40G Breeder AIO

CoralReefer1019

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Hi, just started my new 40Breeder with a Tidal 75 HOB, Heater and Gyre Pump. Tank has a mix of dry and live rock. Running a Hipargaro LED. It’s a little over a month old. Only 1 Talbot Damsel with zoas, feather duster, and one hammer cor

I removed the blue foam filter pad from my Tidal and it’s just running Seachem Matrix in a mesh baggie. Is this ok for me to do?

Don’t have a skimmer just doing weekly water changes of 5G ok?
 
I think you'll be OK for now. But if you start adding more livestock and the bio-load goes up, you may need to increase the amount of water in your weekly changes.

Just do your water tests to be sure the parameters stay comfortable.
 
I think you'll be OK for now. But if you start adding more livestock and the bio-load goes up, you may need to increase the amount of water in your weekly changes.

Just do your water tests to be sure the parameters stay comfortable.

what salt do you recommend? I’m also getting a lot of green algae on the rocks it appears to be turf algae not gha. I’m feed very little hikari frozen mysis 2-3 times a week only
 
some recent test results

73B73210-96D0-4D37-AC4E-4901F8474629.jpeg A37636D4-90E5-4F8E-9389-D39405FBD02A.jpeg
 
IMHO, salt is salt. I use Instant Ocean Reef Crystals and it works fine. Over the years I tried a few others, including a very expensive version for a year. It did nothing extra other than take money out of my wallet faster!

If it's in the tank you just started, it's very hard to say without knowing a lot more. Phosphate tests are flakey as algae takes the phosphate out of the water very quickly. So your test may show low levels, but that may not be the case.
 
IMHO, salt is salt. I use Instant Ocean Reef Crystals and it works fine. Over the years I tried a few others, including a very expensive version for a year. It did nothing extra other than take money out of my wallet faster!

If it's in the tank you just started, it's very hard to say without knowing a lot more. Phosphate tests are flakey as algae takes the phosphate out of the water very quickly. So your test may show low levels, but that may not be the case.

Once my Fritz Blue is done I will try Reef Crystals. I have attached some pics of the algae only on my rocks nothing on sand bed. Not sure if this is the ugly phase or the dry rock leeching out phosphates. I started with dry and live rock.

D0A72DFD-5165-4264-B2BF-9A2A7658DC0B.jpeg 9657FC9B-AB3E-4349-835A-0E304EB6CFE3.jpeg 32FE017C-2B4D-4F92-B6D5-4A5B960FDAA5.jpeg FA1772BD-A408-4BE0-BB35-2153ED9B6EBB.jpeg
 
Hi, just started my new 40Breeder with a Tidal 75 HOB, Heater and Gyre Pump. Tank has a mix of dry and live rock. Running a Hipargaro LED. It’s a little over a month old. Only 1 Talbot Damsel with zoas, feather duster, and one hammer cor

I removed the blue foam filter pad from my Tidal and it’s just running Seachem Matrix in a mesh baggie. Is this ok for me to do?

Don’t have a skimmer just doing weekly water changes of 5G ok?

5 Gallons = 12.5% water change. With the bio load created by 1 damsel, you should be ok.
 
Looks like new tank diatom bloom. Don't do anything radical unless it gets really bad. I should use up it's supply of food by over population and than fad back to a level you can tolerate.
 
Looks like new tank diatom bloom. Don't do anything radical unless it gets really bad. I should use up it's supply of food by over population and than fad back to a level you can tolerate.

what if it gets really bad?

I should just continue to let it ride out and don’t do anything?

I currently have a mix of cerith and nassirus snails should I add a few Trochus snails?

My rodi water is 0 TDS
 
what if it gets really bad?

I should just continue to let it ride out and don’t do anything?

I currently have a mix of cerith and nassirus snails should I add a few Trochus snails?

My rodi water is 0 TDS
If diatoms, they’ll need silicates to survive and build their shells. Eventually they use it all up and go away. I usually see them dissipate after month 3. I always cycle my tank with lights on for a few hours to jump start the diatom phase.
 
