malnurs
Community Member
75g reef with 20g sump/refuge. tank has about 3 inches of sand/garf grunge mix in display. Have 4 bulb t-5 retrofit, but only running 2. my skimmer doesnt really pull alot of skimmate (its a cheaper HOB skimmer, my good one broke over 2 years ago, but it has never had a problem. skimmate mainly tanish/brown colored water once a week, not dark and thick.
water params: salinity - 1.026, pH - 7.8, nitrates - 0, nitrite - 0, ammonia - 0, phosphate - 0, KH - 200-300. I haven't checked calcium and magnesium levels in a while but my coral are still growing great and fish are doing fine.
Coral is a mix of soft and LPS. I have an old clown, six line wrasse, and 2 yellow tail damsels. I also have a pencil urchin. I moved him from my display to my refuge because he was damaging some of my soft coral. I had a yellow tang hoping to control my hair algae, but he did not really even touch it. he died after about six months of having him, and since then the hair algae has gone from alot on the back of my tank to growing large amounts on my live rock and pumps. i also got a good number of snails, crabs, and even 2 fuzzy chitons to try and help control it. nothing has helped and the algae continues to grow out of control. oh and of course i've been doing weekly water changes and decreasing the light time. have had the bulbs for 5 months. before this I never did weekly changes, i maybe did them monthly before and never had any problems lol. Oh, I also have 4 or 5 mangroves, and some chaeto.
any help with this would be greatly appreciated. Should I maybe try to take my water to get tested at a LFS (if they do that here in birmingham, AL lol). or should I continue to pull it off everything and hope it gets better with water changes? I'm just lost and have no idea what else to do. I've had this tank for over 5 years and while all my coral looks great and growing the hair algae is just such a nuisance.
Thank you,
MalNurs
water params: salinity - 1.026, pH - 7.8, nitrates - 0, nitrite - 0, ammonia - 0, phosphate - 0, KH - 200-300. I haven't checked calcium and magnesium levels in a while but my coral are still growing great and fish are doing fine.
Coral is a mix of soft and LPS. I have an old clown, six line wrasse, and 2 yellow tail damsels. I also have a pencil urchin. I moved him from my display to my refuge because he was damaging some of my soft coral. I had a yellow tang hoping to control my hair algae, but he did not really even touch it. he died after about six months of having him, and since then the hair algae has gone from alot on the back of my tank to growing large amounts on my live rock and pumps. i also got a good number of snails, crabs, and even 2 fuzzy chitons to try and help control it. nothing has helped and the algae continues to grow out of control. oh and of course i've been doing weekly water changes and decreasing the light time. have had the bulbs for 5 months. before this I never did weekly changes, i maybe did them monthly before and never had any problems lol. Oh, I also have 4 or 5 mangroves, and some chaeto.
any help with this would be greatly appreciated. Should I maybe try to take my water to get tested at a LFS (if they do that here in birmingham, AL lol). or should I continue to pull it off everything and hope it gets better with water changes? I'm just lost and have no idea what else to do. I've had this tank for over 5 years and while all my coral looks great and growing the hair algae is just such a nuisance.
Thank you,
MalNurs
