About a month and a half ago, maybe two, I had posted that I was experiencing coral loss and thought it might be my lights. I received a plethora of good useable general and technical information about my particular lighting system and information that I will be using to tweak my lighting. I also have had this red turf algae that has just not gone away, been about a year and a half. Having near 0 detectable nutrients in the water column and constantly doing water changes without any resolve.
While doing a water change about 5 weeks ago I noticed, while I was inspecting my sump with a flashlight, almost all of the live rock that I had in that chamber was covered with detritus. Well, after removing all of the live rock and cleaning it in a bucket of tank water and a bucket of RO. I then siphoned the remaining detritus out of the chamber. To make a long story short, after all was said and done and the entire sump "cleaned". I had over an inch of detritus at the bottom of a 5 gal. bucket.
Since cleaning and weekly 30 gal. water changes (150 display/75 sump) everything is looking a lot nicer, more colorful and better polyp extension. So what I am trying to pass on, is to not get complacent with the maintenance of the sump as well as equipment. But yea, I couldn't believe it until I had seen it in the bucket. This tank has been running for about 6-7 years and I have never, up until this point "cleaned" the sump. The red turf algae, it is peeling off in droves and coraline is taking its place already and the fish are more colorful. I hope this helps someone else that is scratching their head.
Ernie
While doing a water change about 5 weeks ago I noticed, while I was inspecting my sump with a flashlight, almost all of the live rock that I had in that chamber was covered with detritus. Well, after removing all of the live rock and cleaning it in a bucket of tank water and a bucket of RO. I then siphoned the remaining detritus out of the chamber. To make a long story short, after all was said and done and the entire sump "cleaned". I had over an inch of detritus at the bottom of a 5 gal. bucket.
Since cleaning and weekly 30 gal. water changes (150 display/75 sump) everything is looking a lot nicer, more colorful and better polyp extension. So what I am trying to pass on, is to not get complacent with the maintenance of the sump as well as equipment. But yea, I couldn't believe it until I had seen it in the bucket. This tank has been running for about 6-7 years and I have never, up until this point "cleaned" the sump. The red turf algae, it is peeling off in droves and coraline is taking its place already and the fish are more colorful. I hope this helps someone else that is scratching their head.
Ernie
