Algae growth and sump cleaning what should i do? Filtration media for debris removal?

rapid · Sep 15, 2020

So ive had my tank running for around 2 years now. (about as old as my daughter) i never had any issues with anything parameter wise except when it was first starting out. My nutrients were always low. For a while now i have been very busy with a new born son and moving into a bigger home that i was renovating for my increasing family. My husbandry with the reef tank was limited to only doing monthly water changes, emptying skimmer cup, cleaning DT glass walls and wavemakers. After getting the tank moved to the new home I have noticed an awful large amount of GHA all over the tank. I Have not been able to buy any test kits yet to test my PAR. Coral are all healthy and open. fish are all healthy and swimming and i think my clowns are spawing eggs. I belive the GHA is do the loose in CUC (which i just replenished about two months ago) and reduction in Good maintenance. i Have began to do weekly water changes around 10 to 15 gallons on my 40 gallon reef. with salt water at 1.025 SG. same temp as DT. During water changes i clean rocks by pulling off the GHA and Scrubbing it with a tooth brush as well as siphon out the GHA and sand bed. I blow off the rocks and the cracks of the rocks to get the detritus out in the water column for removal. I will start to test the water par again as soon as i get a kit tonight. will post parameter. I also been running my skimmer a little wet.

So my question to you is in my sump i added a refugium a while back that i have not touched in the year its been there. Pods are out of control they are every were, tons of amphipods and peanut worms as well a spagetthi worms in the Live rock there, as well as tons of bristle worms. there are some sponges and limpets i can see and snails. It is steaming with life as well as a ton of very colorful algaes that i have no idea are but they look like slim probally some GHA bubble algae and a ton more. i have live rock crush coral and whatever sand the came from the DT also i layered to bottom of the fuge with fluval bio ceramic rings that look to be houseing a ton of bugs ! Now getting back to my question. Should i remove the bio rings ? and go with something like a block ? or just add more crushed coral and sand? under the rings there looks to be a ton of build up of Detritus ? or it could be sand or it could be the rings breaking down over time into sand. Either way should i leave the rings and just blow out the bottom occasionally? should i leave it? should i remove them and rinse and clean the bottom with siphon the put them back ? or should i remove them completely.

Are they going to hurt anyting in the future ? could this be were my excess nutrients are coming from to fuel my GHA in the DT?

I figured id probaly just use a turkey paster next WC and blow out the bottom of the sump.

currently the only export of detritus i have is WC and skimmer i have no filter sponges, sump socks, no filter floss. I use to run a sponge after refugium baffle to catch any debritus but felt like it was just a debritus trap and a pod trap. should i run a filter sock ? or no ?

rapid · Sep 15, 2020

rapid · Sep 15, 2020

Reefing_addiction · Sep 15, 2020

MarshallB · Sep 15, 2020

rapid said:
Bump

I've only had my reef tank up for a few months. However, after spending years and years with planted freshwater tanks, if what you are doing is working then I would say keep going with it. All that algae down there is also exporting nutrients. I would say its a safe bet that if you want to clean it up then do it in small amounts as to not disrupt the system you already have in place.

rapid · Sep 15, 2020

MarshallB said:
I've only had my reef tank up for a few months. However, after spending years and years with planted freshwater tanks, if what you are doing is working then I would say keep going with it. All that algae down there is also exporting nutrients. I would say its a safe bet that if you want to clean it up then do it in small amounts as to not disrupt the system you already have in place.

I concur but I feel this is the reason I have high nutrients and gha in dt

ichthyogeek · Sep 15, 2020

I was tempted to just write "bump" and leave it alone...

Should i remove the bio rings ? and go with something like a block ? or just add more crushed coral and sand? under the rings there looks to be a ton of build up of Detritus ? or it could be sand or it could be the rings breaking down over time into sand. Either way should i leave the rings and just blow out the bottom occasionally? should i leave it? should i remove them and rinse and clean the bottom with siphon the put them back ? or should i remove them completely.

Why would you want to remove the bio-rings and go with a block? Similarly, what's your thinking with adding more crushed coral/sand? Regarding detritus/sand, I'm more than willing to assume that it's probably a mixture of both, and that the rings are not breaking down over time. There's nothing wrong with removing the detritus, just be careful that you don't remove it (and all the pods and microfauna) in one fell swoop. If you do decide to remove th biorings, however, it's better to just get rid of them all at one time, and shake them around so the pod population isn't too decimated.

Are they going to hurt anyting in the future ? could this be were my excess nutrients are coming from to fuel my GHA in the DT?

Sorry. What is "they" in this case? The bugs? the live rock? The biorings? What is your thinking behind whatever "they" is, and its relation towards excess nutrients?

currently the only export of detritus i have is WC and skimmer i have no filter sponges, sump socks, no filter floss. I use to run a sponge after refugium baffle to catch any debritus but felt like it was just a debritus trap and a pod trap. should i run a filter sock ? or no ?

The filter sock is up to you. I would run it after the overflow though, and not after the refugium. This way it's a detritus trap for all of the excess organics in the main tank (leftover food, whatever), that you can easily remove every week/day/month. My tank doesn't run a fuge, but I do change the filter sock every week, and it does a good job of keeping the water clear.

Tastee · Sep 16, 2020

Firstly it sounds like you have a pretty well setup system that is (or was) running well. My advice is don’t start changing anything until you start measuring water parameters, particularly NO3 and PO4. If GHA is growing in the DT then you have a surplus of nutrients. Starting to change nutrient levels quickly can just cause different problems however and at this point not even touch the GHA. The problem is GHA sequesters nutrients so if you suddenly remove them the GHA just consumes it’s reserves. Other corals in the tank however? Not so much. I have killed several Hammers and Torches doing this myself.

It sounds like you need to gradually get your nutrients and tank back into a better balance. That is what has worked for me. Measure key parameters at least bi-weekly (Alk, Ca, Mg, NO3, PO4). Use good quality kits such as Red Sea Pro (which I use). Others like Salifert or Hanna checkers. Whatever - as long as it is decent quality. Change things slowly and keep an eye on the parameters. I won’t suggest levels of any parameter as every tank is different, but don’t start changing things until you baseline your tank. The goal here is to get an idea of what change you make affects what parameters.

Once everything is stable you don’t need to measure so much. If nothing is changing monthly may be sufficient. In my tanks I am currently checking Alk weekly (as consumption is growing) and other parameters monthly. Again it all depends on your tank - I run Aquaforest 3 part and find it keeps things very stable, so I can just measure Alk and assume Ca and Mg are locked into the Alk consumption. So my regime works for me, may not work for you.