Always Growing Ugly Stuff

[MA Reefer]

My tanks been frustrating me lately and cant figure out why. It always looks [email protected] jealous of the crystalline vibrant tanks!

Im always growing something.....buble algae, gha, dinos, cyano, vermatids

Take care of one. Few weeks another pops up...round and round.
40gal breeder+ 20 sump- total volume ~50gal. Mixed reef. 2x kessil 160 + 1 acintic t5 tube. Kessils run 10 hr ramp to 80%
Growth has been moderate to slow.

Most sad is i had some awesome zoa colonys, but most got choked out by a gha/red slime combo.

Really seemed to take off when i added to acintic tube.

Been dosing vibrant 5ml weekly x 6 mos

Now i did have some big slip ups and my parameters got pretty bad, and i slowly correct if that happens.

Heres the params i target and am mostly in....baring some excursions:
Salinity-1.023-1.023 refractometer
Ph-7.8-8.1 hanna
Alk- 8-9 hanna
Ca- 450-500
Mg- 1300-1600
Phos- 0 red sea pro ....i run gfo 24/7 if my phos registers i start growing the green stuffs
NO3- <1 but >0 hanna low. I add a tsp or 2 of seachem nitrogen if i dont register in ato.

Tank does get a bit of direct sun early in the AM till about 10a

Maybe i dont keep things stable enough if its that simple.

Love to hear everyone's thoughts.

 

[Tired]

You need nitrates and phosphates present for your helpful non-pest algae to grow, multiply, and outcompete the pest algae. Also, lack of those will kill your corals. Especially lack of phosphate. Shoot for a minimum of 0.03ppm phosphate and 5ppm nitrate, that's a good amount for most tanks.

What cleanup crew do you have?

Stop dosing Vibrant, it stops the beneficial algae from getting established and will harm your general biodiversity.

What water are you using? RODI? Tap?

 

[MA Reefer]

You need nitrates and phosphates present for your helpful non-pest algae to grow, multiply, and outcompete the pest algae. Also, lack of those will kill your corals. Especially lack of phosphate. Shoot for a minimum of 0.03ppm phosphate and 5ppm nitrate, that's a good amount for most tanks.

What cleanup crew do you have?

Stop dosing Vibrant, it stops the beneficial algae from getting established and will harm your general biodiversity.

What water are you using? RODI? Tap?

4 stage rodi, reed crystals

Very small CC- 4-5 astrea, 3 nassarius 3 red/blue hermits

Thing is i just tried that, and as soon as it no/po went up... bam.. i lost a zoa colony in a matt of algae and slime

 

[Tired]

Pick up more cleanup crew, let 'em chow down.

You need to let the ugly stage happen. Pest algae is going to run amok for awhile, and, if you have appropriate cleanup crew and give it time and nutrients, it'll slowly fade out in favor of well-behaved algae. I'm guessing you started with dry rock?

Check that all the stages in the RODI have been changed recently enough. I got nasty cyano once from forgetting to change my carbon cartridge for too long.

 

[brandon429]

EMERGENCY - Substrate change

Hi all, I’m really confused and need advice. I currently have crushed coral in my flu all evo 13.5g which due to a month in hospital the sand bed got so badly stained I can’t clean it and it looks gross. It’s a mixed tank with a clown, fire fish and 2 cardinals. I’ve ordered caribsea live pink...

www.reef2reef.com

if you read that thread start to finish plus the example case studies, you learn the ultimate method of control. No buys no additions, it’s a subtraction technique and the cost is you make up forty gallons of new water. All else is free. Run it on the small reef first, see if you like it, then do the 50. It isn’t possible for your tank to be eutrophic after that detailing.

 

[MA Reefer]

Pick up more cleanup crew, let 'em chow down.

You need to let the ugly stage happen. Pest algae is going to run amok for awhile, and, if you have appropriate cleanup crew and give it time and nutrients, it'll slowly fade out in favor of well-behaved algae. I'm guessing you started with dry rock?

Check that all the stages in the RODI have been changed recently enough. I got nasty cyano once from forgetting to change my carbon cartridge for too long.

Dry rock yes, seeded with 2 pieces from lfs.

I watch my rodi with inline tds.

