6 months into bare bottom reef - need guidance!

[Reef AquaCult]

I have a case of the uglies. I think it may be a young tank working itself out but I want to make sure Im making the right decisions. Tank has been setup since June. My corals have good colors and polyp extension but some seem to have slow growth. Fish all healthy, feeding mix of pellets and frozen 2x daily. I have some ugly algae covering the rocks. When I first started tank I had super low nutrients so I was dosing nitrates and phosphates to the point I got a GHA explosion. GHA is mostly gone now but there's a pretty ugly brown algae covering everything. Im getting a short brown hair algae on bare bottom - rabbitfish and yellow tang munch on it but don't eat all of it. No Coraline growth that I can see. The algae is very slowly getting better I think - urchins will clean rock so its white when they pass by. Cleaning glass 2x weekly keeps glass pretty clean. Leaving glass for a week will have obvious film on glass hard to see through. Nitrates and phosphates stuck at 0 on test kits. Not sure if low nutrients are a problem or not. I don't want to add nutrients and cause algae outbreak but don't want to keep them too low to cause corals problems. Ive only had one coral die and that was a tiny millepora frag that got overgrown by GHA and I think strangled. Please send suggestions!

Options
1. Do nothing - its a new tank with low nutrients, clean up crew will eventually catch up and things will look better. Just give it more time. Corals are adjusting and if system is stable will start to improve growth. Theres enough nutrients in system for corals even though test kits say 0.

2. Add nutrients - I can't seem to get nitrates or phosphates above zero with feeding only. Corals are suffering from low nutrients. Brown algae is a result of low nutrient system. Could dose aminos or other but afraid of another GHA outbreak.

3. Lower nutrients (can Add Skimmer) - Even though nutrients read 0, they are breaking down in system causing nuisance algae growth. Refugium lit 12 hours overnight growing ulva is not enough to keep nuisance algae at bay

4. Insert your opinion here!

Tank Params:
Size 150g 60x24x24
80 lbs live rock (started from dry)
40B Sump with filter roll and 15 gal refugium
No media
No Skimmer
1.5 gal / day auto water change
Flow - 2x Jebao SOW20 - opposing sides - set to 70% random mode - estimate total 3500 gal/hr
Flow 1x Jebao cross flow set to 30%
Lights 5 x Roleadro Wifi Black box - 12 hour photo period - 5 hrs peak intensity (90% blue, 30% white), 7 hours lower (80% blue, 15% white)


Dosing 6 mls per day of B-ionic (hardly any dosing due to AWC and low coral load)
SG 1.025
Temp 79-80F
Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate all 0 (Red Sea)
Alkalinity 7.0-8.0 usually around 7.5
Phosphate 0.00 (Hanna LR)

Fish
1 Biota yellow tang
1 ORA Rabbitfish
1 ORA Yellow striped blenny
1 ORA orchid dottyback
3x captive bred PJ cardinals
4x ORA black cardinals

Inverts
3x trochus snails (need to get more)
2x ORA tuxedo urchins - doing well
1 ORA Hippopus clam - full opening, good color, slow growth
1 ORA Derasa clam - full opening, see new growth on shell
2 RBTA slow growth, medium extension, good color

Corals
All small frags
Monti Spongodes - doing well, encrusting
Duncan - good color and growth on bottom
Frogspawn 2 heads - no growth (I think too much flow)
Monti cap x 2 - good color and PE but slow growth
1 Stunner chalice - slow growth but good colors (on bottom)
tiny Oregon tort - good growth and PE on top of rock
1 red planet - good PE, poor color, slow growth
1 neon green slime - good PE, good color, slow growth
1 ORA the Carl - new
1 forest fire digital - good color and PE, medium growth
1 ORA skyline granulosa - new
1 ORA Stellar Stylophora - new
1 ORA Hawkins - new
1 ORA Pearlberry - new
1 Meteor cyphastrea.
1 Mind trick monti - good color, polyp ext and I think good growth
1 yellow porites - Good PE, good color, good growth
1 birds nest Seriatopora - high on rocks, very fast growth, good color
1 geen star polyp on back wall - good color and growth
1 PC Rainbow - tiny frag - coloring up nice, slow growth
1 Miami tort -no growth, pale colors

 

[MERKEY]

Sounds like you rushed your tank by adding nutrients to get the GHA going. Then you slowed it down because of the GHA and now are sitting at 0 phos and nitrate.

You will get different options on to add carbon and chempures or other things to your sump to clear this up. That would work and then lead you to another issue when the carbon is depleted then you will have to decide if you want to continue using it(whatever you use to eradicate the problem, vibrant, chemiclean, chemipure) after it's gone what is your tank supposed to do....? That's right you continue to add what you think it needs to keep the numbers where we tell you they should be. This is a crazy race I dont like running and trust me I have run that race and it gets long and old.

I vote for your 1st answer!!!

Let you tank ride it out and let the bacteria get strong. Get a large clean up crew of turbos and other snails and let them go to work. Clean as much out as you can manually with a siphon and teaser or fingers. Pull it off and suck it out.

It wont clear in a day but I think in the long run you will be happy you didnt chase with chemicals.

This is of course just my personal experience many other will advocate the other way.

