PERPLEXED ?!?!?!?

[WVUreefer]

Turf algae..can't shake it..running a biopellet reactor..just installed a scrubber 1 mo agao..nitrates dropped from a consistent 5ppm to 2 ppm (red sea)..PO4 reads 0 ppm (salifert)..something has to be off..right now it seems Im at the stage of just managing algae growth instead of eradicating it..My SPS show jow dropping polyp extension and nice colors..what gives?..any ideas?..this is just annoying..I'm think salifert test is bad..

 

[brandon429]

I beat it in my sleep with peroxide wanna be tank no 114

Trying to address all algae as nutrient issues is the problem, the early sages and authors got that terribly wrong, but then again how easy is it to state something in a book and not have to run a live time proof thread. Once those proof threads get out sixty pages, serious business results.

http://reef2reef.com/threads/reef2reef-pest-algae-challenge-thread-hydrogen-peroxide.187042/page-13


There are natural ways too, grazers ideally, they're just variable and that above isn't. Part of the problem is not grouping algae among those who do respond to po4 work, like gha. Your variant is very nutrient independent, and corals aren't so they're bleaching.

 

[brandon429]

to sum up headache's worth of reading to find your specific invader among those listed, its this:

take out an easy to reach test rock that doesn't destruct your whole set, and remove it from the tank. use a metal tool or knife to literally rasp and remove 100% of it off. That rock is now carpet free. toothbrushing wont work, that leaves holdfasts/roots. knife or metal tool doesn't, you just made your test rock free of brush algae like a parrotfish would have done on the real reef (now we begin to match the natural complements of control to a specific invader, an anchored benthic variant) and the scrapes you made will seat back over with coralline in time.

put peroxide on the cleaned areas now, let sit for 4 mins cooking the microscopic bits you missed.

put rock back in, and now compare it to all other methods you will ever try and see which is best and post us before and after pics.

any other method you'll try is a whole tank commitment + time + variability in outcome, the threads will show for it.


any test rock you do with our method has no variability and only has fixed results though they are buried among a bunch of verbose type heh. check the threads, pix galore. To have a brush algae problem past tomorrow is fully optional choice, talk about a stated compliance date...

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

It's a health tank. Everything is eating well. No it's not the perfect furniture but the plants and animals don't care about that.
My tank is having what some furniture owners would call serious issues and yea my corals are exploding too. Esp the SPS.
Myth busted?

Are you running a fuge or ats?

 

[brandon429]

its true that in the wild if I was diving and saw a large carpet of green brush algae, that would signify ideal not bad water conditions (so stop attacking water is my takeaway, not working for target, harming coral they want more N and P)

those reefs that grow copious algae to feed grazers often test 0 0 on the test kits we use, yet the algae grows, and is natural. the only time its out of balance is when corals are smothered, and that's rarely a carpeting group. a hawksbill/ parrotfish/urchin or other rasper tends to get at first. we all simply want an unnatural outcome for our tanks, all corals no plants in the display tank, this is very unnatural and hard to attain.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Yup a funny odd accidental balance in my and the op tank.
Now to get out the lawnmower

 

[WVUreefer]

Yeah its crazy corals (sps, lps, softies) doing just fine...its just an annoyance issue..I only have 1 fish (clown) I don't feed very much or often..like I said it is just freaking annoying..

 

[WVUreefer]

Yeah its crazy corals (sps, lps, softies) doing just fine...its just an annoyance issue..I only have 1 fish (clown) I don't feed very much or often..like I said it is just freaking annoying..

 

[WVUreefer]

I'm thinking my salifert PO4 might be bad..I read that salifert is not the best for PO4

 

[brandon429]

My point is po4 factors not, in any reading, due to the genus of your invader and it's holdfast characters. Attack directly, win by Monday.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I'm slowly going back to how it's supposed to run. All the plants stay in the fuge.
My issue was caused by fish territory's and my talbot damsel started tunneling my Dsb. Alge in the DT took off. Macros in the fuge took off and the corals took off esp the SPS.
coincidently I had increased the light intensity an spectrum in the fuge and the DT right before it happened. Probably the only thing that saved me from real trouble. MY Po is reading off the charts though.
30 days and some of my SPS doubled in size.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

My point is po4 factors not, in any reading, due to the genus of your invader and it's holdfast characters. Attack directly, win by Monday.

Haha. I'm not sure I'm done with this experiment yet
I already did the scrub and win then cyano an Po execution with light and refugium experiment in my other tank.
And I refuse to reopen the bottle of GFO I bought four years ago