i use to only have success with reef keeping. corals grew. fish flourished. things were easy and maintaining a reef aquarium was never hard. i maintained 120 gallons, 60 gallons, 300 gallons....i could do it all, and well.
until i moved to florida.
now even the simplest issues are impossible to defeat. im running out of ideas and patience. i have a level of algae that does not seem to subside in spite of everything i throw at it.
i sold mostly everything i had and moved to florida and set up a 150 gallon aquarium. i used my old rock which was kept moist during transport. i run a single 250w SE 20k halide and 3 AI Sols that typically run at 100%. photoperiod is about 12 hours. the tank was fine for nearly 7 months. algae free. then without anything changing, algae erupted and never went away.
i feed a miniscule amount of pelleted foods every two days.
my parameters:
temp 80
ph 8.1
alk 10
ca 450
mg 1300
sal 1.024
no3 0
po4 0.00
the algae isnt bryopsis. its not derbesia. by all appearance its just regular green hair algae. but its unstoppable. ive used turbo snails. astrea snails. urchins. tangs. rabbitfish. seahares. nothing keeps up with it. i used red sea po4-x, which only seemed to exponentially increase the issue. i tried a four day dark treatment.
i run an RODI unit with floss, catalytic carbon, two DI and a 100gpd membrane. tds going in is approximately 230 ppm. coming out typically 0.
i run biopellets.
i have a large skimmer.
i run several cups of gfo in a reactor.
i do 45 gallon water changes every month.
i test phosphate with a milwaukie colorimeter.
i tested my RODI product water and my new salt mix water stored in a brute garbage can for phosphates...both were zero.
i understand that i should expect to see zero phosphates because the algae is using it up. but where is it coming from? i used to dump huge amounts of food in my tanks and do water changes every two to three months....and never have algae issues.
if the rock absorbed the phosphate, how much longer for it to deplete itself?
should i add on additional po4 reactors? should i add more biopellets? should i remove all my sand and go bare bottom? should i do something with hydrogen peroxide? should i do a longer blackout period? should i add more canisters to my RODI unit? should i dose vodka? should i cook my rock? should i go freshwater?
any ideas will be sincerely and greatly appreciated. i feel like i am an experienced hobbyist but this has been quite humbling. i realize the hair algae problem is probably the most commonly posted issue, but i feel like i have tried nearly everything and im not seeing any results. its heartbreaking and embarrassing.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ANY SUGGESTIONS OR IDEAS.
as an example of what i am capable of:
my old 60 gallon.
my old 300 gallon
until i moved to florida.
now even the simplest issues are impossible to defeat. im running out of ideas and patience. i have a level of algae that does not seem to subside in spite of everything i throw at it.
i sold mostly everything i had and moved to florida and set up a 150 gallon aquarium. i used my old rock which was kept moist during transport. i run a single 250w SE 20k halide and 3 AI Sols that typically run at 100%. photoperiod is about 12 hours. the tank was fine for nearly 7 months. algae free. then without anything changing, algae erupted and never went away.
i feed a miniscule amount of pelleted foods every two days.
my parameters:
temp 80
ph 8.1
alk 10
ca 450
mg 1300
sal 1.024
no3 0
po4 0.00
the algae isnt bryopsis. its not derbesia. by all appearance its just regular green hair algae. but its unstoppable. ive used turbo snails. astrea snails. urchins. tangs. rabbitfish. seahares. nothing keeps up with it. i used red sea po4-x, which only seemed to exponentially increase the issue. i tried a four day dark treatment.
i run an RODI unit with floss, catalytic carbon, two DI and a 100gpd membrane. tds going in is approximately 230 ppm. coming out typically 0.
i run biopellets.
i have a large skimmer.
i run several cups of gfo in a reactor.
i do 45 gallon water changes every month.
i test phosphate with a milwaukie colorimeter.
i tested my RODI product water and my new salt mix water stored in a brute garbage can for phosphates...both were zero.
i understand that i should expect to see zero phosphates because the algae is using it up. but where is it coming from? i used to dump huge amounts of food in my tanks and do water changes every two to three months....and never have algae issues.
if the rock absorbed the phosphate, how much longer for it to deplete itself?
should i add on additional po4 reactors? should i add more biopellets? should i remove all my sand and go bare bottom? should i do something with hydrogen peroxide? should i do a longer blackout period? should i add more canisters to my RODI unit? should i dose vodka? should i cook my rock? should i go freshwater?
any ideas will be sincerely and greatly appreciated. i feel like i am an experienced hobbyist but this has been quite humbling. i realize the hair algae problem is probably the most commonly posted issue, but i feel like i have tried nearly everything and im not seeing any results. its heartbreaking and embarrassing.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ANY SUGGESTIONS OR IDEAS.
as an example of what i am capable of:
my old 60 gallon.
my old 300 gallon