Dave's 20g glass box 🎉 Water Box 20 IS STILL GOING.......

[spectra]

39 minutes ago, DSFIRSTSLTWATER said:

I though urchins aren't good for a small tank? I mean at this point i'd be willing to give anything a shot.

 

Side note, I finally saw a worm in the tank last night. I didn't think I had any in there. I also found at least 3 limpets. Still haven't seen a single pod which really pisses me off. I spent a bunch for two different pods and I haven't seen a single one. I dose the tank with live phytoplankton every night and still nothing.

I had it in my 14 for a while.............it was about the size of a quarter and now almost 2" across..................great little guy or gal.........

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

9 minutes ago, WV Reefer said:

Dave, Dave, Dave......

 

you are the clean up crew and you’ve been slacking. Get in there and get it out. 

 I wish I was slacking on maintenance, at least I'd have a reason for the algae. Bare bottom is so easy to clean, it blows right off the bottom and I can suck shit out. I have a couple rocks that I slide out of the way and clean under them. I scrub the shit out of it every week.. looks like an algae storm when i'm done  

[Ratvan]

6 minutes ago, DSFIRSTSLTWATER said:

 I wish I was slacking on maintenance, at least I'd have a reason for the algae. Bare bottom is so easy to clean, it blows right off the bottom and I can suck shit out. I have a couple rocks that I slide out of the way and clean under them. I scrub the shit out of it every week.. looks like an algae storm when i'm done  

Bet the Corals enjoy that, the only time my Duncan looks halfway decent is after a clean

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

1 minute ago, Ratvan said:

Bet the Corals enjoy that, the only time my Duncan looks halfway decent is after a clean

It's funny you say that cause yeah, mine do enjoy when i'm blowing the rocks off with the baster.

[Ratvan]

Just now, DSFIRSTSLTWATER said:

It's funny you say that cause yeah, mine do enjoy when i'm blowing the rocks off with the baster.

I only target feed LPS and SPS now, anything else just gets the detritus from the rocks. MASSIVE reduction in algae for me since changing 

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

3 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

I only target feed LPS and SPS now, anything else just gets the detritus from the rocks. MASSIVE reduction in algae for me since changing 

The corals only get fed when I remember, and that's maybe once a month I'll hit em with a little bit of reef roids that I spot feed and then I do a water change so the reef roids aren't rotting in the tank. All the corals get is detritus.

[FISHnChix]

So both tanks had a crazy amount of gha. You have great maintenance routines,  minimal feeding, low bioload , and good cuc yet still gha.. you even started a new tank and went BB.. that would make me freak the #### out.. One common denominator is the rocks therefore I think its leaching something like phosphate... 

 

Now what to do??

 Bigger clean up crew and/or an urchin.. worth a try but I dont think they are going to knock out the amount of gha that you have only bc I had the same problem in my biocube.  So add the clean up crew and change all the water you want and most likely imo you are still going to have the gha until you address the rock issue..  now how to do that??? Only two ways I can think to go..

 

1. Try and get the phosphate out(yea test reads zero but alage is still out of control so it must be there) use the right amount of phosguard or something like that or try macro again to reduce the phosphate.  Keep up with the huge wc and between those and over time the alage should go away... maybe 😆.  You can also use reef flux during the process to keep the alage at bay while you reduse phos.  Question you have to ask is will doing all that effect your corals and take the joy out of reefing for you?? Bc who knows how long it will take... 6 months? A year?? More?🤔

 

 

2. Transfer corals and rock to a bin and get new rock and cycle the tank again, pull all corals off the plugs and old rock and put it in the new tank..

 

 

Hope I'm not seeming like a debbie downer but I went through the same thing. Yes I did method 1 and it worked out but still had more gha than I wanted.. I was about to give up and I started the reefer. I went dry rock and havent had an alage issue what so ever.. I didnt change a thing on my routines either. So I guess the point is your doing everything right so dont stress on that bc that will just make you want to throw in the towel...

 

Good luck buddy I hope you get it figured out!! Keep up the good fight😉

 

 

 

 

 

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

15 minutes ago, FISHnChix said:

So both tanks had a crazy amount of gha. You have great maintenance routines,  minimal feeding, low bioload , and good cuc yet still gha.. you even started a new tank and went BB.. that would make me freak the #### out.. One common denominator is the rocks therefore I think its leaching something like phosphate... 

 

Now what to do??

 Bigger clean up crew and/or an urchin.. worth a try but I dont think they are going to knock out the amount of gha that you have only bc I had the same problem in my biocube.  So add the clean up crew and change all the water you want and most likely imo you are still going to have the gha until you address the rock issue..  now how to do that??? Only two ways I can think to go..