Good question. I'm kind of shooting in the dark without a lot more info.

Algae needs several things to grow. Remove all of any one thing and it dies.

It needs a place to grow. Well, that's the glass and rocks in your tank. Not much you can do about that.

It needs nitrate and phosphate. Look at fertilizer for your plants. What's in it? Nitrate and phosphate. How does it get in your tank? The most likely suspect is over feeding. Both excess food that decays in the tank and the detritus that goes from poop to ammonia to nitrite to nitrate. It has to be removed. There are other ways like rocks that leach phosphate, but that's rare.

It needs light, and specifically red or white light (white is made up of all spectrum so there is red in white light). Some reefers do all lights out for 3 days (that's about all the coral can safely tolerate). But your corals use way more blue than red. So running only the blue lights (assuming you have controllable leds or t5) for a week or more can be useful. You may have to wrap your tank in something to block outside light. But if you don't solve the fertilizer issue, when the lights go back on, the algae will start up again.

You could pull those rocks out of the tank and dip them in hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) for 3 to 5 minutes. It should (no promises) kill the algae and should not harm soft corals. You probably have to dip for only 1 or 2 minutes if you have lps or sps corals (I have no experience dipping lps or sps).

You could try Chemi-Pure or one of several other chemical treatments. But I try to hold them as a VERY last resort.
 
Taking the sponge out of the filter is fine if you want, but you’ll need to pull the matrix out more often and rinse it off in your WC water when you do Maint. to keep it from getting gunked up. I kept it in on my 110 just for that, and swap it out with filter floss when I blow the rocks off to get even more junk out of the tank.
 
Good question. I'm kind of shooting in the dark without a lot more info.

Algae needs several things to grow. Remove all of any one thing and it dies.

It needs a place to grow. Well, that's the glass and rocks in your tank. Not much you can do about that.

It needs nitrate and phosphate. Look at fertilizer for your plants. What's in it? Nitrate and phosphate. How does it get in your tank? The most likely suspect is over feeding. Both excess food that decays in the tank and the detritus that goes from poop to ammonia to nitrite to nitrate. It has to be removed. There are other ways like rocks that leach phosphate, but that's rare.

It needs light, and specifically red or white light (white is made up of all spectrum so there is red in white light). Some reefers do all lights out for 3 days (that's about all the coral can safely tolerate). But your corals use way more blue than red. So running only the blue lights (assuming you have controllable leds or t5) for a week or more can be useful. You may have to wrap your tank in something to block outside light. But if you don't solve the fertilizer issue, when the lights go back on, the algae will start up again.

You could pull those rocks out of the tank and dip them in hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) for 3 to 5 minutes. It should (no promises) kill the algae and should not harm soft corals. You probably have to dip for only 1 or 2 minutes if you have lps or sps corals (I have no experience dipping lps or sps).

You could try Chemi-Pure or one of several other chemical treatments. But I try to hold them as a VERY last resort.

what’s your thoughts on Reef Flux, Vibrant or GFO
 
@CoralReefer1019 you have only one light or two? I have one Hypargero on my 10g qt and is ok but for a 40g breeder you will need more light. Also, that light need to be set low on white because can create a lot of algae.
 
@CoralReefer1019 you have only one light or two? I have one Hypargero on my 10g qt and is ok but for a 40g breeder you will need more light. Also, that light need to be set low on white because can create a lot of algae.

the tank was setup on 12/28/19, I run the hipargaro only on blues and at 50% max for 8-9 hours. I have two AI Primes HD But haven’t hooked them up yett. I wanted to get my algae in control first.
 
what’s your thoughts on Reef Flux, Vibrant or GFO

I used GFO many years ago and it worked OK. I tried Vibrant once and I'm unsure it really did anything for my tank. I've never used Reef Flux.
 
I had this issue for the longest time and nothing i mean NOTHING was lowering Phosphates and resulting in ridiculous amount of algae till i used Dr. Tim’s Waste away. All my issues of algae, phosphates and nitrates are gone. I of course syphoned out as much algae as possible with each water change. Hope this helps.
 

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