help me with my A**** problem

[Clarkii3]

ok heres the deal, i have a 24g aquapod thats will be running for a year on March 11th. up untill a few weeks ago, i have never had ANY problems with this setup. a few weeks ago i started getting hair algae and some algae that was growing in the sand!my sand bed has always been white and spotless and have plenty on nass snails, now theres green alage starting to cover it! things are not looking so well now, but coralline is still covering everything. i have noticed lately that i need to scrape the galss every day as i usually did it just once a week. i can't seem to figue out why i all of a sudden started to get algae. so what do you guys think it is? heres a breakdown

to start things off, heres the tank params:

Alkalinity - Low (yes, crappy red sea test, getting salifert)
PH â€"œ 8.2
Phosphate â€"œ 0.1 ppm
Nitrate â€"œ 0 ppm
Nitrite â€"œ 0 ppm
Ammonia â€"œ 0 ppm
Calcium â€"œ 400 ppm
Magnesium â€"œ N/A
Temperature â€"œ 79 at night, about 82 during day
Specific Gravity (salinity) â€"œ 1.026


i just ordered an alk,calc and mag salifert test kits and they should be here soon, as of now im using some AP and red sea (phospahte and alk)

tank is skimmerless

i feed this tank a pinch or so of cyclopeeze, sometimes mysis and occasionally krill every 2-3 days, and i have the following fish - bicolor blenny, kupang damsel, and a yellow watchman goby.

i have been dosing 2.5ml of b-ionic every night since i set up the tank

i change 2 gallons every week and have only skipped once or twice

i have roughly 17x turnover in this tank as its basically all softies and a few lps, i run a MJ1200 (295gph)on a hydor flow and a hydor pico pump at 115gph.

lighting consists of a 96w pc 50/50 powerquad with a 10 hour photoperiod. i first thought that it was old lighting that was causing the algae to grow, as it was 5 months old, so i just replaced it last week. that doesn't seem to be whats causing it.

i have a fuge in the back of the pod that i have never cleaned out. so i syphoned out some crud the other day, and there is some chaeto thats turning brown, could it be rotting or something? the fuge light has been replaced only once, if its an old bulb could this be causing the lage in the main tank???

i forgot to change my phosban and chemi pure for 4 months, so i took that out the other day, i added a tad bit of fresh phosban. could i have been the old phosban or chemi pure was leeching phosphates back into the water?

now my ro/di unit has had 383 gallons run through it so far (yes i mark it down) and the manual says for me to replace them every 2500 gallons, or every 6 months whichever occurs first. i have had them for 8 months, but way under 2500g's. the DI unit is mixed bed, no sure if this means color changing or not but the unit was all green, and now its turning purple and at the half way point, so im assuming its a color changing resin. could it be that my sediment and carbon block need replaced? my tds meter is still testing 0 ppm, but i think i may have screwed it it by testing ro/di water that was in a salt mixing bucket.

 

[cdangel0]

Wow, that was alot of imformation..which is GREAT BTW - always nice to not have to ask alot of questions to try to figure out someone's problems.

Here's my thoughts....

Light over the fuge wasn't producing enough light for the cheato to thrive, which is causing it to die thus put contaminantas back in to the water.

Phosphates are low but still present which is what led to your initial algae problem.

THEN you replaced your light bulbs which probably shocked the tank a little. The tank is probably still trying to acclimate to the brighter light - I know it doesn't look any brighter to you, but the the tanks it's prob the difference from 6 am to noon time sun.

You may want to cut down on your photoperiod for a coupke weeks, let the algae die off, then slowoly increase your photoperiod back up to your 10 hours a day. This will give the tank a chance to acclimate and eliminate algae blooms.

 

[RA]

I know some people have had success when going skimmerless, but IMO I think that is the problem. The sand will absorb a lot of waste over time and I believe that your sand bed has reached it's full point that your skimmer would have eliminated. Hey I could be wrong but that's what I think.

 

[Frick-n-Frags]

that's exactly what I was thinking. you bought a year's worth of delayed maintenance into that sandbed. Now it is time to pay the piper. and I would assume a little sandbed would hit the wall faster than a big one, so the timing is probably about right.

Also, sand cements from fine silt and bacterial action so you end up with slabs of fertilizer enriched pavement in the sandbed losing even more of your surface area over time.

 

[Sk8r]

I'd say phosphates are there bigtime: they 'hide' in algae. And the sandbed problem. Phosban, skimming with a really efficient skimmer, maybe even [shudder: this is dangerous] stirring the sandbed and running a 1 micron filter, which will polish the water to crystal inside an hour. This would get a lot out fast, but may adversely impact your pods and other small life.

 

[McCrary]

Not having a skimmer isn't the problem, nor is it his sand absorbing nutrients. Algae = Phosphates, period. Get rid of the phosphates and you won't have any more algae problems. Do a nice big 5 gallon water change instead of your 2 gallon one (use RO/DI) and make sure to keep on top of your phosban and chemi-pure. The problem will take care of itself after a month or so of good maintenance. Another thing you might consider is getting a new phosphate test kit (digital). I have yet to see a phosphate test kit that wasn't almost impossible to read. Get a digital test kit and you will be suprised at what you will find.