 

1. Try and get the phosphate out(yea test reads zero but alage is still out of control so it must be there) use the right amount of phosguard or something like that or try macro again to reduce the phosphate.  Keep up with the huge wc and between those and over time the alage should go away... maybe 😆.  You can also use reef flux during the process to keep the alage at bay while you reduse phos.  Question you have to ask is will doing all that effect your corals and take the joy out of reefing for you?? Bc who knows how long it will take... 6 months? A year?? More?🤔

 

 

2. Transfer corals and rock to a bin and get new rock and cycle the tank again, pull all corals off the plugs and old rock and put it in the new tank..

 

 

Hope I'm not seeming like a debbie downer but I went through the same thing. Yes I did method 1 and it worked out but still had more gha than I wanted.. I was about to give up and I started the reefer. I went dry rock and havent had an alage issue what so ever.. I didnt change a thing on my routines either. So I guess the point is your doing everything right so dont stress on that bc that will just make you want to throw in the towel...

 

Good luck buddy I hope you get it figured out!! Keep up the good fight😉

 

 

 

 

 

Holy cow, thanks for the write up man. So ya, thats really what has me super confused. It has to be the rock. I have more rock sitting in a bucket of stagnant saltwater that i'm considering trying out. I have the 30 gallon brute so I tossed around the idea of filling it with ro water and letting it sit in that for a month? see what it tests out at.  I'm going to try something starting tonight. I'm gonna do small water changes every night for a week all the same pulling as much algae as I can. After a week i'll let the tank sit for a week and see if algae starts to pop up. If it does.. looks like i'm getting all new rock. I have some decisions to make for sure. I'm getting close to throwing the towel in. It sucks because I sound like a damn broken record. You guys must think I'm crazy lol. (well crazier than normal)

I'm glad you understand what i'm going through. I didn't know that it happened to you as well. I though about reef flux, it worked the last time I used it, but of course the algae came back. How the hell long does it take for shit to completely leach out of the rocks. I know stinky and WV are thinking rocks along with you now. I just don't have the space to keep things in tubs till I recycle this thing. It's a royal PITA. Plus, I have my rock flowers that are attached to the rocks that I can't get off, plus a couple mushrooms that ihave no clue how to get off either.

I wish I had other things to talk about.

[FISHnChix]

7 minutes ago, DSFIRSTSLTWATER said:

Holy cow, thanks for the write up man. So ya, thats really what has me super confused. It has to be the rock. I have more rock sitting in a bucket of stagnant saltwater that i'm considering trying out. I have the 30 gallon brute so I tossed around the idea of filling it with ro water and letting it sit in that for a month? see what it tests out at.  I'm going to try something starting tonight. I'm gonna do small water changes every night for a week all the same pulling as much algae as I can. After a week i'll let the tank sit for a week and see if algae starts to pop up. If it does.. looks like i'm getting all new rock. I have some decisions to make for sure. I'm getting close to throwing the towel in. It sucks because I sound like a damn broken record. You guys must think I'm crazy lol. (well crazier than normal)

I'm glad you understand what i'm going through. I didn't know that it happened to you as well. I though about reef flux, it worked the last time I used it, but of course the algae came back. How the hell long does it take for shit to completely leach out of the rocks. I know stinky and WV are thinking rocks along with you now. I just don't have the space to keep things in tubs till I recycle this thing. It's a royal PITA. Plus, I have my rock flowers that are attached to the rocks that I can't get off, plus a couple mushrooms that ihave no clue how to get off either.

I wish I had other things to talk about.

Put the tub in the 75 gallon  you have sitting there😆😆😆😉.. 

 

Yea that's the thing who knows if it will stop leaching stuff or how long. I got so frustrated I didnt care .. I was even considering running reef flux 24/7 just to see what would happen (oh and dont bother with the RIP clean method it doesnt work either hahaha).. plus it was nice not scraping the glass🤣...

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

14 minutes ago, FISHnChix said:

Put the tub in the 75 gallon  you have sitting there😆😆😆😉.. 

 

Yea that's the thing who knows if it will stop leaching stuff or how long. I got so frustrated I didnt care .. I was even considering running reef flux 24/7 just to see what would happen (oh and dont bother with the RIP clean method it doesnt work either hahaha).. plus it was nice not scraping the glass🤣...

See all this has me pondering what i'm gonna use for rock in the 75..Stinky said the dry rock leaches phosphates too. I'm almost positive i'm going all dry rock with that tank. I might actually get it from reef cleaners. Only time will tell with this tank. It just sucks to put so much effort into something only to get this; a tank full of algae... I'll try some beefy ass snails. Lots of hard work and fingers crossed I will never ever have to talk about this again

 

edit: ohhh and the while trying not to kill all the corals that are doing awesome......

