Addvice for sps system

[sawdonkey]

Your tank to me just looks like you have high nutrients. The algae on your glass and rock just looks like the dusty algae I get when my nutrients are high. When my tank glass and rock gets dirty after just a day or two, it’s typically a nitrate/phosphate problem. High PO4 puts the brakes on growth in my tank and colors suffer too.

Chemi clean won’t fix that.

Given how many fish you have in your tank, you probably don’t need to use Acropower as it’s just adding to the problem. It looks like you have a purple, naso, gem, and yellow tang? Despite the tank being too short for any one of those, it’s just a ton of fish for that volume of water. I know you said your nutrients are in check, but your problem just look like a nutrient problem to me.

Yes, SPS is slow but after a year, you should have some pieces that have many branches that are multiple inches. On the other hand, you’ll have a few that have barely grown.

 

[David osborne]

Your tank to me just looks like you have high nutrients. The algae on your glass and rock just looks like the dusty algae I get when my nutrients are high. When my tank glass and rock gets dirty after just a day or two, it’s typically a nitrate/phosphate problem. High PO4 puts the brakes on growth in my tank and colors suffer too.

Chemi clean won’t fix that.

Given how many fish you have in your tank, you probably don’t need to use Acropower as it’s just adding to the problem. It looks like you have a purple, naso, gem, and yellow tang? Despite the tank being too short for any one of those, it’s just a ton of fish for that volume of water. I know you said your nutrients are in check, but your problem just look like a nutrient problem to me.

Yes, SPS is slow but after a year, you should have some pieces that have many branches that are multiple inches. On the other hand, you’ll have a few that have barely grown.

Hi and thanks for the reply,
So what do u think is best to do?
Will just large water changes help
I'm stopping the acropower as I just dont think i need it with all my fish, and to be honest that was the idea to have lots of fish in the tank ,
The tangs are really happy and fat ! And I'm upgrading my tank after xmas to a 4 foot system

 

[sawdonkey]

Hi and thanks for the reply,
So what do u think is best to do?
Will just large water changes help
I'm stopping the acropower as I just dont think i need it with all my fish, and to be honest that was the idea to have lots of fish in the tank ,
The tangs are really happy and fat ! And I'm upgrading my tank after xmas to a 4 foot system

Id make sure where you think your nutrients are is actually where they are. Use a friend’s test kit? I can’t imagine that just skimming and water changes (unless you’re doing them nearly daily) will keep up with your fish load to keep nutrients down. Everything I see in your tank points to high nutrients (dirty glass, dirty sand, slow coral growth, lots of big fish and you said you feed pretty heavily). If your nutrients are in fact high, you’ll need to do lots of water changes, make sure your skimmer is producing, and maybe try GFO, biopellets, NoPox, or something along those lines.

Those fish are still too big for a four foot tank, especially the Naso. Those are big swimmers and get big. As long as you have those big fish, your going to have to work aggressively on nutrient export.

 

[Fla04gbf]

Hi and thanks for the reply,
So what do u think is best to do?
Will just large water changes help
I'm stopping the acropower as I just dont think i need it with all my fish, and to be honest that was the idea to have lots of fish in the tank ,
The tangs are really happy and fat ! And I'm upgrading my tank after xmas to a 4 foot system

Hi david, although i agree with the others that you have too many fish in the tank that may be contributing to the high nutrients and hence algae problem. I too am guilty of putting many fish in the tank... sometimes you just can’t help it. They look so pretty and cute! What is point of have a tank and spending all the money to have a tank that is barely empty?
having said that i think it is just a matter of balance. Your need a way to export for the waste that is generated by all the bioload. To me a refugium with macro algae is the key although other people may have a different opinion and honestly i am not very experienced . I think you shouldn’t try to add anything or use or dose additives and maybe try to get incoperate a refugium or algae scrubbier into the system to get rid of the excess nutrients. Hope everything for the tank gets well soon. Keep reefing!