opaquelace Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 Do you test your water for things other than nutrients? Are you having any alk swings? Also that's more hair algae than I've seen in a long time. Your nutrients are coming from somewhere. You need to get them down. When your hair algae starts to die you will know that your nutrient levels are decreasing. Even a lack of water changes in my former 40 gallon couldn't cause that kind of an algae bloom. Also I think you're confused as far as "dirty water better coral" goes. LPS and softies do not thrive in dirty water. They thrive when they are well fed. So low phosphates and nitrates but lots of food, yea? And that pink stuff on the sand is cyano. It may not be a stringy may but it's there. Also as for the acan lord, that type of recession comes from alk swings and/or low alkalinity. Test it, correct it and keep it stable. 2 Quote Link to comment
Fishgirl2393 Posted January 16, 2015 Author Share Posted January 16, 2015 Do you test your water for things other than nutrients? Are you having any alk swings? Also that's more hair algae than I've seen in a long time. Your nutrients are coming from somewhere. You need to get them down. When your hair algae starts to die you will know that your nutrient levels are decreasing. Even a lack of water changes in my former 40 gallon couldn't cause that kind of an algae bloom. Also I think you're confused as far as "dirty water better coral" goes. LPS and softies do not thrive in dirty water. They thrive when they are well fed. So low phosphates and nitrates but lots of food, yea? And that pink stuff on the sand is cyano. It may not be a stringy may but it's there. Also as for the acan lord, that type of recession comes from alk swings and/or low alkalinity. Test it, correct it and keep it stable. My parameters are quite stable and I routinely test for calcium (455ppm), alk (8dKH), nitrate (6ppm), pH (8.2), phosphate (0ppm). I know there is SOME hair algae (though some of what you are seeing is not hair algae but is caulerpa that I introduced on a frag accidentally) but it is better and is related to my family feeding too much while I was away recently. And yes, there is a tiny patch (about 1 inch) of cyano where the flow doesn't reach easily (it also appeared after I got back from my trip) but again, it is going away as well. I think the acan got stung by aiptasia (a pesky one that I treated but didn't die the first time) and needs more food (I've been feeding it more lately) but I was just asking for advice on that. I don't think it was alk swings though because it hasn't been swinging and seems good. Quote Link to comment
Fishgirl2393 Posted January 20, 2015 Author Share Posted January 20, 2015 Did another small water change and I've been monitoring my alk every day (sometimes 2 times a day) and haven't seen any swings. Tank looks pretty good right now and the new coral (blasto) is amazing! The acan doesn't look worse so that is good and I hope that it is due to damage from something or a lack of food. Quote Link to comment
tibbsy07 Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 So did you end up getting a CUC or no? 1 Quote Link to comment
Fishgirl2393 Posted January 20, 2015 Author Share Posted January 20, 2015 Not yet but plan to soon. I have been busy with getting things for college classes and all that. Quote Link to comment
tibbsy07 Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 Wait, you bought a blasto though? Why buy coral when you REALLY need a CUC - especially when you specifically asked if you should get one and every answer was a resounding YES? If you can afford a blasto, you could afford a CUC from John at reefcleaners.org. One of his 10g clean up crews would be enough - that's like 17 bucks. You need the CUC more than the blasto. 3 Quote Link to comment
Fishgirl2393 Posted January 20, 2015 Author Share Posted January 20, 2015 It's not about affording or not affording the blasto or CUC. It is that I haven't had time to order a CUC and got the blasto from my pet store (where I already had to go to get crickets for my beareded dragon and leopard gecko). I am going to be getting the CUC shortly. Quote Link to comment
opaquelace Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 Astrea snails will knock the GHA right out of the tank. Little lawnmowers they are. 1 Quote Link to comment
Fishgirl2393 Posted January 21, 2015 Author Share Posted January 21, 2015 While at the pet store today, I got some astrea snails! Hopefully they help keep the tank looking good. Quote Link to comment
Fishgirl2393 Posted January 22, 2015 Author Share Posted January 22, 2015 Planning to do a water change tonight and also vacuum the sand bed because I will be perfectly honest, I haven't done it much lately due to a broken vacuum tube part... Quote Link to comment
Fishgirl2393 Posted January 23, 2015 Author Share Posted January 23, 2015 Did a water change last night and vacuumed the sandbed. I missed a couple of spots that I may try to go back and get later today. Sand looks better now and I'm trying to tackle the algae issues. Quote Link to comment
