New brown stringy algae in sand

[reeferfoxx]

Gotcha. I figured since they were 0.02 higher than they were yesterday, I should be concerned. In addition, most of what I read says to keep Phosphates around 0.02ppm. On the contrary, if you look at other "mixed reef" recommendations, they suggest 1-2ppm nitrate and 0.08-0.12 phosphate. This recipe certainly more closely aligns with the Redfield ratio of 106:16:1.

I'll hold off on the reactor for now. Thanks for keeping an eye on me, @reeferfoxx. In any case, I finished dosing for this evening and giving the BioFuel a little time to "marinate" before I crank the skimmer and UV back up.

In other news related to my OCD, I also decided I'm sick of Chaeto. I can't begin to explain how much money and time I've invested in buying Chaeto balls of various sizes from AlgaeBarn, converting my ATO to a fuge, purchasing specialized lighting, etc. In the end, it always dies and all I have to show for it is clogged skimmer and return pumps. The latest 1/4 pound I purchased is now down to a mass a little smaller than a golf ball, so I'm just going to trash it. Once I'm stable again, I'm going to go back to Activated Carbon, GFO (or Aluminum Oxide because I hate GFO dust), and Biopellets.

I'll be back tomorrow with yet another exciting update.

I think the best thing to do right now is let the tank settle. Keep it basic. Feed the fish, not the coral, don't dose anything, and it wouldn't hurt to run the uv and the skimmer.

 

[sfin52]

Fully agree with @reeferfoxx skimmer ,uv and activated carbon wouldn't hurt either.

 

[reeferfoxx]

Well besides nitrates and any ALK or CA.

 

[rsumner]

Well besides nitrates and any ALK or CA.

Yep, that's all I dosed tonight with the exception of the BioFuel (which I'll stop now that I'm seeing the Nitrogen needle move). How often would you change your Activated Carbon while dealing with this type of fun, @sfin52 ?

 

[Firemanreefkeeper]

You asked about dino-x a few posts back. I've used it and it fixed my dino problem in 10 days. It hasn't come back in 4 months. Knock on wood. I had to fix my phosphate problem too. Mine was over 200 ppb on my Hanna ultra low range checker.
On a side note, I'm curious how you are converting ppb to ppm?

 

[rsumner]

You asked about dino-x a few posts back. I've used it and it fixed my dino problem in 10 days. It hasn't come back in 4 months. Knock on wood. I had to fix my phosphate problem too. Mine was over 200 ppb on my Hanna ultra low range checker.
On a side note, I'm curious how you are converting ppb to ppm?

Thanks for the confirmation, @Firemanreefkeeper. I'm gonna stick to the current plan of creating a balanced Nitrogen and Phosphate ratio and running Skimmer, UV, and probably some activated carbon.

As for the conversion of PPB Phosphorus that your ULR returns, to PPM Phosphate, I use this table from Hanna: https://hannainst.com/resources/aqu...phate-conversion-table--hanna-instruments.pdf

 

[Firemanreefkeeper]

Thank you for the link.
I know what you are going through. I would lightly clean the sand off and be brown free for 2 hours then come back and it was full again. "How did it happen so fast" I kept asking myself? You can and will win the battle, it just takes time.

 

[reeferfoxx]

How often would you change your Activated Carbon while dealing with this type of fun,

Typically gac is only good for 4 to 7 days.

 

[rsumner]

Typically gac is only good for 4 to 7 days.

That aligns with how frequently I usually change it. I usually change it weekly when I do my water changes, but I will probably drop it back to 2 x weekly while I’m dealing with this outbreak.

 

[rsumner]

Nitrate was back down to 1ppm today and Phosphates back down to 0.021 ppm. I dosed NeoNitro again and ended up having to order another 500 mL of it since the little 250mL bottle I originally got is nearly gone now. I didn't dose BioFuel tonight since I saw a change in both Nitrate and Phosphate indicating that I'm not carbon limited any longer.

I'll hopefully have my activated carbon up and running again tonight and the UV is still running 24x7. I need to clean the sand's surface again this weekend too cuz it's lookin funky.

I wonder if I should hold-off on my regularly scheduled water change?

 

[reeferfoxx]

Nitrate was back down to 1ppm today and Phosphates back down to 0.021 ppm. I dosed NeoNitro again and ended up having to order another 500 mL of it since the little 250mL bottle I originally got is nearly gone now. I didn't dose BioFuel tonight since I saw a change in both Nitrate and Phosphate indicating that I'm not carbon limited any longer.

I'll hopefully have my activated carbon up and running again tonight and the UV is still running 24x7. I need to clean the sand's surface again this weekend too cuz it's lookin funky.

I wonder if I should hold-off on my regularly scheduled water change?

Make sure you aren't limiting phosphates either. Shifting nutrient consumption from dinos to other algae is the goal here. Other algae also supply food for microfauna that will help keep dino numbers low.

Once you get that UV up and running, then you should start stirring the sandbed. Disrupting the colonies into the water column and getting zapped by the UV is the goal.

As far as water changes go, maintaining them shouldn't do any harm. Keep it bi-weekly.

 

[rsumner]

Make sure you aren't limiting phosphates either. Shifting nutrient consumption from dinos to other algae is the goal here. Other algae also supply food for microfauna that will help keep dino numbers low.

Once you get that UV up and running, then you should start stirring the sandbed. Disrupting the colonies into the water column and getting zapped by the UV is the goal.

As far as water changes go, maintaining them shouldn't do any harm. Keep it bi-weekly.