[StinkyBunny]

8 hours ago, WV Reefer said:

Dave, Dave, Dave......

 

you are the clean up crew and you’ve been slacking. Get in there and get it out. 

Yes, we will have NONE of this malingering bullshit!!!

 

Here's how it works. The algae uses the phosphate BEFORE it gets a chance to go into solution. Buy some damn real live rock, that dry shit's the devil. If I was going to use that shit, it's would be tanked in RO water for 6 months BEFORE I used it with a metric shittonne of GFO running on it. You have to realize that rock is mined from land and is subject to all of the pollutants that perk through it, phosphates are a biggie. Up until the late 70s, soaps had LOADS of phosphates in them.

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

3 minutes ago, StinkyBunny said:

Yes, we will have NONE of this malingering bullshit!!!

 

Here's how it works. The algae uses the phosphate BEFORE it gets a chance to go into solution. Buy some damn real live rock, that dry shit's the devil. If I was going to use that shit, it's would be tanked in RO water for 6 months BEFORE I used it with a metric shittonne of GFO running on it. You have to realize that rock is mined from land and is subject to all of the pollutants that perk through it, phosphates are a biggie. Up until the late 70s, soaps had LOADS of phosphates in them.

would it be worth it to use the rock that's sitting in saltwater? it's in my dark basement. It's left over rock that I didn't want to use when I set this tank up. Sitting in a buck of old tank saltwater lol. What do you think?

That's the rock I was gonna let sit in water for a month.

edit: The man made expensive rock i'd think wouldn't leach anything.. I could be wrong with that assumption though.

[StinkyBunny]

4 minutes ago, DSFIRSTSLTWATER said:

would it be worth it to use the rock that's sitting in saltwater? it's in my dark basement. It's left over rock that I didn't want to use when I set this tank up. Sitting in a buck of old tank saltwater lol. What do you think?

That's the rock I was gonna let sit in water for a month.

edit: The man made expensive rock i'd think wouldn't leach anything.. I could be wrong with that assumption though.

If I were gonna use it, I'd hit it with GFO for a month just to be sure. Keep it cool, 60-70 degrees. You can buy little internal pumps for around $10 that you could put a little bag of GFO in to soak up and PO4 that leaches out.. I have a piece laying outside the shop that has to have been mine Fla rock. It pissed me off so bad that I threw it outside.

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

6 minutes ago, StinkyBunny said:

If I were gonna use it, I'd hit it with GFO for a month just to be sure. Keep it cool, 60-70 degrees. You can buy little internal pumps for around $10 that you could put a little bag of GFO in to soak up and PO4 that leaches out.. I have a piece laying outside the shop that has to have been mine Fla rock. It pissed me off so bad that I threw it outside.

Well I do have some purigen I could run. I could always get a tote and run the tidal 55 on it for a month with heavy purigen and carbon.

Should I just use ro water? or should I actually make up saltwater and do it?

[StinkyBunny]

2 minutes ago, DSFIRSTSLTWATER said:

Well I do have some purigen I could run. I could always get a tote and run the tidal 55 on it for a month with heavy purigen and carbon.

Should I just use ro water? or should I actually make up saltwater and do it?

Either is fine, WTF is Purigen? I would get some Phosguard and run that, all it does is phosphate. It's what i use at home and the shop.

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

1 minute ago, StinkyBunny said:

Either is fine, WTF is Purigen? I would get some Phosguard and run that, all it does is phosphate. It's what i use at home and the shop.

sorry i meant i have a bottle of phosguard.. that's what i meant.

[FISHnChix]

21 minutes ago, DSFIRSTSLTWATER said:

See all this has me pondering what i'm gonna use for rock in the 75..Stinky said the dry rock leaches phosphates too. I'm almost positive i'm going all dry rock with that tank. I might actually get it from reef cleaners. Only time will tell with this tank. It just sucks to put so much effort into something only to get this; a tank full of algae... I'll try some beefy ass snails. Lots of hard work and fingers crossed I will never ever have to talk about this again

 

edit: ohhh and the while trying not to kill all the corals that are doing awesome......

Yea I have heard people talking down the dry rock. (Most waaaaay more experienced than me) with that being said I have done it once and had ZERO  problems with phos . I just rinsed and put straight in the tank.. but i could be the exception not the rule.. 

