Hello friends,
I had to tear down my 4-year-old 150-gallon tank after a terrible case of velvet in my DT about 6 months ago. I lost about 80% of my fish. I was extremely lucky for the 4 years my tank was established without QT any of my fish. I have a skimmer and an inline UV light. The new fish would get a freshwater bath and were immediately put into the DT. Unfortunately, I added a copper band and within two days he showed severe signs of velvet which most of my remaining fish caught and died. I decided to tear down the tank and do an entire bleaching. I started up the tank again about 3 months ago and learned my lesson. All new fish get quarantined for at least a month before being put into my DT. About a month ago I started to have a green hair algae infestation in my DT, as well as my new DIY, standalone macro algae refugium which is tied into my sump. I only have about a softball size of macroalgae from Algae Barn at this time. My phosphates are at 0.04 and my nitrates are at approx. 3 ppm. I'm sure the green algae uptake is the reason for such low phosphate and nitrate levels. I lowered my lights on the DT to almost off for about a month now and the green hair algae is just about completely gone in the DT. My 20-gallon refugium has 2 Kessel tuna 80 lights which are left on for about 10 hours at night. The green hair algae is still a real problem in my refugium and I constantly need to clean it to remove the algae. My question is this.......Will the tank mature with practically no lighting in the DT so I can eventually turn the lights up to normal levels or am I just postponing the inevitable regarding the green hair algae infestation where it will come right back when I raise the light PAR to a normal output level no matter how much time goes by in the DT with practically no lighting to fuel the algae to grow?
P.S.
Interesting that I did not have a green hair algae problem when I first started the DT almost 5 years ago.
Any feedback would be appreciated and welcomed.
Bill
I had to tear down my 4-year-old 150-gallon tank after a terrible case of velvet in my DT about 6 months ago. I lost about 80% of my fish. I was extremely lucky for the 4 years my tank was established without QT any of my fish. I have a skimmer and an inline UV light. The new fish would get a freshwater bath and were immediately put into the DT. Unfortunately, I added a copper band and within two days he showed severe signs of velvet which most of my remaining fish caught and died. I decided to tear down the tank and do an entire bleaching. I started up the tank again about 3 months ago and learned my lesson. All new fish get quarantined for at least a month before being put into my DT. About a month ago I started to have a green hair algae infestation in my DT, as well as my new DIY, standalone macro algae refugium which is tied into my sump. I only have about a softball size of macroalgae from Algae Barn at this time. My phosphates are at 0.04 and my nitrates are at approx. 3 ppm. I'm sure the green algae uptake is the reason for such low phosphate and nitrate levels. I lowered my lights on the DT to almost off for about a month now and the green hair algae is just about completely gone in the DT. My 20-gallon refugium has 2 Kessel tuna 80 lights which are left on for about 10 hours at night. The green hair algae is still a real problem in my refugium and I constantly need to clean it to remove the algae. My question is this.......Will the tank mature with practically no lighting in the DT so I can eventually turn the lights up to normal levels or am I just postponing the inevitable regarding the green hair algae infestation where it will come right back when I raise the light PAR to a normal output level no matter how much time goes by in the DT with practically no lighting to fuel the algae to grow?
P.S.
Interesting that I did not have a green hair algae problem when I first started the DT almost 5 years ago.
Any feedback would be appreciated and welcomed.
Bill