Bill_Moorman
Active Member
Pardon the punny title, but I need some help.
I am battling GHA and Turf Algae. Getting frustrated, quite frankly. The tank is a 40b mixed reef with the only inhabitants being two clownfish. Tanks been up since January 2017.
I’ve got a handful of hermits, and two trochus snails. 1 fighting conch named Eddie.
I have super stable parameters as follows:
Alk: 9 (Hanna)
Calc: 425 (RedSea)
pH: Don’t know. Threw away my test per previous post instructions. (Apex reads 8.0-8.3 daily)
Salinity: 35ppt (Apex)
Mag: 1600 (RedSea)
Nitrate: 0ppm (NYOS)
Phosphate: 0ppm (Hanna)
I recognize my phosphates and nitrates are not likely legit 0, but the coral and GHA are using it faster than my test kit can detect it.
My lighting is 2 AI Prime HDs running the David something schedule. (One of the presets from their website.)
I run GAC through a reactor, I skim 24/7 with an AquaC Urchin Pro, I have a sump w/ chaeto chamber running opposite the DT schedule.
I feed rather sparingly (honestly I could feed
more) usually 1 time per day only enough for the clowns to eat. Rotate between frozen mysis, NLS pellets, Mysis Pellets and Flake.
I also reseeded my copepod population maybe a month ago with AlgaeBarns 5280 pod jar.
Everything above seems like I should have a wonderful reef with no algae. Well that’s not the case. If I let the tank sit for a week, I hve a forest of GHA that grows on everything. Pumps, exposed rock, overflow weir, the minisule space between heads on my beloved acans, and even the shell of my fighting conch.
I have been manually removing the GHA weekly, but I can’t seem to slow it down. Today I got upset and decided to bring out the chemical warfare and added 5tsp of GFO to my reactor. I haven’t made any other changes at this point.
I’m not throwing the towel in yet, but I need help. I have been thinking about getting a pincushion urchin to help, but I’m not sure if it would.
Help?
I am battling GHA and Turf Algae. Getting frustrated, quite frankly. The tank is a 40b mixed reef with the only inhabitants being two clownfish. Tanks been up since January 2017.
I’ve got a handful of hermits, and two trochus snails. 1 fighting conch named Eddie.
I have super stable parameters as follows:
Alk: 9 (Hanna)
Calc: 425 (RedSea)
pH: Don’t know. Threw away my test per previous post instructions. (Apex reads 8.0-8.3 daily)
Salinity: 35ppt (Apex)
Mag: 1600 (RedSea)
Nitrate: 0ppm (NYOS)
Phosphate: 0ppm (Hanna)
I recognize my phosphates and nitrates are not likely legit 0, but the coral and GHA are using it faster than my test kit can detect it.
My lighting is 2 AI Prime HDs running the David something schedule. (One of the presets from their website.)
I run GAC through a reactor, I skim 24/7 with an AquaC Urchin Pro, I have a sump w/ chaeto chamber running opposite the DT schedule.
I feed rather sparingly (honestly I could feed
more) usually 1 time per day only enough for the clowns to eat. Rotate between frozen mysis, NLS pellets, Mysis Pellets and Flake.
I also reseeded my copepod population maybe a month ago with AlgaeBarns 5280 pod jar.
Everything above seems like I should have a wonderful reef with no algae. Well that’s not the case. If I let the tank sit for a week, I hve a forest of GHA that grows on everything. Pumps, exposed rock, overflow weir, the minisule space between heads on my beloved acans, and even the shell of my fighting conch.
I have been manually removing the GHA weekly, but I can’t seem to slow it down. Today I got upset and decided to bring out the chemical warfare and added 5tsp of GFO to my reactor. I haven’t made any other changes at this point.
I’m not throwing the towel in yet, but I need help. I have been thinking about getting a pincushion urchin to help, but I’m not sure if it would.
Help?
