andysgirl8800
Blenny Badlands
I am so sorry for continuing to post about this stooooopid algae issue!! :frustrat: I've been reading and reading and more reading. I **think** I've gone from my hair algae plague to either a cyano outbreak or a diatom algae outbreak.:grumble:
Quick summary, just to cover the bases.
I've attached some pictures, so please help me ID.
I am considering a brief blackout period...however, if this is diatoms, which rely on sillicates for their survival, then lights-out won't help me much. I am concerned with overstressing my tank inhabitants too.
On the other hand, is this a sign that I have either entered a new algae stage, OR is this :pooh::pooh::pooh::pooh: FINALLY starting to go away!!?? I am so stinking sick of algae at this point! Will I ever have a nice looking reef? :frustrat::frustrat::frustrat: Sorry for the rant. Thanks for listenting.
Quick summary, just to cover the bases.
- yes, I admit it :chair: I started my 125 with good ol' tap water. and continued to use it for the first 4 months.
- I use only RO\DI water now for the past 9 months.
- I have an 9 h photo period from 10a-7p (actinic) and 2.5 h period from 1p-3:30p (MH)
- I have a sump/fuge with chaeto
- I have an algea scrubber
- I target feed every 3 days, sparingly, with mysis and/or algae sheets for the tangs
- just converted my sand/chaeto only fuge (and way too much red slime, hair algae, diatoms, and cyano too) to adding 4-5 pounds of live rock (fully cured), 17 hermits, 5 turbos, and a tiny dragon goby (M.I.A.) and cleaning out all the gunk. I was careful not to disturb the DSB
- I added 2 pieces (about 5 pounds) of fully cured live rock to the DT and moved around several larger pieces of rock, disturbing the 1-2" sand bed.
- Did a 30 gallon water change this past Friday (the 28th), which involved removing some of the upper rocks to scrub them in separate buckets to rid them of some more HA.
- I added a new fish on Saturday.
- Removed a dying/dead kenya tree from the DT today (cut from the rock after removing the rock from the tank). Same rock has had some smaller aiuptasia on it that I have been treating with AiptasiaX OUTSIDE of the DT.
- 400w heater was overheating the tank, even at its lowest setting. Don't jump up here fellas! I consider "overheating" to be anything over my ordinary 76.5-79 temp range. I was getting to 81 BEFORE my MHs came on and WITH a hood fan running. I replaced the heater.
- about 2 weeks ago, I replaced the VHO bulbs and rehooked them to an Icecap 430 ballast
- Salinity...........1.024
- Temp .............78.7
- Phosphates.....0ppm
- NitrATES .......15ppm (down from 20ppm)
- Ammonia .......0ppm
- NitrITES .........0ppm
- Ph .................8.6
I've attached some pictures, so please help me ID.
I am considering a brief blackout period...however, if this is diatoms, which rely on sillicates for their survival, then lights-out won't help me much. I am concerned with overstressing my tank inhabitants too.
On the other hand, is this a sign that I have either entered a new algae stage, OR is this :pooh::pooh::pooh::pooh: FINALLY starting to go away!!?? I am so stinking sick of algae at this point! Will I ever have a nice looking reef? :frustrat::frustrat::frustrat: Sorry for the rant. Thanks for listenting.