 

Also if I did go live rock I would get something that I could confirm was actually pulled from the ocean not some bs that someone else cured in there shop and calls it live rock lol

[mitten_reef]

3 minutes ago, DSFIRSTSLTWATER said:

Well I do have some purigen I could run. I could always get a tote and run the tidal 55 on it for a month with heavy purigen and carbon.

Should I just use ro water? or should I actually make up saltwater and do it?

 

Just now, StinkyBunny said:

Either is fine, WTF is Purigen? I would get some Phosguard and run that, all it does is phosphate. It's what i use at home and the shop.

Purigen takes care of Nitrate and other N-based stuff.  Dave, you need a phosphate remover, either GFO, Phosban, or Phosguard. 

You gotta make sure you use the correct media for your trouble, bud.  You can run Purigen all you want, you won't take care of phosphate.  

Let me know if you wanna go this route with your idling rocks, I have an IM mini reactor you can use/borrow. hanging bracket broke on it, but if you're throwing it in a tub, you don't need hanger.

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

5 minutes ago, mitten_reef said:

 

Purigen takes care of Nitrate and other N-based stuff.  Dave, you need a phosphate remover, either GFO, Phosban, or Phosguard. 

You gotta make sure you use the correct media for your trouble, bud.  You can run Purigen all you want, you won't take care of phosphate.  

Let me know if you wanna go this route with your idling rocks, I have an IM mini reactor you can use/borrow. hanging bracket broke on it, but if you're throwing it in a tub, you don't need hanger.

Oh man that might be great. I'm gonna come up with a plan tonight. I didn't want to chemically mess with the tank, especially after the chemipure incident. I'd just use the phosguard in a tube for a while. What a pain this is. Thanks for the help/suggestions with it all guys and gals 🙂. All learning experiences that I'll have when the 75 gets started. Knowledge is power and making mistakes is all part of learning.

[Ratvan]

How bad is the GHA? I searched back a bit but yeah been on the herb

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

17 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

How bad is the GHA? I searched back a bit but yeah been on the herb

Hey as a matter of fact I am too now. It's basically on everything except Coraline algae..

It's heavy on some rock but not others. Very strange. I'm making water..... I'm gonna do little mini changes for now.

[spectra]

2 hours ago, FISHnChix said:

So both tanks had a crazy amount of gha. You have great maintenance routines,  minimal feeding, low bioload , and good cuc yet still gha.. you even started a new tank and went BB.. that would make me freak the #### out.. One common denominator is the rocks therefore I think its leaching something like phosphate... 

 

Now what to do??

 Bigger clean up crew and/or an urchin.. worth a try but I dont think they are going to knock out the amount of gha that you have only bc I had the same problem in my biocube.  So add the clean up crew and change all the water you want and most likely imo you are still going to have the gha until you address the rock issue..  now how to do that??? Only two ways I can think to go..

 

1. Try and get the phosphate out(yea test reads zero but alage is still out of control so it must be there) use the right amount of phosguard or something like that or try macro again to reduce the phosphate.  Keep up with the huge wc and between those and over time the alage should go away... maybe 😆.  You can also use reef flux during the process to keep the alage at bay while you reduse phos.  Question you have to ask is will doing all that effect your corals and take the joy out of reefing for you?? Bc who knows how long it will take... 6 months? A year?? More?🤔

 

 

2. Transfer corals and rock to a bin and get new rock and cycle the tank again, pull all corals off the plugs and old rock and put it in the new tank..

 

 

Hope I'm not seeming like a debbie downer but I went through the same thing. Yes I did method 1 and it worked out but still had more gha than I wanted.. I was about to give up and I started the reefer. I went dry rock and havent had an alage issue what so ever.. I didnt change a thing on my routines either. So I guess the point is your doing everything right so dont stress on that bc that will just make you want to throw in the towel...

 

Good luck buddy I hope you get it figured out!! Keep up the good fight😉

 

 

 

 

 

[Wonderboy]

It seems persistence required for certain circumstances will remain unprecedented. Almost makes it feel like the reward just isn't worth it... as breaking things down could be reasonable, I just read @ef4life's update; maybe give Vibrant a shot?

 

Vibrant Q+A thread and one of many Vibrant trial threads

[ECLS Reefer]

Hey man, I too have what was once dry rock, and suspect just rock dug out of the earth or sitting shallow somewhere. But when you speak of the GHA is it the long stringy stuff? Both my tanks have algae but it’s very close to the rock surface and seems to stay mowed down by all the critters. I have phosguard running in one tank, and it has basically made the level zero. Am trying GFO/Carbon in the big tank and it keeps the levels at just where I’m trying to hold them at. But yeah- my Evo is nothing but what was probably once dry rock and every single rock has fuzz on it. 

[Matteo]

Ime turbos will eat that shit right up