Fluval Evo algae and nutrient control!

Wildcatkeeper

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Having quite a bit of issues in my fluval evo, the tank is 5 months old. I’m going to list all my equipment and tank inhabitants first.
Equipment-
  • Bubble magus qq1 protein skimmer
  • AI prime 16 lighting
  • As for mechanical filter action I have been using filter floss and chemi-blue carbon bagged carbon.
Fish-
  • One clownfish
Inverts-
  • 4-5 blue legged hermits
  • 1 quarter sized tuxedo urchin
  • 1 turbo snail
  • 2 margarita snails
Corals-
  • Zoanthids
  • Torch coral
  • Acans
  • Favia
  • Gsp
  • Toadstool Leather
The rock was bleached cured for a week before entering the tank.
Now on to my levels
  • Phosphate is at .03 used Hanna checker URL
  • Nitrates are 20 ppm
I have been battling cyano specifically but have started growing lots of GHA and some other type of algae but I will pin the photos below.
I know I have to get my nutrients down I’m thinking of adding a bio pellet reactor. Other than water changes Is there anything else I could to do improve my water and lessen the amount of algae, I’m already running the my light for only 6 hours with very minimal whites, green, red.
Here are the pictures of my tank, thank you all for the help!

IMG_6066.jpg IMG_6067.jpg IMG_6068.jpg IMG_6065.jpg
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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your tank would be easy to work as we did there. Top to bottom cleaning see any example linked. If the rules from that thread are applied then you have no more algae by the end of the week, that fast of a fix.
 
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brandon429, I was reading the page that you helped WVU247 and I had an idea about the sand bed rinse, could one just put all new sand in all together? I would also like to add that I only have one rock in the tank, so if I was to take that out to scrub it with hydrogen peroxide it would be nice and easy?
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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yes exactly that. its making use of the size of a nano, while applying known skip cycle biology, to predict an outcome and follow through.

tank size doesn't matter, we deep cleaned a 120 gallon setup in that thread sand and all/ Jon's 120 gallon rip clean. once our hobby learned that deep cleaning isn't destabilizing its a way of cheating old age out of an investment, more action on target was permitted and small nanos make that especially easy.

in any reef we can instantly change out for new sand without ramp up, simply bc we're all using excess live rock and your setup has plenty of surface area I can see in pic details. we just need to surgically/targeted debride the attachments off every surface. it will take some work but that's fun tank restoration nice picture set here just the same, Reefmiser from nano-reef

p1.jpg
p3.jpg
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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the wait time on that above/not any. its one clean event. all new sand

*whatever new sand you by no matter what it is, tap rinse it for an hour until it runs snowglobe clear. final rinse in ro water, now total clean grains are ready. take the tank apart above and detail remove algae from each rock and surface, hold fish alone in clean water, not with rock or to be worked surfaces

we are separating sensitives from where the clouding is about to be. the final stage/see that bed above/clean. tank treated as a whole, vs in parts. very unique. very fast.
 
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What about the coral? So i put the coral and the fish in a separate holding tank or bucket while adding the new washed sand bed and the scrubbed rock. So this wont have any issues effecting the nitrogen cycle?
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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agreed. there is only one locus of harm, one single locus: anywhere detritus or clouding exists. that kills fish if we mess it up in their presence, but when separated first move/catch fish as water is draining down) they're out safe, before clouding begins.

coral alone wont cast off detritus when we swish them mid tank, so they can reside with fish. but if they're attached to big rocks, rocks and sand are the total locus of risk for a recycle and its only the mud they cast off when twisted mid tank.

that clean condition above, we reach in and grab sand and its this clean (this is my then 13 yr old nano reef, corals on the counter in the air not even in water, rinsed in Tap not distilled, then drained out, then refilled with saltwater and corals. I ro rinsed the sand as last step)


*the reason the filtration continues without a cycle is the sandbed bacteria do not matter at all, we could remove it and not even put back. its the tank live rock. when you scrape off all algae, and twist live rock in saltwater only, its casting off all the waste and attachments vs letting them die and rot in your nano as of now.

bacteria are stuck to rocks, even after you mist on some algae after all that rinsing. the rock is so porous, no bacteria from the filter are lost such that a cycle occurs in all those pages, we tap rinsed a lot of sandbeds there.

fish held with corals cloudlessly

clean water, half tank water to hold them in let's say.


then rocks swished heavily in old tank water or saltwater, picked free of all growth try not to brush pestle it into the crevices. the price of accumulation is reef dentistry, get out a pocket knife and tip scrape it.

when the tank is totally empty, scrape out glass algae. wet paper twl with peroxide for inside the tank. reassemble the tank with all new water, 10000% cloudless sand rinsed or new bed either way pre rinse it the same, and set the cloudless rocks back in the tank, cloudlessly lol.

then in a couple hours add the fish/set.

the live rocks carried all required bacteria even after all that.
 
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can you post a screen shot of your AI settings so we can see what 'minimal' values really are?
UV- 30%
V- 30%
RY-50%
B-50%
G-3%
R-3%
ML- 5%
CW - 5%
From 8 am to 2 pm
the live rocks carried all required bacteria even after all that.
So hypothetically speaking I could leave the sand out for good and just sandless
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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Yes, I haven’t seen a reef ever lack the live rock to do so. Can u post a fts let’s see rocks like in reefmisers photo/ ratios


That’s a nice controlled photoperiod not too long at all.
 
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brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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I myself don't test for it and your corals look great they just need manual detail to take back ground till coralline fills in... one day all this work stops when it's all naturally purple. Manage alk in the clean condition agreed.

That's a very nice setup can go without sand instantly agreed. That is a very reasonable fish load for those rocks, half the rocks would still work. Can't wait to see. * wanted to show a loss version of a deep clean. Any fair prep has both sides of the coin. In my opinion it was in- tank and removal + cloud that caused the loss but any fail needs to be factored. Then we have a nice fair example set. A rip clean where some fish did die:
 

brandon429

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Lost the thread can't find it now. We feel the process will be consistent if cloudless nirvana is attained
 
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My plan is to take out the big rock and scrub it with the hydrogen peroxide, maybe remove a tad of the sand bed, completely clean the back wall from algae and in the end I'm going to install a bio-pellet reactor, I will keep you posted within the rest couple of days, and I appreciate your help!
 

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sounds ok. just know that removing some of the sandbed vs all of it is specifically where the risk is. due to compounds locked in the bed, separating half wells up the other portions.

nothing is safer than the full swap, or the full rinse, or the full removal. that one link I was searching for was due to removing the sandbed inside the tank via siphon vs a full commit
its hard to be cloudless unless all the substrate is clean, its ironic that less rinsing causes the loss and complete thoroughness causes the 26 pages above no loss. strange dynamic

and it was particular on the live rock to not use a brush/pestle and grind it all down into the rock pores

its better to metal pick it off, the most work with the most detailing then swish it away.

once cleaned, might take half an hour or so to detail it this wont hurt the rock either, then peroxide then rinse off in salt and back in. Most of the time a customization of the process goes ok, not all tanks have the bad waste.

the only totally safe way is the full run however. that one fellow Kev I know hated to lose fish and it seemed I didn't point out the risk clear enough on his post/lost in the numbers can't find it but it was from this weekend
 
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