GFO reactor on and off?

[ReefSultan]

Hi All ,

3,5 months old tank , dry rock has green color which is impossible to remove by brush and not dusty or hair kind please see photos

I am running media stacked media reactor zeolit+carbon+gfo from beginning with dry rock

My NO3 between 1-2,5 always and PO4 0 reading with Hannna UL however I had spike of PO4 after last change of media reactor due to wrong amount/flow/wrong stacking and also coral feeding more then need end up with 0,1 PO4 then changed media again after 3 weeks (normally I change 4-6 weeks when I start reading PO4 on the exit of reactor

After last correct setup of stacked reactor now NO3 1 (salifert) and PO4 0 reading I have brown algae or cyano in sand coming when lights on and nothing early in the morning

Now my question is should I make reactor offline to see if PO4 increase I mean power off and keep water inside and turn it in if PO4 increase?

Or keep it online and heavy feed fish and corals

Another question is about AF COMP123 , it was 80ml dosing and parameters were lucked in then suddenly after last gfo KH droped from 7,6 to 7,2 then I keep adding KH
CA 400 MG 1380 were stable but I see CA and MG started to drop, so I increased COMP123 dose to 100ml now I have 7,3 KH (dropped from 7,6) CA 420 and MG 1440

Weekly 10% wc

Should I return to 80ml , I am lost really

Thank you




Tapatalk kullanarak iPhone aracılığıyla gönderildi

 

[ReefSultan]

Tapatalk kullanarak iPhone aracılığıyla gönderildi

 

[OzIA]

The green color doesn't seem out of the ordinary, for the age of your tank. Do you have a good clean-up crew (snails & crabs)? You should expect to see some pink coraline starting to form soon, in the higher flow areas first. Continuing that thought... do you have good flow?

I really hate to see zero of anything, especially when there should be something. If your nitrate is 1.0ppm, then technically, your phosphate should be around .06 (Redfield ratio). GFO will lower KH so when you add new GFO, you can expect a drop in KH. What is your filtration method?

I see you are doing a 10% weekly water change. Does your salt contain adequate levels of iodine and strontium? If not, you may be reaching a point where those trace elements are being depleted. You might want to consider adding those or doing a water analysis test.

What is the volume of the tank>

 

[ReefSultan]

Thanks for the answer

I have 400 liters in total tank 110x60x50 cm DT, 2 radion xr30 g4 working on 50% , I reduced it from 83% couple of days ago as I want to see if corals are negative impacted by intensity too

I have pink on rocks yes but not increasing

Gfo and KH drop is something continuously happening or it is just sucking KH in first days?

Filtration BK DC 200 cleaning crew I have dozens of Turbo snail those are not interested sand and only 3 conch I have
Maybe I need more conch? I started to use filter floss after DT return to sump to reduce ditruits built up in sump , I have white sponge grow in rocks and sump, I also have 5 liters of new siporax introduced maybe it is also leaking some silicates and I have stacked media reactor zeolit+carbon + gfo continuously running

2tang, 4 chromis, 3 yellow wrasse, 1 six line wrasse, 1 flame angel, 2 cleaner shrimp

I have 1 small milka colony the rest small sps frags 5-6 and GSP

I dose AF COMP 123 this has micro and macro elements in it

Never did ICP test never check my PH or potassium, strontium , iodine

Sometimes I add coral food and amino acid not in a good pattern as I afraid to increase nutrients but generally 2 times a week with 50% of suggested dosage of AF

I use AF reef salt and SG 1.026 35 ppt (it was Reduced to 34 for 2 weeks increased slowly by adding salt water rather then rodi after evaporation

I have 2 MP40w qd running 70% reefchest 7/24

I have chiller temp fix to 26C-26,5C

Tapatalk kullanarak iPhone aracılığıyla gönderildi

 

[OzIA]

That is a really nice setup. I like the drawer for the equipment on the side. I like the rock too. Did you assemble that yourself?

I would just be patient and let the system mature. I wouldn't get too caught up on the inconsistencies. If you are going to make changes, make them small and give them time to stabilize. The things you are describing seem fairly normal for a new system.

I've never been a big fan of GFO or zero phosphates. When someone says they have zero, I wonder if the test is accurate or if they are over filtering or under feeding. Some phosphate is natural and normal and the zooxanthellae need some to thrive.

If it is cyano that you have, it should start to decrease on it's own as other algae, like coralline, start to become established. If not, you can treat it with Chemiclean, which is an anti-bacterial that targets cyano.

I must also confess, I've never started up a system with completely dry rock. I've always had some live rock mixed in. I wonder if you need to seed coralline algae to help get it started?

 

[ReefSultan]

Thanks for your answer

Yes custom design tank and I did the rocks

You are right I will wait not make dramatic change.. I have frag rocks and inverts covered with coralline

I think it will come soon , just pain of dry rock

Let's wait and see will update later on

Cheers


Tapatalk kullanarak iPhone aracılığıyla gönderildi

 

[bertoni]

If the growth doesn't scrub off easily, it might be green coralline algae. That's often the first stage of growth. I wouldn't worry much with a new tank like this.