For months I've had major hair algae issues...but not just in one tank...in three saltwater and the freshwater.
Secondly, in my SPS tank after trying to switch to a calcium reactor and having issues with the CO2 and switching back to liquid dosing something really affected the corals. Before the reactor trial the corals were gorgeous...bright green against orange on my sunset monti, etc. I was so proud of that tank. A week after the reactor trial and fail they lost their colors and have not gained them back. In fact, they slowly started to RTN only to be further aggravated by loosened hair algae caught on the branches. Mexican turbo additions died in two days, and I tried twice. Ceriths did okay. So I tried an emerald crab. He lived for a week, and I added another. They're still doing well.
Two days ago I did a massive cleaning and fragged all the corals that were declining: Pink lemonade, Red Planet, Turaki, Green slimer and Blue tort. Those frags were moved to the 60. The Rainbow and Sunset montis have not colored up in months, but are not currently RTN. Superman monti, Setosa, Bonsai, green birdsnest, red monti, the chalice and another LPS seem unaffected. All the frags moved to the 60 by the next morning had polyp extension, except the pink lemonade. While most of their bases are brown, the Red Planet's base is white.
The pond foam is coming loose from the side in the refugium section and since both this tank and the freshwater tank have pond foam backgrounds and have the worst algae issues I'm inclined to think that could be the problem.
The change: Sometime this year replace the 40 (30g display/10g refugium) to a full display tank that will fit on top of the desk and remove the file cabinet below and replace it with a sump. This will change the display from a 24x17 x 18 tall to a 36" x 17-20 deep, with a 18 to 20 inch height. And because I'm tremendously careless the tank will not be acrylic but glass.
In general the changes made to combat algae issues was switched from BRS carbon back to the tri-pelletized I was using before, changed salt to Tropic Marin, changed dosing from BRS to ESV Calcium, but still use BRS alk, added a silicate/DI filter to the RO system. DIY'd a new carbon and Biopellet system for the 40g.
With the above changes the 60g soft coral tank is doing significantly better and the turbos are almost able to keep up with the hair algae growth, and what does return is much less.
The 29g freshwater tank - if I can't remove the siliconed pond foamed panel from the back of the tank, it will be replaced.
Secondly, in my SPS tank after trying to switch to a calcium reactor and having issues with the CO2 and switching back to liquid dosing something really affected the corals. Before the reactor trial the corals were gorgeous...bright green against orange on my sunset monti, etc. I was so proud of that tank. A week after the reactor trial and fail they lost their colors and have not gained them back. In fact, they slowly started to RTN only to be further aggravated by loosened hair algae caught on the branches. Mexican turbo additions died in two days, and I tried twice. Ceriths did okay. So I tried an emerald crab. He lived for a week, and I added another. They're still doing well.
Two days ago I did a massive cleaning and fragged all the corals that were declining: Pink lemonade, Red Planet, Turaki, Green slimer and Blue tort. Those frags were moved to the 60. The Rainbow and Sunset montis have not colored up in months, but are not currently RTN. Superman monti, Setosa, Bonsai, green birdsnest, red monti, the chalice and another LPS seem unaffected. All the frags moved to the 60 by the next morning had polyp extension, except the pink lemonade. While most of their bases are brown, the Red Planet's base is white.
The pond foam is coming loose from the side in the refugium section and since both this tank and the freshwater tank have pond foam backgrounds and have the worst algae issues I'm inclined to think that could be the problem.
The change: Sometime this year replace the 40 (30g display/10g refugium) to a full display tank that will fit on top of the desk and remove the file cabinet below and replace it with a sump. This will change the display from a 24x17 x 18 tall to a 36" x 17-20 deep, with a 18 to 20 inch height. And because I'm tremendously careless the tank will not be acrylic but glass.
In general the changes made to combat algae issues was switched from BRS carbon back to the tri-pelletized I was using before, changed salt to Tropic Marin, changed dosing from BRS to ESV Calcium, but still use BRS alk, added a silicate/DI filter to the RO system. DIY'd a new carbon and Biopellet system for the 40g.
With the above changes the 60g soft coral tank is doing significantly better and the turbos are almost able to keep up with the hair algae growth, and what does return is much less.
The 29g freshwater tank - if I can't remove the siliconed pond foamed panel from the back of the tank, it will be replaced.
