gas7057 Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 Okay so about a year ago I bought a 34g Solana from a coworker who had let the thing turn into an algae infested mess (I mean really bad). I have no prior reef keeping experience but have done a pretty good job getting this thing healthy again. I have been prowling Nano-Reef the whole time getting little nuggets here and there. Right now all my equipment is stock and I have a 150W Sunpod. I just put a new 14K Phoenix in it on Saturday. I tossed my bio-balls in the trash about 2 months ago. Currently I'm using cheap carbon in Chamber 2 but I just ordered the new inTank Solana media basket, Chemipure, and Purigen. I've been doing water changes about every 2 weeks with premixed Salt/RO/DI from my LFS for about $1.25/gallon. I have been using a 3 day rotating dosing schedule using Seachem Aquavitro 8.4, Fuel, and Calcification. I test weekly for Nitrate, Phosphate, KH, and pH with API kits and CA with Salifert. My livestock consists of a clown pair, watchman goby, bagaii cardinal, dersa clam (I think), coral banded shrimp, and CUC. So my question is where do I go next? I still have green hair algae. Not terrible, but its there and I want that @#$! gone. Should my next investment be on additional flow like a Hydor Koralia. Maybe an ATO or maybe I should upgrade by testing protocol to Hanna meters or similar. Am I even dosing the right stuff? Thanks for the input Link to comment
cdr5y7 Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 i would check the RO/DI water your getting from your LFS. its supposed to read 000 TDS but i know sometimes it comes out a little different than that. if that's not the problem i would check how much/often your feeding. and if all of those are in line you can always get a TLF Phosban reactor and throw GFO in there.(just a band-aid thought) but the excess nutrients are coming from somewhere. and your tests will typically be 0 because the GHA is sucking up those nutrients. and i dont see any GHA in the pic you uploaded. looks damn good to me. Link to comment
gas7057 Posted February 22, 2011 Author Share Posted February 22, 2011 Ok I understand the concearn about the RO/DI water as far as irradicating the algae. What about other upgrades in general? For instance should I be more concerned about upgrading to a Tunze skimmer or adding some Koralias? I'm just looking for opinions on what upgrades seem to make the biggest impact on overall health and aesthetics. Link to comment
LPS-Crazy Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 Sounds like you are doing great, even the serious reefer has outbreaks here and there. Check that you heater is dialed in so that your temp stays the same as it does with the MH blazing down on your tank. Temps swings can help hair alge out a lot. If your daytime temp is 80, make sure that your night time temp is the same. Try doing larger weekly water changes. Lets say, up it two more gallons. When you get the media rack, sub the purigen for some GFO till your hair alge goes away, then swap the GFO for some Macro back there. A emerald crab or even buying a urchin from the LFS will get rid of the existing stuff Id say urchin then bring it back to the LFS when its done its job. Emeralds sometimes choose to not eat GHA for some reason. Link to comment
cdr5y7 Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 the way you phrased your question it sounded like you wanted to know how to get rid of the GHA, so thats why i suggested those. sure if you want more flow throw a koralia in there. it wont help with GHA and a skimmer would help too. Link to comment
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