Alrighty. I'll start to dose Phosphorus if Phosphates drop any lower than 0.02. I have had the UV running for the past 48 hours, so I'll stir the sandbed tonight when I clean it. I snagged an automatic cleaner so I don't have to change water while I do it. I usually change about 15% of my water weekly, but I'm going to push that out to every two weeks especially while I'm dosing Nitrogen.

 

[sfin52]

There has some been some talk that our salt mixes may increase dino growth. Dino are bigger than 10 microns. I recommend sphiononing water into a bucket through a a 10 microns sock and pouring the water back into the tank.

 

[rsumner]

The powered (corded and not battery powered) circulating gravel vac I got off Amazon worked like a charm last night. The large tooth comb tip that it comes with allowed me to drag it over the surface of the sand and easily pickup all the algae strings without having to do a huge water change. I also blew off the rocks and coral last night (and again this morning) with a turkey baster making 3 or 4 passes over as much of the rock as I could reach blowing plenty of nastiness into the water column. To export all of this extra garbage out of the system, I've been changing socks once to twice daily.

The UV is still running 24x7, but I am a little worried about my temperature increase that has accompanied the use of an additional Sicce Syncra 2.0 pump and the 36W UV sterilizer that it feeds -- they crept up to 78.8 last night. I wonder if I would be introducing too much risk by only running the UV at night when the lights are off? I do intend on reconfiguring my hard-plumbing setup this weekend adding one or two accessory ports to my manifold so I can run the UV without having to use the additional pump. I'm adding about 76W of additional equipment to my system right now with both. My Reef Octopus VarioS-8 is only running at 50% power right now, so I've got plenty of petal to handle additional ports.



I got my GAC reactor up and running processing about 52GPH and the water is certainly smelling a lot better . As you can see from my Apex dashboard, GFO is still off and I'm not dosing Trace (Seachem Reef Trace) or Amino Acids (Seachem Reef Plus).

The really cool (and perplexing) thing is that I haven't had to clean the glass on my tank since I started dosing Nitrates. Excuse the ugly UV sanitizer that I have rigged up using it's HOB adapter, but here's the latest at what I look at all day from my desk at my home office.

 

[rsumner]

I guess I should move a lot of this diary-style posting to a build thread .

 

[reeferfoxx]

I guess I should move a lot of this diary-style posting to a build thread .

Nope. You're doing great!

The really cool (and perplexing) thing is that I haven't had to clean the glass on my tank since I started dosing Nitrates.

What's amazing is how inceasing nutrients can eliminate a lot of issues for tanks.

Quick question, how much flow do you have going through the UV and how is it plumbed?

 

[sfin52]

Dino enter water colum at night so uv at night is good. I would keep an eye on the heat.

guess I should move a lot of this diary-style posting to a build thread

Keep it here. It will help others who look it up.

 

[rsumner]

Nope. You're doing great! What's amazing is how inceasing nutrients can eliminate a lot of issues for tanks. Quick question, how much flow do you have going through the UV and how is it plumbed?

I agree on the nutrients. I have my spare Syncra 2.0 in the return section, coming out to the UV via 1" vinyl tubing and then going back into the return section via 1" vinyl tubing. I couldn't tell you how much flow I'm running through it right now other than I have the Syncra pump inline closed all the way. The flow rates for the 12x Coralife 12X UV Sterilizer mention 290 GPH for Parasites, 680 GPH for Algae, and and 1550 GPH for Bacteria. The Syncra 2.0 maxes out around 568GPH, so I'm probably running around 1/2 that, but I don't have a Neptune Flow meter on it because it's running off barbs. I guess there's a chance I'm running too little water through the UV and it's heating the water up.

Once I'm done rebuilding my manifold, I'll have flow a flow meter attached to the port that will run the UV, so I can get a bit more specific with the flow.

 

[reeferfoxx]

I agree on the nutrients. I have my spare Syncra 2.0 in the return section, coming out to the UV via 1" vinyl tubing and then going back into the return section via 1" vinyl tubing. I couldn't tell you how much flow I'm running through it right now other than I have the Syncra pump inline closed all the way. The flow rates for the 12x Coralife 12X UV Sterilizer mention 290 GPH for Parasites, 680 GPH for Algae, and and 1550 GPH for Bacteria. The Syncra 2.0 maxes out around 568GPH, so I'm probably running around 1/2 that, but I don't have a Neptune Flow meter on it because it's running off barbs. I guess there's a chance I'm running too little water through the UV and it's heating the water up.

Once I'm done rebuilding my manifold, I'll have flow a flow meter attached to the port that will run the UV, so I can get a bit more specific with the flow.

I think your flow rate is spot on despite specifics. You have it where I would put it also. At this point, nutrients are your focus. Bi-weekly water changes and maybe some introduction of microbial diversity via plankton, bacteria, live rock rubble or pieces, live sand from a healthy system, and keeping things simple wins the fight.

 

[rsumner]

I've got a bottle of Dr Tim's one and only that arrived this past weekend that I'll get going shortly. Today, Nitrates are much higher. Parameters as of this evening:

Alkalinity: 7.4 (I'll manually dose some Soda Ash tonight to increase this and my PH)
Calcium: 431
Phosphate: 0.024 ppm
Nitrate: 5ppm
pH: 8.05
Temp: 78.3
Salinity: 34.4

With Nitrates at 5, should I consider a small 5 or 10 gallon water change to get them back down to 3ppm? To be honest, I didn't test my Nitrates last night yet I still dosed 40mL. I **could** have been solid at 3ppm. GRR!!!!

I was a disappointed I didn't get my plumbing redone this weekend, but too much kid stuff going on. On a positive note, I still haven't decided on a design yet because now I'm thinking of incorporating UV as a permanent fixture. I really do hate how big these things are though -- it's so hard to design plumbing to fit under my Reefer 525 XL.