newbie corals and fish

[mcarroll]

Yeah.

There's been a 120 gal in my future for like a decade now. Stuff happens, you know? So I keep the 50 gal and 38 gal kicking.

 

[saltrookie53]

well there is always hope right the second we let hope die we start dieing.

 

[Joshua Hurst]

I have nice game I could sell you. Have you had a tank before? If not I would strong suggest getting a starter coral such as a Favia,Xania, knya trees, or leaters. I could send you some pictures!

 

[saltrookie53]

I'm good for now.

 

[saltrookie53]

ordered a clean up crew the four days ago. GHA got massively bad. but nothing showing up on my parameters. should be here tomorrow or the next day.

 

[saltrookie53]

the only thing I can think of that is causing the bloom is phosphate.

 

[Joshua Hurst]

That is literally insane!!!

 

[BlueDevil]

You pretty much have only two options:

1. Status quo - let things be and pull out as much as you can and hope that it goes away over time. You could try a cuc (though I haven't found many to clear up the magnitude of GHA that you have) or play with Mg levels to help knock it out.

2. Pull out the rocks and do a muriatic acid / lanthanum chloride bath. This is sure to knock out any PO4 that may be bound in the rock. I suspect it is the rocks that are leaching PO4 that is causing the hair algae.

Since this is such a new setup I would opt for option 2 if I were in your shoes. It will only set you back by a couple of weeks. But it will definitely serve you well in the long run else you may end up fighting with the GHA for quite some time.

 

[USMC 4 LIFE]

Pull the rocks out individually into a bucket of fresh RODI water. Scrub the algae off and place the clean rock back in the tank.

I would cut down on your light schedule until the CUC arrives. I personally wouldn't acid bath my rock.

 

[Brew12]

I found H2O2 to be very effective in cleaning GHA.

 

[BlueDevil]

Pull the rocks out individually into a bucket of fresh RODI water. Scrub the algae off and place the clean rock back in the tank.

I would cut down on your light schedule until the CUC arrives. I personally wouldn't acid bath my rock.

That would get rid of the surface algae but IMHO won't treat the root cause of the problem which is likely PO4 bound in the rock.

 

[Mark75]

Unless you ordered 3 grown manatees your clean up grew will not get a head of that hair algae. [emoji13]

 

[USMC 4 LIFE]

That would get rid of the surface algae but IMHO won't treat the root cause of the problem which is likely PO4 bound in the rock.

Exactly. We don't know the cause so why go to extreme measures when it likely won't resolve the issue. Taking ten minutes to scrub the rock gives you plenty of time to find the cause and then taking appropriate measures.

 

[BlueDevil]

Exactly. We don't know the cause so why go to extreme measures when it likely won't resolve the issue. Taking ten minutes to scrub the rock gives you plenty of time to find the cause and then taking appropriate measures.

But he doesn't have any life in the tank that is being fed. Therefore no suspended nutrient source. Where else could the PO4 come from besides leaching from the rocks?

An acid bath while extreme is very easy to do. It's not like he has corals on the rocks or the rocks are establish with coralline that he might want to salvage. Just to be clear - I would not take this 'extreme' measure if I knew it was other factors like overfeeding etc that was leading to excess nutrients in the tank or if the tank was already established.

Different strokes for different folks I guess.

 

[BlueDevil]

Another possible option if the algae is strictly tied to lights and not PO4 from rocks would be a 72 hour blackout. Then ease the lights in very slowly instead of blasting them from the get go.

 

[saltrookie53]

two ocean revive T247. 50 percent 9 hours a day. @BlueDevil

 

[BlueDevil]

two ocean revive T247. 50 percent 9 hours a day. @BlueDevil

50% on both blues as well as full spectrum? Just to give you a comparison (since I run two T247 as well) I started back in May and am only at 85 Blue and 25 Full. The full spectrums I bumped up 1% daily to get to where I am now and started at 5%. Blues can be increased slightly faster.

I run the blues for 12 hrs and full for 8 hrs a day.

 

[saltrookie53]

I kind of blasted it with light

 

[BlueDevil]

I kind of blasted it with light

That likely is your problem then. Too much light too soon causing the algae bloom. A blackout and/or manual scrubbing might be your best shot in this case.

 

[saltrookie53]

@BlueDevil lights on 5% toothbrush all rock. now waiting on the tank to settle back down....