Biocube 29

[pdiehm]

I have a BioCube 29 (Coralife). 25 lbs of Marco Rocks, starting to turn green. Nitrates are under 10, have 2 Scarlet Hermits, 2 Nerites, a couple Florida Ceriths, and some dwar ceriths in there now. Have a tunze 9001 skimmer, though IM Ghost Midsize is en route. Tunze 3152 ATO.

A pair of Clowns in QT for another 3 weeks or so.

I have the stock lighting, and no intention of improving that.

What corals could I put in there that would go well with the clowns, and maybe even host them? I'm also thinking about adding a small tailspot blenny to help with algae, but I think that's it for the fish stocking.

 

[brandon429]

Hi! Welcome
Its my opinion that the fish w make algae worse. try to search this key term set to investigate

marco rocks leaching phosphate

They simply are known to leach it for a while, it may be helpful to use po4 binders like gfo or other means, but the fish waste will compound the issue. not that I think adding a fish at the right phase is a big deal, but for this early phase its just my opinion the focus needs to be on a high quality po4 test kit and a hq no3 test kit and the workings to keep them in order until the leaching slows, hope this helps and welcome! One thing im sure of, you will forever prevent algae in your reef independent of any animal or nutrient if you simply remove it. Lets these preventatives be what stops it from coming back, but if/when it does, you are saving yourself a headache by simply lifting out that rock that is turning green and scrubbing it off then putting the rock back in.

i wouldnt ever let the algae grow, but as the wastes stabilize you'll be removing less, at least this prevents you from ever having an algae takeover.
B

 

[pdiehm]

Brandon,

Thanks. The PO4 tests with Hanna during cycling were all 0.00ppm. Now, does that mean it was 0? not reall since the tester has a +/- 0.03. I have been running the lights 10 hours, with the stock 3 moonlights 24/7. But as we know, it takes nitrates + PO4 to create algae (or at least at the heart of the equation).

The tank is still really new, it is cycled, went through the diatom phase (the snails helped clear that up), and I do 5 gallons (about 25%) of water changes each week. My last NO3 test was using Red Sea Pro kit, doing the high range came to about 8ppm.

Everything I've read says tanks go through the stages of cycling...diatoms, to green algae, to coraline. Is it possible that this green algae is just the next phase of my cycle process?

 

[brandon429]

opinions vary greatly on that! there is a huge thread in the discussion forum about just how passionate that gets lol this way is only what I would do. I agree thousands of people have let their tank go through various algae phases and come out fine on the other side, the typical uglies phase. My only offer here and there was that we can skip that phase and manually remove so that nothing seeds the tank, or just let natural events ride and things might come about shortly as well.

Regarding cycling my opinion is unique, i do not consider algae part of cycling since they are always optional in a reef system. They literally can only be in a reef where they are allowed, if they are disallowed like I disallow dandelions in my yard, then they cannot appear. The traditional way is the hands off, let things balance way and thats just fine.

My obsession revolves solely around fixing wrecked algae tanks by the thousands over the last several years online, a search of my name + problem algae tank shows how we have to get in and fix tanks that never emerged from the uglies. Thousands did naturally emerge, however, I just work with the troubled mix lol!

Its true that with real 0/0 presence of the major elements at play there'd be no algae, but that rock is emitting it and possibly the low level growth is consuming it from the water column and holding that waste as an organic loading that the free range tests cant detect. <--i rarely agree to that but i think its happening here, can you post a pic

So there are still nutrients, but they are locked in biomass until it decays and re-releases.

Another factor is the high light scenario of a new reef and the white reflective rock bouncing high light and high Po nutrient cycles in the tank...a matured reef is purple and less reflective, and coralline outcompetes algae for vital space, agreed the maturation process w make things easier. I do agree there are fish that would eat it too, this is all a fair mix of experimenting we have to do to find a good way
B

 

[pdiehm]

I will post a picture later tonight.

what's intresting to me is it looks like whiskers are growing on the glass, and it doesn't easy come off with the magnetic cleaner, though if I go in a circular motion it does come off, just takes a little more legwork. Whiskers is the only word I can describe it. The nerite snails have been attacked to that section of glass for the past few days.

It's not a lot of algae growth, and I have been looking at a GFO reactor but the cube doesn't have a lot of room, and the less equipment I have, the better. For the time being, I have the lights turned off. Probably will turn them back on Saturday or Sunday.

 

[pdiehm]

I also have NO3: PO4-x. I could put 1ML in per day for a week and see what happens. It's basically vinegar (acetic acid).

 

[brandon429]

bacterial bloom=uptake of N and P yes thats another common way. I think there's alittle lag time on the buildup but yep w good skimming or wc that is very common. our top chemist Randy does that technique to get help w nutrients.