as far as I can tell. Any advice is welcomed thanks in advance.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

All that text and you didn't tell us the nitrate level lol. What is the nitrate and phosphate levels?

One cube between 4 fish is a lot of wasted food IMO. I have 3 tanks with 17 fish, and I feed a half cube divided to all 17 fish, sometimes I even throw some out. Dissolve some food in a glass and use a turkey baster to give a tiny bit of food. If its eaten in less than 10 seconds feed a little more, if you still see food after 30 seconds than you fed too much. I feed 3-4 times a day, but I'm careful that nothing gets uneaten.

All the uneaten food is feeding all that hair algae in your tank. Control the feeding and add some turbo snails, it will do a lot of good.

 

[Morpheosz]

You don't seem to have much in the way of coral volume yet, I found my nutrient problems slowly improved as I stocked the tank and things grew out. Now I am dosing nitrates because the corals are consuming them too fast. As for bryopsis, I've had that a few times and fluconazole works well, although I had to hit it 3 times over 18 months until, knock on wood, it seems to be gone as it's been a year or so. Maybe get some faster growing, low maintenance corals such as softies, leathers, etc. to start consuming.

 

[Morpheosz]

Also, if a sump is an option, it would open up a lot of possibilities - filter socks or roller mat, bigger skimmer. Possibly your HOB skimmer is undersized for the tank too. But yes, feed less too as Mr. Mojo says, fish don't need much - feed sparsely until things are under control. I agree a full cube sounds like a lot. I have 15 or so fish and when I do feed a cube, I melt it in a little bit of RO in a small jar, feed it over a few days.

 

[truckTech95]

All that text and you didn't tell us the nitrate level lol. What is the nitrate and phosphate levels?

One cube between 4 fish is a lot of wasted food IMO. I have 3 tanks with 17 fish, and I feed a half cube divided to all 17 fish, sometimes I even throw some out. Dissolve some food in a glass and use a turkey baster to give a tiny bit of food. If its eaten in less than 10 seconds feed a little more, if you still see food after 30 seconds than you fed too much. I feed 3-4 times a day, but I'm careful that nothing gets uneaten.

All the uneaten food is feeding all that hair algae in your tank. Control the feeding and add some turbo snails, it will do a lot of good.

All that text and you didn't tell us the nitrate level lol. What is the nitrate and phosphate levels?

One cube between 4 fish is a lot of wasted food IMO. I have 3 tanks with 17 fish, and I feed a half cube divided to all 17 fish, sometimes I even throw some out. Dissolve some food in a glass and use a turkey baster to give a tiny bit of food. If its eaten in less than 10 seconds feed a little more, if you still see food after 30 seconds than you fed too much. I feed 3-4 times a day, but I'm careful that nothing gets uneaten.

All the uneaten food is feeding all that hair algae in your tank. Control the feeding and add some turbo snails, it will do a lot of good.

Nitrates today pre water change were 12
After the water change around 7.
By the end of next week they will be back up around 12-13.
I do run GFO have been for several months during that time haven’t seen phosphate levels over .01.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Nitrates today pre water change were 12
After the water change around 7.
By the end of next week they will be back up around 12-13.
I do run GFO have been for several months during that time haven’t seen phosphate levels over .01.

I feel that your nitrates is not bad, I like mine around 10. I assume your attempt to reduce nitrates is likely to control the algae, but the algae is consuming the dissolved organics before they are converted into nitrates. So the nitrate reading has no correlation to the algae growing. Overfeeding is still the main cause for the algae IMO

Phosphate level of .01 is borderline too low, be careful it doesn't fall to zero. I like mine between .05~.08

 

[truckTech95]

I feel that your nitrates is not bad, I like mine around 10. I assume your attempt to reduce nitrates is likely to control the algae, but the algae is consuming the dissolved organics before they are converted into nitrates. So the nitrate reading has no correlation to the algae growing. Overfeeding is still the main cause for the algae IMO

Phosphate level of .01 is borderline too low, be careful it doesn't fall to zero. I like mine between .05~.08

So ditch the GFO, feed less and that should fix this? Alright sounds easy enough thanks for the input.

 

[truckTech95]

So ditch the GFO, feed less and that should fix this? Alright sounds easy enough thanks for the input.

Also should I keep up the big water changes? If the nitrate levels have no real effect on the algae then there’s no real reason to continue chasing that number down, right?

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

In the short term you need to be very aggressive to clear all that algae out. More water changes, scrub the rocks with a toothbrush before the water. Water changes remove dissolved organics from the water.

Right now the goal is to starve the algae by stripping the water of dissolved organics (doc's), and beat it with a toothbrush and increased snails. Turbo snails are awesome.

Adding bacteria can help, adding more corals will help, and adding phytoplankton can help.

 

[Spare time]

I would take out the rocks and scrub the algae off. Your nitrates are fine. As others mentioned, phosphate should be somewhere between 0.03-0.1ppm. Once the rocks are scrubbed of all the hair algae, add a bunch of turbo snails.

 

[truckTech95]

In the short term you need to be very aggressive to clear all that algae out. More water changes, scrub the rocks with a toothbrush before the water. Water changes remove dissolved organics from the water.

Right now the goal is to starve the algae by stripping the water of dissolved organics (doc's), and beat it with a toothbrush and increased snails. Turbo snails are awesome.

Adding bacteria can help, adding more corals will help, and adding phytoplankton can help.

I have a question regarding my numbers this week, nitrates were around the same 12-13 phosphates came up to around 0.1, my question is normally before and after my water changes there is a measurable difference. This week they basically stayed the same, and the WCs had no measurable effect, is this a sign the algae is dying back? I have been more aggressive with the manual removal and got the bulk of it out of the tank. Also doubled the WCs 50% Wednesday and then another yesterday. Measured before and after again no measurable change in the numbers.

 

[reefluvrr]

look at threads here about using fluconazole to treat Byropsis/gha.
The growth on your gha is likely too big for your urchins and cuc to mow back down.
I have had similar issues where my gha was too long for cuc to take down. I used fluconazole, but it takes at least about 5 to 7 days for it to melt the gha. It doesn't work right away. Also, you should do maintenance dose during the next few days. I believe it is like when you are sick, you don't take one pill and you are healed.

 

[truckTech95]

look at threads here about using fluconazole to treat Byropsis/gha.
The growth on your gha is likely too big for your urchins and cuc to mow back down.
I have had similar issues where my gha was too long for cuc to take down. I used fluconazole, but it takes at least about 5 to 7 days for it to melt the gha. It doesn't work right away. Also, you should do maintenance dose during the next few days. I believe it is like when you are sick, you don't take one pill and you are healed.

I mean I understand that works but I believe I’ve been having success with manual removal and large consistent water changes. This week I was a little confused with my numbers generally there is a measurable difference before and after this week the water changes didn’t bring the numbers down hardly at all, is that normal?

 

[Reefer Brent]

My experience. Lower the volume of your water changes and add a BUNCH of copepods and sand sifters like a star a tiger conch and nassarius snails.

Use the old tank water bucket to scrub your rocks in if possible.

You are almost out of the woods.

Of course use RODI.

 

[truckTech95]

My experience. Lower the volume of your water changes and add a BUNCH of copepods and sand sifters like a star a tiger conch and nassarius snails.

Use the old tank water bucket to scrub your rocks in if possible.

You are almost out of the woods.

Of course use RODI.

Yeah I got a fighting conch, bunch of Nassarius snails, cerith snails of all shapes and sizes, I run a 6 stage BRS RO unit that I put the 150 GPD water saver system on and a boost pump. I change the mixed bed resin on time and keep filters on hand for changes as needed.