cju84 Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 Any suggestions on how to get rid of aiptasia? I have tried and tried and it seems to always not work. I've tried injecting with lemon juice, and injecting with kalk (it is so hard to get them on rock with lots of holes). Any other suggestions? I have zoas and other soft corals (plus LPS) so it must be safe for those too. The general consensus is to kill it with fire. 1 Quote Link to comment
Fishgirl2393 Posted January 27, 2015 Author Share Posted January 27, 2015 Just got some more zoas. Quote Link to comment
Fishgirl2393 Posted January 27, 2015 Author Share Posted January 27, 2015 I just tested my water and the results are: Ammonia 0, nitrites 0, nitrates 6-8ppm, pH 8.1, dKH 7.5, calcium 455ppm, phosphate 0.00ppm. This is the number that I think must be artificially low because I still have significant algae growth. However, I'm running a phosphate media pad so I don't know what else to do (and PhosGuard is not an option because it caused side effects in the tank). Suggestions? My filters are still as they were but I'll list them again: 2 Aqua-Tech 5-15 HOB powerfilters with carbon and the phosphate removing pads, a Lee's Counter Current protein skimmer. Quote Link to comment
Fishgirl2393 Posted January 27, 2015 Author Share Posted January 27, 2015 Anyone? Quote Link to comment
Fishgirl2393 Posted January 28, 2015 Author Share Posted January 28, 2015 I'm looking into running GFO but until I can, I'm using the phosphate pads and changing them every week or so. I think it is working because I'm seeing less GHA growing. 1 Quote Link to comment
Fishgirl2393 Posted January 29, 2015 Author Share Posted January 29, 2015 I'll try to post pics soon (not today and probably not tomorrow) but my acan looks much better! I don't know if it was getting too much light (I moved it down), got stung by aiptasia (it was near at least one), or had a bacterial infection (if it did, I must have helped it out with the iodine dip I did about a week or so ago) but it looks better. The other corals are looking good too so things are pretty good right now (other than the algae that seems to be getting a bit better). Quote Link to comment
Fishgirl2393 Posted February 10, 2015 Author Share Posted February 10, 2015 Things are still improving though I still have some algae issues (I think it is slowly going away). I did some clean up work tonight (cleaned glass, etc.). About a week ago I added a glass top (got it cut at Lowes) because I was getting tired of the amount of evaporation I was having. It seems that with the top, it is now about 1/2 of a gallon per week (it was 2 gallons or so). Quote Link to comment
Fishgirl2393 Posted February 11, 2015 Author Share Posted February 11, 2015 Here are some pictures. They're not really high quality because I cannot use my computer right now and therefore, cannot use my good camera. Quote Link to comment
Fishgirl2393 Posted February 17, 2015 Author Share Posted February 17, 2015 Tested water yesterday (results below) and the plan is to do a water change later today but I need to go buy another gravel vacuum because mine went missing and the sandbed needs to be cleaned some. I am also considering using Chemiclean to kill the cyano/calothrix (I think the stuff in the zoa pic is calothrix, related to cyano) but haven't decided on that because I don't like using it. But in any case, the parameters as of yesterday were: Alk 8dKH, pH 8.1, nitrate 5ppm, phosphate 0 (but obviously there is phosphate because of the algae). I did not test calcium but it is usually about 450ppm. Quote Link to comment
Fishgirl2393 Posted February 18, 2015 Author Share Posted February 18, 2015 Sand bed was cleaned tonight. It is a shallow sand bed so I'm not concerned about nasty stuff being stirred up. Tank looks better now. Acan has fully recovered! Quote Link to comment
Fishgirl2393 Posted February 24, 2015 Author Share Posted February 24, 2015 Planning on doing a water change soon. I am also supposed to be getting a lawnmower blenny soon(ish). Quote Link to comment
tibbsy07 Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 For the record, you can use phosguard in your tank - you just have to use less than you used before. Side effects usually mean there is too much phosguard in the tank. Use 1/4 or 1/2 the dose and see what happens. 1 Quote Link to comment
Fishgirl2393 Posted March 2, 2015 Author Share Posted March 2, 2015 Tank is doing well but I had a slight scare with it due to a power outage (due to snow). I used a battery-powered air pump and wrapped the tank with fleece to keep as much heat in it as possible and so far, things look good. We got power back the next day (late in the day) but the tank was without it for about 24 hours. Luckily I had done a water change two days before so things were OK. Quote Link to comment
Fishgirl2393 Posted March 7, 2015 Author Share Posted March 7, 2015 Tank is still doing well and blenny was (yet again) delayed due to icy weather. I did a 15% (3 gallon) water change tonight and corals seem happy. I have a few more polyps on my new zoanthid colony and a new head on my blasto! The blasto head that is new still has an attachment to the "parent" head but is splitting. I've been feeding the corals well (but not so much that the tank gets dirty) with frozen (Prime Reef) and the liquid foods (only a little of them) lately (the past few weeks). Quote Link to comment
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