Loosing my patience with the uglies

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

I was planning to do a 40 gallon water change. In your opinion, should I do it and add some good stuff (bacteria)? With the water change? will be adding more hermits ttomorrow, andthis weekend i be getting more snails. Coming to town. Yes

What is the purpose of the water change? Your nitrates are already very low, and phosphate is not often reduced significantly with a WC.
*If you feel you need to do a water change for the health of your livestock, by all means do, I'm just not sure it will help the algae with your nutrients already so low... Just some thoughts.

 

[Lavey29]

I was planning to do a 40 gallon water change. In your opinion, should I do it and add some good stuff (bacteria)? With the water change? will be adding more hermits ttomorrow, andthis weekend i be getting more snails. Coming to town. Yes

Your picture is hard to see but appears to be more GHA. Weekly water changes are critical the first year. You need a diverse cleaner crew. With a large tank like yours, you need more big eaters like trochus, turbos and 3 or 4 tuxedo urchins. Algae grazing tang type fish too. I would cut lights to 6 hours with blue and UV only, no whites. Do this for 3 weeks. Daily manual removal. Add copepods and daily dose of phytoplankton. You need to rebuild your biodiversity and microfauna. I went through a GHA jungle phase also around 6 months but stayed on course with keeping the tank parameters stable and it went away in about 3 months. You need to get phosphate down as others mentioned so no coral additives. These tend to raise phosphate. As others mentioned also, if you have room even in the sump a couple real live wet ocean rocks will Jumpstart things for you again.viewed. patience is essential in this hobby too. The first year can be rough at times.

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

If you do decide to try bacterial additives, add PNS bacteria like PNS Probio and bacteria like that. It likely still won't achieve the same results as live ocean rock but it's a lot better than the bacterial additives commonly used which makes claims to magically solve any problem regardless of cause. Those products tend to contain bacteria which are already present in your tank (or certainly should already be present). If there's an issue with them building a healthy population, adding more of the same won't solve the problem in the long run.

 

[Signalhead]

Can you provide a clearer pic under white lighting?
Phos as mentioned very high (you want .04-.08-up to .1)
Are you using RODI water, and is it purchased or made your self?
Is tank at or near a window?

Adding a pouch of ChemiPure Elite will help bring down phos level slowly with addition of daily 2 gallon water changes.

I will get a pic this weekend.
I have a chart from Saltwater Aquarium and it say less than 2 for Phos so I have been going by that number. I will try to achieve the lower number.
I have my own RO and I use Instant Ocean Reef for salt. I have city water @ 270 TDS on average incoming. After the 2 membranes, I get around 5 TDS and 0 after the DI. I also use TLC products DEChlor conditioner to make sure I dont have Chlorine in the water.
The tank sits about 12 from the windows. I have film and only allows only 15%of light.

 

[Signalhead]

Sorry for the delay in updating the information By life been crazy, with a family member in the hospital. Working 4 hours a day and rushing to be with her. But I'm Back

 

[Aspect]

It's part of the process, just try to be patient it will even itself out. I look at like this, if algae is growing my corals are growing too.

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

As soon as you get your nutrient levels lowered it should help at least some. Btw, the dechlorinator isn't really necessary given the other compounds it contains (probably not harmful though) but also due to the fact that chlorine will quickly evaporate from the water if you just leave it standing for several to twenty four hours. The dechlorinator is just an extra cost is basically what I'm saying. Idk how that particular one works but if it works by converting chlorine into chloramines that's not particularly helpful...

Very sorry to hear about your loved one in the hospital and i hope he or she quickly recovers!

 

[Signalhead]

If you do decide to try bacterial additives, add PNS bacteria like PNS Probio and bacteria like that. It likely still won't achieve the same results as live ocean rock but it's a lot better than the bacterial additives commonly used which makes claims to magically solve any problem regardless of cause. Those products tend to contain bacteria which are already present in your tank (or certainly should already be present). If there's an issue with them building a healthy population, adding more of the same won't solve the problem in the long run.

I'm looking at the probio and it looks like tamarind juice.. yummy! will try it and thank you for you help

 

[Signalhead]

What is the purpose of the water change? Your nitrates are already very low, and phosphate is not often reduced significantly with a WC.
*If you feel you need to do a water change for the health of your livestock, by all means do, I'm just not sure it will help the algae with your nutrients already so low... Just some thoughts.

