Algae with gfo usage

[Saltgator]

I can't imagine PO4 would compile that quick. Was any of the rock,sand or water used? Any rusty parts (hose clamps, screws accidentally in sump/display,etc)? Your using ro/di of your own or lfs? Well water or county water? Sorry for so many ??, I want to narrow this down to a single source (many helped me, my turn to help as much as i can).

Country Boy using tapatalk on his EVO

 

[Greenstreet.1]

How hi off the water line do you keep your lights I have a 75g and I have more carbon than that in my reactor.


The Lord is good.

 

[roblox84]

I can't imagine PO4 would compile that quick. Was any of the rock,sand or water used? Any rusty parts (hose clamps, screws accidentally in sump/display,etc)? Your using ro/di of your own or lfs? Well water or county water? Sorry for so many ??, I want to narrow this down to a single source (many helped me, my turn to help as much as i can).

Country Boy using tapatalk on his EVO

Not a problem at all, i'm happy to answer any questions you have. All the rock was new, it was around 75 pounds dry base rock from Marco Rocks and around 10-15 pounds live rock from Premium Aquatics. No rusty parts, no rusting impellers either. Ro/di that I use is made by me and it is county water. Is it possible that I may have a faulty unit that's letting some chemicals through even if my tds is showing 0 after di?

I'm thinking about setting up a frag tank from a spare 10 gallon tank as a control and watching it for a few months. That way I will know if its a problem with the water or something else.

How hi off the water line do you keep your lights I have a 75g and I have more carbon than that in my reactor.


The Lord is good.

I have my LEDs approx. 12 inches from the water and they are currently turned all the way down because it is a new unit and I didn't want to shock what's left of my coral. Can it be possible that led just can't grow my coral?

I would run more carbon but that's all my mesh bag can hold. Maybe I should buy another reactor and use more carbon.

 

[Saltgator]

LEDs can grow coral, I know from 1st hand,lol. I went back to LEDs from mh.
I'm gonna say (going out on a limb here) that it's the ro/di water. Whether it's something the county is putting the water that gets past your unit or possibly your unit is faulty, I'd lean on the county water and issues with it. My county water has a ton of chlorine in it (and whatever else) and I know I'd be scared to use it. Any local reefers in your area you could speak to about they're ro/di unit?

I'm on a well, so high tds but no additional additives by the county.

I'd look up or call the county and try to find out what all they put into the water. You could also run a poly filter and see if it changes color indicating something in the water.


Country Boy using tapatalk on his EVO

 

[roblox84]

LEDs can grow coral, I know from 1st hand,lol. I went back to LEDs from mh.
I'm gonna say (going out on a limb here) that it's the ro/di water. Whether it's something the county is putting the water that gets past your unit or possibly your unit is faulty, I'd lean on the county water and issues with it. My county water has a ton of chlorine in it (and whatever else) and I know I'd be scared to use it. Any local reefers in your area you could speak to about they're ro/di unit?

I'm on a well, so high tds but no additional additives by the county.

I'd look up or call the county and try to find out what all they put into the water. You could also run a poly filter and see if it changes color indicating something in the water.


Country Boy using tapatalk on his EVO

I put in a poly filter in there 5 days ago, so far it's still white. I don't know of any local reefers since I live in a very small city. Where I get confused is when I started my first reef tank 6 years ago I just used dechlorinated tap water from my house and my softies and lps exploded. I literally had to trim them back every week.

I'm so hoping you're right about the chlorine issue, I've never even thought about that but that would be an easy fix. I've actually never tested for chlorine because I was under the impression that an ro unit takes it out and we drink that water as well and I've never tasted chlorine in it.

So I should probably add dechlorinator to my water from now on just in case? It seems almost too easy of a fix, but that is definitely one thing that I did differently in my old tank, even though the tap water I used had impurities in it I was killing the chlorine.

 

[roblox84]

I was just thinking maybe I should add stress coat to my display today just to kill any possibilities of chlorine. I would obviously have to take the skimmer offline for a few days since that stuff foams like crazy.

 

[Greenstreet.1]

Did you try testing your ro water ? And IMO don't trust the Hanna phos test to much I have on and still use my Salifert phos test kit to test.


The Lord is good.

 

[roblox84]

Did you try testing your ro water ? And IMO don't trust the Hanna phos test to much I have on and still use my Salifert phos test kit to test.


The Lord is good.

I've tried testing my ro water with a red sea kit but it showed 0. I will try again when my Hanna meter comes in just to compare.

 

[Greenstreet.1]

I used the Red Sea also it's was go for those test but not for mag I had bad experience with them and mag. I did have a phos problem it's now at zero to be honest I don't know if it cause my pellets started working on them when my no3 went to zero. From start I always change water biweekly. Tank is also packed with fish over 15 in a 75g.


The Lord is good.

 

[roblox84]

So just an update on the situation. I set up a 10 gallon frag tank that has been running for almost a month and I moved most of my corals into it. I used existing live rock from my main display and a diy led pendant that I had sitting around.

The corals are still not looking any better and this tank doesn't have sand or the bad silicone. To be honest the Green star polyps are looking somewhat worse while my other corals just look as bad as they did before. What can this be? This tank has only an hob filter, a power head and a heater. Should I start using tap water again so that the corals have some nutrients and metals to feed of off? When I used tap water in my old tank my corals grew every day.