Help!! GHA outbreak!

It doesn't hurt to try going somewhere else but I would recommend getting your own ro/di filter.

 

No i dont have any phosphate media oldfish, do i need to get a reactor or can i put it in a filter sock? Can it go in the bottom of my protein skimmer or bad idea?

 

I would also recommend getting a TDS meter and testing their water.

I had a LFS tell me their RO/DI TDS was a decimal point number. When it was actually tested, it was 86. My friend and I both had algae issues after buying their water for a few months. I went elsewhere and she bought an RO/DI unit.

 

Yea ill have to do that then. I have been looking into getting a ro/di unit. Now what if i get the tds meter and test it and it comes out good? Im going to look into media filtering so would that be the next step? How about water changes should i be doing them more often or will that just give it more nutrients to feed off of?

 

Aquarium Chemistry: Phosphate And Math: Yes You Need To Understand Both — Advanced Aquarist | Aquarist Magazine and Blog

While managing inputs carefully is helpful, if you have a GHA problem, the place to focus your attention is on nutrient export.

Quit obsessing about the phosphates in your food and unless you're using water fresh from a rich, Scottish peat bog, its probably not a slight filtration defecit in your RO unit causing the problem. It is that your tank does not pull out enough nutrient.

Biopellets, GFO, algae scrubber. Pick a good method and give it time.

 

I agree with the scrubber. Nothing more powerful and faster to remove PO4 and NO3. It will take time for a fuge to get going unless you are able to fill it with a lot of macro.
Alge scrubber can be built for not much money and takes about 2-3 weeks to go from no algae to a fully matured scrubber. A scrubber can be more work than a refugium that's why they are not as common but after it does it's job and your refugium is going you could simply take it down.

Certain things in this hobby you just can not skimp on.
1. RO/DI water. I don't trust anyones water but my own.. meaning car washes , grocery store and fish stores. Never used tap and never will. Your water changes may actually be making things worse if it is not good RO water.
2. Don't necessarily trust cheap PO4 test kits. If they read zero that doesn't mean it's zero. If you are feeding a tank there is always PO4 and NO3. Someone with experience probably doesn't even need to test for PO4 much really. You just know certain things that need to be done and can get a feel for the look of it's corals. Run GFO and change it properly every month. If you don't have a GFO reactor consider that. It may be easier than setting up an algae scrubber.. but scrubber would be better.

3. Lights.. sounds like you are on top of the light part. For now I would keep up more blue & less white.

A sea cucumber will wipe that algae clean but have a plan to give it to another reefer after it's done otherwise it might die. Lawnmower blenny would love that tank.

 

I agree with everything you said, except caution on the LMB. They can be tough to get eating prepared foods. Mine starved to death in my 55 after it ate through the GHA. Wouldn't touch anything, including nori and other algae sheets.

 

That's true. I tried two and they starved but I had no GHA. Seems like they are hit or miss for eating prepared foods.

 

Just to come in on the water issue, I've been using distilled water from Walmart since day one. I get 22 gallons and it lasts for 2 weeks. I haven't given the source water another thought. But then again, I haven't tested it for nutrients either.

 

Sounds like you've gotten some really good advice and good reading. Let us know what you decide Hopefully you'll get the algae under control soon! FWIW, I continue to run phosguard (it doesn't need to be tumbled) in my tank to keep phosphates down. I've always used it. I have it in a filter bag in a HOB filter. When my sump is up and running, I will place it in a bag in the sump most likely.