Spfahnestock's 60 Gallon Build Thread

[spfahnestock]

I have decided to take the step of attempting a 7 day black out on my tank reducing my lighting to 4 hours a day and cut the intensity in half to help combat the never ending hair algae fight I am having.

My parameters as of Saturday morning when I tested:

ALK - 8.5 dkh (Hannah Checker)
CAL - 495 PPM (Hannah Checker)
Phos - 0.06 PPM (Hannah Checker) - Has maintained an average of 0.06 for the last month.
Nitrate - 48.9 PPM (Hannah Checker) - Attribute very high number in part to a loss of two fish over the last week and potentially not cleaning smudges from the outside of the vial prior to testing. I would have retested but honestly the process is a little long.

I plan to take a weekly picture and follow this method for a month to see if it helps any. If not then I will consider what is next.

 

[spfahnestock]

In preparation for family being at the house for the holiday, and the steps I have taken so far I removed every rock again and scrubbed all the hair algae off that I could. The benefit to this was not only making the tank look better I fixed the rock scape from the scrubbing a month ago. This time required less scrubbing as there was less hair algae but it was still unsightly.

This morning before my water change I ran some tests.

PO4 was at 0.02 PPM
Nitrates were off the scale on the Hannah Checker using the diluted method.

I am thinking about performing a more aggressive water change later this week. I typically change 15 gallons bi weekly, but since I am on vacation this week I might attempt a 30 or 40 gallon change. I am estimating my water volume to be in the 60 to 70 gallon range which would led to at or just over a 50% water change.

My concern with this is two fold. I will not know the cause of the high levels of nitrates and none of my corals are showing any distress from the raised levels.

Some additional background I have been dosing NOPOX and Microbactor 7 daily for a little over month to assist with the hair algae but believe I am under dosing (5 ml of NOPOX and 10 ml of Microbactor 7). When purchasing these from my LFS I was instructed to dose 2X the microbactor 7 as NOPOX. I have also been skimming wetter than normal and changing my filter socks every two to three days.

Any thoughts on a path forward?

 

[fishguy242]

hi,have never used either chem,would say dump wet skim,but not clean skimmer cup for a few times see if produces a little thicker skim

 

[spfahnestock]

So I think my current tank is protesting the new build I have been working on this weekend.

Last night I noticed my tank looked a bit cloudy. When I looked in the sump area I noticed my skimmer was going nuts and overflowing bubbles are over the place. I shut off the skimmer and left it for the night figuring it would calm down over night. This morning when I plugged the skimmer back in it did it again.

I prepped and did a 20 gallon water change and started prepping another one for tomorrow.

The tank is still mildly cloudy so I am hoping that after another 30% water change it will balance out a little and I can turn the skimmer back on.

Not what I planned for the weekend but it is what it is.

 

[fishguy242]

Hi,any idea what caused?? did you clean or try adjusting skimmer level?

 

[spfahnestock]

Hi,any idea what caused?? did you clean or try adjusting skimmer level?

I pulled the skimmer and completely cleaned it this morning.

As for the cause I have a few ideas but I am not 100% sure.

 

[spfahnestock]

Just did another 20 gallon water change and my skimmer seems to have settled down.

I am going to do another 15 or 20 in the morning and cross my fingers.

 

[spfahnestock]

So the road with this tank has been a self induced fight with hair algae.

It seems no matter what I do I can not even out my parameters to deter the growth of hair algae.

I run phosban and check phosphates weekly and my range stays in the 0 to 0.06 range. I know these are not true readings as the phosphates are bound up in the algae itself. I have performed manual removal to include removing and scrubbing each rock only to have a return of the plaque a month later.

I have also performed weekly water changes ranging from 30% up to 50%, but consistently do bi weekly 30% water changes.

Vibrant isn't working which I have been told can be due to my high Nitrates that I have been able to battle down to 32 ppm from off the charts on the Hannah Checker. I have been using NOPOX twice a week to get these under control.

I am also adding Microbactor 7 at the recommendation of a local reefer to help build the beneficial bacteria in the tank that was lacking.

This morning I reduced my light cycle to 30% intensity and a duration of 5 hours each day.

I am aware my tank is relatively new, coming up on a year old, but I must say this is a little frustrating to fight through.

 

[spfahnestock]

So for the most part I have not posted photos of my tank due to being embarrassed over the hair algae that had decided to call my tank home.

I am now on day 13 of doing Reef Flux and wanted to share the progress on this posting so I could look back later.

I must say I was beginning to question if this product worked as I had read it did because for the first week I noticed almost no changes then it seemed overnight everything started to improve.

Sadly I did not take photos before starting the Reef Flux cycle an now I wish I had.

The first set of photos is from day 07 of my treatment and the second set is from today. This is the difference a week has made. I will say that I have performed no manual removal of the hair algae to this point and I am really looking forward to what the final week will deliver.

Week 1 (No lights on):

Day 13 - We will say Week 2 (Lights just came on):

There are still some small patches to go but so much better in my opinion.

 

[spfahnestock]

In just a few days my tank will turn a year old. It has been great being back in the hobby and it has also been full of challenges.

I am nearing the end of a Reef Flux cycle due to a self induced (I believe) hair algae problem and my tank has honestly not looked better.

Yesterday, unfortunately, the tank had to be re-aquascaped because I was transferring my Trigger and Hippo Tang into the 144 that was finally ready for them. I will say I hope to never have to extract a fish from a tank again as I had to remove 99% of the rock from the tank.

The major lesson I learned over the last year was to not overstock a tank. I believe this was a major contributor to some of the issues I have had in the last year. Additionally, this last year has reinforced the take it slow method with tanks. I am working hard to apply this to the 144 and the continued process of the 60.

A few months ago something happened in the tank and I lost 75% of the livestock. I believe there was something introduced to the tank when I added a powder blue tang. While I know that a 60 is to small for a PB Tang I was very close to setting up the 144 and it was going to be a temporary thing.

My livestock (after the transfer) is down to just 3 fish one of which has been with me since almost the beginning. I will be going out Friday looking for a set of really nice clowns to add to the tank.

I will post pictures later this week.

 

[spfahnestock]

This post is long overdue. It has been about two months since I treated the tank for hair algae, and the tank is looking pretty good in my opinion.

I am thinking it is now time to start adding coral make my reef a reef.

Left:

Center:

Right:

 

[fishguy242]

Looks great,love the clowns...

 

[spfahnestock]

Over the last week I have considered breaking down this tank and adding the fish to my 144 (when the time is right). During the winter months I enjoy the bi weekly maintenance schedule, which becomes weekly between the two tanks. However, in the summer when I am away or working outside most weekends it becomes a challenge.

I am not going to rush this decision but wanted to document somewhere where my mind was and this seemed like the appropriate place.

Has anyone else struggled with the decision of keeping 2 tanks going?

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Yep. I've only got 1 tank at this point due to space, but when I was running 2+ tanks, it was a lot more work. Most I've ever had up at once was 4 tanks.