Hello,
This is a long question but I'll do my best to be as clear as possible. I've been battling a pretty bad GHA problem over the past month or so. I had a couple little tufts but while on vacation my overflow clogged and my fuge went (almost) dry, killing all my macro and releasing a flood of phosphates into the water. Within 24 hours my tank was covered in GHA.
Since then I've been running a BRS GFO reactor with 1/2 cup of media (recommended starting amount), changing it about once a week for 4 weeks now. The problem's been getting worse despite cutting back lighting and reducing feeding by 1/2 so I doubled the amount of GFO yesterday.
My calcium had been slowly climbing over the last month but since yesterday dropped ~150ppm to 472ppm. I'm curious as to why this is...a couple things come to mind:
Chemistry (Ca ppm / KH ppm / Mg ppm):
NOV-DEC: 420-400, 8-9dKH, 1300-1400
30DEC: 414 / 141 / 1170
27JAN: 525 / 140 / 1300
29JAN: 600 (test max) / 153 / 1300
05FEB: 472 / 148 / 1500 (test max)
Kits are Hanna checkers for Ca & KH and salifert for Mg.
I've only been dosing alkalinity (bicarb soln, randy's #1). SPS growth and color were great but slowed down this week. Pink lemonade doesn't seem to like the extra GFO. GHA is slowly receding with the help of a lawnmower blenny.
and now the question...
Is it possible that my elevated phosphate levels -- which spiked right around New Year's -- prevented the uptake of calcium in my SPS-dominate system? I've added a lot of frags in the past month (~12 in a 55g), so I would think that would drive the calcium down over time. Keep in mind that I never cured my rocks, overfed the heck out of the tank for the first 3 months (set up system in August), and brought the GFO online around Christmas.
The only other thing I can think of besides test error would be that my elevated Mg levels, which gradually increased from 1,250 on 29DEC to >1600 today, are either affecting the Ca readings or masked the true KH level by pulling CO3 ions out of solution?
Sorry for being so long-winded.
Thoughts?
This is a long question but I'll do my best to be as clear as possible. I've been battling a pretty bad GHA problem over the past month or so. I had a couple little tufts but while on vacation my overflow clogged and my fuge went (almost) dry, killing all my macro and releasing a flood of phosphates into the water. Within 24 hours my tank was covered in GHA.
Since then I've been running a BRS GFO reactor with 1/2 cup of media (recommended starting amount), changing it about once a week for 4 weeks now. The problem's been getting worse despite cutting back lighting and reducing feeding by 1/2 so I doubled the amount of GFO yesterday.
My calcium had been slowly climbing over the last month but since yesterday dropped ~150ppm to 472ppm. I'm curious as to why this is...a couple things come to mind:
- I raised my magnesium to fight the algae 2 weeks ago
- I added a large number of SPS frags on Monday
- doubled GFO
Chemistry (Ca ppm / KH ppm / Mg ppm):
NOV-DEC: 420-400, 8-9dKH, 1300-1400
30DEC: 414 / 141 / 1170
27JAN: 525 / 140 / 1300
29JAN: 600 (test max) / 153 / 1300
05FEB: 472 / 148 / 1500 (test max)
Kits are Hanna checkers for Ca & KH and salifert for Mg.
I've only been dosing alkalinity (bicarb soln, randy's #1). SPS growth and color were great but slowed down this week. Pink lemonade doesn't seem to like the extra GFO. GHA is slowly receding with the help of a lawnmower blenny.
and now the question...
Is it possible that my elevated phosphate levels -- which spiked right around New Year's -- prevented the uptake of calcium in my SPS-dominate system? I've added a lot of frags in the past month (~12 in a 55g), so I would think that would drive the calcium down over time. Keep in mind that I never cured my rocks, overfed the heck out of the tank for the first 3 months (set up system in August), and brought the GFO online around Christmas.
The only other thing I can think of besides test error would be that my elevated Mg levels, which gradually increased from 1,250 on 29DEC to >1600 today, are either affecting the Ca readings or masked the true KH level by pulling CO3 ions out of solution?
Sorry for being so long-winded.
Thoughts?
