I've been battling brown colored hairy algae in my tank for a few months now. I need any advice I can get.
My tank is a RSR250, originally set up in December 2016 (so 16 months old now). I have 2 Radion XR4 HD lights with a personalized schedule (mostly the coral lab LPS setting but added white for two hours in the evening).
Salinity 1.024
Temperature 78
pH 8.04
Nitrate 0-maybe 2
Alk 6.8
Ca 410
Mg 1275
Phosphate 0.06 - 0.07
I've let nitrate and phosphate rise a bit because my corals aren't growing very well (predominately LPS), in fact I seem to kill quite a few corals. I've been pretty unhappy with my lack of success there.
Water changes are every 3 weeks or so. I do have alk and Ca set up on a doser and manually add Mg when testing indicates I need more.
I have a range of snails including cerith, trochus, nerite and turbo. I have dwarf red leg and blue leg hermits, emerald crabs (which do a good job of keeping bubble algae down), an Atlantic short spine urchin and a tuxedo urchin.
For nutrient removal I have socks, a skimmer and a refugium that grows chaeto and pods quite well.
I'm thinking about doing a 3 - day lights out. Any other suggestions?
Thanks.
My tank is a RSR250, originally set up in December 2016 (so 16 months old now). I have 2 Radion XR4 HD lights with a personalized schedule (mostly the coral lab LPS setting but added white for two hours in the evening).
Salinity 1.024
Temperature 78
pH 8.04
Nitrate 0-maybe 2
Alk 6.8
Ca 410
Mg 1275
Phosphate 0.06 - 0.07
I've let nitrate and phosphate rise a bit because my corals aren't growing very well (predominately LPS), in fact I seem to kill quite a few corals. I've been pretty unhappy with my lack of success there.
Water changes are every 3 weeks or so. I do have alk and Ca set up on a doser and manually add Mg when testing indicates I need more.
I have a range of snails including cerith, trochus, nerite and turbo. I have dwarf red leg and blue leg hermits, emerald crabs (which do a good job of keeping bubble algae down), an Atlantic short spine urchin and a tuxedo urchin.
For nutrient removal I have socks, a skimmer and a refugium that grows chaeto and pods quite well.
I'm thinking about doing a 3 - day lights out. Any other suggestions?
Thanks.