Maybe i just gotta let it happen and just hope it doesnt kill everything off

 

[brandon429]

The sum total of the current reefing approach is eutrophication, which means an invaded state and such a state that if you grab sand and drop it down a massive dangerous cloud would form all over the tank, same if you twisted rocks around mid water in most of these cases as you describe

post pics of your tank let’s see details on the invasion status

after this cleaning above your tank is back in balance, and if you make changes to reefing practice you can stave off or prevent future deep cleans, but if you don’t make changes at least this cleaning method saves your tank from months of loss. They’re bright and shiny after being worked.

 

[MA Reefer]

Ill grab pics tom....its never really bad so its not like the pics will look bad.....it just never really looks good if you know what i mean

 

[brandon429]

Sometimes the pics look norm and the keeper just has really high standards lol that’s awesome if the case. But that method above is safe as that type of disassembly cleaning is how we move reefs to new homes or upgrade them and never lose tanks. It’s not always about params and starving invasions or adding waste producing animals...the ability to hand clean the setup is not a common approach but it’s quite powerful we see as an option.


after cleaning, in the invasion free state, you can feed more vs less and this brings out corals the best. The params are ideal since there’s no waste and since the water is new.

 

[TheDragonsReef]

So most green algaes are better for your reef than red slime or brown algaes. Let your nitrates and phosphates come up then get a clean up crew to take care of the green algae. Corals also need nitrates and phosphates to survive and going too low can kill them just as going too high can. Typically anywhere between 5-15 nitrates and 0.03-0.10 phosphates seems to be the sweet spot for most tanks.

 

[MA Reefer]

Gg

Ill grab pics tom....its never really bad so its not like the pics will look bad.....it just never really looks good if you know what i mean

 

[MA Reefer]

Ill grab pics tom....its never really bad so its not like the pics will look bad.....it just never really looks good if you know what i mean

 

[brandon429]

Very nice

your tank isn’t in end stage takeover it’s on the upswing of the bell curve


you don’t have to rip clean it yet

keep trying normal means first


the specific reason your system grows minor matting and minor light gha growths is because those organisms are as suited to a reef as a coral or clownfish would be, they’re all adapted to show up and win at space acquisition if possible. It’s abnormal and lucky to a large degree to have the perfect reef where zero undesirables grow.

that your reef grows them is good, not bad, it’s proof your nutrient chain isn’t bordering on bleaching/ lack of nutrients etc, corals are happy water is clean too


you can help by spot siphoning out some targets, or try animals to help. One day if it gets bad, we have an easy way to deep clean it and force back the winning balance.

 

[brandon429]

your reef quality is truly impressive nice job


for the love of Pete never add vibrant to that reef or chemi clean, when you’re prompted to act a rip clean is safe and far more effective


yes you are one of the reefers with too high of standards lol the euphyllia is a bowling ball. Your torch is like the largest bowl of spaghetti available.

 

[MA Reefer]

your reef quality is truly impressive nice job


for the love of Pete never add vibrant to that reef or chemi clean, when you’re prompted to act a rip clean is safe and far more effective


yes you are one of the reefers with too high of standards lol the euphyllia is a bowling ball. Your torch is like the largest bowl of spaghetti available.

Lol- yeah, some stuff grows good, ive got a couple things that ive had for over a year that are marginally bigger that when i bought them....the lps seem to do well....sps im hit and miss....some take off some do nothing....

Im gonna try to fortify the CC and maybe keep phos detectable see what that does.

I think im through the noob & intermediate stages of the hobby- its that next level that eludes me

That little crud you can see in the pics....gha matts on the zoas....redish brown crud on the sand.....like i said always something.

 

[Tired]

That looks like a really nice tank. Bit more nutrients, bit more snails, bit more time, and it should improve more.

You're unlikely to ever be completely free of non-coraline algae. A sterile reef is one that won't grow corals. When you see a picture of a pristine, established reef, usually there's been some cleaning of the sand beforehand.

 

[MA Reefer]

When you see a picture of a pristine, established reef, usually there's been some cleaning of the sand beforehand.

Well that just has me chasing unicorns now doesnt it lol....i can do that too....turn over my sand and it looks great.....a few days later back to average

 

[Tired]

That's what people often do for photos. Scrape the glass and stir the sand before taking a picture.