So I have a 180 gallon reef and I cannot seem to get a handle on the detritus problem, as well as a bloom of pesky hair algae that is ever present, run a large skimmer on a 40 gallon sump and I do a 50 gallon water change weekly on this tank coupled with large amounts of detritus removal but somehow within a few days there is a load of detritus on the bottom of the tank.... this tank only has 5 fish in it and I feed very sparingly. Any recommendations for how to get rid of this hair algae and any explanations as to why I have so much organic sludge with such a small bioload?
180 gallon reef with 5 fish having problems with detritus and hair algae.
- Thread starter Purplelobst92
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Purplelobst92
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yeah i have some mexican turbos, a bunch of blue leg hermits, a sea hare that i just added, and for fish ive got a sailfin tang, 2 tomato clowns, orchid dottyback, firefish. the corals grow well and have no issues and its a bare bottom tank its just mind boggling to me where all the detritus comes from lol oh and my skimmer pulls a ton of skimate out of the tank its so weird
JumboShrimp
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Do you think that you seriously over feed the fish and/or corals?
Purplelobst92
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i feed once a day with a single squirt of mysis if anything the tank is underfed, i did have a vortech break and so only one vortech mp-40 is running on the tank as of now so i know im lacking in the flow department, ive also been contemplating maybe its my rock that i used leaching phosphate but when i test its only at .60, my sump is also relatively clean with little to no detritus inside of it, but for some reason every week i have a nice blanket over the bottom of the tank, i dont know if this is worth mentioning but the tank is by a window and receives indirect sunlight.
ImNemo
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I have been dosing 5ml a day of nopox on my 160 for the past couple of weeks. Almost all algea is gone now. I know it's only a bandaid and I'm working on getting everything else under control but it is working. I also started stirring my sandbed once a week and blowing off the rocks with a baster.
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