Hello all.
Hoping to get some opinions on my current dosing as I am fighting with with quite a thick hair algae, it almost comes off in clumps like turf.
1. Gross water volume of your complete system (incl. sump etc.) - 400L
2. Net water volume (incl. sump etc.) - US gallons / UK gallons / liter
3. Are you using a CaCO2 reactor or other technique - No
4. Are you using a PO4 reactor (how long, how long ago, etc.) - No
5. Are you using Ozone - No
6. Are you using UV - No
7. What skimmer are you using (type, rated water volume) - Deltec SC1456, rated to 1000L
8. What are your actual PO4 and NO3 levels - NO3 has registered as 0 or <1 for months. PO4 averages out at around 0.02 both using red sea test kits.
9. What are your actual Ca, Alk and Mg levels - Ca: 500 Alk: 7.9 Mg: 1400. Waiting for corals to actually start growing so I can lower the calcium. Currently not needing to dose anything.
10. What filtration method do you use (refugium, DSB, Miracle Mud, etc.) Just the skimmer
11. Type of light (Watt, color temp, how old, etc.) 2x radion g3 xr30 and 1x xr15
12. What corals do you keep - entirely sps apart from a single head of frogspawn.
13. Tissue color (light or dark) - 2 initial frags I bought browned out. The latest have been in the tank a month and have kept their colour.
14. How long has the tank been running - around 6 months on Zeo. About a year on triton prior to that.
15. Why do you want to use the ZEOvit system. - Used it on my previous tank with excellent results. Had great colouration and low nutrients. This tank is just proving difficult.
16. Any supplemental dosing (type, amount, why, etc.) - Only currently dosing the zeo products.
17. Live rock (how much, how old, etc.) - Can't remember weight of the top of my head but around 2 years old now.
18. Any present problems - Algae on rocks.
19. Problem description (tissue loss tips, tissue loss base, diatom bloom, algae, etc.) - I would say the corals are surviving but certainly not thriving. I have some polyp extension but nothing like in my previous tank.
20. What test kit do you use (how old, recently switched, etc.) - red sea test kits for PO4 NO3 Ca Mg. Salifert and kh guardian for KH. Salifert for potassium.
21. Present dosing, amounts and intervals (ZEOvit, ZEObak, ZEOfood, ZEOstart, ZEOspur2, etc.) - Outlined below.
22. Other water parameters and water stability (salinity, temp, etc.) Outlined below.
23. Which salt brand do you use - Reefers Best
Latest parameters (very much a regular set of results for me):
Temp 25.7c
Salinity 1.026
Kh 7.94 dkh
Ca 500
Mg 1400
K 380
NO3 0.3
PO4 0.01
Zeo Dosing
Zeostart - 0.3ml x2 daily
Zeobak - 4 drops- 2 times a week
Sponge Power - 4 drops - 3 times a week
BioMate - 4 Drops - 2 times a week
CoralSnow - 6ml - same day as biomate
A-Balance - 8ml - once a week
Coral Vitaliser - 4 drops - 3 times a week.
ZeoZym - don't use this religiously but once a week if I do.
So after all that. To summarise. I had issues on triton and never got on with it so went back to what I felt I knew. I have been battling algae on the rocks the whole time, scrubbing them once a week or so and picking it off when I feel there is enough for me to do so. My thoughts are that the rocks are leeching phosphate back into the water, which they absorbed during my poor experience with triton. As I am seeing very little nutrients in the tank, but still getting a PO4 reading, that would suggest it's definitely in there at higher levels when the amount of algae is taken into account.
The corals not having much of a demand for alk or Ca also would suggest to me that elevated PO4 is inhibiting their growth. My reactor currently runs at around 220L/H with 0.8L of media. Im reluctant to change this as NO3 is already pretty much undetectable. Water changes are done about every 10 days and most of them are done siphoning the sand.
Any input as to where I may be going wrong or whether I just need to ride out the algae would be much appreciated.
