Hi Everyone. I have a 50 gallon tank at my office that house housed saltwater fish and Fuji rock for 3 years now. It has a 2 Kessil A 360 Wide LED's 1 foot above the waterline. I recently added a spectral controller and the programming is 6:00 0 Color 10% intensity; 9:00 30 40%; 11:00 60 70%; 12:00 80 100%; 17:00 50 50%; and 18:00 off.
Tank also has an Aqua Clear 70 with Marine pure balls (on left side) and charcoal and an oversized Reef Octopus HOB protein skimmer on right side.
Finally there is a Ecotech mp10w programmed in nutrient export mode on the left side of the tank about 2/3 up from the bottom (just over the rock lines). Also about a 1 inch sandbed.
I am setting up a reef tank at home and wanted to maybe be able to use the office to transplant items that grow to quickly at home so I seeded the with Corraline algae three weeks ago after doing three 30% water changes.
Current tank parameters: dKH 8.0 Salinity 1.025 Calcium 400 Magnesium 1280 Nitrate 20 and for the first time today I had a test kit to measure Phosphate and it was at .99 ppm.
We have a 6 stage RODI unit which we use to treat the water that goes into the tank. I have been using red sea purple bucket salt.
The tanks has 1 regal (blue) tang; 1 orange clownfish; 2 yellow-tailed damsels; a dwarf angelfish of some variety; 3 peppermint shrimp, 4 snails and 3 hermit crabs. All tank inhabitants except the angelfish (1 month) are over a year old.
Fish are feed 1/2 frozen cube 4 days a week and a full cube on Friday.
Right side of tank has coralline algae beginning to grow intermixed with thin patches of green algae. The left side of the tank, just under the Aquaclear filter and Ecotech the green hair algae is growing thick and has nearly covered the rock looking like a carpet.
Nitrate levels have always been around 20 in this tank regardless of water changes. I understand the Phosphate level is very high.
It will be several months before I need to transplant any corals (softies, zoa's) into this tank.
How should I go about dealing with the phosphates in this tank?
I plan to do a 20% water change Friday and will try to get some of the algae off the rocks then.
Should I cut back on the light programming hours or intensity? Will that effect the coralline growth?
Should I try some carbon dosing to get the levels to a safer level?
I would think 3 cubes of food a week would not be to much but am I overfeeding?
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Thanks, DukeLeto
PS forgive the long description but I wanted to include everything that I thought might be pertinent.)
Tank also has an Aqua Clear 70 with Marine pure balls (on left side) and charcoal and an oversized Reef Octopus HOB protein skimmer on right side.
Finally there is a Ecotech mp10w programmed in nutrient export mode on the left side of the tank about 2/3 up from the bottom (just over the rock lines). Also about a 1 inch sandbed.
I am setting up a reef tank at home and wanted to maybe be able to use the office to transplant items that grow to quickly at home so I seeded the with Corraline algae three weeks ago after doing three 30% water changes.
Current tank parameters: dKH 8.0 Salinity 1.025 Calcium 400 Magnesium 1280 Nitrate 20 and for the first time today I had a test kit to measure Phosphate and it was at .99 ppm.
We have a 6 stage RODI unit which we use to treat the water that goes into the tank. I have been using red sea purple bucket salt.
The tanks has 1 regal (blue) tang; 1 orange clownfish; 2 yellow-tailed damsels; a dwarf angelfish of some variety; 3 peppermint shrimp, 4 snails and 3 hermit crabs. All tank inhabitants except the angelfish (1 month) are over a year old.
Fish are feed 1/2 frozen cube 4 days a week and a full cube on Friday.
Right side of tank has coralline algae beginning to grow intermixed with thin patches of green algae. The left side of the tank, just under the Aquaclear filter and Ecotech the green hair algae is growing thick and has nearly covered the rock looking like a carpet.
Nitrate levels have always been around 20 in this tank regardless of water changes. I understand the Phosphate level is very high.
It will be several months before I need to transplant any corals (softies, zoa's) into this tank.
How should I go about dealing with the phosphates in this tank?
I plan to do a 20% water change Friday and will try to get some of the algae off the rocks then.
Should I cut back on the light programming hours or intensity? Will that effect the coralline growth?
Should I try some carbon dosing to get the levels to a safer level?
I would think 3 cubes of food a week would not be to much but am I overfeeding?
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Thanks, DukeLeto
PS forgive the long description but I wanted to include everything that I thought might be pertinent.)