skimming and water change experiment. effects ive noticed

[mos90]

i will give a brief rundown of my system.

350g total water volume.
apex
octo- 5000ext skimmer
2 part dosing with esv bionic
3-radium 400w mh's with 4 80w t5's
about 50x water turnover. via powerheads and return.
200lbs brs dryrock.
1" sand bed.
uas algae scrubber.
i do run about 4 cups of gfo and carbon i change out every 2 weeks.
i am currently dosing 50ml of vinegar to reduce nitrates.

parameters

temp 78.8
mag 1350
alk 9.5
cal 425
nitrate 2
phos .03

i have stopped doing waterchanges and have increased skimming to very wet due to what im 90% sure is dino's. i also have some lingering hair algae that just will not go away.

i do not feed the corals, just the fish. i would say i have a medium to heavy bioload.


i empty the collection cup every day. this translates to about 3 gallons per week.

normally i would change 25gallon per week. i use i/o salt.

since the lack of w/c's and heavy skimming i have noticed a lack of pe on my large tabling bushy green acro. about 7" around. and slightly pale colors. it is located directly under a 400w radium. 7" under water

but ive noticed slight browning in a few of my other coral that are on the sand bed or not directly under the radium. normally i would just add time to my lighting if i wasnt having algae issues.

the good thing is the dinos appear to be going away.

i debating doing a w/c to see the results. i have 50g mixed and ready. but i dont want to encourage the dino growth.

in the mean time my goal to get nitrate to between 0 and .5 and phos to .01 or under. but with the hair algae and dinos hanging around its hard to get an accurate #.

personally i think my nutrients are much to high.

i will keep everyone posted.

 

[russeko8]

wow that's a lot of carbon and gfo I did this to my similar sized system in the beginning with paling results as well.

 

[trueblackpercula]

Sounds like what I am going thorough. The reason I find out my nitrates and phosphates were low even though I have hair algea is, that the Angela consumes it. I started dosing vodka and I am winning the battle now. I would do water changes but check your tds of your ro water to make sure it's still good.

You have plenty of light it's the phosphates that are killing you.

 

[reefinder]

Your system sounds too clean, carbon, algae scrubber, skimmer, vodka. Corals need just a little phosphate and a little nitrate to full color up and be happy in my experence. I don't like pale corals

 

[mos90]

i double checked the amount of carbon and gfo and it is closer to 3 cups each.

the tds of r.o water is always 0. or really close 1 tops.

reefinder. the system cannot be too clean if there is hair algae and or dinos. the actual water maybe too clean because the algae is stripping it. the purpose of this experiment is to starve the algae out without killing the corals. it is no fun to have to go in the tank tank every week and manually remove hair algae and clean the sand.

 

[jda]

Get something to consume the hair algae. If you are lowing your nutrients to try and starve the algae, you can starve the coral too - how can you guarantee that you will starve the algae, but not the coral. Murphy's law says that you will do just the opposite.

Even the most super-awesome tanks that i have seen can have some hair algae, other macro or cyano in them... most just keep some emerald crabs, snails or some fish around to take care of it. I have a pair of emeralds in my tank that take care of any type of algae and the probably 4" diameter cyano patch that I get in the back corner, I just suck out every month.

 

[NanoJosh]

Your system sounds too clean, carbon, algae scrubber, skimmer, vodka. Corals need just a little phosphate and a little nitrate to full color up and be happy in my experence. I don't like pale corals

+1 I would cut back on all the filtration and just do more WC all living things need N&P corals just need less. Got any tank shots or pics of the GHA. Good luck.


55 gal mixed reef 10 gal SPS Dom.
10 gal nem tank 2 maxi minis 2 rock flower and one sunburst RBTA

Sent from some device using some app

 

[trueblackpercula]

Three cups of each is a lot of gfo and carbon. I would stop using both for around three to four weeks and see how the corals react to it.

 

[7Reef]

Wow, not sure I would "experiment" with an established tank.

 

[dkeller_nc]

I'm thinking that your original question/concern was about getting rid of too much algae growth, not so much concern over your corals.

If I'm correct about your major concern, this is what I'd suggest:

Stop using B-Ionic for calc/alk make-up. Use pure calcium chloride and sodium carbonate with occasional supplementation of magnesium chloride as needed. B-Ionic not only contains calcium and carbonate ions, it also contains a lot of trace elements, most of which you can't test for. There are many things that affect algae growth, and not all of them are the basic phosphate/nitrate nutrients. Not only will it be way cheaper to buy the pure chemicals from a place like Bulk Reef Supply, you'll know exactly what you're putting in your tank.

Make certain that you are using a very high quality granular activated carbon. Seachem matrix is what I'd suggest, but their may be others out there that offer similar very-low-extractables. Using a cheaper carbon source may be putting phosphates into your tank water.

Consider using kalkwasser for your evaporation makeup. The very high pH of kalkwasser is capable of localized abiotic precipitation of calcium phosphate, and it helps stabilize the pH of the system at night, particularly in tanks with very high photosynthesis rates.

If you feed flake and/or pellet food to your fish, discontinue this for a while and feed them high-quality frozen food instead. Most flake/pellet food contains a lot of shrimp and fish meal, and can exacerbate a nutrient problem in the tank.

 

[mos90]

Wow, not sure I would "experiment" with an established tank.

this is really not anything unusual. all im doing is skimming heavy, dosing more vinegar to lower n&p to help reduce nuisance algae. so far i have not seen anything to worry about except 1 coral has less pe and looks a little faded.

as far as the tank being to clean. though my phosphate is testing under .03 with my hanna meter, my nitrate is still close to 2pmm. i would not consider that to be even close to being to clean.

not as far as 3 cups of carbon and gfo. i will back off to 1/2 that and see the effects.

i have used kalk before. i find it very difficult to control alk level using an ato.
but it is effective. is i were to dose kalk i would use a dosing pump instead.


i do feed mostly rinsed frozen and nori.

 

[mos90]

i have used brs 2 part and i do like it. the only bad thing is you need 2 times as much compared to bionic. im already dosing 125ml per day. i would need 250 of brs.

 

[animalkingdom]

i have used brs 2 part and i do like it. the only bad thing is you need 2 times as much compared to bionic. im already dosing 125ml per day. i would need 250 of brs.

make it up stronger...it works but takes longer to go into solution

 

[mos90]

make it up stronger...it works but takes longer to go into solution

i didnt know you could do that

 

[mos90]

i did do a 20 gallon w/c yesterday. i wanted to clean the sandbed some.

 

[maroun.c]

Is 3 cups of CArbon and 3 cups of GFo really that much for a 350G system?

 

[dkeller_nc]

not as far as 3 cups of carbon and gfo. i will back off to 1/2 that and see the effects.

Be aware that some granular activated carbons sold for the aquarium trade have a boatload of leachable phosphate in them - these are typically the cheaper varieties made from coconut carbon. In other words, simply reducing the amount you use by half may not benefit you very much. Moreover, there's probably no reason to reduce your GFO if you're trying to control nutrients in your tank. In fact, if your carbon is a type that leaches phosphates, the GFO will offset that to some extent.

i have used kalk before. i find it very difficult to control alk level using an ato.
but it is effective. is i were to dose kalk i would use a dosing pump instead.

Something seems a bit off about your experience controlling alk with kalkwasser. So long as the kalkwasser is settled (i.e., contains no powder, just saturated solution), the amount of alkalinity that is added to your tank is fairly low. However, if your setup allows the undissolved powder into you tank, you could get a very dangerous rise in alkalinity in a hurry.

 

[mos90]

what i mean is the evaporation varies based on humidity and time of year so it will change. then so will the amount of kalk introduced into the system. this mean constant adjustments to my 2 part doser.

maybe i will switch to rox08 carbon.

 

[mos90]

a few of my corals had a really bad reaction. had to be either the gfo and vinegar combo. i noticed tissue peeling of my birdsnest. towards the top and some more stn on a aussie acro.

i had to take everything offlline and do a 75g gal w/c. im only running 2 cups of carbon passively in the sump.

im slowly dropping alk to nsw level from 9 ish.

 

[mos90]

also backed off the skimming some. somewhat dry.