I REALLY NEED THE R2R HELP!

[Louiemiller9]

So long story short I have been having some algae issues including red (cyno) and this new hair algae (will include photos). I know my tank is never going to be clean but this is starting to take over some of my frag plugs as well as my rockscape and has started to effect my corals and their growth.

I went out and purchased 2 test kits and these were my results.
Calcium: 360
KH: 115

(All other results I attached photos)

Running gfo as I thought phosphates were my issue.

Please let me know what you guys think.

 

[Phillthy]

Post picks of whites with out blues so we can aee the algae

 

[brandon429]

two ways to win:

1. All of reefing, the masses: it’s your water and params


2. 1%: deal with algae outside your tank not via water. Make water run corals, dont ever tune water to starve plants, seek coral-ideal water params. Handle your algae by lifting out rocks, killing it externally, and set back in the tank. When the rocks are covered in coralline your work will cease IF you have a low detritus design for the system.

You have a new system so in the end, a choice will be made on how to proceed. It will either compound or that will be disallowed.


given such a clear choice, nearly everyone chooses option 1 lol and thats not a problem. Just wanted you to know #2 option is rising, we are closing in on 2% adherents nowadays and growing.

 

[Phillthy]

How long have you been running gfo? And how much?

 

[Louiemiller9]

Here are the photos.... why do you guys think of my water parameters? Are they high ? Low?

anything I need to change ?

 

[Phillthy]

Wheres the livestock? No fish or cleanup crew? Just coral?

 

[brandon429]

Perfect setup. Those testers can’t be used to discern anything about your tank, if that was all Nyos or red sea it would read differently.

your choice crossroads includes bleaching corals if water stripping is taken any further, you need matched grazers for the rest of the job. Until those are lucked upon, be that grazer.

i don’t even see algae lol nice job contemplating what to do when there is some. Be spot feeding all that coral, and handling algae externally. Hold course on current water management due to good outcome.

 

[Louiemiller9]

How long have you been running gfo? And how much?

Wheres the livestock? No fish or cleanup crew? Just coral?

I have been running GFO for about 2 months.

I have 2 clowns , no cleanup crew

Mostly corals

 

[Louiemiller9]

Perfect setup. Those testers can’t be used to discern anything about your tank, if that was all Nyos or red sea it would read differently.

your choice crossroads includes bleaching corals if water stripping is taken any further, you need matched grazers for the rest of the job. Until those are lucked upon, be that grazer.

i don’t even see algae lol nice job contemplating what to do when there is some. Be spot feeding all that coral, and handling algae externally. Hold course on current water management due to good outcome.

Awesome. I will continue to remove the algae manually because I do not want to strip my tank..... would you recommend doing anything to make the corals more healthy as the hammer coral is not looking great.

 

[Phillthy]

Running gfo is stripping the tank.

Awesome. I will continue to remove the algae manually because I do not want to strip my tank..... would you recommend doing anything to make the corals more healthy as the hammer coral is not looking great.

 

[Louiemiller9]

Running gfo is stripping the tank.

So should I pull it ?

 

[Phillthy]

If i were you i would stop running the gfo and continue to manually remove the algae. Look into getting a algae eating specimen. Snails I would consider.

 

[AnneO]

I would say your PH is a bit too low it should be at least the 7.8 colour. There are a lot of different views on algae, but from my experience the algae you get is a result of nitrate / phosphate imbalances. High nitrates and high phosphates will produce green hair algae and high nitrates and zero phosphates produces cyanobacteria - a simpler organism that presumably needs less to live on. Just speculating here but you maybe had the GHA first and then cyano popped up when you started using GFO? I would stop using GFO and use No3Po4x (not more than recommended strength or you get mucus like strands in your tank) until the nitrate levels come down - this product removes more nitrates than phosphates so it should enable you to restore a balance. That should get the cyanobacteria to die off and then I would manually remove as much GHA as possible and get a clean up crew. I only use GFO when my nitrates are very low but the phosphates keep creeping higher despite my No3Po4x use. Good luck!

