Need help

Deborah Armay · Sep 4, 2020

I am in desperate need of help. I've been fighting brown algae and cyanobacteria for months now. I have a 90 gallon reef tank with a refugium and sump. I have a protein skimmer and I am running a charcoal and GFO reactor to keep my phosphates under control. I have three socks that I change once every 5 days. I have two radion LEDs set up on a program through apex. I recently reduced them to 40% to see if that made a difference. It didn't. I use Red Sea salt mix and use a DOS to do 3 gal water changes a day. Recently I did a 20 gal water change and tried to siphon the algae off the sand. I'm constantly blowing the cyanobacteria off my rocks. The tank is three years old and up until 3 months ago I've not had this problem. I will say I have not added a clean up crew since I first started the tank so I'm wondering if that could be the problem. I use Rods frozen food and feed my corals once a week. I'm not sure what my Nitrates are since its difficult to judge the color changes with the test kits. I'm trying to get a hanna checker but everyone's out of stock. Here are my parameters
PH: 7.6
alk 8.2
Ca: 532
Mg 1600
phosphates 20 ppb
I don't know what else to do. I've stopped putting new corals in my tank because I seem to lose them. I also have two Vortech MP 40 wave pumps set up on a program through my apex. Any suggestions? Thanks for helping.

GoVols · Sep 4, 2020

For one thing, I'd raise the ph up to at least 7.8
You can get a CO2 scrubber and media and attach that to your protein skimmer.

Universal CO2 Scrubber

Carbon Dioxide (CO2) can directly affect the pH of your aquarium, and with a low pH, corals may not grow as fast. Connecting a CO2 scrubber directly to the venturi on your skimmer along with CO2 absorption media you can control the amount of CO2 that is being sucked into your skimmer...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

Or open your windows to get as much CO2 out of your home.

If you don't have a good skimmer than get one.

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Your phosphates should be between .003 and .005 ppm

So far this Hanna ULR ppm checker has the tightest accuracy that I've found.

Search results for: '' - Bulk Reef Supply

Bulk Reef Supply - Saltwater Aquarium Supplies for Reef Tanks

www.marinedepot.com

And use the Salifert or NYOS kits for nitrates.

You'd be fine at 15 - 20 ppm, but 7 ppm would be great.

Hope others chime in as well, wish you all the best.

Pistondog · Sep 4, 2020

GoVols said:
For one thing, I'd raise the ph up to at least 7.8
You can get a CO2 scrubber and media and attach that to your protein skimmer.

Universal CO2 Scrubber

Carbon Dioxide (CO2) can directly affect the pH of your aquarium, and with a low pH, corals may not grow as fast. Connecting a CO2 scrubber directly to the venturi on your skimmer along with CO2 absorption media you can control the amount of CO2 that is being sucked into your skimmer...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

Or open your windows to get as much CO2 out of your home.

If you don't have a good skimmer than get one.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Your phosphates should be between .003 and .005 ppm

So far this Hanna ULR ppm checker has the tightest accuracy that I've found.

Search results for: '' - Bulk Reef Supply

Bulk Reef Supply - Saltwater Aquarium Supplies for Reef Tanks

www.marinedepot.com

And use the Salifert or NYOS kits for nitrates.

You'd be fine at 15 - 20 ppm, but 7 ppm would be great.

Hope others chime in as well, wish you all the best.

Or run the air line outside.
Only time I've had cyano is too much light, sun from skylight.

virtual reality · Sep 4, 2020

Do you have a picture we can see?

GoVols · Sep 4, 2020

Pistondog said:
Or run the air line outside.

Agree and my air intake line runs to our garage, but 20ppm with the Ps is way off the charts.

Tiki Reef Joshua · Sep 4, 2020

They listed it at PPB

your calcium is too high IMO. Has it always run that high?

Pistondog · Sep 4, 2020

GoVols said:
Agree and my air intake line runs to our garage, but 20ppm with the Ps is way off the charts.

