Out Of Ideas

B

Bryan

This may be quite long so hang with me for just a bit.


I currently have 2 tanks. Tank 1 is ~90g with 40b sump/fuge, running bio pellets, reef octo NWB110 skimmer, 1x250w MH, 2x54 T5. This tank to me has a very small bio-load, I currently have 4 fish - tailspot blenny, pajama cardinal, yellow watchman, and x-mas wrasse. The coral are a mix of LPS/Zoas/softies, I feed Very lightly - pellets three times a week, but only what can be eaten in a short time, acans and tube nem are spot 3x per week as well. Tank 2 is a 5.5g with AC110 running purigen / chemi pure elite, and cheato, with PAR38 for light, 0 fish , 3 blasto frags, and about 8-9 zoa frags. I do 2 -2g water changes per week in the 5.5g , and 2 40g changes per month on the 90. I have always used reef crystals , and dosed ESV 2 part with every tank in the past, but on these tanks (90 is a transfer from 40b) I have been using Red Sea Coral Pro. Since the salt swap I have had hell with GHA, I have ran through the full range of tests and all seem to be within what I had before the change of salts and the GHA has NEVER been an issue before. The only other "big" difference was the addition of rock from reefcleaners, I purchased 100 lbs. of rock from them last spring . I did make the mistake of just rinsing the rock prior to adding it to the system (no curing ) , but none of that rock was added to the 5.5g. I did another round of tests today and the results were :

Nitrate = 5
Nitrite = 0
Ammonia = 0
phosphates = 0.25
ph = 7.9 (morning)

All tests were taken with API test kit and all are up to date. I realize that with the GHA as dominant as it is the PO4 readings will be lower giving off a false impression. I tested my top off water from my ro/di and it came up 0 on both tests I ran.

About 2 weeks ago I siphoned and picked all og the GHA that I could get in both systems and did a 100% change in both systems , and In less than a week the algae was back in full force. One thing I know I need to do is beef up my cuc , but I am really starting to think that the salt is part of my problem. I am in the process of making about 60g of water for another large change for tomorrow, and plan on testing my new SW prior to the change.

Now for my question :

Has anyone else had issues with the Red Sea Coral Pro and algae ? If not, based on the info I have given do you have any suggestions or ideas. Sorry it was so long, but I tried to give as much info as I currently had.

Thanks in advance.
Bryan
 
Are you using other red sea add ins? I ask because a friend of mine has a suspicion that he's had a much higher amount of sponges growing after switching over to their total add in system. I've not had the issue but I dose a lot less then he does.
 
I would try changing the source of your water, if you make your own try a lfs for a month see if it helps. Or if you purchase RO try out another store for a while. It may or may not be the problem but it will rule out the source water.
 
I do not dose any of the red sea products, and my water is the same water that I have used for almost 5 years now, and the algae issue never came about until I switched salts. My ro/do unit is a 2 month old spectrapure unit, and when I tested the fresh water put out by the unit the Phosphate readings were 0.

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk
 
@Bryan wrote:
1x250w mh said:
Is the 250W MH a 10K or something else? Also what is the color temp of the T5's? The reason why I am asking is because I have found that changing our lights to some a little bluer helped in fighting algae. Something 14K or higher on all our tanks. Algae likes light that is closer to the red spectrum.

Also some turbo snails and yellow tangs really helped as well. We went from an algae problem so bad that I thought that we were going to have to tear down to get it all to having non at all.

I used both Red Sea Pro and Reef Crystal salt mixed with RO/DI water.
Click to expand...
 
hmmm, never thought about bulb temp .

The MH is a 12k and the T5's are actinic only. That sort of makes since, because my previous tank was running a 20k MH only and the algae was never a problem. I will continue to pick and siphon and also try a deeper temp bulb and see if that helps. This may be a good time to do that LED swap I have been wanting.

Thanks
 
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