falure then success?

So you are telling me that zoas or any coral will grow over rock that has algae on it?

Nope not saying that. But I only have it on two rocks which are very dense patches that I leave alone in hopes I will see them wilt away with detritus/water change removal using 0 ppm salt water.

Sorry if I lead you on to believe my hair algae is out of control, it's not IMO.
 
I believe it's water quality which I don't know how to fix. Hear me out. I have two other tanks running right now with difference lighting and filtration and I'm getting similar results with them as well. I'm thinking its in the water, even though I us ro/di and my buckeye is only a few months old.
 
I'm not sure if you are aware but your alkalinity is very low. It should be between 8-10 depending on your other levels. Since your magnesium is fairly high, I'm guessing your zoas and having a hard time taking up calcium and magnesium since alkalinity is so low. Do a water change with a good quality salt water at 1.026. Then check your parameters. You may need to dose alk if you aren't doing a weekly water change.
 
So my thoughts, when your tank was a FOWLR did you use copper to treat the tank, also is the LR you have in it the same rock that was in the FOWLR? If so your rock may have absorbed copper/phosphates from the water column and is now releasing it into the tank.
 
So my thoughts, when your tank was a FOWLR did you use copper to treat the tank, also is the LR you have in it the same rock that was in the FOWLR? If so your rock may have absorbed copper/phosphates from the water column and is now releasing it into the tank.

I believe it was when it was detectable (.15) over a month ago but it's now undetectable per Hanna checker
 
I'm not sure if you are aware but your alkalinity is very low. It should be between 8-10 depending on your other levels. Since your magnesium is fairly high, I'm guessing your zoas and having a hard time taking up calcium and magnesium since alkalinity is so low. Do a water change with a good quality salt water at 1.026. Then check your parameters. You may need to dose alk if you aren't doing a weekly water change.

Really I thought it was spot on?
 
I'm not sure if you are aware but your alkalinity is very low. It should be between 8-10 depending on your other levels. Since your magnesium is fairly high, I'm guessing your zoas and having a hard time taking up calcium and magnesium since alkalinity is so low. Do a water change with a good quality salt water at 1.026. Then check your parameters. You may need to dose alk if you aren't doing a weekly water change.

Probably is between 8-10. OP's probably referring to meg/l 2.9 which is a little over 8 dKh.
 
What kind of salt are you using?

I was using IO for every but I switched to RC to see if I noticed a difference. I have another water change mix ready with the IO I'm not to happy with this last 5g bucket of RC.

Salinity quesiton for you guys that are using a refactometer. Do you use the solution to set 35 or or/di water to 0? I'm noticing the solution is off a bit so this time I'm setting to 0 with ro/di water.
 
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I have been using IO for the last 4 or 5 water changes and it is working just fine for me. I was using real ocean water but was tired of the LFS being out of it all the time some I got a RO system and was recommended to use IO by the person I get most of my corals from. Your problem could be from switching salts and the corals are trying to get used it the new salt.
 
I have been using IO for the last 4 or 5 water changes and it is working just fine for me. I was using real ocean water but was tired of the LFS being out of it all the time some I got a RO system and was recommended to use IO by the person I get most of my corals from. Your problem could be from switching salts and the corals are trying to get used it the new salt.

I've always dreamed of running a hose from the ocean to my house LOL. Would be cool though:spin3:
 
Could stray voltage be a possibility?

I read a couple of cases where people's corals would start dying off even with pristine water conditions.
 
So you changed your bulbs and your salt in a 3 week span? I would stop changing things around for a while. Let the tank get stable and adjusted again. Good luck.

~Dee~
 
So you changed your bulbs and your salt in a 3 week span? I would stop changing things around for a while. Let the tank get stable and adjusted again. Good luck.

~Dee~

Its been a declining drop for the past few months, I decided to change the salt as a "what the hell" type of thing. The blubs are the only think I changed a few weeks ago, they seems to help at first. I'm dropping the lights schedule to 8 hours a day now instead of 9 1/2. Don't know though.
 
QUOTE=brad65ford;18721415]Its been a declining drop for the past few months, I decided to change the salt as a "what the hell" type of thing. The bulbs are the only think I changed a few weeks ago, they seem to help at first. I'm dropping the lights schedule to 8 hours a day now instead of 9 1/2. Don't know though.[/QUOTE]


My point is this is a new system still maturing hence the algae give it some time to stabilize and mature.. You've only been running this system for 6 months and in that time you've changed salt, lights, moved corals around, changed/moved power heads, turned your skimmer off and added carbon. That's a lot to change in a new system. Even the slightest fluctuations can cause stress and melting. Give it some time to mature and become stable.

~Dee~
 
The system has been running for over 2 years, I've just changed over to corals the last 6 months. In that time, I've had major algae blooms which have all gone away except for some small hair algae and the thin green stuff on the glass. I have moved the power head a few days ago just to try something different since I've seen a decline with the corals. I don't like to do major drastic changes so I've been moving slowly and taking pictures every week or so. This is how I've seen a rise and fall of my system.
 
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