 

[Phillthy]

I take a super soft tooth brush and lightly brush the algae off the coral and plug. Lightly. In a separate bowl with tank water. Then discard the water in the bowl and put the coral back.. If the coral is glued to your scape I had to brush it while vacuuming so i didn't spread the algae. Worked wonders. Also a. Uv light you could look into.. Using chemicals and gfo is really the last resort imo. but if you want to keep running that gfo I would get more fish. Find balance.

 

[brandon429]

To regenerate those corals / add mass they’re not really in decline:

don’t look to params. Look to ways you can boost feed right into the mouth of corals + exchange water as aquarium exercise, sustained for two months. Something above steady state wake up/ make breakfast/ go to work and come home counts as human exercise and in reefing we have ways to go above current plateaus

as mentioned above we shouldn‘t run gfo here. that begins reefing via chemical demand, we show simple exercise is better. this is a perfect example of human aquarium exercise below


simply step up feed and water changes. To save re typing if you want to model certain aspects of Daniels tank then your tank will show the same coral growth:

Cycling a new Biocube 32

Hello all! My name is Daniel from Florida and I’m starting to get into the reef hobby. I have been cycling my tank for two weeks now and logging it into an app. I have recently been gifted a live rock with some good amount of coralline on it. I also got some water from and established tank. My...

www.reef2reef.com

that is an example of forced, vs coaxed, coral growth. Daniels thread has too much detail to retype, it’s the best dry start system I know to use as an example of pure control reefing.

also noted* he started when his tank still showed nitrites. We applied updated cycle biology therefore the nitrites didn’t matter.

 

[brandon429]

I use those exact kessil lights on my reef and turned all blue like first pic they'll grow anything, thats ideal for typical running color. The white twist option bleaches corals we see in many systems vs that blue. Pics and diagnostics are better in white, nice lighting here. All you need is the feed aspect, target feeding sustained and diversified.

feeding all reef roids is eating from a dry box our whole life, where’s the active enzyme living feed? Close second is refrigerated and frozen. What we feed and how, sustained, plus export above norm, will jack your corals

 

[Louiemiller9]

I use those exact kessil lights on my reef and turned all blue like first pic they'll grow anything, thats ideal for typical running color. The white twist option bleaches corals we see in many systems vs that blue. Pics and diagnostics are better in white, nice lighting here. All you need is the feed aspect, target feeding sustained and diversified.

feeding all reef roids is eating from a dry box our whole life, where’s the active enzyme living feed? Close second is refrigerated and frozen. What we feed and how, sustained, plus export above norm, will jack your corals

What would you recommend for feeding I have zoas torches and a hammer

 

[brandon429]

Reef nutrition roti feast and roe eggs ran my tank alone for years and I now add for zest some dry food benepets/analog to reef roids/ plus rods feed frozen. I feed everything shy of live feed, I don’t need any my tanks are coral only. If I had fish some live feed would complete the dietary spectrum for sure.


your challenge in a large reef is not wasting feed into the water but getting it to corals, efficiently

 

[brandon429]

One example of someone elses profound creativity

I dont know when I read this online maybe 2004 ish:

they aligned hungry lps frags on the sandbed into a short row early in morning

They turned off pumps and laid a plastic food dish underwater, capping the row of frags with the inverted dish. a rock set on top to hold down, the dish had a small hole drilled in the bottom.


the reefer injected his days feed into the hole vs casting into the tank.


corals ate like pigs w no additional feed required. After 15 mins lift off dish, turn on pumps. Do this maybe 3 times monthly when you want mass boosting / creativity

rotate some frags down for feeding, put back, creativity is dynamic action.


same creativity: take a portion of your days feed and have it ready to spot feed a coral in the tank. Put in one drop of feed ten mins early to bring out feeders in the tank

still the tank. Using a feeder like Julian Sprungs the thing, inject that feed slowly across a corals feeder tentacles and then wait to turn on current for a while.

not every feeding has to be tenuous, but some should be.

 

[kevin_e]

Not seeing much of an issue. Looks like some algae came in on some plugs. Pull those and use a fine brush diooed in peroxide. Try not to touch coral.