Fuge vs GFO

[mpyers]

So I got a little reactor. Did a 2:1 Carbon GFO mix inside. It killed my fuge. Which I expected. But I didn't expect an algae explosion after. DT is covered. Ive manually removed it several times water changed twice and changed media twice over the past month and it still grows back within a week of removing it.

Points of interest.

1. I got rid of all crabs about 6 months ago. So snail and shrimp only cuc. This did not have an impact when I first removed the crabs. And not for the first 5 months. Should I look into re-thinking this decision?

2. I never check for phos or nitrate. I used to but it never changed. So when my tests ran out I didn't see the point in getting new ones. So I can't give you those numbers.

3.low bio load. And low feeding. 3 fish. Fed 1 small cube of mysis shrimp daily. Or a slurry of pellets, veggies and phytoplankton once a week.

4. I change filter socks daily.

So my ultimate question is what should I do? Should I ditch the reactor and go back to the fuge? Should I do carbon only in the reactor with a fuge? Crabs? Should I change my mixture in the reactor? Should I look into something like zeovit or a red Sea equivalent?

PS it's not insanely bad. Just little patches that covers most of the rocks. Enough to drive anyone crazy. It would probably be really bad if I didn't remove it manually all the time.

 

[mpyers]

Also. 60g dt 30g sump. Mixed reef. About 30 species of corals. The largest being a devils hand the size of a pizza.
54 x 3w leds. 40 Mixed blues and 14 whites. Coralife 125 skimmer. (Don't comment on the skimmer. I know it's not the best but ive had it for a year and this problem just started this month) about 75lbs LR. The newest of which is 4 months old.

 

[mpyers]

The last one is from when some of the LR was brand new.

 

[mpyers]

One more side question. What is all the ugly brown coralline algae? Is it just coralline or is it bad?

 

[GoVols]

I run Rowaphos in a Aquamaxx reactor.

You must run GFO in it's own reactor. It must tumble.

I you want to run carbon put it in it's reactor.
Pack it tightly with foam disk on top and bottom so it doesn't tumble.

Carbon is to soft to tumble and will break down into tiny fines that can lead to HLLE with Tang.

Mixing carbon with GFO really wont give you the full benefit of GFO.

I dumped carbon years ago for purigen. I do keep some carbon on hand if I need to remove some kind of treatment, purigen can't do that. Read link
http://www.seachem.com/purigen.php

This is what I'm running right now.
Sump mesh filter sock, Great skimmer, Rowaphos and dosing Aquaforest Pro Bio S with AF NP Pro. (No Purigen at this time)

Params. are spot on water is crystal clear.

I love GFO but if you had great results with your fuge then go back to it.

 

[mpyers]

I have thought about separate reactors for each. But I'm running out of room under the tank. I also would prefer to keep the dosing to a minimum. I prefer carbon and GFO because I don't have to worry about overdosing or testing all the time. But I think it'll be either the second reactor or back to the fuge.

 

[RobZilla04]

Was your reactor intake before the fuge? If so ypu were stripping nutrients before it could get to the macro. If not, likely the GFO stripped too much and left nothing for the macro. I had this problem when ridding my tank of gha. Ran a phos pad plus GFO, my Chaeto died within a week twice so I just cut Out the Chaeto. Now my phos is 0 so I cut the GFO after a tank upgrade.

If the macro worked, go back to it and cut the GFO. As mentioned above, GFO needs to tumble and likely needs a little time to absorb all the phos that's in the system. I suggest removing as much gha as possible by hand daily and keep the GFO going. Change it monthly until there is no more gha growth. Best of luck.

 

[PatW]

For me, a fuge wiorks nicely to keep nutrients down after I got them under control. It is good for maintenance.

Running GFO and doing large or frequent water changes should work. In my case, as nutrients got lower, I found that scrubbing got algae off of the rocks.

I have ample skimming. I vodka dosed. The vodka caused bacteria to multiply in the water. They sucked up nitrates to do so. The skimming removed the bacteria.

I would definitely test for nitrates. Unless you have a Hanna checker, nothing measures phosphates at a low enough level to really work. Of course, a LFS can test your water, if you take in a sample.

But for quick results, nothing beats a good old fashioned brute force approach of water changes.

 

[mpyers]

The Fuge worked wonders for me. I have decided to cut the GFO and run Carbon only in the reactor. While switching back to the fuge, I am going to scrub and siphon all the algae, and turn off the reactor. Then I'm going to cover the glass on the DT and turn off the lights and give the fuge a couple days to start building back with no competition from the DT. Then I'm going to change the reactor to just carbon. Do a big water change, and turn the lights back on. Also I think I might buy a couple crabs and see how they do. Now that my frags have all matured, I think I can tolerate the crabs without them knocking everything around.

Question, will the carbon reactor kill the fuge? I ran carbon before but just in a sock. I don't know if the increased flow will overdo it?

Thanks for the advice everyone. I suppose it is as simple as do what was working. I just didn't want to admit my new equipment was the problem.

 

[Half Vaped]

I would guess that your algae bloom is caused by the GFO sucking all the PO4 from the water (and starving out the macro in the fuge) and now, all the PO4 that has been collecting in the rocks is leaching out.

I recommend a quality kit for testing NO3 and PO4, just to know where you're at. Your tank has changed since the last time you tested.

I never used GFO myself, since I prefer macros in the fuge combined with NOPOX dosing and wet skimming. I feel that I have more control over the nutrients this way.

 

[GoVols]

"But for quick results, nothing beats a good old fashioned brute force approach of water changes."

I love this from PatW.---------Quote for the day!!!!!!

PatW, Preach On!!!!

 

[RobZilla04]

The Fuge worked wonders for me. I have decided to cut the GFO and run Carbon only in the reactor. While switching back to the fuge, I am going to scrub and siphon all the algae, and turn off the reactor. Then I'm going to cover the glass on the DT and turn off the lights and give the fuge a couple days to start building back with no competition from the DT. Then I'm going to change the reactor to just carbon. Do a big water change, and turn the lights back on. Also I think I might buy a couple crabs and see how they do. Now that my frags have all matured, I think I can tolerate the crabs without them knocking everything around.

Question, will the carbon reactor kill the fuge? I ran carbon before but just in a sock. I don't know if the increased flow will overdo it?

Thanks for the advice everyone. I suppose it is as simple as do what was working. I just didn't want to admit my new equipment was the problem.

Depending on your set up you could run the intake pump for the reactor from a section of the sump that is past the fuge. For example: A three bay sump that has media filtration in the first, a fuge in the middle and a return in the third. Put the reactor pump and outlet in the third section with the return pump.