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Unread 10/24/2016, 05:45 PM   #26
bitwise
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Salinity is 1.025 - 1.026, temp is ~80F.

I'm planning on bringing the magnesium up, going to start tomorrow when I get the Kent Tech M bottle I ordered.

Flow is moderate to moderate-high.

My photoperiod is currently 8 hrs of 4 bulbs, and 5.5 hrs of all 6 bulbs. I shortened the photoperiod because of algae issues earlier on.


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Unread 11/05/2016, 05:11 PM   #27
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I upped my magnesium level to 1335 ppm. I'm going to target 1300 ppm.

I have pretty high phosphate levels right now at 0.08 ppm. I'm going to try to bring this down to 0.02 - 0.03 ppm.

On a side note, I bought the Korallen Zucht nano power package. This contains 4 different KZ products in small vials. I've been experimenting with these supplements very sparingly.


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Unread 03/24/2018, 05:41 PM   #28
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It's been a really long time since I've posted on this thread. I took down the tank for some time while moving from one state to another and resetting up my life. During that time all my livestock was in a 20g long holding tank with a HOB filter.

I've had the Red Sea up and running since mid-summer 2017 but haven't posted any updates. I'm planning on getting this thread up and running again. I'll post some photos soon.


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Unread 03/27/2018, 07:49 PM   #29
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Here are a couple of photos from yesterday.


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Unread 04/11/2018, 07:44 PM   #30
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I've been trying to work through some pretty bad algae problems. I'm seeing green algae on the rocks, brown algae on the sand, more than ideal amounts of bubble algae, and stringy brown algae on the glass and back wall.

I've cut back feedings to every other day, I'm running my skimmer 24/7, and I'm running about 1/2 cup of GFO in a filter bag. Last time I tested phosphate it was at 0.05 ppm, nitrate was at 0.2 ppm.

I'm in the process now of trying to eliminate variables and keeping up with the husbandry. I started up my automatic water changing system about 3 weeks ago. I'm changing out 1 gallon per day. Ironically, the brown stringy algae seemed to get worse after I started up the system. This lead me to a deep dive on RODI systems and I realized how little I know about these things. It turned on my DI resin was completely exhausted (I bought the RODI system 4 years ago). Even so I was producing 0 TDS water. I've replaced the sediment filter, carbon block, and DI resin. I'm hoping this is the problem, but I don't know yet.

Interested to hear if anyone has any tips. This is a bummer. I'm trying to sort this out so I can experiment more with coral foods, etc, as most of my SPS are brown. I'm running the system very simply right now, just keeping the big 3 stable and feeding the fish.


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Unread 04/16/2018, 06:41 AM   #31
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I started dosing MicroBacter7 on Saturday. There are reports of this stuff helping with algae. My bottle is from Nov 2016 though, so it’s old, we’ll see.

I also moved the location of the vortech and that has helped deliver more flow. I have a second one that I have sitting in my basement that I could wire up.

So far so good, I don’t see the algae getting worse.


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Unread 04/25/2018, 06:45 AM   #32
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Put in a couple of turbo snails.
They should help with the algae.


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Unread 04/26/2018, 04:52 AM   #33
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Do you have a fuge system setup that you can grow cheato or some other macro in? If you get a fast growing variety and keep on top of the other algae you might get it to the point it can out compete the bad algae for nutrients. That and a bonus pod population will also help mow it down on the micro level.

Might be worth looking into some additional clean up crew options. I like to get more then just one type of snail for example. For nano tanks I get trochus, cerith (flordia and dwarf if possible), nerite, nassarius (not for algae of course), and sometimes the zig zag periwinkles or planaxis. When I had my 40 breeder setup I also used turbo snails, a chiton and a few limpets. Everything I listed here can be found on reef cleaners.

Having more then one species of snail really made a big difference for every algae issue I've had to deal with. Seemed like even though they all eat roughly the same algae, they really don't and some prefer or handle larger bits better, the smaller ones get it when its barely a film, etc.

Are your bulbs old? I run LED now and my last reef with a bulb system was 8 years ago but I swore I remember reading something about older bulbs getting goofy with the spectrums or something. That could be just a metal halide thing though or just me remembering wrong.


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Unread 05/14/2018, 06:33 AM   #34
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Thanks for the tips mndfreeze. I don’t have a fuge right now. My sump is more-or-less stock: I ditched the undersized Red Sea ATO reservoir and the micro bubble trap.

My bulbs are in good shape. They are T5s and have been replaced in the last 3-4 months.

The algae is slowly getting better. I’ve made a number of changes, probably too many at once.

- added a second vortech
- decreased lighting photo period slightly, decreased lighting intensity significantly (only running 4 of 6 bulbs), swapped out a purple plus bulb with a blue plus bulb
- using MicroBacter7
- switched from Rod’s to rinsed mysis
- added a turbo snail, a few nassarius snails, and 6 hermits
- temporarily using phosguard to try and strip any silicates

I’m probably forgetting something. One thing to note is nassarius don’t seem to like my tank - they seem lethargic and eventually die off. I had nassarius in a reef tank before I took a break from the hobby and they did great.


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Unread 05/29/2018, 07:00 PM   #35
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I'm still trying to get the upper hand on the algae growth in my tank. Things are a little bit better, but the improvement seems to have stopped.

