Hmm...
About 73 views and no help. Let me add some information about my tank. I know the photos are not the best but it does show the algae on the Montipora. The material is green and my Lawn Mower Blenny has taken a nip or two but does not seem to like it. The material on the Birds Nest is darker and is on the ends of some of the stalks. Both corals are still showing growth, especially the Monti
Use two WP-40s controlled by Apex with pulsing programs that change in strength over a 24 hour period. My return lines add additional flow. Sand clean and moves around making small dunes due to flow.
I use a Reef Breeder Photon 48 programed to provide changing about of light. My program seems to give the corals enough light as it has been running for about 6-7 months with good growth on all corals.
Established Sept 2012
Mixed Reef- my LPS and softies doing great
Use Red Sea Test Kits
Temp 78 degrees plus minus 1/2 degree
RODI water 0 TDS
pH between 8.00- 8.17 Apex Probe
Do weekly 10-15% water changes- use IO Reef Crystals
Auto dose Ca, Alk & Mag with BRS pumps schedule controlled by APEX
Ca=450 target 440 got up around 480 during mini crash
Alk=8.4 been steady
Mag=1240 steady between 1200-1300
NH3 & NO2= 0
NO3= 16 got as high as 24ppm during issue before that was running around 10
Iodine=.03 Just started testing
Phosphate=0.0 Hanna Checker normal range
Iron=0 Just started testing
Use GFO reactor BRS ROI canister type
In 2nd week of Instant Ocean Natural Nitrate Reducer
ORP now in narrow range 280 to 298 Before mini crash this value regularly between 320-380. Got as low as 194 during recent incident. ORP goes up after adding IO nitrate reducer then holds the higher value. Next dose due tonight.
Very little algae on rocks with little coraline algae. Have a great deal of the purple stuff in my sump under plant lights. Have growing colonies of both Chato and Caulerpera[sp?].
The incident started because I switched my GFO from the normal BRS stuff to the to BRS's high end GFO. I set my tumbling to the same low rate as I always do and washed it with ROI water upon installation. I went on a business trip. Upon return I noticed a rust covered material covering the rocks. Took me awhile to figure out it was from the GFO. My filter socks were tinted rust covered orange. All the filters and skimmer was coated with the stuff. The water was its normal clear state. Fish, coral CUC all seemed okay. I found this new high dollar GFO had about 50 times the normal dust and fines as my other GFO. I speculate this container was filled with the very last bit of material from a much larger bulk bag. The dust takes up about 20 percent of the BRS GFO jar. By the way, BRS offered to send me a new jar I declined and asked for a larger jar of their regular GFO which they promptly did.
As I labored to remove all the iron rust I noticed an increase of algae growth on the rocks. In the period of two days I suddenly had the above algae growing on the corals and I had some Dinoflagellate growth in scattered areas of the rock work. My ORP crashed. I did find one of my largest snails dead. It was in the area of the highest concentration of Dino.. There was not much left in the shell when I found down in the rocks. This guy was just smaller than a 50 cent coin....remember them? This was the only death during the outbreak of Dino and it never covered more than 5% of the rocks. None formed on the sand. I still have some... maybe 1% coverage. Comes back when I siphon it. Hoping better water quality with siphon removal will get rid of it.
My biggest issue now is what should I do with the corals. The Monti can be fragged but I am not sure about the Birds Nest. Would appreciate some help.
Thanks
