29g Biocube, about 14 months old. (Aquaticlife 115 skimmer that i can't get to work well, chemipure/purigen in middle chamber with cheato)
Livestock: clownfish for about a year, royal gramma 10 months, RBTA 9 months, watchman goby 6 months, and a few peppermint shrimp and assorted corals
Lights: Have Steve's LED - run blues from 10am-11:30pm w/ hour ramp (50%); whites 12-9pm w/ hour ramp (30%)
Water Source: RODI which is currently spitting out about 45 TDS so I think it is time to change filters (got in December) - used PetCo bought 'Sea Water' 3x while I waited to replace RO membrane
Feeding: pellets once, sometimes twice a day - frozen probably 2x a week
Params: Temp - 78.6; Salinity 1.026; ph 8.2+ (API test kit); 400 calcium; 8 dKH; .34 phosphates (hanna); 15 ppm nitrates (usually 10ish); 0 nitrite / ammonia
Okay so a few weeks ago I started seeing little patches of both Green Hair Algea and Cyanobacteria pop up. It has since gotten worse, and in the past days it is now affecting my corals so I am starting to worry. Previously I was getting readings of about .1 ppm phosphates, but in the last week it has risen to .34ppm. I have found three deals snails in the last two days , and my RBTA has moved for the first time since I got him.
Did a 5 gallon water change on Thursday, one again this morning, and am in the process of getting 10 more gallons ready.
Two mistakes have recently been made - put a cube in my turkey baster to thaw it out and fed half of it; then the next day fed the other half without refrigeration. Looking back, I feel like this is really dumb…and have since learned that you should rinse and thaw the food so I imagine letting it sit only made it worse. Also, I took my turkey baster and tried to group up some of the cyano so I could syphon it out…there was a fair amount of detritus that came up, which concerned me. Could this be the cause for the spike in phosphates?
I am going to check the phosphates in my RODI water to make sure that is not a source (going to need to re-order Hanna reagent soon too, shucks). I can cut back on feeding, that is easy. What else should I do? Is it time to get more clean up crew, have only but a fraction of what I once had in terms of hermit crabs, cerith snails, astrea snails, and turbo snails.
Any help and / or tips would be greatly appreciated. This is the first real problem I have encountered and it is unsettling :squigglemouth:
Livestock: clownfish for about a year, royal gramma 10 months, RBTA 9 months, watchman goby 6 months, and a few peppermint shrimp and assorted corals
Lights: Have Steve's LED - run blues from 10am-11:30pm w/ hour ramp (50%); whites 12-9pm w/ hour ramp (30%)
Water Source: RODI which is currently spitting out about 45 TDS so I think it is time to change filters (got in December) - used PetCo bought 'Sea Water' 3x while I waited to replace RO membrane
Feeding: pellets once, sometimes twice a day - frozen probably 2x a week
Params: Temp - 78.6; Salinity 1.026; ph 8.2+ (API test kit); 400 calcium; 8 dKH; .34 phosphates (hanna); 15 ppm nitrates (usually 10ish); 0 nitrite / ammonia
Okay so a few weeks ago I started seeing little patches of both Green Hair Algea and Cyanobacteria pop up. It has since gotten worse, and in the past days it is now affecting my corals so I am starting to worry. Previously I was getting readings of about .1 ppm phosphates, but in the last week it has risen to .34ppm. I have found three deals snails in the last two days , and my RBTA has moved for the first time since I got him.
Did a 5 gallon water change on Thursday, one again this morning, and am in the process of getting 10 more gallons ready.
Two mistakes have recently been made - put a cube in my turkey baster to thaw it out and fed half of it; then the next day fed the other half without refrigeration. Looking back, I feel like this is really dumb…and have since learned that you should rinse and thaw the food so I imagine letting it sit only made it worse. Also, I took my turkey baster and tried to group up some of the cyano so I could syphon it out…there was a fair amount of detritus that came up, which concerned me. Could this be the cause for the spike in phosphates?
I am going to check the phosphates in my RODI water to make sure that is not a source (going to need to re-order Hanna reagent soon too, shucks). I can cut back on feeding, that is easy. What else should I do? Is it time to get more clean up crew, have only but a fraction of what I once had in terms of hermit crabs, cerith snails, astrea snails, and turbo snails.
Any help and / or tips would be greatly appreciated. This is the first real problem I have encountered and it is unsettling :squigglemouth: