SPS Gurus HELP!!!

[Alex T.]

I've been having a recurring problem in my SPS clam tank for the last year. Everything goes well, SPS coloring up and growing and then all of the sudden a hair algae outbreak happens and polyps don't extend as much and then the corals go pale. I have a 150 gallon (72 x 18 x 27) tank with 50 gallons of sump.

My parameters are as follows:

NO3: .2
PO4: undetectable
Magnesium: 1350
Calcium: 420
Alk: 8 dKH

I run GFO and Carbon in a BRS Dual reactor and change it every two weeks. My current fish load is....

1 Yellow Tang
2 Lyretail Anthias
4 Blue Green Chromis
1 Maroon Clownfish
1 Pink Skunk Clownfish
1 Blue Devil Orange tail damsel
1 Sixline Wrasse
1 Coral Beauty (been very well behaved with no picking)

I run an ETSS 900 skimmer and pull about a gallon per week...a very strong skimmer.

I also change 25 gallons every Sunday morning with pure RODI water using Reef Crystals salt. I alternate feedings every day with a cube of Mysis and half a cube of bloodworms on 1 day and a cube of Cyclops and pinch of pellet on the next. Once a week I feed a small portion of Nori.

I use Radium 400 watt bulbs on for 6 hours per day and 2 ATI Blue Plus bulbs that are on for 10 hours per day. My back glass covers in Coraline very easily and quickly, yet the hair algae persists. I'm at my wit's end! I'm thinking that my live rock was bound up with phosphate and is leaching it back into the system but I really can't tell if that's the case. If I go too long between coraline scraping on the back glass, then I have sheets of coraline to scrape off and that's when the hair algae will start.

If anyone could give me an idea and solution as to what's going on I'd appreciate it. I just had the tank exactly where I wanted it a month ago and now it's on its' downward spiral again. I tried Algaefix Marine last time. It killed all the algae and things started turning for the better but now it's back like before. I don't want to depend on band aids and temporary fixes though. I really need to get to the bottom of what the source is. HELP....PLEASE!!!

 

[chuckreef]

Try cutting feeding to every third day for a few weeks. You can alternate every sixth day with the alternative foods.

 

[Nate R]

if your testing nitrates with a full algae outbreak it wont look so bad on the test kit because all that algae is housing the nitrate.

do you have a refugium for nutrient export?
do you have a reading on PH swing?
Metal halide bulbs age?

If your not running a healthy refugium you will have algae in your tank with that bio load from your fish.....every time. IMO

 

[Nate R]

suggestion on your feeding.

if your going to feed that much meaty foods, get a small flour screen and wash your frozen foods with ro/di before feeding. If your feeding PE Mysis like i am you will notice how nasty the water is that comes with it also how much it kills the action in your skimmer

 

[Alex T.]

I used to have Chaeto in the sump lit 24/7. It just withered away twice.

 

[deeznutz1]

Not to hijack the thread but why would the PE mysis kill the skimmers action? I've noticed this as well. If it's filled with nasties, wouldn't the skimmer work harder?

-dan

 

[Alex T.]

I actually do rinse all foods in rodi before feeding. I really didn't think I was feeding that much.

Deeznuts, the reason it stops the skimmer is all the gelatin and oils in the food. If you have a draft beer at a bar and rub the oil from your forehead and then put your finger in the foam head of the beer, it will make the foam head fall and disappear. The same thing happens to the skimmer when an oily food is added.

 

[allsps40]

It is common for a skimmer to stop skimming after a feeding. Mine always does, takes about 20-30 min to rebuild the head of foam.

 

[LifeAquatic]

I dont think you are over feeding. You should double check your DI cartridges on the RO system. Even if the TDS reads 0 there can still be phosphate or sillica present. This might be the cause of your problem.

 

[dudley moray]

i would say po4 is your main issue try changing your gfo more frequently and feed less , less often ( 1 or 2 times a day and skip a day a week ) thaw and rinse frozen food / switch to a good pellet or flake

 

[Acrotrdco]

Did something die and you didn't notice?

A sudden bloom of hair algae is often related to something rotting in your tank that you're not aware of (including too much leftover food).

 

[Helter Skilter]

Your changing your water pretty often. Try checking the TDS of your RO/DI.

 

[Nate R]

I agree with what was stated if your not feeding a lot then try a good pellet or flake sometimes, wash your frozen foods and replace your ro/di filters and see if that helps i don't think you can exhaust your GFO in three days to be honest but you could try a little lower flow through it to help it be more efficient

 

[Alex T.]

RO/DI cartridges is all I can think of. This is the second time this bloom has happened. Each time I noticed a correlation between scraping the sheets of coraline off the back glass and then the beginning of the hair algae outbreak. Is it possible that by scraping the coraline algae (there was a lot) that I left the door open for other algaes to take hold and outcompete? Maybe I should either decide to let the back and sides cover in coraline or make it a weekly scraping ritual.

Any thoughts?

 

[LifeAquatic]

chaeto

chaeto

I used to have Chaeto in the sump lit 24/7. It just withered away twice.

You will have better luck with cheato if you cut the light cycle back. 16 hrs on and 8 off works well.

 

[LifeAquatic]

.

.

RO/DI cartridges is all I can think of. This is the second time this bloom has happened. Each time I noticed a correlation between scraping the sheets of coraline off the back glass and then the beginning of the hair algae outbreak. Is it possible that by scraping the coraline algae (there was a lot) that I left the door open for other algaes to take hold and outcompete? Maybe I should either decide to let the back and sides cover in coraline or make it a weekly scraping ritual.

Any thoughts?

It wont really make a difference. It sounds like a coincidence the algae showed up after scraping the coraline. The algae will usually just cover the coraline anyway under algae favorable conditions. I think its normal to have some algae present on the back wall if you dont clean it once a week. Even the most nutrient poor tanks will get a little on the back over time if not scrubbed. I only scrub my front and side panels every 3 days to get rid of a light algae film. The back panel is cleaned once a week.

 

[deeznutz1]

I actually do rinse all foods in rodi before feeding. I really didn't think I was feeding that much.

Deeznuts, the reason it stops the skimmer is all the gelatin and oils in the food. If you have a draft beer at a bar and rub the oil from your forehead and then put your finger in the foam head of the beer, it will make the foam head fall and disappear. The same thing happens to the skimmer when an oily food is added.

Thanks for the info

-dan

 

[Alex T.]

After scouring some of the posts and articles written by Randy, it may be that my addition of Kalkwasser is to blame. Since I evaporate roughly 4 to 5 gallons per day, according to Randy's article on Kalkwasser, I may be causing any soluble phosphate to bind to aragonite sand and my liverock. I have a calcium reactor on line, so maybe I should just try and keep up with my SPS and Clam's demand from that alone and simply top off from a reservoir without limewater.

Any thoughts?

 

[Nate R]

you may be on to something there. i personally wouldnt have thought of that because i drip kalk maybe .5gal a day and the rest is refilled by ro/di. try that.

also if i was to just top off with kalk my ph would go through the roof. the way my system runs as it is i get peak readings usually before a water change at 8.4-8.5 range

 

[SPSEMPIRE]

i don't think you can exhaust your GFO in three days to be honest but you could try a little lower flow through it to help it be more efficient

Ditto

Change out your carbon and add less GFO to your reactor. This will allow the GFO to tumble and therefore it is more efficient in the reactor. With running GFO like you are, you should have stripped the nutrients now.

I would manually remove what you can at this point and see if the algae comes back. You might have stripped the food source out of the algae and removing what is alive will reduce your algae overall.