Thanks

 

[FrugalReefer]

Just part of starting a new tank. My uglies lasted for a year. Just need patience.

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

I'm looking at the probio and it looks like tamarind juice.. yummy! will try it and thank you for you help

Look into what Purple Non sulfur Bacteria (PNS Bacteria) are and how they work and you'll understand why I recommended it.

 

[Signalhead]

Your picture is hard to see but appears to be more GHA. Weekly water changes are critical the first year. You need a diverse cleaner crew. With a large tank like yours, you need more big eaters like trochus, turbos and 3 or 4 tuxedo urchins. Algae grazing tang type fish too. I would cut lights to 6 hours with blue and UV only, no whites. Do this for 3 weeks. Daily manual removal. Add copepods and daily dose of phytoplankton. You need to rebuild your biodiversity and microfauna. I went through a GHA jungle phase also around 6 months but stayed on course with keeping the tank parameters stable and it went away in about 3 months. You need to get phosphate down as others mentioned so no coral additives. These tend to raise phosphate. As others mentioned also, if you have room even in the sump a couple real live wet ocean rocks will Jumpstart things for you again.viewed. patience is essential in this hobby too. The first year can be rough at times.

If I'm running my UV will this kill the Copepods and the phyto..whatever. Are those you get from algebarn? I have room for a refugium but im using that for my heaters and the 2nd pump to my UV. Will this still survive?

 

[Signalhead]

Look into what Purple Non sulfur Bacteria (PNS Bacteria) are and how they work and you'll understand why I recommended it.

The one I was looking on the algae bar site is like a small sweet tea bottle.

 

[Signalhead]

As soon as you get your nutrient levels lowered it should help at least some. Btw, the dechlorinator isn't really necessary given the other compounds it contains (probably not harmful though) but also due to the fact that chlorine will quickly evaporate from the water if you just leave it standing for several to twenty four hours. The dechlorinator is just an extra cost is basically what I'm saying. Idk how that particular one works but if it works by converting chlorine into chloramines that's not particularly helpful...

Very sorry to hear about your loved one in the hospital and i hope he or she quickly recovers!

Got it, and thank you she be home tonight. That girl is one tough cookie, tough as nails. Thank you again

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

The one I was looking on the algae bar site is like a small sweet tea bottle.

But beyond it's appearance I'd suggest you actually look into what makes the bacteria it contains different from others.

 

[Trizz]

Good morning, im having a issue with algae. And im starting to lose my patience.....First green, them dinos, and now this brown thing it looks like hair. For the green it went way and the powder blue tank helped, dinos making the tank dark, pick up by hand, turkey baster, water changes, and done. Now is brown and looks like hair. First I felt it was cyano, so I did the pulling it from the sand and the turkey baster and 2 rounds of chemiclean and slow down a bit, but back at it again.
Tanks is been running almost 6 months
Sal:1.023 to 1.024
Temp around 78° to 80°
Ph 7.9
NO3 around 5 ppm
Phosphate. .60ppm
Amonia 0
That's using Hanna "egg" checkers with current reagent. UV is off since dinos and running the skimmer. Replace sock twice a week. Thank you for not following to sleep.
Any suggestions are welcome.

Mexican turbo snails will clean that tank quick

 

[Lavey29]

If I'm running my UV will this kill the Copepods and the phyto..whatever. Are those you get from algebarn? I have room for a refugium but im using that for my heaters and the 2nd pump to my UV. Will this still survive?

Not sure if UV kills pods. I have my fuge in the second chamber. My pods make it past the skimmer and bubble trap to the return chamber and back to the tank. They are resilient little guys.

 

[Aspect]

Not sure if UV kills pods. I have my fuge in the second chamber. My pods make it past the skimmer and bubble trap to the return chamber and back to the tank. They are resilient little guys.

They don't kill anything they just sterilize them, meaning they make them unable of reproducing.

 

[Jay'sReefBugs]

If I'm running my UV will this kill the Copepods and the phyto..whatever. Are those you get from algebarn? I have room for a refugium but im using that for my heaters and the 2nd pump to my UV. Will this still survive?

UV has little to no effect on copepod populations you would have to be running the flow at a super low rate for it to effect them . UV is for single celled organisms so just turn it off for a little when you dose phyto

 

[Weasel1960]

Watch the biome series on BRS. They found that by adding pods it helps control some of the uglies. It is a series of about 10 videos. Might help along with other previous suggestions.