My algae, not serious ,but still

[needbiggertanks]

So the situation is I moved away in early February for work. My wife has been taking care of the tank. Unfortunately she doesnt like to do more than feed the fish. Well overfeed the fish anyway. Haha. So Im home today for 9 days and checked on the tank. Now, she did try, and i love that so no biggie. But today starts the day of cleaning the tank.

List of issues ill be working on this week:
Dead monti - removed (covered in hair algae)
Dead plate coral - removed (covered in Hair algae)
Deflated Acans
Half recedeing trachy
Rtn on birdsnest
4 Rocks covered in hair algae
Sand in front has some hair algae
Decaying molt from crabs - removed
Decaying turbo - removed
Nitrate at 20
Phos at 3

Good things i came home to
Happy wife and kids [emoji4]
Coraline growing everywhere
Two Frog spawn heads split into 4
Trumpet prodeced another head
Chalice looks good
Zoas look good
Mushrooms have great color
9 headed hammer doing great
All fish look great
Shrimp and crabs look great

Whats happened today?
20% water change ready for tomorrow
Removed crab molts
Pulled as much hair algae as possible
Set up a little GFO with new carbon (not too much today, i dont want to shock anything)
Turned off lights for today and tomorrow and wrapped towel around tank (may do 3 days no light)

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Well then.
Sounds like you got this.

My only add. I have a cheap canister filter I set up with floss only on deepcleans. I run it. Scrub. Then water change. Leave it running for a day to polish the water. Turn it off rinse it and put it away and then it's Monday again.

 

[Devaji]

if your going to be gone for work alot I would suggest a ATS, might as well make algae work for you...

 

[needbiggertanks]

8 days Left

@salityfilmfolks. Thanks for the advice, i have an old canister filter to do that with.

@Devaji. Thanks. I have to give her credit for that too, shes been topping off twice a day. But I actually just ordered an ATO last thursday that should get here tomorrow. When i was home, i just never needed it. In June, the wife and kids are moving to be with me so the tank will be following (and upgraded- shhh its a secret tho. Haha) i started stockpiling some new gear, but the ATO is going right on to help her out until the move in June.

Happened today:
Blasted the rocks with a turkey baster
Changed 20% water
Started mixing more water (another 20%)
Filled canister with floss and plumbed it to sump (thanks)

Still to happen:
Get a pill box and pre-measure food amounts so she can compare how much she is feeding to what should be fed.
Im also thinking of the other water change on Tuesday, but not sure about vacuuming a small portion of the sand. I dont want to disturb it too much incase its been sequestering nitrate and phosphate. Thoughts??

Any other ideas please chime in. I know its mainly just nutrient reduction at this point but I want to be efficient since im only home a short while.

 

[BlueCursor]

Your phosphates should be your first line of attack. I always have algae when nitrates aren't 50 times higher than phosphates. To clear up an algae outbreak I get nitrates to 100 times phosphates by lower phosphates and even dosing nitrates.

If my phosphate is 0.03, I need to keep nitrates about 1.5 for a sparkling clean tank. If phosphate is 0.03 and my nitrates are 0.5, I will have some algae issues but nothing bad. Just some green patches on the rocks but nothing fuzzy. Lower than 0.5 and I have issues.

 

[needbiggertanks]

Thanks.. im hoping the water change and GFO will lower the phospahtes?, and keeping the lights off will keep the current hair algae from sequestering it from the water column.

I'll post the phosphate readings as the week progresses.

If I can get the phosphate and Nitrates down a fellow local reefer offerred to sell me a lawnmower blenny thats been in QT for 58 days. Not sure if its wise because...

Debating affect on bioload

and whats the blenny to do if the hair algae dissappears? Can we feed Nori?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

refugium or ATS (turf scrubber)

but not sure about vacuuming a small portion of the sand. I dont want to disturb it too much incase its been sequestering nitrate and phosphate. Thoughts??

If its shallow vaccube, if its deep go full dsb. in between can be yucky. If you have the canister yea you can vaccume easier. but go slow depending on how long its beem.


On the nutrient discussion. Yea lower numbers will help, more herbivores will help more.

fun dumb stuff to read.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/sps-high-nutrients-myth.283442/#post-3449471 serious heavy weights discuss.

gonna make you rethink everything you think you know.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/my-home-tank.296635/#post-3626579

 

[needbiggertanks]

Thanks... thatll take me a while to read. Haha. But i just started. Interesting so im sure ill get through it. Ive been keeping nutrients low for years so this should be interesting.

I actually built my sump with a refugium chamber, i just never put chaeto in it. I even have the light ready. Maybe ill do that this week.

The blenny went through TTM before QT so ill probably buy it from her this week to acclimate. She has always ahd a great tank so i trust her QT.

 

[needbiggertanks]

Update,

Nitrate and phosphate down (5 and 0.25, respectively), so Im on the way toward the numbers i usually keep my DT at... so most nutrients will be in the algae now.

Lawnmower blenny going in the tank after tomorrows water change.
~20% WC

Hooked up ATO this morning before everyone woke, but still need to fill it with RODI (and test)

Getting a little busy tho, just saw the kitchen faucet leaking from top and center so ive gotta change out some o-rings and the cartridge. Lowes sold the faucet but not the part so i had to get the cartridge from home depot (so wierd, it was lowes aquasource brand but they didnt sell the cartridge) Then kids Dr. Appointment then i promised them the beach after that.

Got some plans to pick up the chaeto on Wednesday. I may add some copepods to the fuge too. Thoughts?

Ill update tomorrow

Getting sidetracked

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Thoughts?

enjoy the beach.....

 

[needbiggertanks]

Another water change yesterday (~20%) and introduced the new lawnmower blenny and chaeto. so far so good. The blenny's hiding but i've already watched him eat 20 min after acclimation. Hopefully that is representative of his appetite. I did some light vacuuming of the sand bed and removed all the algae from it. also turkey basted some of the rock pre-water change. N and P look good, hopefully the blenny turns that gha into "food" for my skimmer and not food for more algae. I think today is the day to turn the lights back on in the tank? The gha looks to have been dwindling, but it definitely hasn't looked to be spreading.

Today (tonight) should be the day I get the ATO filled and dialed in.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Good stuff. Turn them lights on!