Test results are in and its not looking good! Any advice?

[brandon429]

For sure, unfarm the algae it’ll take over your whole tank. The only time we farm algae on purpose in a big reef to take in nutrients is when it’s in a place of control that we can be routinely removing it. If you leave it in place where corals should be, it fragments and wrecks your whole system quickly.

 

[BayouReefer]

I just read the whole thread all 16 pages! I have just one word. WOW!

 

[Ralph Ritoch]

For sure, unfarm the algae it’ll take over your whole tank. The only time we farm algae on purpose in a big reef to take in nutrients is when it’s in a place of control that we can be routinely removing it. If you leave it in place where corals should be, it fragments and wrecks your whole system quickly.

Well, I did another massive cleaning and 20% water change. I wiped out about 80% of the algae but since I've been farming algae I have a lot less hard-to-remove algae on the glass so I'm not ready to get rid of it entirely. It will be put into the sump/refugium if/when the bulkheads arrive. Nitrate now down to about 50. Still horrid but I'll stick with 20% water changes weekly until it comes down to a reasonable level.

 

[Ralph Ritoch]

Did another 10% water change today after running the filter + uv sterilizer for 24 hours and seem to have the Nitrate down to the 30-40 range. It still isn't clear what the source of the nitrate is, but there are a lot of hitchikers in this tank, including a tiny crab-like animal living in the zoa's that I've only seen twice. Apparently after the tank cleaning it had to come out for food.

 

[brandon429]

the nitrate will rebound fast, it wont stay. its source-all fish in the tank, all feed input, and cumulatively: anything that clouds.

if you can reach in and grab sand and drop it and a cloud comes out, nitrate not being removed in 10% wchanges

you have the tank set for higher nitrates, but thats ok there are lots of sps and lps systems that can run 60s not a problem.

to make your tank not set for nitrates, decloud it then go bare bottom.

 

[Ralph Ritoch]

Better late then never... The bulkheads finally arrived, it took almost 2 months. The sump has been built and this allowed me to raise the lighting. The flowerpot corals are struggling but hopefully they'll rebound with the new setup. I have a octo 110s on order which should be in within 2 weeks but until then I'm still using filter media. I haven't had a chance to re-check the levels but I have no reason to believe they would have changed much. I'll test in a week to see how this new setup has changed the levels.

 

[MnFish1]

Curious - do you think your lighting is too powerful - i.e. if you did a less powerful light you could put It lower - thus focusing on the tank - rather than lightning the room? Not a criticism - just curious? How did your corals etc do?

 

[Ralph Ritoch]

Curious - do you think your lighting is too powerful - i.e. if you did a less powerful light you could put It lower - thus focusing on the tank - rather than lightning the room? Not a criticism - just curious? How did your corals etc do?

I honestly have no idea what is happening with the flowerpot corals. We had a very hot day and two of the colonies closed up, the other seems fine. The hammer on the other hand was bleached and a mix of power-feeding and intense blue light (100%) for a few weeks and it was fully recovered. The zoanthids don't care about anything, heat, light, water quality, they are OK with anything it seems. When this picture was taken it was on 100% white, 100% blue, but right now keep it at 50% white and 80% blue and seems OK. The tank is a little cloudy since the change but it is slowly clearing up. Maybe an algae bloom but my focus is on trying to recover the flowerpots and they bloom the most at 100% white, 100% blue. From everything I've read it seems that too much white light can be harmful to corals but the flowerpot's apparently never read that article I don't have a par meter but its a 40 gallon, and 180W led, and the articles say from 4W to 8W per gallon so the lighting should be correct, I honestly don't know for a fact.

 

[MnFish1]

I honestly have no idea what is happening with the flowerpot corals. We had a very hot day and two of the colonies closed up, the other seems fine. The hammer on the other hand was bleached and a mix of power-feeding and intense blue light (100%) for a few weeks and it was fully recovered. The zoanthids don't care about anything, heat, light, water quality, they are OK with anything it seems. When this picture was taken it was on 100% white, 100% blue, but right now keep it at 50% white and 80% blue and seems OK. The tank is a little cloudy since the change but it is slowly clearing up. Maybe an algae bloom but my focus is on trying to recover the flowerpots and they bloom the most at 100% white, 100% blue. From everything I've read it seems that too much white light can be harmful to corals but the flowerpot's apparently never read that article I don't have a par meter but its a 40 gallon, and 180W led, and the articles say from 4W to 8W per gallon so the lighting should be correct, I honestly don't know for a fact.

All good. im not sure many people use the watts/gallon now