Which ever way you choose just dont flip flop back and forth. Choose a path and let your tank get comfortable and stable.

 

[Reef AquaCult]

Sounds like you rushed your tank by adding nutrients to get the GHA going. Then you slowed it down because of the GHA and now are sitting at 0 phos and nitrate.

You will get different options on to add carbon and chempures or other things to your sump to clear this up. That would work and then lead you to another issue when the carbon is depleted then you will have to decide if you want to continue using it(whatever you use to eradicate the problem, vibrant, chemiclean, chemipure) after it's gone what is your tank supposed to do....? That's right you continue to add what you think it needs to keep the numbers where we tell you they should be. This is a crazy race I dont like running and trust me I have run that race and it gets long and old.

I vote for your 1st answer!!!

Let you tank ride it out and let the bacteria get strong. Get a large clean up crew of turbos and other snails and let them go to work. Clean as much out as you can manually with a siphon and teaser or fingers. Pull it off and suck it out.

It wont clear in a day but I think in the long run you will be happy you didnt chase with chemicals.

This is of course just my personal experience many other will advocate the other way.

Which ever way you choose just dont flip flop back and forth. Choose a path and let your tank get comfortable and stable.

Thanks for your detailed response. I definitely don't want to chase things with vibrant etc and agree I need to beef up clean up crew. I would like to leave things alone and let them settle.

 

[Ruben's Reef]

I will go for option #1. Increase you CC and maybe raise a little the Alk to 8dkh. How far are the light from the water line and how deep is the tank?

 

[Reef AquaCult]

I will go for option #1. Increase you CC and maybe raise a little the Alk to 8dkh. How far are the light from the water line and how deep is the tank?

Lights are 9" off water top and its 24" deep tank. I also have acrylic top that I sanded to provided even light distribution (kills the disco ball effect). Par top of rocks 300-400 hitting acros and about 150-250 on bottom (seneye)

 

[Ruben's Reef]

Lights are 9" off water top and its 24" deep tank. I also have acrylic top that I sanded to provided even light distribution (kills the disco ball effect). Par top of rocks 300-400 hitting acros and about 150-250 on bottom (seneye)

That's really good. Did you start with dry or live rock? Do you feed phytoplankton?

 

[Bleigh]

I would have expected a little corraline in that time. One of the tricks I do is to intentionally pick some CUC that have coraline growing on their shells. I'm not sure that it makes that much of a difference, but I just set my cube up a few months ago and I have corraline growing everywhere and it needs to be scrapped from the viewing sides fairly regularly. I don't think some of the nuisance stuff will grow where coraline is, so you def want to work on getting it growing.

I waited on a skimmer too. You'll eventually want one to help get the nastiness out of the water. Some of that on the bottom looks like detritus also. I would try sucking that out when I did water changes.

Overall, I'm a proponent of reaching steady state naturally, and only using natural ways of adding to the tank. I would dose amino acids and reef roids or some other coral foods when nutrients are low, because the corals need to eat, just like the fish. Perhaps start with dosing a few times a week and let the bioload catch up so that GHA doesn't explode again. Good luck!

 

[LC8Sumi]

You def need to cut your feedings in at least 1/4 + also addig a skimmer would be a great idea

 

[ReefGeezer]

I'd vote for 1 & 2. Add a skimmer but try to wait out the ugly phase. Your bioload is high enough that some help exporting dissolved organics would be a good idea. Don't add nutrients. While your tests report 0, the algae proves there are available nutrients in the system.

 

[Reef AquaCult]

Thank you for all your feedback, all good suggestions. I definitely vacuum the detritus from the bottom every couple weeks into a filter sock and remove. I was concerned adding a skimmer would drop the available nutrients too much but wasn't sure. I do agree it may help the situation. I started feeding more because I was worried about 0 phosphate and 0 nitrate but maybe you're right, maybe Im feeding too much still. Based on continued growth I think I still have room to decrease feeding some and consider adding a skimmer. Thank you

 

[Reef AquaCult]

I would have expected a little corraline in that time. One of the tricks I do is to intentionally pick some CUC that have coraline growing on their shells. I'm not sure that it makes that much of a difference, but I just set my cube up a few months ago and I have corraline growing everywhere and it needs to be scrapped from the viewing sides fairly regularly. I don't think some of the nuisance stuff will grow where coraline is, so you def want to work on getting it growing.

I waited on a skimmer too. You'll eventually want one to help get the nastiness out of the water. Some of that on the bottom looks like detritus also. I would try sucking that out when I did water changes.

Overall, I'm a proponent of reaching steady state naturally, and only using natural ways of adding to the tank. I would dose amino acids and reef roids or some other coral foods when nutrients are low, because the corals need to eat, just like the fish. Perhaps start with dosing a few times a week and let the bioload catch up so that GHA doesn't explode again. Good luck!

Thank you for your comments! I just put some trochus snails in with coraline on their shells and agree it may help seed tank. Im sucking out detritus on bottom every 2 weeks (about ready now). thanks for input regarding aminos.

 

[Bleigh]

You know, adding a skimmer now will pull some of the nutrients before the algae will uptake it. Meaning you may have some die off and potentially have an initial uptick in nutrients, which the skimmer could help neutralize. Win win. Lol can’t wait to see your progress!