My tank is revolting against me. Need Advise

R

reefkeep3r

Member
As the title says I feel my tank is like a child in a phase. It is a around 3 years now and up until about 6 months ago was doing great. Now as you will see in the pictures what I think is GHA has gone all over as well as what seems to be a uglier version of GHA with it. Starting a short time ago a slime (cyano?) has shown up on some sand and the rocks.

I have tried everything I know, more aggressive water changes, (20% once a week), more aggressive GFO, manual pruning and brushing, lights out, various different light cycle and intensities, beefed up CUC, lower feeding maybe even more I can't remember now.

The tank started with dry rock and sand and has never been a problem until now. The fish and corals are doing fine with the corals even growing.

Stats- 29G Biocube, Led retro lights , 80F, 1.025, Ammonia-0 Nitrite-0 Nitrates usually around 2 or less. Phos- undetectable. Lights run a 12 hour cycle but ramp up and down most of the day, peak light is only for 5 hours.
Moon light start 1 hour before and after.

Not sure what else to try, I am sure the algae is consuming nitrates and phos faster then I can test so not sure how to try and stop this. It started getting better and just as I thought I was out of the woods it came back with vengeance.

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B5vB7Qzbmw3tekxKMTNMY0tueHc&usp=sharing

Thanks for your help.
 
You may want to try an algae scrubber or an algae reactor of some kind where you grow algae to out compete the algae in the display tank. The idea behind such devices is to provide for a location more favorable for growing algae which would out compete the algae in your main tank.
 
I would like to put a ATS system in place but do not have space. When I get a sump running maybe then but that is still a while out.
 
Can you recall anything that changed around 6 months ago? New lights or lighting intensity, A change in food, circulation
 
Now that you mention it around that time my old LEDs suffered a failure and used a cheap light to keep corals alive. A small amount of algae started then. The new lights seem to make it worse.

I will look into LC dosing
 
Sorry if I missed this and if I did ignore but many many times when this starts to happen it could be the source water. have you checked your RODI water? Maybe change the filters just to see if it helps.
 
I changed the filters about a month ago and show 0 tds or of the system but need get a handheld meter to check the barrel water.
 
I would not suggest LC on such a small tank. You could do a couple large water changes and get the same result as LC with less hassle and is safer.

You are correct on the excess nutrients. It is likely coming in from your RO, bad salt mix or leaching off the rocks. The two new lights may have just tipped the balance into the algae's favor. If you only see the new algae growing on the rock and do not see an increase if algae in the sand or on the glass my guess would be the rock is leaching.
 
I see why LC might be bad on my tank. Maybe when I get a sump added. I really don't see extra on the glass, the sand go back and forth and the back does the same but it is plastic. What would be a good suggestion,. Turning down or off the lights for a long time. Using a ton of gfo.
 
Do you have a lawnmower blenny? Your bioload looks low so it looks like you could support adding one.

An emerald mythrax crab might work as well.
 
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