Sorry, 20ppm on the Ps?

Deborah Armay · Sep 4, 2020

Thanks for your advice. Actually the phosphate is o.o2 PPM. Ive been fighting high phosphates since I started this tank. At first I used vodka - that didn't work. Then I tried Phosphate E- that didn't work. So now I run a GFO and charcoal reactor. That only seems to work the first week. Im just about to give up.

Deborah Armay · Sep 4, 2020

Tiki Reef Joshua said:
They listed it at PPB

your calcium is too high IMO. Has it always run that high?

Yea pretty much. Mg has always been high too. Not supplementing anything but soda ash to keep alk up.

Tiki Reef Joshua · Sep 4, 2020

.02 is fine. Increase your flow. What is your CUC situation? Also pictures.

Pistondog · Sep 4, 2020

Deborah Armay said:
Thanks for your advice. Actually the phosphate is o.o2 PPM. Ive been fighting high phosphates since I started this tank. At first I used vodka - that didn't work. Then I tried Phosphate E- that didn't work. So now I run a GFO and charcoal reactor. That only seems to work the first week. Im just about to give up.

0.02 ppm phospate is very low. You should not reduce below this.
My phosphates run 0.1 to 0.2, ok for me.

Deborah Armay · Sep 4, 2020

virtual reality said:
Do you have a picture we can see?

Ill take one and post it but it might be a couple of days because I just blew off the cyano and stirred up the sand.

Deborah Armay · Sep 4, 2020

Tiki Reef Joshua said:
.02 is fine. Increase your flow. What is your CUC situation? Also pictures.

CUC? What is that?

Tiki Reef Joshua · Sep 4, 2020

Clean up crew. Inverts.

Tiki Reef Joshua · Sep 4, 2020

I just re-read. Get a CUC. Increase your flow, and I would check your salt mix to determine why your calcium is high. That’s weird. Also, if you aren’t using RODI that’s probably a big Part Of The Problem. If you are, that clean your ATO reservoir and all your rodi stuff (new filters etc...)

Tiki Reef Joshua · Sep 4, 2020

Make sure the tank isn’t getting window light

GoVols · Sep 4, 2020

Pistondog said:
Sorry, 20ppm on the Ps?

lol
Ps is my term for phosphates.

Ps for phosphates / Ns for nitrates

@Deborah Armay

Just use a smaller amount of GFO or cut back on its flow.

The best method is to tumble GFO inside its own dedicated reactor.

Here's a ppb to ppm chart for you

Going by that conversion looks like .061 ppm.

Deborah Armay · Sep 5, 2020

Okay just got it. I have not put anymore CUC in my tank for three years. Not seeing much action. I wonder if that could be the problem. I just lost a file fish and my sand sifting gobi. They have been in the tank from the beginning. Haven't lost a fish in a long time. Thinking of buying a lawnmower benny and maybe replacing the sand sifting goby. I currently have a convict blenny, flame angel fish, 2 clown fish, 2 pajama cardinal, 1 blue tang, 1 goby fire fish, 1 diamond goby and a green chromis and 2 peppermint shrimp.

Deborah Armay · Sep 5, 2020

Tiki Reef Joshua said:
Make sure the tank isn’t getting window light

It isn't. most of the time the blinds are closed.

Deborah Armay · Sep 5, 2020

GoVols said:
lol
Ps is my term for phosphates.

Ps for phosphates / Ns for nitrates

@Deborah Armay

Just use a smaller amount of GFO or cut back on its flow.

The best method is to tumble GFO inside its own dedicated reactor.

Here's a ppb to ppm chart for you

Going by that conversion looks like .061 ppm.

Thanks for the chart. Never saw that before. The GFO is in a dedicated reactor. Charcoal is in the other reactor. I will reduce the amt of GFO. I only allow the flow to be enough to just stir up the GFO.