Desperate measures!!! Fed UP !!!!

Did you use live rock ? and if so was it from a Gulf supplier ?

 

I have 180 lbs of LR in the tank and 15 in the sump almost all of it came from a few different LFS and some came from a tank thak was being broken down ( the guy was moving so he broke down and sold his whole set up) I think it originated on the piece of rock with the big polyps on it . It has been over a week with minimum light MH only on 2hrs a day and atinics on for 6 hrs and I do not see that much of a reduction if any in the total algae some of it has turned brown and some has not changed at all what is my next step? I have been feeding the fish for the past few days. I have an RODI system coming in this week as well as some buffer and Magnesium also I have test kits for both those items so I am not dosing blind. Should I do some massive H2o changes as soon as I am up and running with the RODI system?

 

If you are not currently using RO or RO/DI water I would most definitely do a big water change. Maybe as close to 50% as you can get. It will do a lot more good than more smaller changes.

 

Yes pretty much what Kris said since you used I assume tap water Then lord knows whats in there might even run some phosphate media sounds like if its getting brown ? You may be onto something ? I have had nothing on since Sunday no light at all though about wrapping the tank in Alum foil to make sure no light hit there ..

I'd yes with a good R/O D.I water change the heck out of it as often as you can .. No telling what the rocks have absorbed and will leach out .. It took me a yr almost to get the PO4 from a bunch of rock from a well water system with a wore out R/O

Then get the DKH and Ca up. and set back and wait another week .. I am going to try and avoid tearing this one down totally . I'm not physically up to it and I can't stand 1/2 A$$ looking crap.. Every time I walk by the bleach cabinet I stop for a second LOL

 

I really do not want to tear down the tank I am going to do back to back to back small (like 20% water changes) when the rodi unit arrives I am going to probably take out a few of the rocks with the heaviest concentration of algae on them and scrub and rip off all of the algea I can. some of those rocks do have coral on them so I am worried about upsetting the corals .

 

What kind of corals? Can they be removed from the rock?

 

Mushrooms, Zoas and a montipora capricornus i am not getting that off

 

Well, you could snap the monti off but unless you nuke the rock and everything that's on it, you will not be able to rid yourself of the algae spores which are most likely on the rock and corals.

 

Let me save you a lot of time and energy and say that first of all smaller water changes aren't going to export the nutrients like one large one will.

Think about it, if your nitrates are at 40 ppm for example and you do one large 50% water change you are then left at nitrates being 20 ppm.

Now if you did lets say 5 20% changes after the first one your nitrates would still be 32. After the 2nd 25.6 and after the 3rd 20.48. By this time you would have done an extra 10% of changing not to mention during the few weeks it's taken you to do this your nitrates have been added back to so they may very well be 25 or 30 ppm even after 3 20% changes.

Make sense?

Secondly taking the rock out and scrubbing it even under hot tap water is not going to get rid of the algea long term. Like Amcarrig said, the spores are still here and given the right conditions they'll just grow back into algae.

I know it's a tough pill to swallow but sometimes you've got to take a step backwards to move forward...

With all of that being said I'd like to add "good luck" with what ever you decide to do... here's a picture of how bad mine got before I finally nuked it...

 

Thank you for the advice My tank currently is no where near that level of algae build up yet I am watching it die now as the days go by. I have not gotten the RODI system yet so I am going to take your advice as soon as I get it and do like a 50% water change here is my question do I have to get new water garbage cans now? Does the old one hold anything that I should be worried about? Just a thought I am using the Rubbermaid Brute.