Its been a while!

[tbrown]

What's your thoughts on that aptasia? Should I put glue on it or go get a peppermint shrimp?

Glue is like 50/50. Peppermint shrimp are good if you get a true one. I had 4 aptasia, got 2 shrimp, now I have no aptasia and no shrimp...

 

[xcountryx]

The shrimp die?

 

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Photo drop of all my coral

 

[tbrown]

The shrimp die?

Not always, mine tend to not live long.

 

[xcountryx]

Peppermint shrimp went in and not even 5 mins later the aptasia was devoured!

 

[tbrown]

Peppermint shrimp went in and not even 5 mins later the aptasia was devoured!

Mine took like 4 days! Congrats!

 

[tbrown]

Photo drop of all my coral

Keep an eye on those green Palys. Mine spread like crazy! Only thing keeping them in check is my lepto and even that is kind of a precarious balance.

 

[xcountryx]

Ya they are growing like a weed right now. May have to drag them out soon. Dont want them taking over the whole rock before I get more zoas.

 

[tbrown]

Ya they are growing like a weed right now. May have to drag them out soon. Dont want them taking over the whole rock before I get more zoas.

Mine are agressive too. They'll kill montis!

 

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[xcountryx]

Ive been absent from the forum for a bit due to changes in work schedule. I've stopped in a few times to look around but haven't posted in a bit.

Tank is doing good other then an algae issue I've been trying to deal with. All corals are happy and growing. I did lose the goni I got from the last sale I was in. That's due to what I believe is dino. Just over took it and I couldnt stop it from killing it. I have a very small bta that's doing good just went to a spot I didnt want but oh well.

So for the algae like I said I believe its dino. I've tried a few methods to help battle it. Added a UV but hasn't seem to do anything. Feel like that was a waste of money. I've raised my temp to 83 slowly over a 2 week period. I dont want to stay this high just know some have had success with this. But again the coral are happy and growing.

Nitrate and phosphate are zero. Cant seem to get them up. I've fed frozen shrimp daily for a bit to bring it up with no help. I've been skimmer free for a while now so I know I'm not stripping it out that way. Any suggestions here would be much appreciated! I know this wont be pushing me to a tear down just looks ugly.

Anyways that's my 2 cents for now. Here's a pic of full tank and the algae I have.

 

[xcountryx]

Updates.

Since October I've battled what I thought were dinos. Turned into hair algae. Reduced my lights and completely stopped using the whites. I believe I'm done with the hair algae. I ended up using Flux rx. Waited 12 days then did a large water change. My ph and alk dropped way low before the Flux treatment. Not sure why. But they are back up to a reasonable spot now and I've just started using kalk on this tank for the first time. Had good results on the last tank.

The bta hasn't done anything. When I bought it it was the size of a quarter. Since then it's been the size of an eraser. Won't eat anything. Doesn't seem to be dieing. Just not sure what's going on. But it's still going so we will see how that goes.

Other then that I just lurk here at night from time to time

 

[xcountryx]

Thinking about pulling all the live rock out of the sump so i can add cheato. Im trying everything i can think of to defete this gha. Im on my second dose of flux rx. the first dose helped but it came right back. Nitrates are coming in at 15 to 20 with a hanna checker. starting to wonder if its the lights but i only have them at 40% at full ramp. Im pretty sure with my tank size i should be running 2 of these lights, but not if its the problem. next step would be complete start over with all new rock. But that would suck. About at my end with it. Fathers day is coming up and i was hoping to get more coral but not with it like this.

 

[Screwgunner]

Hate to tell you this but a reef runs best with phosphates at .1 to .05 nitrates 5 or under if you hit the right ratio it would be 1.6 nitrates to .1 phosphates. That is why I run a algea turf scubber. They are a must have in my opinion.

 

[Screwgunner]

Why you ask? There are corals that will not grow with phosphate levels above. .05 to much phosphate will stop some corals ability to take in calcium. Thus no growth. Plus the algea grows in the scubber not your tank !

 

[xcountryx]

That's great that works for you!

 

[xcountryx]

I've been at and near 0 on both nitrates and phosphate and still have algae. I've used the scrubber and grow it both in dt and scrubber. We can argue that nutrients are the issue till we are blue in the face all we want. It's never proven.

 

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