 

[Clarkii3]

i may try shortening the photoperiod and see if it helps any, i just bought new replacement cartridges for my ro/di unit so that will help. i really don't want to run a skimmer on this tank. the fuge light is lit by a 10w 10K mini pc light.

 

[Icefire]

get a 5-6000K light for the fuge
put back your old bulb, they have at least 3-6 months of life left.
Change the phosban regulary.
Change the cheato if it's dieing, it must leach P/N in the water.
Feed every other day for a while, rinse any frozen food before feeding it.
bump your Alk in the 8-12 dhk range.

keep the good work!

 

[Clarkii3]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9360783#post9360783 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Icefire
get a 5-6000K light for the fuge
put back your old bulb, they have at least 3-6 months of life left.
Change the phosban regulary.
Change the cheato if it's dieing, it must leach P/N in the water.
Feed every other day for a while, rinse any frozen food before feeding it.
bump your Alk in the 8-12 dhk range.

keep the good work!

just looked at the package and the fuge bulb is 6500
i said i feed every 2-3 days, why would i feed more often?
my old bulb was already 6 months old, the 5 was a typo, thats why i replaced it

 

[Icefire]

I tought you were feeding krill every 2-3 days and the rest daily, my bad

6500K is good.

PC last about 9 months @ 10-12hr/day, so 5 months replacement was a waste for me.

 

[Grey Reefer]

Turbo snail is right. I had this problem with my 10g and my 20g. Every time it was phosphates. A 5 gallon water change and some Phosban will do the trick. I would also run some Active carbon to help with the organics in the water. Skimming will do jack, I know I've tried. Stirring the sand won't help either.

 

[sherm71tank]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9358113#post9358113 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Frick-n-Frags
that's exactly what I was thinking. you bought a year's worth of delayed maintenance into that sandbed. Now it is time to pay the piper. and I would assume a little sandbed would hit the wall faster than a big one, so the timing is probably about right.

Also, sand cements from fine silt and bacterial action so you end up with slabs of fertilizer enriched pavement in the sandbed losing even more of your surface area over time.

Gonna jump on the sand bed is a nutrient sink bandwagon as well. (It happend to me after about 10 years) When the sand gets full it then soaks the rock. This is usually when the HA starts. You may be able to beat it by running phosban or the like, maybe not. I would pull the sand bed and either replace it or go BB and I personally would cook rock while I was at it.

P.S. Running a skimmer would probably extend the life of the sand.

 

[Clarkii3]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9361776#post9361776 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Grey Reefer
Turbo snail is right. I had this problem with my 10g and my 20g. Every time it was phosphates. A 5 gallon water change and some Phosban will do the trick. I would also run some Active carbon to help with the organics in the water. Skimming will do jack, I know I've tried. Stirring the sand won't help either.

so your saying basically once i replace my ro/di filters, i'll be ok?

i certaintly am not taking out all my rock and cooking it as corals are growing everywhere on them, and i am not taking the sandout out and going BB. i do plan on cutting the photoperiod by a couple hours, can't wait for theose new filters arrive! gonna do a 5g w/c

 

[sherm71tank]

Good luck with it. Please keep us posted how it goes for you and what you find.

 

[Clarkii3]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9362371#post9362371 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sherm71tank
Good luck with it. Please keep us posted how it goes for you and what you find.

will do, anyone else have opinions they would like to share? im pretty sure this all has to do with my not replacing my filters

 

[Grey Reefer]

No, I ment that you should run Active carbon in the tank, not your RO water.

 

[Clarkii3]

well, i removed all of my chaeto today, no longer running a fuge, syphoned alot of crud back there, also replaced my ro/di filters and will be doing a 4g w/c in the next few days. i also cut the photoperiod down to 8 hours.

 

[Clarkii3]

well my salifert kits arrived, here are my params...........
Ph-8.2
KH/Alk-6.8
Mg-1280
Ca-415
SG-1.026
PO4-0.1
NH3/NH4-0
NO2-0
NO3 0

my Mg is kinda low, and my Alk is very low as it seems, how can i bump these leveles up? im doing b ionic right now, should i add a little more alk to the mix?

 

[Clarkii3]

bump

 

[itz frank]

I believe everyone hit it on the head with the Phosphates issue. I don't think it's your sand, nor the skimmer issue as i had a 20 gal for 9 months without any issues. However, if the algae on the sand is thick and a red it's a good chance is Cyanobacteria. Which is said to be part of the normal tank maturing phase. I think the best thing you can do is step your water changes up from a 2 gal every week to a 10-15 once a month. It's almost the same amount of water but the thing is that when you do 2 gal water changes you're only changing maybe 7% of your water. Which while may help replenish nutrients for the coral it's not doing anything to change the water composition(nitrite, phosphate, etc.). Where a 15gal. water change would be a 50% change and can drastically change the water composition. I don't think this is really an issue of anything changing, i think that you've just allowed phosphates to accumulate over time with the 2 gal water changes and with one good waterchange you'll see improvements quickly.