Taylor's Tech 120 build

[tmantaylor18]

Im on week two of dosing NO3O4-X to try and cut down on my hair algae. My nitrates and phosphates almost undetectable but I thought I'd try this stuff along with heavy feeding. My rocks have never looked less algae free other than this damn hair algae. I tried pulling the stuff out a week ago but its back to what it looked like before I picked it out. I also added a sea hare that circled the the edge of my tank and never got on the rocks. He also died, guessing no food or the cleaner shrimp took him out. Im not. really sure what else to do at this point except be patient. Would a fox face rabbit fish eat hair algae?

 

[tmantaylor18]

Here are some recent pictures of my corals. At least they are looking good Sorry for the blue iphone pics. I'll promise to get some nice shots with my brothers camera at some point.

RR Sunset Milli, Red/greenish mill?, and a random super blue piece I cant identify.

Sarmentosa?

$500 efflo starting to encrust and branch out on the back wall

 

[tmantaylor18]

pink lemonade with a red planet below.

Bubblegum Milli

a neat looking wild milli with a yellow base, red/blue/green rim and blue tips.

another wild milli thats light pink with a green rim

 

[tmantaylor18]

two new wild pieces. ID them if you can

 

[tmantaylor18]

 

[sahin]

Wow buddy, your corals are looking great. Nice colours! :beer: Seriously, I would keep things going as they are, else you run the risk of driving nutrients too low; you'll end up turning the coral pale/lack colour.

Its not even too bad to be honest.

I'd work on one rock at a time: remove as much as possible, then suck up the stuff floating around when doing a water change. You can also take a small scissors and trim the hair algae/ suck up floating bits during water change. Once trimmed, place a whole bunch of snails/hermits in that area. I used to do this often before.

Keep some filter floss/filter sock for 1/2 day after all the manual removal to catch floating hair algae.

I had some hair algae in my tank at the start too...but I have about 50 Trochus snails in my tank (started with 5; they reproduce in my tank). They keep all algae trimmed. My rocks are clean. I dont run GFO anymore; I find it tends to do more harm than good. And its costly too. My tank has stabilised and runs at 0.03ppm PO4 by itself. I just carry out 10% water changes and run my skimmer thats all. I even stoppped the Prodibio dosing as the corals got a little pale.

Keep up the great work. Any chance of a video???

 

[sahin]

Had a few questions: are you still carrying out 20% water changes twice a week to maintain Ca+alk? If you have started to supplement with two part, which brand are you using? Are you dosing any trace elements? Thanks.

 

[tmantaylor18]

Wow buddy, your corals are looking great. Nice colours! :beer: Seriously, I would keep things going as they are, else you run the risk of driving nutrients too low; you'll end up turning the coral pale/lack colour.

Yeah thats exactly why Im not using GFO this time around. Nuked a tank like that one time.

Its not even too bad to be honest.

I'd work on one rock at a time: remove as much as possible, then suck up the stuff floating around when doing a water change. You can also take a small scissors and trim the hair algae/ suck up floating bits during water change. Once trimmed, place a whole bunch of snails/hermits in that area. I used to do this often before.

Think you just gave me a good idea that I may have heard of before. Im going to attach one of those mesh bags used for holding GAC to the end of a hose and place it in my sump. Then I'll grab and suck out the hair algae while it all ends up in the bag but I dont need a water change. I will definitely get more trochus snails to help out.

Keep some filter floss/filter sock for 1/2 day after all the manual removal to catch floating hair algae.

I had some hair algae in my tank at the start too...but I have about 50 Trochus snails in my tank (started with 5; they reproduce in my tank). They keep all algae trimmed. My rocks are clean. I dont run GFO anymore; I find it tends to do more harm than good. And its costly too. My tank has stabilised and runs at 0.03ppm PO4 by itself. I just carry out 10% water changes and run my skimmer thats all. I even stoppped the Prodibio dosing as the corals got a little pale.

Im going to continue the NOPOX for now untill I notice any type of color shifts with my corals. So far everything is keeping the color. Once I get this hair algae under control I'll wean off of it.

Keep up the great work. Any chance of a video???

I can take one but I hate looking at over saturated blue videos. Maybe I can get ahold of some software to fix that.

 

[tmantaylor18]

Had a few questions: are you still carrying out 20% water changes twice a week to maintain Ca+alk? If you have started to supplement with two part, which brand are you using? Are you dosing any trace elements? Thanks.

I live in California and we are going through an epic drought. I've reduced my 20% changes to ever 3-4 weeks. I've had to start supplementing Alk as its dropped to just under 6 the last few weeks. Im using b-ionic right now. I'll probably get my dosing pumps going again once I figure out exactly how much I need to dose.

 

[markalot]

Everything looking fantastic, jealous of all the good color. Are you still running the light 6" above the rim, or did you raise it? My PAR is around 365 on a pink milli about half way down and 250 on the sandbed (deep tank). I'm wondering if I should lower mine? This 60" ATI puts down some serious PAR, I'm 13" above dirty glass tops!

 

[rcflyer1388]

Nice looking tank. Keep us posted with the way NOPOX is treating you.

 

[tmantaylor18]

Everything looking fantastic, jealous of all the good color. Are you still running the light 6" above the rim, or did you raise it? My PAR is around 365 on a pink milli about half way down and 250 on the sandbed (deep tank). I'm wondering if I should lower mine? This 60" ATI puts down some serious PAR, I'm 13" above dirty glass tops!

I move it up and down all the time so I dont really know. Im guessing its at 6" at the highest at any given time. All of my millis are are in the 400-450 par range and are my fastest growers other than the slimer and red dragon.

You have glass covers over your tank?

 

[tmantaylor18]

Nice looking tank. Keep us posted with the way NOPOX is treating you.

It's striped all of the algae other than the hair algae. My rocks look like I just put them in with blotches of hair algae and some coraline algea. :deadhorse:

 

[markalot]

I move it up and down all the time so I dont really know. Im guessing its at 6" at the highest at any given time. All of my millis are are in the 400-450 par range and are my fastest growers other than the slimer and red dragon.

You have glass covers over your tank?

Yep, glass lids, house rule.

 

[tmantaylor18]

Yep, glass lids, house rule.

why not a mesh top?

 

[markalot]

House rules means wife insists on glass tops, does not want evaporation and wet basement. It doesn't have to make sense, but the rule must be followed.

 

[tmantaylor18]

update: NOPOX either got rid of the rest of the hair algae or it was just a cycle. Either way I am very impressed with the stuff. I used the lower dosage over about a month and it did miracles. I still have some bubble algae in the sump but I scoop it out pretty easily with my fish net.

My SPS have never looked so good. I am feeding heavy to the fish and also feeding Oyster Feast and Roti-Feast daily. I got a new pet so I've been neglecting the tank other than feeding nightly and have noticed pretty big swings in alkalinity with no effect. I got down as low as 5.3 and brought it back up to 7 a few times now and luckily its worked out.

Most of my time is spent playing with my new friend who loves watching the tank. I actually find him sitting and watching the tank on his own almost daily.

He's a Toyger kitten named Dex.

 

[sahin]

Great news regarding the sps and the disappearance of the algae. You know you have to now post the obligatory sps shots after saying they look good.

PS your cat looks beautiful.

 

[cFloor]

I agree with the above statement. Mandatory SPS shots from here on out. The new cat looks like it's admiring your zoa garden. Very nice!

 

[cugly]

Exactly no pic or it didn't happen lol