I set up my 270 and life got in the way shortly thereafter. Needless to say, nutrients were higher than Snoop and Martha. Algae, well, you know. I’ve been manually scrubbing and scrubbing while mulm just builds up. I recently performed 3 huge (like 50-60% changes) which took my nutrients from who knows what to NO3 near 50 ppm and PO4 near 0.4 ppm per Hanna. Yeah, the decimal is in the right spot. My tests are consistent as I’m fairly particular and they align very well with ATI ICP test, though I haven’t done one recently because I’m not worrying about all the details and am trusting that my Red Sea Blue Bucket salt and aggressive water changes are plenty good for now. I’ll resume ICP’s once things are settling down and it’s worth worrying over nitty-gritty details.
No matter what I do, I cant get much of the detritus down my overflow, but I think a significant portion of the issue is the amount of algae that creates low flow areas for algae food to settle out. Well, a quick water change led to a pretty decent 3 hour rip clean. Woops!
I’ll likely have to do it a few more times since essentially all of my clean up crew is dead, but anything I’ve added recently dies almost immediately, I think due to cyano/dinos/whatever is growing. My plan is semi weekly 10% or weekly 20% water changes coupled with removing my rock for scrubbing. I’m tired of fighting. It’s time to win. It would have been nice if my Dad had been around to see it, but we spent lies of time with him while we could.
I’d like to hit the Powerball so I can just load up my tank all at once while the rock is moving around and fish territories aren’t as solid as usual. Springers damsels are pretty peaceful with old neighbors, but they go after newcomers with a vengeance if they get near the rock. They might just find themselves in my sump for a bit so I can add some livestock.
@brandon429, I’m not sure if i should love you or hate you at the moment, but I’m pretty sure I’ll appreciate your guidance soon enough. If it all works out and my new job works out as well as I hope, we’ll have to meet up at RAP or MACNA so ai can treat you to dinner.
No matter what I do, I cant get much of the detritus down my overflow, but I think a significant portion of the issue is the amount of algae that creates low flow areas for algae food to settle out. Well, a quick water change led to a pretty decent 3 hour rip clean. Woops!
I’ll likely have to do it a few more times since essentially all of my clean up crew is dead, but anything I’ve added recently dies almost immediately, I think due to cyano/dinos/whatever is growing. My plan is semi weekly 10% or weekly 20% water changes coupled with removing my rock for scrubbing. I’m tired of fighting. It’s time to win. It would have been nice if my Dad had been around to see it, but we spent lies of time with him while we could.
I’d like to hit the Powerball so I can just load up my tank all at once while the rock is moving around and fish territories aren’t as solid as usual. Springers damsels are pretty peaceful with old neighbors, but they go after newcomers with a vengeance if they get near the rock. They might just find themselves in my sump for a bit so I can add some livestock.
@brandon429, I’m not sure if i should love you or hate you at the moment, but I’m pretty sure I’ll appreciate your guidance soon enough. If it all works out and my new job works out as well as I hope, we’ll have to meet up at RAP or MACNA so ai can treat you to dinner.