Hoping to get some opinions on my current dosing as I am fighting with with quite a thick hair algae, it almost comes off in clumps like turf.
1. Gross water volume of your complete system (incl. sump etc.) - 400L
2. Net water volume (incl. sump etc.) - US gallons / UK gallons / liter
3. Are you using a CaCO2 reactor or other technique - No
4. Are you using a PO4 reactor (how long, how long ago, etc.) - No
5. Are you using Ozone - No
6. Are you using UV - No
7. What skimmer are you using (type, rated water volume) - Deltec SC1456, rated to 1000L
8. What are your actual PO4 and NO3 levels - NO3 has registered as 0 or <1 for months. PO4 averages out at around 0.02 both using red sea test kits.
9. What are your actual Ca, Alk and Mg levels - Ca: 500 Alk: 7.9 Mg: 1400. Waiting for corals to actually start growing so I can lower the calcium. Currently not needing to dose anything.
10. What filtration method do you use (refugium, DSB, Miracle Mud, etc.) Just the skimmer
11. Type of light (Watt, color temp, how old, etc.) 2x radion g3 xr30 and 1x xr15
12. What corals do you keep - entirely sps apart from a single head of frogspawn.
13. Tissue color (light or dark) - 2 initial frags I bought browned out. The latest have been in the tank a month and have kept their colour.
14. How long has the tank been running - around 6 months on Zeo. About a year on triton prior to that.
15. Why do you want to use the ZEOvit system. - Used it on my previous tank with excellent results. Had great colouration and low nutrients. This tank is just proving difficult.
16. Any supplemental dosing (type, amount, why, etc.) - Only currently dosing the zeo products.
17. Live rock (how much, how old, etc.) - Can't remember weight of the top of my head but around 2 years old now.
18. Any present problems - Algae on rocks.
19. Problem description (tissue loss tips, tissue loss base, diatom bloom, algae, etc.) - I would say the corals are surviving but certainly not thriving. I have some polyp extension but nothing like in my previous tank.
20. What test kit do you use (how old, recently switched, etc.) - red sea test kits for PO4 NO3 Ca Mg. Salifert and kh guardian for KH. Salifert for potassium.
21. Present dosing, amounts and intervals (ZEOvit, ZEObak, ZEOfood, ZEOstart, ZEOspur2, etc.) - Outlined below.
22. Other water parameters and water stability (salinity, temp, etc.) Outlined below.
23. Which salt brand do you use - Reefers Best
Latest parameters (very much a regular set of results for me):
Temp 25.7c
Salinity 1.026
Kh 7.94 dkh
Ca 500
Mg 1400
K 380
NO3 0.3
PO4 0.01
Zeo Dosing
Zeostart - 0.3ml x2 daily
Zeobak - 4 drops- 2 times a week
Sponge Power - 4 drops - 3 times a week
BioMate - 4 Drops - 2 times a week
CoralSnow - 6ml - same day as biomate
A-Balance - 8ml - once a week
Coral Vitaliser - 4 drops - 3 times a week.
ZeoZym - don't use this religiously but once a week if I do.
So after all that. To summarise. I had issues on triton and never got on with it so went back to what I felt I knew. I have been battling algae on the rocks the whole time, scrubbing them once a week or so and picking it off when I feel there is enough for me to do so. My thoughts are that the rocks are leeching phosphate back into the water, which they absorbed during my poor experience with triton. As I am seeing very little nutrients in the tank, but still getting a PO4 reading, that would suggest it's definitely in there at higher levels when the amount of algae is taken into account.
The corals not having much of a demand for alk or Ca also would suggest to me that elevated PO4 is inhibiting their growth. My reactor currently runs at around 220L/H with 0.8L of media. Im reluctant to change this as NO3 is already pretty much undetectable. Water changes are done about every 10 days and most of them are done siphoning the sand.
Any input as to where I may be going wrong or whether I just need to ride out the algae would be much appreciated.
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