PiscesPower
People protect what they love. - J. Cousteau
- Joined
- Mar 19, 2017
- Messages
- 782
- Reaction score
- 706
- Location
- Pacific North West
- What state or country do you live in
- Washington
My 26g AIO tank has been up for 6 months. I have a 3g HOB refugium that has Chaeto and some red gracalerria. I also run a skimmer to pH management using a CO2 reactor. Mixed reef mostly LPS and a few easy SPS and softies.
I'm not a new reefer but don't consider myself expert.
I feed a variety of foods and I have been dealing with this fast growing algae for about a month or so. Mostly on equipment and back glass, with some on rocks but I have a robust CUC, and I am getting light brown algae on the sand but not excessive. I am pretty sure its not Bryopsis, I don't see the ferns when I put it on a microscope slide. I was not able to actually view it through the slide as the microscope is broken. The CUC which has various crabs, urchin, lettuce slug and cerith and trochus snails mostly, I see the crabs, urchin and seal slug pick at it but no one is going to town on it.
I run both tridents and have had the NO for just a few weeks, and I have run the calibration.
I have the conundrum of which is responsible for the other, because I need to identify so I can treat. More food, less food, more water changes, fewer water changes(you get the picture here). I've never had an algae free system but this stuff just seems to persist. I have never had seriously high nutrients, I think the highest my PO4 has been since starting is .15 and NO3 always under 10 (this is with Hanna and not Trident NP and they do correlate.
I am hoping to get an ID of it, and maybe some suggestions on what is the way to proceed with getting my system back to a more balanced state. I have 5 fish in the system: pair of clowns, tailspot blenny, cardinal, and a mandarin, which is why I run the fuge. I have a lot of corals, and a clam they all appear happy and healthy. FTS at the end.
Major elements have been stable for a few months.
So parameters today:
pH: 7.96
Temp: 77.9
ORP 309
salinity: 1.025
Ammonia: 0 Hanna
Nitrite: 0 Hanna
NO3: 4.5 NP
PO4: 0
Alk: 9.42 Trident
CA: 381 Trident
MG: 1416 Trident
All right I have posted all I can think of, here are some pictures in the white light.
Am grateful for any push in the right direction.
I'm not a new reefer but don't consider myself expert.
I feed a variety of foods and I have been dealing with this fast growing algae for about a month or so. Mostly on equipment and back glass, with some on rocks but I have a robust CUC, and I am getting light brown algae on the sand but not excessive. I am pretty sure its not Bryopsis, I don't see the ferns when I put it on a microscope slide. I was not able to actually view it through the slide as the microscope is broken. The CUC which has various crabs, urchin, lettuce slug and cerith and trochus snails mostly, I see the crabs, urchin and seal slug pick at it but no one is going to town on it.
I run both tridents and have had the NO for just a few weeks, and I have run the calibration.
I have the conundrum of which is responsible for the other, because I need to identify so I can treat. More food, less food, more water changes, fewer water changes(you get the picture here). I've never had an algae free system but this stuff just seems to persist. I have never had seriously high nutrients, I think the highest my PO4 has been since starting is .15 and NO3 always under 10 (this is with Hanna and not Trident NP and they do correlate.
I am hoping to get an ID of it, and maybe some suggestions on what is the way to proceed with getting my system back to a more balanced state. I have 5 fish in the system: pair of clowns, tailspot blenny, cardinal, and a mandarin, which is why I run the fuge. I have a lot of corals, and a clam they all appear happy and healthy. FTS at the end.
Major elements have been stable for a few months.
So parameters today:
pH: 7.96
Temp: 77.9
ORP 309
salinity: 1.025
Ammonia: 0 Hanna
Nitrite: 0 Hanna
NO3: 4.5 NP
PO4: 0
Alk: 9.42 Trident
CA: 381 Trident
MG: 1416 Trident
All right I have posted all I can think of, here are some pictures in the white light.
Am grateful for any push in the right direction.