The good news is I'm not seeing anymore long stringy brown algae - I think the phosguard I ran for about a week eliminated it.


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Unread 06/07/2018, 07:21 PM   #36
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I decided to share some coral shots this time, which should be a little more entertaining than reading about unsightly algae.


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Unread 06/07/2018, 07:22 PM   #37
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3 more shots.


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Unread 06/08/2018, 05:21 AM   #38
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Buy nassarius when they are small. A lot of stores seem to sell them as full grown adults and they don't seem to have the best lifespans. I just lost one yesterday in fact, though its very possible my tiger pistol killed him for wandering down into his hole. He does that sometimes. Terrible manners to guests.

My nassarius get lazy when I over feed. I've noticed they pop out less and less if I'm feeding meaty stuff too often. So much so that I went and bought more because I thought my original 8 was down to 2...came home with 5 new ones, fed a meaty mix and out come 7 large adults I haven't seen in a month lol.

IMO I still think some sort of macro algae to out compete the undesirable algae is something to consider. If you can't nail down the reasons causing it to begin with at least minimize the effects of that unknown while you slowly make other changes. Too many changes at one time lead to not knowing what is doing what when stuff does change, for the worse or better.

A tiger tail cucumber might help with algae growing on your sand. They poop out perfectly clean little sand piles.

I have a lot more rock in my 24G tank than you, and my tiger pistol is such an active digger that the entire front and sides of my tank get its top layer turned over every few days. The only spot he never puts an entrance is at the back and my nassarius seem to hit that spot enough.

In the end though you need to figure out the root cause of your algae. Since you took the tank down and put it back up again, it could just be that first rough year of new tank syndrome as the lengthy many tiny stages of balance haven't yet been achieved.


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Unread 06/12/2018, 10:13 PM   #39
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Tank is looking great. Nice choice on the ati lighting.


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Unread 07/08/2018, 03:40 PM   #40
bitwise
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I'm seeing less algae compared to two weeks ago. I think things are headed in the right direction again.

The three notable changes over the past 2 - 3 weeks are:
- added a full size GFO reactor (historically I've run GFO passively)
- started skimming wetter
- stopped doing water changes

I stopped doing water changes due to lazyness and visually things improved during that time so I've basically been continuing the experiment. I will pick up the water changes again soon.


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Unread 07/08/2018, 03:43 PM   #41
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Quote:
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Tank is looking great. Nice choice on the ati lighting.
Thanks, still working on the algae. I'm a fan of the light, for sure. I actually took out the fans from the fixture today to clean them out and I have to say I'm impressed with the quality of the fixture.


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Unread 07/08/2018, 03:47 PM   #42
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mndfreeze, thanks for all the tips. I'm still going down the GFO path and skipping the fuge. On my next tank I guarantee there will be a fuge.


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Unread 11/03/2018, 09:03 AM   #43
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Hi bitwise how are you in the fight with the algae?
Have you stopped kz products? I am curious because I have set up a red sea 170 and use the kz products. Has noticed that it is very sensitive and easy to overdose in such a small aquarium.

Best regards


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Unread 11/04/2018, 11:45 AM   #44
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I’ve got one of these tanks, got it last summer. Love this tank! Only thing I don’t like is the overflow control. I can’t seem to keep it from either overflowing through the emergency pipe, or going too low and making all sorts of noise. That dial sucks at adjusting the level.


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Unread 11/04/2018, 01:36 PM   #45
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Same problem here, it can work perfectly for several days and then you have to adjust again. Has seen that several owners have replaced the valve for a crane instead.


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Unread 11/04/2018, 04:36 PM   #46
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+1 on the drain adjustments, I feel like I'm adjusting it every 4 - 5 days at least.

syd: I've stopped dosing KZ products for the time being. I went on vacation for about 2 weeks in late September and came back to a tank full of algae. The algae was pretty bad before I went on vacation.

Since then I've been manually removing algae and went back to what was starting to work for me in July. It looks like things are getting better, I'm hopeful.

I'll see where I'm at next weekend and maybe I'll post some pics.


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Unread 11/04/2018, 04:39 PM   #47
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I think I'm learning first hand to only change a single thing at a time. I'm hopeful I can eradicate the algae in my tank by maintaining very low phosphates, and not changing anything else. Then I can start to experiment with coral foods and such.


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Unread 11/04/2018, 06:59 PM   #48
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Quote:
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I think I'm learning first hand to only change a single thing at a time. I'm hopeful I can eradicate the algae in my tank by maintaining very low phosphates, and not changing anything else. Then I can start to experiment with coral foods and such.
This is the general rule, but the hardest to follow for me. I’m getting better at it.


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Unread 11/10/2018, 01:37 PM   #49
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hi bitwise now it's next weekend, looking forward to some pictures.
kind regards


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Unread 11/12/2018, 08:20 PM   #50
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syd: here are some photos from tonight.

As you can see from the photos, still battling some algae problems. The biggest eye sore in my opinion is the rocks.

I tested my alk for the first time since 10/23 yesterday and found it was down about 1.5 dKH from normal. I've found that using GFO in a tank this size can really lower the alk, so I think most of the impact was from the fresh GFO I put in. I'm slowly bringing it back up to about 8.5 dKH.


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