CamYoung
New Member
Hi All,
I am new to the hobby, having started my first tank approx 3 months ago.
Its a 300lt total volume tank and sump, which I think is approx 75gallon??
Tank setup and specs:
- Red Sea Reefer tank, with Red Sea Reefmat, DC Skimmer, two Reef Wave 25's, and Reef 90 LED's
- I used Aqua Forest AF dry Rock and pure aragonite for sand
- Auto water changes of 1.25% (3.75 litres) daily using two Kamoer dosing pumps
- 6 stage RODI filter
- LEDs are running for standard RED Sea schedule of 9 hours, plus a ramp up and down of 1 hour at each end. I was using the 20,000k schedule up until this week, which has 100% blue, and 50% white, but have changed this week to 23,000k which is 100% and 10% white. I did this to reduce white light to help Algae problem
I have four fish currently, which are:
- a small Tomini Tang
- Bangai Cardinal
- Tailspot Blennie
- Fire Goby
Clean up crew:
- 6 zebra snails
- 4 large and 2 x small Conch snails
- 4 trochus snails
- small sand sifting starfish
I have the following corals, which are all frags so still quite small:
- 4 Hammer corals
- 2 Frogspawn
- 4 x Acans
- 1 x Blasto
- 1 x Birdsnest
- 1 x Branching Montipora
I am dosing Red Sea Alkalinity, Calcium and Magnesium currently, and test at least weekly. I am increasing dosing slowly based on testing, but am managing to keep elements consistent
Parameters for these elements are
Alk - 8.2-8.4
Calc - 420-440
Mag - 1400-1420
Salinity - 1.025
PH - 8.4
I feed Mysis cubes twice a day, and I am adding 6-8mm of Red Sea AB+ coral food daily.
Everything was going well, with Nitrates sitting at 4-6ppm, and I was dosing a small amount of Phosphate remover to achieve 0.03-0.05ppm Phosphate ( have stopped this since my phosphates have bottomed out). I then went away for four days 3 weeks ago and my wife looked after the tank while I was away.
When I returned, an Algae bloom was underway, and this is the reason for my post.
I have attached a picture, but it looks like brown fur. Its only growing to approx 5 mm in most instances, but looks like very fine fur that is brown. Its only on the rocks, and none on the sand, although it is growing on the power heads and back wall.
Its quite attached to the rock, and difficult to remove by hand, but will come off with a srubbing brush (the hairy part, not the coloration on the rock)
My Phosphates and Nitrates have gone to 0.0 when testing. Now I understand this is because the Algae is consuming these nutrients, so testing is not able to be accurate. I have also researched a lot on how to deal with Algae (I believe it is some form of hair Algae), and in general all the advice is to manually remove as much as possible, reduce feeding, and the Algae should die back. So in effect, remove the fuel source of Phosphate and Nitrates.
My dilemma, is that wont that starve the corals? Currently on the whole they are happy enough and extending with what looks to me like reasonable colour. A couple of the smaller hammers have stopped extending quite as far this week however (the pic of the tank was taken after lights turned off, and only moonlight on, so corals have retracted)
The advice I have found, does not discuss impact on corals, or if this approach of starving the fuel source for the Algae.
I am also concerned as a new reefer about having 0.0 nitrates and phosphates, and this may lead to a bigger problem in Dino's or something else equally as scary and sinister for a newbie reefer!
The algae is not horrible, I can live with it, if this is just part of the tank maturing for a few months.
Or do I reduce feeding to try and remove the algae, or increase my CUC.
Do I increase feeding to get Nitrate and Phosphate levels back up for the corals
Ahh, my head hurts, please help!
I am new to the hobby, having started my first tank approx 3 months ago.
Its a 300lt total volume tank and sump, which I think is approx 75gallon??
Tank setup and specs:
- Red Sea Reefer tank, with Red Sea Reefmat, DC Skimmer, two Reef Wave 25's, and Reef 90 LED's
- I used Aqua Forest AF dry Rock and pure aragonite for sand
- Auto water changes of 1.25% (3.75 litres) daily using two Kamoer dosing pumps
- 6 stage RODI filter
- LEDs are running for standard RED Sea schedule of 9 hours, plus a ramp up and down of 1 hour at each end. I was using the 20,000k schedule up until this week, which has 100% blue, and 50% white, but have changed this week to 23,000k which is 100% and 10% white. I did this to reduce white light to help Algae problem
I have four fish currently, which are:
- a small Tomini Tang
- Bangai Cardinal
- Tailspot Blennie
- Fire Goby
Clean up crew:
- 6 zebra snails
- 4 large and 2 x small Conch snails
- 4 trochus snails
- small sand sifting starfish
I have the following corals, which are all frags so still quite small:
- 4 Hammer corals
- 2 Frogspawn
- 4 x Acans
- 1 x Blasto
- 1 x Birdsnest
- 1 x Branching Montipora
I am dosing Red Sea Alkalinity, Calcium and Magnesium currently, and test at least weekly. I am increasing dosing slowly based on testing, but am managing to keep elements consistent
Parameters for these elements are
Alk - 8.2-8.4
Calc - 420-440
Mag - 1400-1420
Salinity - 1.025
PH - 8.4
I feed Mysis cubes twice a day, and I am adding 6-8mm of Red Sea AB+ coral food daily.
Everything was going well, with Nitrates sitting at 4-6ppm, and I was dosing a small amount of Phosphate remover to achieve 0.03-0.05ppm Phosphate ( have stopped this since my phosphates have bottomed out). I then went away for four days 3 weeks ago and my wife looked after the tank while I was away.
When I returned, an Algae bloom was underway, and this is the reason for my post.
I have attached a picture, but it looks like brown fur. Its only growing to approx 5 mm in most instances, but looks like very fine fur that is brown. Its only on the rocks, and none on the sand, although it is growing on the power heads and back wall.
Its quite attached to the rock, and difficult to remove by hand, but will come off with a srubbing brush (the hairy part, not the coloration on the rock)
My Phosphates and Nitrates have gone to 0.0 when testing. Now I understand this is because the Algae is consuming these nutrients, so testing is not able to be accurate. I have also researched a lot on how to deal with Algae (I believe it is some form of hair Algae), and in general all the advice is to manually remove as much as possible, reduce feeding, and the Algae should die back. So in effect, remove the fuel source of Phosphate and Nitrates.
My dilemma, is that wont that starve the corals? Currently on the whole they are happy enough and extending with what looks to me like reasonable colour. A couple of the smaller hammers have stopped extending quite as far this week however (the pic of the tank was taken after lights turned off, and only moonlight on, so corals have retracted)
The advice I have found, does not discuss impact on corals, or if this approach of starving the fuel source for the Algae.
I am also concerned as a new reefer about having 0.0 nitrates and phosphates, and this may lead to a bigger problem in Dino's or something else equally as scary and sinister for a newbie reefer!
The algae is not horrible, I can live with it, if this is just part of the tank maturing for a few months.
Or do I reduce feeding to try and remove the algae, or increase my CUC.
Do I increase feeding to get Nitrate and Phosphate levels back up for the corals
Ahh, my head hurts, please help!
