TheBear78
Active Member
Good evening all,
I apologise for asking yet more typical newbie questions but bear with me please!
My RSR 425xl is now 10 weeks old after cycling with ATM Colony (fish in) and is filled with crushed coral substrate, approximately 90 lbs of Realreef Rock and also a bag of ceramic media in the sump. I use pre-mixed water from my LFS which is RODI and Redsea salt.
About 3 weeks ago my Po4 bottomed out and No3 starting to drop from around 8 ppm. Initially I increased feeding (2 clowns and one Royal Gramma) and reduced skimming. A week later No3 was stable ( 6 ppm) but Po4 was still undetectable.
I added 7 Green Chromis and a week later Po4 was at 0.04 and No3 had crept up to 8 ppm. Today I am at Po4 0.08 ppm and No3 8 ppm.
I had seen a mild case of diatoms which was replaced with a brown hair algae (possibly Dinos) but this promptly disappeared once Po4 was back up.
Today, however I noticed this:
(Centre, right of bottom rock)
And a close up:
I expect that this is Cyano? It's quite a dense covering with a few hair like wisps blowing in the current off to the right.
Additional info:
Salinity 1.023
Mag 1500
Cal 420
Alk 8.2 dKH
Temp 25 C.
Salinity may it may not be exact but it's consistent and my tester reads the same at my LFS where all of my fish have come from.
Alkalinity was low at around 7 but I have been dosing Reef Zlements KH buffer to gently bring that up. All other parameters have stayed consistent.
I didn't think the sudden clearing of the previous algae was going to be the last of it so now I am wondering how to approach this.
For CUC I have 2 x Trochus and 3 x Nassarius snails, 4 emerald crabs, a Coral Banded shrimp (fwiw) and 4 hermit crabs.
My initial plan is to increase skimming a little and reduce feeding. Also, syphon and scrub the rock during water changes (typically bi-weekly 50 litres/12 %)
I run my 4000l/hr pump at full speed so it's probably turning over tank 7 times and hour, also my Gyre hits this spot with decent flow, it certainly isn't a dead spot.
I appreciate that it is a mild to almost irrelevant "outbreak" at this stage but I want to get on top of it.
I am hoping that the slight changes to nutrients and the CUC will sort it as I don't think they've managed to find it yet. I am very reluctant to dose anything and would rather let a natural balance sort things out.
Any other suggestions although I am admittedly going to see what happens for a few days?
Thank you.
I apologise for asking yet more typical newbie questions but bear with me please!
My RSR 425xl is now 10 weeks old after cycling with ATM Colony (fish in) and is filled with crushed coral substrate, approximately 90 lbs of Realreef Rock and also a bag of ceramic media in the sump. I use pre-mixed water from my LFS which is RODI and Redsea salt.
About 3 weeks ago my Po4 bottomed out and No3 starting to drop from around 8 ppm. Initially I increased feeding (2 clowns and one Royal Gramma) and reduced skimming. A week later No3 was stable ( 6 ppm) but Po4 was still undetectable.
I added 7 Green Chromis and a week later Po4 was at 0.04 and No3 had crept up to 8 ppm. Today I am at Po4 0.08 ppm and No3 8 ppm.
I had seen a mild case of diatoms which was replaced with a brown hair algae (possibly Dinos) but this promptly disappeared once Po4 was back up.
Today, however I noticed this:
(Centre, right of bottom rock)
And a close up:
I expect that this is Cyano? It's quite a dense covering with a few hair like wisps blowing in the current off to the right.
Additional info:
Salinity 1.023
Mag 1500
Cal 420
Alk 8.2 dKH
Temp 25 C.
Salinity may it may not be exact but it's consistent and my tester reads the same at my LFS where all of my fish have come from.
Alkalinity was low at around 7 but I have been dosing Reef Zlements KH buffer to gently bring that up. All other parameters have stayed consistent.
I didn't think the sudden clearing of the previous algae was going to be the last of it so now I am wondering how to approach this.
For CUC I have 2 x Trochus and 3 x Nassarius snails, 4 emerald crabs, a Coral Banded shrimp (fwiw) and 4 hermit crabs.
My initial plan is to increase skimming a little and reduce feeding. Also, syphon and scrub the rock during water changes (typically bi-weekly 50 litres/12 %)
I run my 4000l/hr pump at full speed so it's probably turning over tank 7 times and hour, also my Gyre hits this spot with decent flow, it certainly isn't a dead spot.
I appreciate that it is a mild to almost irrelevant "outbreak" at this stage but I want to get on top of it.
I am hoping that the slight changes to nutrients and the CUC will sort it as I don't think they've managed to find it yet. I am very reluctant to dose anything and would rather let a natural balance sort things out.
Any other suggestions although I am admittedly going to see what happens for a few days?
Thank you.
