Can anyone solve my problem Is it hurricane Katrina?

[Craig7718]

Brief background.. 90 gallon, with 30 gallon sump, tunze skimmer.

Had a reef, nothing special before katrina (not sure if this has anything to do with it). Everything dies during storm. Removed everything, left rock in sun for days, placed back in new saltwater. Filtered sand repeatly as new in buckets.
Moved. Setup tank with rock only and saltwater for a couple months. Decided i was ready to jump back in. Levels were all fine. Fish were added and were fine for close to a year. About 4 months go by.
recently I had a horrible hair algae take over. I tried controlling it, but apparently failed. Decided to take out rock with hair and scrub clean. I removed all traces of hair and did a 20 gallon waterchange.
Everything looked good and fresh, fish were still fine.
Hair seemed to come creeping back within a week. I added Phos buster as per the instructions. It seemed to lower the phospahte level. Now i stoped using Phosbuster and the hair doesnt look like it is coming back.

My problem....
I have red/purpleish filmy algae covering rocks now (not corraline) Within a day of cleaning glass i have all sides with green alage on glass the next day. Algae on the sand. I see air bubbles up top and cant fiqure out where they come from or if they could be a hint?( not bubble algae)

Is my tank cycling again. I cant get corraline to grow. My only additive is Aragmilk. My lights were replaced after the hair breakout, i should have replaced them periodically, this is over a month ago though.

My phosphates are still poor .15 on the low range and for some reason on the high range between .5 and 1??

Nitrates are higher than desired at .08
My KH/Alk is high, i am not sure if this is bad or why 12.8 kh / 4.57 alk

My ro top off water is .03 phosphates
Ph, Salinty, temp are all good

I am just ready to get over this and start my reef up. Can anyone give me suggestions. I did a 10 gallon change during the week. still not good in there. Did lose a clown fish.

i cant fiquree out where the nitrates and phosphates are coming from, i am not overfeeding???

Please help before i get even more frustrated.

Thanks a bunch

 

[ChrisRD]

Hi Craig and :welcome:

This is the part that jumped out at me:

Removed everything, left rock in sun for days, placed back in new saltwater.

I've never tried something like that, but my guess is that most of what was in/on the rock died at that point leaving it basically lifeless and loaded with phosphates that could fuel algae problems for months.

 

[Craig7718]

I did it based on what most reefers around here were doing after the storm. The tank sat up for a month before we were allowed back in our homes. I think it was my only option.

The thing i dont understand is it ran for months without a problem. Do you think that it could startup after being establsihed again? Do you thin this is where the problem lies. Do you have any suggestions?

 

[ChrisRD]

Not sure to what extent the rock may/may not be contributing but having phosphate in your topoff water can't be helping. You might want to add a DI to your RO unit. How old is the RO unit? Do you have a TDS meter to check the purity of the water it's producing?

Once you're sure you've got pure source water, and provided you're not overfeeding or dosing any nutrient rich additives, liquids foods, etc., I would just focus on the usual stuff to get nutrient levels lower. Strong circulation, good skimmer, some large water changes, blow off the rockwork with a powerhead to loosen detritus, syphon out any visible detritus, etc.

You might also do a search here for phosban and rowaphos - good GFO products that can pull down your phosphate levels (and help eradicate problem algaes).

 

[Craig7718]

yeah i though that should be zero (topoff). It is a rodi system. The main membrane has been used for less than a year. Not to its capacity.

I have been doing the waterchanges. and blowing th e rocks

I have used phosbuster as per the instrcutions. It eliminated it for a while,but came right back. I am not sure of the source? Should my rodi water be zero?

 

[ChrisRD]

Yes, a normally functioning RO/DI unit should produce zero TDS readings. Your prefilters should be changed out regularly (at least a couple of times a year) and your DI should be changed out as needed (basically when you start seeing TDS readings in the product water).

I'm not familiar with phosbuster but you may want to look into phosban or rowa.