Seeking Advice: Battling Persistent Phosphate and Algae Issues in a Red Sea 425

[reefo420]

My method is always adding more clean up and crew and doing more water changes.

currently working from a diff country, so gf is struggling, done 3 30% water changes in the span of 1 month and everything i can think of to improve it and i just want to keep ontop of it, as for CUC, urchins are doing some good work but most urchins in the lfs are too small, not sure what's the best pick for sand sifters/and algae eaters for rocks

 

[reefo420]

also for seahare, thinking the foxface would kill it, he picked on a featherworm untill it died, and then the wrasse/pffer follow it's steps

 

[Yang’s Blue Paradise]

currently working from a diff country, so gf is struggling, done 3 30% water changes in the span of 1 month and everything i can think of to improve it and i just want to keep ontop of it, as for CUC, urchins are doing some good work but most urchins in the lfs are too small, not sure what's the best pick for sand sifters/and algae eaters for rocks

You’re already taking the right steps in fix this issue just need to take it slow. Although I understand is difficult under the circumstances. The best sand sifters for me is tiger conch they are great at eating algae in the sand and shifting them. For rocks I use Mexican turbo and Asteria snails. Turbo do eat hair algae which is a big plus. During water change you can also do some manual removal on the really long hair algae.

 

[Lasse]

not sure what genus it is, it's just called "

Purple Stripe Urchin​

" online, and a have a small tuxedo, about an inch, he tries but he can't do much since he's small and there is a large amount of rocks, so get 4 more? or what other urchins will work well that a large than a tuxedo or did i just get a small one? hawk is chill my fish are (puffer,hawk,wrasse) they are all well fed and they bother nothing because of that, are hermits better than snails? because the snails were very dissapointing

Thats not the one I thought off - this on the pictures seem to be OK. Among the urchins that is best on rocks (IMO) is the long spined urchins from the genus diadema. However - they can also eat some hard corals - not every specimen but some of them. They grow rather fast. Tripneustes gratilla, the collector urchin is one that´s do a fine job in my aquaria. I like hermits better than snails.

Sincerely Lasse

 

[reefo420]

Thanks for the help everyone! any recommendations on what i can use to scrub the algae off manualy of the works? inside the aqarium, should i just use a hard kitchen brush or a toothbrush? ..etc

 

[Yang’s Blue Paradise]

I just use a little stiff tooth brushes. You can try to use your hose to suck out the algae while scrubbing

 

[reefo420]

does anyone recommend using Lanthanum Chloride,to try and get it to 0.1, or should Ido it the slow way,also will bacter-7 or other bacteria dosing liquids help at all with phos/nitrate in the tank? as doing 50% waterchanges every 2 weeks is not possible atm due to RO/DI system breaking and being unable to get much water from my LFS


Thanks

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I’m not really convinced dosing bacteria is especially useful for nutrients, and lanthanum dosing carries risks. Water changes are also an especially poor way for phosphate. IMO macroalgae is a good bet as is GFO.

 

[wanderer]

Have been battling with GHA last few months but slowly getting a handle on it.
Water changes are not a good way to do nutrient export
I used GFO (in a reactor) and my phos went down to 0.02 but this did nothing for all the GHA. I suppose the GHA sequestered phos from the rock and it didn't really go into the water column.
I since stopped using a GFO and started a chaeto Fuge in my sump. My phos ranges from .02 to .10

What seems to be working is aggressive scrubbing of rocks with a brush. also using a coral feeder/large syringe to blast water at GHA is effective at knocking it off and into the sump. I use filter socks to catch the GHA that goes into the sump and empty them frequently when I do this (if I get lazy I notice the phos start to climb up). using small amount of peroxide on GHA works too but you can only do a small amount at a time and it will irritate or perhaps kill certain things in the tank (e.g. corals)

Physical removal + herbivores (tangs are best followed by urchins, snails are mostly good for the film algae but not GHA) is improving it. I suspect chaeto is helping a bit too plus reverse light cycle is good for pH increase. Chaeto seems to be doubling every 1-2 weeks so I'd imagine its pulling a decent amount of nutrients out.

