I'm going insane

[sixty_reefer]

Two months of dosing phyto last year.

Phytoplankton is a good source of nitrogen, and it’s helpful to increase the heterotrophic bacteria population in a reef, making less free ammonia available to nuisance algae. It’s a good natural way to starve nuisance algae, just a slower process

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Just looked at ur build thread. Do u have a refractometer and cal fluid?
D

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Get ur salinity right. Get some flow.
Add 4 top crown snails.
D

 

[anthonygf]

I do water changes every week (10% water changes). Filtration: Reef octopus skimmer, 3 filter socks, Phosphate reactor, and sponge mesh in the sump. Thanks

Hello, I was in the same spot as you 2 or 3 times in my 8 years of reefing. Each time I managed to clear it up was different so I can't really help you much because all the methods I have used has been mentioned already.

I just want to commend you on even trying to go with a reef tank, when I was your age I had fresh water and was afraid to try it.

I like to ask, why do you have a phosphate reactor? I have never used one, but I do run a UV light 24/7 in the sump, a skimmer in the sump with the skimmate dumping into the filter pad. So some of the skimmate the liquid is returned to the water because I believe there is some beneficial nutrients in the liquid, and the filter will capture the most of the nasty solids. I do this to keep my nutrients high, my nitrates have been at 25 ppm for a couple years now, phosphate I keep around .09 to 0.29 and all seems ok at the moment.

What ever you do don't give up. You are still in the learning stage and will take some time to learn. I am still learning something new in this hobby. I love it, the good and the bad.

This picture was my 46 gallon bowfront at 3 years. I upgraded to 75 gallon 3 years ago for my Yellow Tang. The 75 pic was taken 2 years ago. After the move I had some problems but overcame them. You are a smart kid, you will over come yours. Take care and sorry for the long story, hope it inspires you.

 

[748S911]

Expecting this tank to be cleaned up in three weeks with a clean up crew and a blenny is totally unrealistic in my opinion. Lots of good advice here on how to clean it up realistically!

Oh I forgot to mention two urchins and two lawnmower blennys rocks will be bare lol

 

[DeniseAndy]

I am sorry for your struggles. We have probably all been through this at one time or another. I do not have time to read over everything, but what has worked for me in the past has been a few things.

I have rip cleaned many times. Even my 210g. For a while I thought I was doing it every few months on my 40g. It takes lots of effort sometimes.

Algae scrubbers are great tools for managing algae growth. I have built them with just stuff around the house or for super cheap. If you want to see some, let me know. They are easy and effective.

Urchins are great with algae. Not briopsis, but most others. Varigated or tuxedo are my go to.

Good luck!

 

[chadfish]

I tried Reef Flux like I mentioned it didnt work sadly.

Sorry, I missed that part of your post. Maybe you mis-calculated the amount of water in the tank sand didn’t add enough? Or maybe it’s not bryopsis? Sorry to doubt you but if used correctly, it melts bryopsis over the course of a week or two. It’s a biochemical reaction that disrupts certain pathways in the algae and it dies. I was skeptical until I used it.
I dunno, I’d give it another shot.

good luck

 

[anthonygf]

Reef Flux worked for me also, sometimes you have to give it a little more time and extra dose.

 

[Ro Bow]

Sorry, I missed that part of your post. Maybe you mis-calculated the amount of water in the tank sand didn’t add enough? Or maybe it’s not bryopsis? Sorry to doubt you but if used correctly, it melts bryopsis over the course of a week or two. It’s a biochemical reaction that disrupts certain pathways in the algae and it dies. I was skeptical until I used it.
I dunno, I’d give it another shot.

good luck

no problem, thanks for the reply. I'm pretty sure I calculated enough but I could be wrong. I didnt calculate the amount of space the sand and rocks are keeping, but instead I added the total gallons of the tank with the sump too... I used blue vet flux rx, maybe that one isnt as good as one of the others? I assumed I didnt have to calculate the rocks but that probably was a mistake

 

[Ro Bow]

no problem, thanks for the reply. I'm pretty sure I calculated enough but I could be wrong. I didnt calculate the amount of space the sand and rocks are keeping, but instead I added the total gallons of the tank with the sump too... I used blue vet flux rx, maybe that one isnt as good as one of the others? I assumed I didnt have to calculate the rocks but that probably was a mistake

might be a good idea to try again soon

 

[Ro Bow]

Put in many hours of work with cleaning the tank and its looking better. Only problem is there is now a lot of detritus in the bottom of my sump. Is this normal? I did a 100% sump water change a week or so ago. I think its there because I've been removing a lot of algae but a lot of it also goes to the sump that I don't catch and remove I guess.

 

[anthonygf]

It won't hurt anything. I have lots of waste in my sump and only clean it maybe once a year.
Good job. You know you will have to do this often, but will be easier now that is in better shape.

 

[brandon429]

Post a new full tank shot of the display please

 

[Ro Bow]

Post a new full tank shot of the display please

Before

right now:

 

[Ro Bow]

It won't hurt anything. I have lots of waste in my sump and only clean it maybe once a year.
Good job. You know you will have to do this often, but will be easier now that is in better shape.

alright thanks. However if I somehow manage to stir up the water in the sump on accident and it gets super cloudy, I assume I need to do a water change right? Sometimes that happens

 

[anthonygf]

alright thanks. However if I somehow manage to stir up the water in the sump on accident and it gets super cloudy, I assume I need to do a water change right? Sometimes that happens

No I don't think it is necessary, when I move things around in my sump the crud does go into the display tank but will get filtered out.

Why don't you get a polishing filter to run occasionally to really clean the water. I use one in both of my tanks, 75g reef and 75g fresh water cichlids. It is an internal filter and only put it in when water needs polishing, so not run 24/7.

 

[DeniseAndy]

You can run a sock or filter floss or pad to gather the junk when doing a cleaning like that. Next time you do a water change, you can suck the sump detritus out if you want. I usually clean my sumps 1-2 times per year. Not that often.

It looks a ton better. Nice job!

 

[Lavey29]

It's probably not detritus just sand dust from your extensive cleaning in the DT. It won't hurt anything. I turkey blast mine every week or so then the skimmer or sock catch some or it gets cycled back to the tank.

Edit actually as I look at the pic it's more like residual algae dust but looks like it would clean up easily with a fish net too.

 

[chadfish]

no problem, thanks for the reply. I'm pretty sure I calculated enough but I could be wrong. I didnt calculate the amount of space the sand and rocks are keeping, but instead I added the total gallons of the tank with the sump too... I used blue vet flux rx, maybe that one isnt as good as one of the others? I assumed I didnt have to calculate the rocks but that probably was a mistake

I can imagine the brand matters, but who knows. I used ReefHD Reef Flux. It worked great. I manually removed all I could first, as per the directions. I added an extra pill (it comes in pill form) just to be safe. I thought this was safe because the directions say you can double the dose for faster results. Nothing bad happened. My nutrients increased a bit. Briopsis went away after a few weeks.

Ironically, the day after I posted on this thread, I noticed the Bryopsis is back. So I’m going to do another treatment. But I was bryopsis free for three months. Not sure if I got more as a hitchhiker, or if the deepest roots survived…. I’m not worried, I’m confident I can repeat my results. I’ll let you know.

 

[RichReef]

When all else fails ...... source water.

Have you tried just leaving it alone for a few months?