Sand, rock and flow maintenance?

[Griff]

ive been reefing for about 3-4 years now and have never been able to get rid of GHA.

My previous system was an IM Nuvo 30L. My newer system 1 yr old now is a Red Sea reefer 525xl.

In the 30 g a was able to maintain nutrient levels fairly low never had much coral growth over 2-3 years. Overall I was happy with the system but I was always pulling GHA out. didn't completely take over until I bought the reefer 525xl and focused more on that.

Now I'm roughly 1 yr I to the reefer and I'm having similar issues. This leads me to believe I'm doing something wrong. I have never tested no3 above 0 other than when It was first setup and PO4 has always been below .03 as well. I know I want my No3 a little higher and will be starting to dose that soon.

Alk 8.5
Calcium 450
Mag 1400
PO4 0
no3 0

These are from tests as of this week.

Blue hippo
Yellow tang
Orange spot blennie
2 clowns
4 anthias

All the food I feed gets eaten within minutes.
Flow is return pump( 2000 gal per hour)cranked up a little over halfway and maxpect gyre 150
Do I need more flow? The gyre is about 1/2 cranked up as well but on pulse mode. If I turn it up higher it creates a sand storm and my euphyllia don't seem to like it. I have roughly 45 acros that aren't doing well and some lps that also not doing well. I attribute this to lack of nutrients in the system.

I clean the sand bed by siphoning the parts I can reach about 1/4 of the sand bed per water change which I do every 1-2 weeks. Also running phosban reactor 150 with 50% carbon and phosban.

The GHA is in the sand bed and on the rocks. I do stir the bed a little once or twice a week but only 4-6 cups at a time. I also started dosing vibrant twice a week and am about to do my third dose tonight.

Are there any maintenance things I'm not doing? I have shop vacuumed the sump once through a filer sock the. Returned the water to display. I typically don't blow off the rocks, should I be? If so how often.

Please help. I keep going back and forth on getting out of the hobby because I'm unhappy with how things look.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

After some similar thinking, and some small experiments, I do wonder if Ive been shorting myself on cuc.
My qt now has become the algae cleaning station. the tanks pretty much empty def no real algae so now I drop a fuzzy covered frag in and the next morning its clean.

 

[Griff]

My clean up crew is probably a little light right now based on the amount of GHA that I have. I did order about 40 more snails 2 weeks ago and they still aren't in and no email from the company. If I don't here from them y Tuesday I'm going to call my cc company and report it as fraud. I've already tried emailing the once.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

My clean up crew is probably a little light right now based on the amount of GHA that I have. I did order about 40 more snails 2 weeks ago and they still aren't in and no email from the company. If I don't here from them y Tuesday I'm going to call my cc company and report it as fraud. I've already tried emailing the once.

ugg. insult to injury.:mad:

 

[Griff]

Do you worry about inverts getting stuck in skimmer pumps etc?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Do you worry about inverts getting stuck in skimmer pumps etc?

no. I take the best precautions I can, and relly cant afford to worry about everything. Ive only ever had a snails or three mess with my ato float. just got a different float cover.

 

[Sealife Aquariums Corp.]

Do u have a foam fractionator? Is it stripping nutrients,?

 

[Griff]

I am using a slightly oversized protein skimmer

 

[Griff]

I turned it off during the day for a week and only ran it at night and I got a cyano outbreak so I haven't done that since.

 

[DanConnor]

You want some mexican turbos, along with an urchin for a hair algae clean up crew. They alone might do it.

Also API algaefix has worked for me in the past and injured nothing.

You could possibly remove the sand, at least temporarily to see what happens.

 

[jacobSD]

Pics would probably help. Depending on the amount of GHA it could be masking your true nitrate readings. Do you have a refugium running by chance? Adding macros could help with additional nitrate removal which could kill/prevent GHA. What about your lighting schedule?

 

[jacobSD]

I would be careful adding a ton of inverts as they can die off and contribute to the problem. A strong CUC is a good thing but adding a lot of turbos could potentially be bad as they tend to die off quickly.

 

[Sealife Aquariums Corp.]

I turned it off during the day for a week and only ran it at night and I got a cyano outbreak so I haven't done that since.

Maybe u r right to add more current. What does the collection cup look like?

 

[DanConnor]

I would be careful adding a ton of inverts as they can die off and contribute to the problem. A strong CUC is a good thing but adding a lot of turbos could potentially be bad as they tend to die off quickly.

Well, you don't add a ton, you add the right amount. And keep an eye on them.

 

[jacobSD]

Well yeah of course. I've seen a lot of people over do it and forget to monitor the CUC

 

[Griff]

It was 20 ceriths 25 nerites 1 Mexican turbo 1 fighting conch and 10 astreas. My clean up crew seems to be slowly disappearing and I only see 15-20 on the glass and walls at night. There is definitely enough algae for all as of right now. I do have a small fuge with a piece of cheato the size of a baseball. That being said the cheato does t grow much and has been taken over by GHA as well. I'll snap some pics of the algae tomorrow.

 

[Lninwa]

You didn't say if you are using todo water. I hope you are

 

[Griff]

You didn't say if you are using todo water. I hope you are

Rodi comes out at 0-.02 before it hits the di resin

 

[Griff]

Do I just have a tough strain of GHA?

 

[BlueCursor]

My Halloween urchin eats anything green in the tank. I have to take pity on and put him in my refugium for a couple days every two weeks so he gets some good food.