 

[reefo420]

Have been battling with GHA last few months but slowly getting a handle on it.
Water changes are not a good way to do nutrient export
I used GFO (in a reactor) and my phos went down to 0.02 but this did nothing for all the GHA. I suppose the GHA sequestered phos from the rock and it didn't really go into the water column.
I since stopped using a GFO and started a chaeto Fuge in my sump. My phos ranges from .02 to .10

What seems to be working is aggressive scrubbing of rocks with a brush. also using a coral feeder/large syringe to blast water at GHA is effective at knocking it off and into the sump. I use filter socks to catch the GHA that goes into the sump and empty them frequently when I do this (if I get lazy I notice the phos start to climb up). using small amount of peroxide on GHA works too but you can only do a small amount at a time and it will irritate or perhaps kill certain things in the tank (e.g. corals)

Physical removal + herbivores (tangs are best followed by urchins, snails are mostly good for the film algae but not GHA) is improving it. I suspect chaeto is helping a bit too plus reverse light cycle is good for pH increase. Chaeto seems to be doubling every 1-2 weeks so I'd imagine its pulling a decent amount of nutrients out.

I've got a tang and a foxface, plus 2 urchins, going to my lfs to buy a few more tomorrow, had cheato growing with **** light nad it barely had any growth, but now with proper lighting i can see the difference in 3-4 days, curious on when to pull the chaeto out tho, what's the rule when it comes to that so it doesn't leech back

 

[Dburr1014]

Flux will usually kill chaeto.

Not in my experiences. Not in many people's experiences.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

curious on when to pull the chaeto out tho, what's the rule when it comes to that so it doesn't leech back

If it is alive and growing, it is a net consumer of nutrients. If it is dead and falling apart, it is likely a source of nutrients. If it is green, holding together and not apparently growing much, it likely is not having much effect either way.

 

[reefo420]

If it is alive and growing, it is a net consumer of nutrients. If it is dead and falling apart, it is likely a source of nutrients. If it is green, holding together and not apparently growing much, it likely is not having much effect either way.

,got better lights for chaeto, it's x3 the size in around a week, old chaeto was dark green and not growing much, so i think the new lights which is now 80w instead of 8w is making a huge difference, sent the water for icp to get an acurrate phos measurement

 

[jda]

curious on when to pull the chaeto out tho, what's the rule when it comes to that so it doesn't leech back

Loose balls of it grow faster. I would harvest it when the clump starts to get firm. I harvest about 50%, or maybe a bit more. Then, I pull the mass apart a bit to loosen it up. If you never harvest it, it will stop growing IME.

In the right situation, you should be able to harvest some every few weeks. Unless you change a lot of water, you will need to dose iron - Dr. RHF has written about how to make an iron supplement out of pills from the Walgreens or CVS or whatever.

 

[reefo420]

icp results are in there is no iron

Loose balls of it grow faster. I would harvest it when the clump starts to get firm. I harvest about 50%, or maybe a bit more. Then, I pull the mass apart a bit to loosen it up. If you never harvest it, it will stop growing IME.

In the right situation, you should be able to harvest some every few weeks. Unless you change a lot of water, you will need to dose iron - Dr. RHF has written about how to make an iron supplement out of pills from the Walgreens or CVS or whatever.

also i have aluminum and bismuth? in crazy levels, any clue how this has happened?

 

[jda]

Aluminum is usually from cheap plastics. Plumbing, cheap pumps and accessories - like cheap China Knockoffs, but not always.

I don't know about Bismuth. Was that a German Battleship in WWII? Seriously, I have never even thought about it. My first guess is a testing error. This is likely better than what I can add:

Bismuth

Hi, Can anyone explain to me what Bismuth is, what is does and the effects it can have on coral when it’s high? I’ve been getting regular icp for a few months and all of sudden Bismuth has gone from undetectable (last three tests) to this test at 21.87µg/l? I’ve not done a water change in...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

icp results are in there is no iron

also i have aluminum and bismuth? in crazy levels, any clue how this has happened?

It's pretty normal to detect no iron, unless you dose significant amounts, and even when doing so it may not be detected since it is pretty rapidly removed and need not be present at high levels.

The aluminum is pretty high. Borderline concern, IMO. Do you have any white media in use? Denitrification media, phosphate binders, etc.?

There's not much tox data on bismuth, but I would not assume it is a problem at 8 ug/L. Not sure where it is coming from.:

An evaluation of the toxicity and bioaccumulation of bismuth in the coastal environment using three species of macroalga - PubMed

Bismuth is a heavy metal whose biogeochemical behaviour in the marine environment is poorly defined. In this study, we exposed three different species of macroalga (the chlorophyte, Ulva lactuca, the phaeophyte, Fucus vesiculosus, and the rhodophyte, Chondrus crispus) to different concentrations...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 

[Lasse]

Your highest pH during a day?

Sincerely Lasse

 

[reefo420]

is this copper too high? think some has leeched back from rocks, anything of concern here?

 

[reefo420]

Your highest pH during a day?

Sincerely Lasse

sadly it's a bit low i need to do kalk, it runs at 7.9-8.1 (max)