Need some help with mixed reef tank

[SaltyGal]

Hi. I am new to this forum and was hoping I could get some guidence as to what I am doing wrong. I have seen some very beautiful tanks here!!!

My tank is 54 gal corner with a 14 gal sump.( pain in the neck with space, but what can I say!) Sump was bioballs which were removed and converted to sock with seachem matrix in that section and my return pump, phos reactor, carbon reactor and protein skimmer in the other section. I have mixed reef of mostly lps with a few monti's and over the last few months have added sps frags that I am trying to begin with.

I have a rose bt anemone for over 6 mths now doing well (never moved from bottom right rock and is being hosted by a maroon clown) I have a crocea clam up on the rock near the light over a month now and doing well. I have 2 shrimp, lots of snails crabs and a few fish - sail fin tang, three chromis, royal basslet and one coral beauty angel who is not bothering the clam so far. The tank has been running 15 months now.

I run all led lights - total wattage is 56. They are aqua ray 600 (3) at 36 watts total and one aqua tech at 20 watts. I have a marineland reef led that I use only for the moon lights as I learned these were not as good a quality led for coral. My schedule on apex - leds run on a timer going on one at a time beginning at 7am with all running between 10 and 4 then they begin shutting down one at a time between 4 and 7pm and only moonlights on all night. I run an led in my sump with chaeto in matrix area that runs opposite time. Chaeto not growing too much. Was tumbling it with a small powerhead, I removed it to see if that makes a difference, or it could be my test kit is off and my nitrates are lower than I think.

My parameters: temp - 78 (apex) salinity 1.025, ALK 9.0 (hanna cker) CA 320-330 (red sea reef) MG 900 (salifert not an old kit) 1200 (red sea ) - this has me stumped and I had added mg yesterday!! pH 8.1 daytime down to 7.9 night (apex) nitrate - 5 (lowest on hagen test kit) phosphate .07 (hanna ckr - down from .11 yesterday. added phospban with new reactor)

I am fighting green hair algae! I clean the rock with toothbrush its back in two days. Turbo snails don't seem to bother it nor my crabs. I do 15 gal water changes every two weeks using reef crystals and ro/di water. My sandbed is argonite but not deep - about 2 inches except where the clown keeps shifting it near the anemone. I have about 65 lbs of live rock. I have very good coraline algae on it. I have not really syphoned the sand - leave that to my nassarius snails - but I am wondering if I should being syphoning it and aggressivly blow the rock off with a powerhead when doing the next changes.

My sps frags and not doing anything so I know my parameters are off. Monti's have color, but not much growth going on. I have a small birdsnest that is supposed to be easy sps - not doing well.

As I battle to keep the alk up (I use seachem reef builder) the other parameters go off. I am getting frustrated as I know ALK CA MG are the most important but I do not know how to get these in balance.

Sorry for the book, but wanted to give you an overall of what I have. I am hoping for help with green hair algae and how to raise these paramaters to better suit the sps I am trying to grow. Thanks so much!

 

[swannyson7]

First off, are you positive that it's hair algae and not something else? I only ask because GHA is usally consumed by turbo snails. Does it have feathery tips? You may want to post a picture for positive ID.

Hair algae is caused by excess nutrients, so you might want to try cutting down on your feeding or skimming slightly wetter to help reduce them. You may also want to consider user a media reactor with GFO to help bring down your phosphates, because levels below 0.03 are preferred. Elevated PO4 levels will alos lead to color loss and stunted growth in you SPS. Once you get you PO4 & NO3 under control then your algae outbreak will pass and the SPS should color up and grow.

As far as the SPS growth is concerned, your calcium levels are a bit low...You should shoot for around 430-450. Without a difinitive reading on your magnesium, it's dificult to give any advice, but either way they are a bit low... try to shoot for 1350-1400. When your magnesium levels are low, it will be difficult to maintain Calcium & alkalinity within acceptable ranges. You may want to consider bringing a sample of water to your LFS and have them test your parameters to see how they compare to your results. To maintain your Ca & Alk, you should look into a quality 2 part dosing regimen (or 3-part to include mag) and use reef calculators to determine your dosing schedule.

 

[SaltyGal]

Thanks for the reply! I was using a reactor with phosban and carbon and did not feel the phosban was tumbling enough, so I invested in a phosban reactor that I just installed yesterday with phosban and kept the other small reactor for carbon. The PO4 is down from .11 to .07 from that change today. I am figuring though from what I have read that the reading is false and may indeed be higher because the algae consumes phosphate.

Here are the pix - I hope you can see them ok. The algae is brown/green and is growing on rocks and now on coral. I wondering if I am spreading it by using the toothbrush to remove the gross amounts between water changes. It looks like thick hair so that is why I thought it was gha.

Any suggestions as to reliable mg test kit? My LFS uses api for all except mg - they use seachem. I could take a sample over, but I did not think api were very reliable for reef. That is why I invested in red sea reef and salifert. As I used them up, I then bought the hanna for alk and phosphate.

 

[_Alex_]

looks like GHA to me, and turbo's should eat it.... GFO reactor worked great for us on it.

as far as test kits i like salifert, and i agree with already said, evreyhtign is going to have trouble growing with your calcium and magnesium at those lvls. a good 2 part mixed with magnesium would fix it fairly easy. but you want to raise the lvls slowly not to shock anything.

here is a good starter kit for 2 part. they also have a bit larget setup for like $20 more..

Two Part Calcium and Alkalinity Total Package (Small ) - English

 

[SaltyGal]

thanks - I will look into this.