Hello reefers
I need some advise on my refugium. My tank is 6months old and I've been suffering with high phosphate 0.5 (using hanna) and as a result i have had diatoms outbreak which has gone. Now i have 2 types of green algae. 1 is green fine hair algae and the other is thicker and a very small amout of red slime alage, also i had 1 green bubble which i removed while performing a 15% water change. i can only put this down to high phospahte which i'm struggling to lower. i've performed water changes with RODI water (0.3ppm) but the phosphate creeps back up. my levels are quite stable at:
nitrate - 5
nitrite - 0
ph - 8
dkh - 6.8 - needs to be higher which i'm working on![Wink ;) ;)](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
calcium - 420
mag - 1250
I've added a refugium about 4 weeks ago. I added a full spectrum light to promote growth, and the chaeto has got more dense and is about the size of a fist, yet still not having much effect on the phosphate. Also it has green hair algae growing on it,which i take off. i don't have any copepods in yet, do they eat algae or phosphate? i will be adding them in the next couple of weeks for the wrasse and copperband when i get it.
here is a bit of info to assist.
My DT lights are on timers, mon-fri on at 15:30 to 21:30, sat & sun, on at 10:30 - 21:30, night mode (blue only) comes on at 21:15 off 23:30.
Sump light (full spectrum) comes on daily at 23:30 off 11:30.
feeding (see sig for fish + 2 peacock wrasse. all fish smaller than 3")
mon - fri about 1 cube of mysis (mixture of mysis, nano, etc,, but equals to 1 cube) sat & sun same 1 cube but i add flakes morning & evening. about 80-90% of the food gets eaten.
Sooooo does anyone have any insight to whats going on? is the refugium acting as it should? is the size of the chaeto too small to effect the phosphate? how quickly should it grow? is green hair algae growing on chaeto common?
any advise is appriciated, i have read many posts hence why i'm giving you my lighting and feeding set up.i just can't seem to lower the phosphate with the refugium. i do not dose anything. i know i could add a carbon reactor but i need some po3 to feed the refugium plus i want to understand whats causing the high po3 and tackle that,not just rely on dosing...
many thanks :thumbsup:
I need some advise on my refugium. My tank is 6months old and I've been suffering with high phosphate 0.5 (using hanna) and as a result i have had diatoms outbreak which has gone. Now i have 2 types of green algae. 1 is green fine hair algae and the other is thicker and a very small amout of red slime alage, also i had 1 green bubble which i removed while performing a 15% water change. i can only put this down to high phospahte which i'm struggling to lower. i've performed water changes with RODI water (0.3ppm) but the phosphate creeps back up. my levels are quite stable at:
nitrate - 5
nitrite - 0
ph - 8
dkh - 6.8 - needs to be higher which i'm working on
calcium - 420
mag - 1250
I've added a refugium about 4 weeks ago. I added a full spectrum light to promote growth, and the chaeto has got more dense and is about the size of a fist, yet still not having much effect on the phosphate. Also it has green hair algae growing on it,which i take off. i don't have any copepods in yet, do they eat algae or phosphate? i will be adding them in the next couple of weeks for the wrasse and copperband when i get it.
here is a bit of info to assist.
My DT lights are on timers, mon-fri on at 15:30 to 21:30, sat & sun, on at 10:30 - 21:30, night mode (blue only) comes on at 21:15 off 23:30.
Sump light (full spectrum) comes on daily at 23:30 off 11:30.
feeding (see sig for fish + 2 peacock wrasse. all fish smaller than 3")
mon - fri about 1 cube of mysis (mixture of mysis, nano, etc,, but equals to 1 cube) sat & sun same 1 cube but i add flakes morning & evening. about 80-90% of the food gets eaten.
Sooooo does anyone have any insight to whats going on? is the refugium acting as it should? is the size of the chaeto too small to effect the phosphate? how quickly should it grow? is green hair algae growing on chaeto common?
any advise is appriciated, i have read many posts hence why i'm giving you my lighting and feeding set up.i just can't seem to lower the phosphate with the refugium. i do not dose anything. i know i could add a carbon reactor but i need some po3 to feed the refugium plus i want to understand whats causing the high po3 and tackle that,not just rely on dosing...
many thanks :thumbsup: