Hey salty friends, after what appears to be a 20 month hiatus I am back! I became very busy with work and another project that took all my spare time, so unfortunately posting here, and really any aquarium work, was put on hold. I neglected the tank for quite a while, I think I maybe did 2 water changes over the course of a year, so the tank suffered.
I had a terrible outbreak of hair algae, I mean it was BAD!! I will try to find any photos I took while at its worst, but trust me when I say it was completely taking over and proliferating the tank, totally covering some rocks and growing on the back wall and on the sand, in some places it was over a foot long. I think about six months ago or so I finally started to tackle the issue and it was rough. As I manually pulled as much out as I could it only seemed to come back worse than before. This went on for over a month, so I started to get pretty frustrated, considered quitting and selling everything (more than a couple times) and just felt defeated. I switched gears, started running GFO, phosban I think, lowered the intensity and time lights were on, fed the tank only every 2-3 days, bought an entire 120g reef cleanup crew from reef cleaners, a sea urchin and a sea hare (only one out of 4 I bought over the course actually ate any algae), started bi-weekly water changes, and continued to manually remove the algae as often as I could. Slowly the algae began to recede, and after about 3 to 4 months it was completely GONE!!
You read that right, it took a good 3 months, but I am so glad to be able to say I defeated it, and want anyone else out there who is going through a HA outbreak, you can do it, it just takes time and dedication, but it can be done.
Once the algae was gone, things were going pretty good for a little while, then I noticed some of the sps coral was beginning to bleach, starting on the tips and moving down. I dusted off the old test kits, which were all expired, and found the chemistry was out of whack, but couldn't be sure because the kits were expired so I ordered new ones. A few days go by, I receive the new kits and realize the chemistry is way off... alk was down around 6dkh, calcium was around 280 and mag was like 1000. So I ordered all of the supplements from BRS, and another week passes, all the while the tissue necrosis has been happening on all of the acros and montis, and now beginning on the stylo and meteor shower.. Supplements arrive so I mix them up and run the calculators to determine what is needed to bring up to a normal level, and due to the large difference, I need to break it up over several days so I don't shock anything. So after about another week I got the chemistry back to where I want it: Alk 9 - 10 dkh, calcium 400 - 420, and magnesium at 1350-1380. Also phosphates are at .05 using hannah ulr phosphorus checker, which also has expired reagents so I am awaiting the new ones to double check.
I also setup the dosers that were in the garage since getting this new tank, so I now have the BRS 2 part alkalinity (soda ash I believe) and calcium chloride, dosing about 40 ml a day, but still monitoring this to fine tune so the elements stay where they need to be.
The STN has stopped for what sps I have left and color has begun to come back to the monti caps. The stylo may be too far gone with the damage that was done, but I'm holding out hope for that one.
All in all it has been a pretty wild 2 years, but I am happy I decided to stick with it and glad to be back on the forum. Sorry for the long post but wanted to give an idea of what has gone on since the last time. Pics to come shortly.
Cheers!
