Okay, now that things have settled down a bit with work and my summer holidays are over, it's time to let things get back to normal and start focusing on the tanks.
We seem to be losing the battle with hair algae...
A few weeks back, we did a week without the lights on the display tank after I pulled all the hair algae off the one rock it seems to be growing on and the two Koralia powerheads. I also added a Koralia nano to the fuge in the hope that the better flow would eliminate the little bit of hair algae growing in there.
Well...the rock is now covered again, as are the two Koralia powerheads, and the fuge has more hair algae in it than chaeto!
According to our last tests the parameters were as follows and that was before doing a 30 gallon water change (RO/DI water with Tropic Marin Pro-Reef):
Temp - 81.5°F
Sg - 1.026
pH - 7.9
NH4 - <0.25 (lowest reading on Salifert)
NO3 - 2
PO4 - 0
Ca - 420
Alk - 10.8
Mg - 1425
Depending on how this evening goes, I plan on yanking as much of the hair algae I can grab out of the tank and doing another round of tests.
The cleaning crew seems to be keeping up with every other kind of algae that may be growing in the tank. When I'm in the tank, I'll put as many Astrea and Margarita Snails as I can on the rock with the GHA on it and maybe move a couple more of them to the fuge.
I know the stock AGA Strip Light is probably not the best for reducing algae growth but it's all we have right now and we probably won't be getting the Metal Halide System until November or later...too many other things on the "have to buy" list that aren't aquarium related.
Depending on what Jeff at LifeReef.com has in stock, I may break down and buy a set of the filter cylinders and run some phosphate and nitrate remover just to see if that helps.
We definitely won't be adding any coral until we get the MH and the GHA under control. We will likely proceed as planned with our live stock purchases at the end of the month though, depending on availability. Maybe round two of the CUC to get more Astrea and Margarita Snails as well.
Stay tuned for updates as the happen.
