Long overdue update:
So this tank has been stressing me out for the past few months. Everything was cruising right along, SPS were coloring up and growing daily, chaeto production was steaming along...then bam...
Algae...algae everywhere. My current situation is that my tank is covered in tufts of algae everywhere, all over the rocks and sandbed. In addition to the alage, I had started dosing small amounts of ESV two part to keep up with demand, it was a meager 5ml's a day but it held my Alk at 8.4 and Cal at 420-430. Then one day alk and cal dropped to 7 and 370...I decided to slowly increase my dosing. Up to 15 mls a day (i only have small frags in there). So I didn't want to go crazy.
Unfortunately nothing ever came up from the 7 and 370 reading. SPS stopped growing, many RTN'ed and some are still STN'ing. The only thing that continues to grow is algae.
So in true reporting fashion you can't present issues and not offer solutions...
So after countless phone batteries with the FUPA crew, lots of ball busting and game planing, we put together some ideas to assist in a plan forward:
Here are some possible reasons for the decline in my tank:
- Rocks leaching nutrients - I did do a muriatic acid bath, but it may have not been enough and should have cooked rocks longer
- Nutrient Build Up - Sump was starting to look nasty
- RO/DI Filters need replacing
So possible solutions for the above:
Rocks - I could remove and start fresh, but in true reefing spirit I will press on. I did bring a small amount of GFO online to help combat this. We will see where this goes
Nutrient Build Up - I began cleaning up the sump one chamber at a time. Started with the return pump section. Removed all detritus and added a tunze nano 6045 to keep all junk suspended.
RO/DI Filters - Small story here, our house has horrible water pressure, i get a max of about 50PSI to my unit and water production is horrendous. Takes forever to make a decent batch for water changes (which lead to less frequent water changes due to the hassle). So I would need to buy a booster pump and all new filters for my old unit which was basically your no brand name unit. It was time for a change. So instead of dropping $250 on new filters and a booster pump I decided I would get a new all in one unit that comes with the booster pump, auto flush, and a few other bells in whistles.
So last night I ordered a new Vertex Purtek Deluze 100GPD unit. I was originally going to go with a 90GPD spectrapure with manual flush, but I came across this and was super intrigued by all the gizmo's and that it's a true all in one unit.
Comes with:
Booster Pump
1:1 waste/pure water ratio
Auto Back flush to ensure clean membrane
Electronic shut off switch for RO barrel
Inline TDS meter
Hoping for some good success over the next month. With FFM coming up i'd really like to participate and buy some corals, but if i'm still having issues I may have to just observe again like last year.
Well...that's all for now. Stay tuned!