ReeferMadness80G’s Shallow SPS Reef

[Katrina71]

We do have redeeming qualities! Some of us even have a tank.

 

[ReeferMadness80G]

We do have redeeming qualities! Some of us even have a tank.

I don't think we'd have a place to live if my wife had a tank of her own.

 

[Katrina71]

My husband swears it's just a shed..

 

[Katrina71]

How big of a cube ya think I could fit?

 

[SashimiTurtle]

We do have redeeming qualities! Some of us even have a tank.

I don't think we'd have a place to live if my wife had a tank of her own.

I keep telling my fiancee the 10g planted FW tank is hers. She said because I have 3 cory cats in there and she only has the betta, that it's my tank too. Hey at least I'm getting her to like stuff in my SW tanks too. She likes the urchins and the coral, but not the fish. I think she's just trying to not get attached because of the velvet, but they are out of the woods.

 

[Velcro]

My husband swears it's just a shed..

I think he might plan on living upstairs!

 

[ReeferMadness80G]

Quick update- there is a lot of algae growing, confused a bit bc initially it was almost all gone until I added the sticks from the nano. Parameters are
Alk-8
Cal-620
Mg-1410
No3-2.5ppm
PO4-0
However I haven't done a water change in this tank yet, it's been up for a few months now. Maybe it's time? Also, I'm running 4 old blue + bulbs on my ATI Sunpower, I'm going to change them this weekend and do a water change.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Could just be tank uglies... Time to beef up CUC?

 

[ReeferMadness80G]

Could just be tank uglies... Time to beef up CUC?

That's what I was thinkin but I already had a lot of algae and then it went away. Now it's come back. I lessened my photoperiod by a few hours so we'll see if that helps also.

 

[KJoFan]

Could be imbalance of nutrients? If P is at 0 and N is at 2.5? I'm not sure but I did a tank transfer from a biocube to an IM40 with the same rock and added a piece or two for the larger tank. Old tank never had algae. I brought P down in the new tank too far, bottomed it out at 0 and now I've got hair algae gaining ground steadily, as well as a little green slime and cyano. I can only think it might have been the nutrient imbalance, but, then again, maybe not.

 

[ReeferMadness80G]

How can I add PO4?

Edit:Robin, don't you have a little experience in this?

 

[KJoFan]

How can I add PO4?

Edit:Robin, don't you have a little experience in this?

Not sure off the top if there's a substance that can be added to increase PO4. But, can always go the route of more fish and more food.

 

[tsav87]

More fish and more food are probably the safest way to add in po4

 

[ReeferMadness80G]

Yeah I probably need some bigger fish. I have mostly nano sized fish from my biocube build. That's exciting! I get to buy more fish! I feed pellets too, is that better or worse in my situation for increasing po4

 

[tsav87]

Pellets are kinda like MM's candy for fish. Lol

Get some Rods frozen or LRS frozen to use as it's the closet to their natural diet. Plus its very clean and more forgiving compared to pellets. It's hard to over feed in other words.

 

[ReeferMadness80G]

Pellets are kinda like MM's candy for fish. Lol

Get some Rods frozen or LRS frozen to use as it's the closet to their natural diet. Plus its very clean and more forgiving compared to pellets. It's hard to over feed in other words.

Lol! I usually feed Hikari frozen mysis, but recently tried some sample packs from RAP of pellets and the fish seemed to like it.

 

[KJoFan]

I think dry foods, pellets etc have and contribute more P than frozen, especially LRS which I think has little to no P.

Moar fish!

 

[drawman]

How can I add PO4?

Edit:Robin, don't you have a little experience in this?

I've used brightwell NeoPhos when feeding alone doesn't raise PO4. Flake foods are probably more PO4 heavy also.

 

[ReeferMadness80G]

So are we saying that my recent algae growth is contributed to no Phosphate?

Also, my tank is only about 3 months old but I cycled with microbactr7 and had an initial diatom/ algae bloom but it cleared up.

 

[rockstarta78]

Anytime I needed to raise PO4, I used this from Seachem. It's a very good PO4 source. A little goes a long way. I was battling Dino for the longest time since both my PO4 and NO3 bottomed out. Now I try to maintain PO4 at 0.03ppm and NO3 between 5~10ppm. With a decent CUC you should be able to manage your algae issue. Something interesting I read the other day, supposedly if you add a frag that has algae stuck to it, dip that frag plug in H2O2 solution for 30 seconds and all the algae will die before you put it in your DT. I am going to try next time I add a frag that has algae on it.

EDIT; Seachem actually has a calculator on their site that tells you how much you need to add to raise your PO4 level.