douglaslps
New Member
- Joined
- Nov 5, 2019
- Messages
- 15
- Reaction score
- 39
Hey everyone,
This is my second post to the forum and I'm looking for advice.
Let me try to give you all the relevant information as an introduction.
I have a 66 gallons tank, with a relatively small population of fish and corals. You can see a video of my tank here:
In June this year I removed a chaetomorpha reactor from the sump because it was leaking water into the LEDs compartment. At the same time, I added a HOG1x ATS as a "replacement" but this never really quicked in. I only have a small focus of algae at the bottom of the ATS where the bubbles come out and the light is more intense since I'm still using the dark cloth to block some light (If I remove it the algae won't grow at all).
At the same time, I see a lot of brown algae in the display - in the back glass and in the substrate. I was attributing the brown algae to silicate from my RO+DI water, but I changed the resin recently and the algae persist. Even though TDS does not indicate silicate, it is marking zero before and after the DI stage.
I have a Tunze DOC Skimmer 9410 which I believe should be removing more dirt than it is. To fix that I removed the 1.5 inches foam I used to have bellow it and I will monitor the results.
I'm not a big fan of water changes: I dose balling to replace KH, Ca and Mg. Since most of the trace elements are also present in the formula I use, I see very little reason for the water changes.
On top of brown algae, I also have some areas with red slime (cyanobacteria). I can control it by siphoning the substrate and the rock where it is, but it will eventually come back. Using Ultralife Red Slime really helps with both brown algae and cyano but after a few weeks, it is back on.
I do not overfeed my fish. One of the ocellaris is with me for more than 3 years (came from my old tank) and you can see in the video it is not very large.
I do have a good flow, controlled by a Nero pump in the display.
Every other week I dose Marine Snow, but I have not dosed it since the brown algae and the cyano came back.
I was reading this great article from Randy Holmes Farley (https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/o...-reef-aquarium-by-randy-holmes-farley.173563/) and noticed there are people who indicate iron could encourage cyano. Since I'm dosing balling and that includes iron as a trace element I'm thinking this could be a problem. Hard to tell without a good test kit. I thought about an ICP test but that is kind of expensive.
My planned course of action:
- Prepare some saltwater
- Siphon the sump; There is accumulated detritus at the bottom of it.
- Replace the removed water with new water
- Siphon the areas with cyano
- If cyano is back, I will purchase another bottle of Ultralife Red Slime
- If cyano is back after a while I'm considering adding my chaetomorpha reactor back into the system.
Should I do something different?
This is my second post to the forum and I'm looking for advice.
Let me try to give you all the relevant information as an introduction.
I have a 66 gallons tank, with a relatively small population of fish and corals. You can see a video of my tank here:
In June this year I removed a chaetomorpha reactor from the sump because it was leaking water into the LEDs compartment. At the same time, I added a HOG1x ATS as a "replacement" but this never really quicked in. I only have a small focus of algae at the bottom of the ATS where the bubbles come out and the light is more intense since I'm still using the dark cloth to block some light (If I remove it the algae won't grow at all).
At the same time, I see a lot of brown algae in the display - in the back glass and in the substrate. I was attributing the brown algae to silicate from my RO+DI water, but I changed the resin recently and the algae persist. Even though TDS does not indicate silicate, it is marking zero before and after the DI stage.
I have a Tunze DOC Skimmer 9410 which I believe should be removing more dirt than it is. To fix that I removed the 1.5 inches foam I used to have bellow it and I will monitor the results.
I'm not a big fan of water changes: I dose balling to replace KH, Ca and Mg. Since most of the trace elements are also present in the formula I use, I see very little reason for the water changes.
On top of brown algae, I also have some areas with red slime (cyanobacteria). I can control it by siphoning the substrate and the rock where it is, but it will eventually come back. Using Ultralife Red Slime really helps with both brown algae and cyano but after a few weeks, it is back on.
I do not overfeed my fish. One of the ocellaris is with me for more than 3 years (came from my old tank) and you can see in the video it is not very large.
I do have a good flow, controlled by a Nero pump in the display.
Every other week I dose Marine Snow, but I have not dosed it since the brown algae and the cyano came back.
I was reading this great article from Randy Holmes Farley (https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/o...-reef-aquarium-by-randy-holmes-farley.173563/) and noticed there are people who indicate iron could encourage cyano. Since I'm dosing balling and that includes iron as a trace element I'm thinking this could be a problem. Hard to tell without a good test kit. I thought about an ICP test but that is kind of expensive.
My planned course of action:
- Prepare some saltwater
- Siphon the sump; There is accumulated detritus at the bottom of it.
- Replace the removed water with new water
- Siphon the areas with cyano
- If cyano is back, I will purchase another bottle of Ultralife Red Slime
- If cyano is back after a while I'm considering adding my chaetomorpha reactor back into the system.
Should I do something different?
