IslandLifeReef
Valuable Member
Ok, please bare with me as this may take a bit to explain.
I was having a problem with hair algae, and couldn't get rid of it. My NO3 and PO4 were low, but not terribly low, so I decided to try Vibrant Aquarium cleaner from @UWC. This is what my tank looked like before I started dosing the Vibrant.
The hair algae is on the rock by the Laptestrea. I started dosing twice a week using 5ml.
My tank is a reefer 170, so total water volume is about 45 gallons. I estimate that I have about 40 gallons of water after displacement from rock and my protein skimmer.
My parameters stay pretty constant at the following levels.
Temp 77-78
Sg 1.025 with an ATC refractometer
NO3 1 ppm Red Sea test kit
PO4 0.03- 0.05 with a Hanna ULR
Alk 7.7 - 7.8 dKh Red Sea Pro
Calc 440 - 450 Red Sea Pro
Mag 1300 Red Sea Pro
I started dosing Vibrant on December 6th. I didn't notice any ill effects on any of my corals, and the hair algae started to disappear.
I received an Aquatic Life hybrid fixture for christmas and mounted the fixture using their poles attached to the stand on December 26th. I had to unplug everything in my tank for about an hour so that I could work behind the stand to mount the poles to the stand. I was very careful to make sure nothing got in the sump, and have checked the sump several times since. On December 27th, I started running the hybrid fixture with 4 T5 bulbs for 3 hours in the middle of the day along with my LED. The light was mounted 11 inches above the water line, one inch higher than what my LED was mounted at before. On December 27th, I also noticed that my heater wasn't fully plugged back in when the temp alarm on my doser went off. I noticed this in the morning immediately after waking up. The temp had gone down from 78 degrees to 74 degrees in about 14 hours. I plugged the heater back in and brought the temp back up over the next 5 hours. Most of my corals looked ticked.
This is what my tank looks like today.
And here are what some of my corals look like 10 days from installing the light and accidentally letting the temp fall.
On December 29th, I decrease the time that the T5's were on to 1.5 hours a day on the advice of a couple of posters here. The bulbs that I am using from front to back are ATI Blue+ Coral+ Actinic Blue+. Other than my Alk rising to 8.1 dKh, my parameters have stayed the same as I posted above. I did adjust my Alk dosing since Alk did go up, and after 4 days since my last test, Alk test at 8.0 dKh today.
As you can see, algae seems to have gotten out of control except for the hair algae, which is still present, but receding slowly.
#reefsquad
@Brew12 @rkpetersen @Daniel Waters @saltyfilmfolks
#anyonethatcanhelp
What can I do? Most corals still seem upset 10 days later and my frogspawn and hammer haven't opened in that amount of time either. Nothing seems dead, but nothing seems happy either. I have done 2 water changes, one 10% and the most recent 30%. I also vacuumed out the sump during the 30% change. I have been trying to siphon out as much algae as I can every day hoping to make the corals happier since all of my parameters look fine to me. I also checked for stray voltage and with my grounding probe in, had 0V.
What am I missing? What can I do? Any guidance would be appreciated.
I was having a problem with hair algae, and couldn't get rid of it. My NO3 and PO4 were low, but not terribly low, so I decided to try Vibrant Aquarium cleaner from @UWC. This is what my tank looked like before I started dosing the Vibrant.
The hair algae is on the rock by the Laptestrea. I started dosing twice a week using 5ml.
My tank is a reefer 170, so total water volume is about 45 gallons. I estimate that I have about 40 gallons of water after displacement from rock and my protein skimmer.
My parameters stay pretty constant at the following levels.
Temp 77-78
Sg 1.025 with an ATC refractometer
NO3 1 ppm Red Sea test kit
PO4 0.03- 0.05 with a Hanna ULR
Alk 7.7 - 7.8 dKh Red Sea Pro
Calc 440 - 450 Red Sea Pro
Mag 1300 Red Sea Pro
I started dosing Vibrant on December 6th. I didn't notice any ill effects on any of my corals, and the hair algae started to disappear.
I received an Aquatic Life hybrid fixture for christmas and mounted the fixture using their poles attached to the stand on December 26th. I had to unplug everything in my tank for about an hour so that I could work behind the stand to mount the poles to the stand. I was very careful to make sure nothing got in the sump, and have checked the sump several times since. On December 27th, I started running the hybrid fixture with 4 T5 bulbs for 3 hours in the middle of the day along with my LED. The light was mounted 11 inches above the water line, one inch higher than what my LED was mounted at before. On December 27th, I also noticed that my heater wasn't fully plugged back in when the temp alarm on my doser went off. I noticed this in the morning immediately after waking up. The temp had gone down from 78 degrees to 74 degrees in about 14 hours. I plugged the heater back in and brought the temp back up over the next 5 hours. Most of my corals looked ticked.
This is what my tank looks like today.
And here are what some of my corals look like 10 days from installing the light and accidentally letting the temp fall.
On December 29th, I decrease the time that the T5's were on to 1.5 hours a day on the advice of a couple of posters here. The bulbs that I am using from front to back are ATI Blue+ Coral+ Actinic Blue+. Other than my Alk rising to 8.1 dKh, my parameters have stayed the same as I posted above. I did adjust my Alk dosing since Alk did go up, and after 4 days since my last test, Alk test at 8.0 dKh today.
As you can see, algae seems to have gotten out of control except for the hair algae, which is still present, but receding slowly.
#reefsquad
@Brew12 @rkpetersen @Daniel Waters @saltyfilmfolks
#anyonethatcanhelp
What can I do? Most corals still seem upset 10 days later and my frogspawn and hammer haven't opened in that amount of time either. Nothing seems dead, but nothing seems happy either. I have done 2 water changes, one 10% and the most recent 30%. I also vacuumed out the sump during the 30% change. I have been trying to siphon out as much algae as I can every day hoping to make the corals happier since all of my parameters look fine to me. I also checked for stray voltage and with my grounding probe in, had 0V.
What am I missing? What can I do? Any guidance would be appreciated.
