Hello All,
I recently returned from prolonged travel to a disaster in our tank. There is a thread on what we faced. The short story is chemistry was off and tons of debris in the water, the sump was so icky the pumps were clogging. There was green algae everywhere and the residents (fish, snails, crabs and corals) all seemed slow, not as active as they had been. Two fish died while we were gone and we lost several corals.
Following advice I've been doing frequent water changes in an attempt to clean the debris and restore some balance in the chemistry. I also added a phosban reactor (two little fishes). Now the tank is looking better, residents are behaving more normally, but the algae is a constant battle.
I had been running a biopellet reactor before leaving and it seemed to be doing a good job controlling nutrients. We didn't have algae problems and the tank was stable. Unfortunately the biopellet reactor clogged badly while we were gone (we did pay someone to service the tank twice a week - needless to say we won't use him anymore.) I haven't been able to get it going again despite multiple attempts at cleaning it and replacing the pellets.
I am preparing to try the Red Sea Nopox system in an attempt to further combat the persistent algae problem. It is better than it was and improving very slowly, but not sure it is continuing to get better.
Nitrates are reading between 5ppm and 10ppm but I've read this can be deceiving because the algae is consuming the nutrients for its nuisance growth. Clearly the algae continues to be nourished because it keeps coming back.
I don't have a phosphate test kit yet but one is on order to arrive tomorrow.
Has anyone had experience with the Red Sea system? I'm a novice at this and the learning curve is intense, especially since my goal had always been to avoid problems by close monitoring and adjustments to the tank. I've never had to problem solve like this before.
Sorry this is so long but wanted to outline the situation in context.
If more information would be helpful I'm happy to provide it.
Thanks to all for any advice.
I recently returned from prolonged travel to a disaster in our tank. There is a thread on what we faced. The short story is chemistry was off and tons of debris in the water, the sump was so icky the pumps were clogging. There was green algae everywhere and the residents (fish, snails, crabs and corals) all seemed slow, not as active as they had been. Two fish died while we were gone and we lost several corals.
Following advice I've been doing frequent water changes in an attempt to clean the debris and restore some balance in the chemistry. I also added a phosban reactor (two little fishes). Now the tank is looking better, residents are behaving more normally, but the algae is a constant battle.
I had been running a biopellet reactor before leaving and it seemed to be doing a good job controlling nutrients. We didn't have algae problems and the tank was stable. Unfortunately the biopellet reactor clogged badly while we were gone (we did pay someone to service the tank twice a week - needless to say we won't use him anymore.) I haven't been able to get it going again despite multiple attempts at cleaning it and replacing the pellets.
I am preparing to try the Red Sea Nopox system in an attempt to further combat the persistent algae problem. It is better than it was and improving very slowly, but not sure it is continuing to get better.
Nitrates are reading between 5ppm and 10ppm but I've read this can be deceiving because the algae is consuming the nutrients for its nuisance growth. Clearly the algae continues to be nourished because it keeps coming back.
I don't have a phosphate test kit yet but one is on order to arrive tomorrow.
Has anyone had experience with the Red Sea system? I'm a novice at this and the learning curve is intense, especially since my goal had always been to avoid problems by close monitoring and adjustments to the tank. I've never had to problem solve like this before.
Sorry this is so long but wanted to outline the situation in context.
If more information would be helpful I'm happy to provide it.
Thanks to all for any advice.
