algae appearing after a year! help!

[Clarkii3]

ok heres the deal, i have a 24g aquapod thats will be running for a year on March 11th. up untill a few weeks ago, i have never had ANY problems with this setup. a few weeks ago i started getting hair algae and some algae that was growing in the sand!my sand bed has always been white and spotless and have plenty on nass snails, now theres green alage starting to cover it! things are not looking so well now, but coralline is still covering everything. i have noticed lately that i need to scrape the galss every day as i usually did it just once a week. i can't seem to figue out why i all of a sudden started to get algae. so what do you guys think it is? heres a breakdown

to start things off, heres the tank params:

Alkalinity - Low (yes, crappy red sea test, getting salifert)
PH – 8.2
Phosphate – 0.1 ppm
Nitrate – 0 ppm
Nitrite – 0 ppm
Ammonia – 0 ppm
Calcium – 400 ppm
Magnesium – N/A
Temperature – 79 at night, about 82 during day
Specific Gravity (salinity) – 1.026


i just ordered an alk,calc and mag salifert test kits and they should be here soon, as of now im using some AP and red sea (phospahte and alk)

tank is skimmerless

i feed this tank a pinch or so of cyclopeeze, sometimes mysis and occasionally krill every 2-3 days, and i have the following fish - bicolor blenny, kupang damsel, and a yellow watchman goby.

i have been dosing 2.5ml of b-ionic every night since i set up the tank

i change 2 gallons every week and have only skipped once or twice

i have roughly 17x turnover in this tank as its basically all softies and a few lps, i run a MJ1200 (295gph)on a hydor flow and a hydor pico pump at 115gph.

lighting consists of a 96w pc 50/50 powerquad with a 10 hour photoperiod. i first thought that it was old lighting that was causing the algae to grow, as it was 6 months old, so i just replaced it last week. that doesn't seem to be whats causing it.

i have a fuge in the back of the pod that i have never cleaned out. so i syphoned out some crud the other day, and there is some chaeto thats turning brown, could it be rotting or something? the fuge light has been replaced only once, if its an old bulb could this be causing the lage in the main tank??? the bulb is a 10w 6500 mini pc.

i forgot to change my phosban and chemi pure for 4 months, so i took that out the other day, i added a tad bit of fresh phosban. could i have been the old phosban or chemi pure was leeching phosphates back into the water?

now my ro/di unit has had 383 gallons run through it so far (yes i mark it down) and the manual says for me to replace them every 2500 gallons, or every 6 months whichever occurs first. i have had them for 8 months, but way under 2500g's. the DI unit is mixed bed, no sure if this means color changing or not but the unit was all green, and now its turning purple and at the half way point, so im assuming its a color changing resin. could it be that my sediment and carbon block need replaced? my tds meter is still testing 0 ppm, but i think i may have screwed it it by testing ro/di water that was in a salt mixing bucket.

thanks!

 

[Anonymous]

I recommend you stop with the dry goods, you don't need them with proper husbandry practices, and you won't have to wonder which one of them went bad if something like this happens.

How thick is your sand bed?
You need to get more aggressive with your water changes when not running a skimmer...22 year of doing this has taught me that 2 gallons on a tank that size every two weeks is not enough. Every tank is different, so experiment.

Try 4 gallons and see if things improve, but be advised that you have a detritus accumulated in your sand bed, you'll be fighting a losing battle.

Jim

 

[Clarkii3]

I recommend you stop with the dry goods, you don't need them with proper husbandry practices, and you won't have to wonder which one of them went bad if something like this happens.

How thick is your sand bed?
You need to get more aggressive with your water changes when not running a skimmer...22 year of doing this has taught me that 2 gallons on a tank that size every two weeks is not enough. Every tank is different, so experiment.

Try 4 gallons and see if things improve, but be advised that you have a detritus accumulated in your sand bed, you'll be fighting a losing battle.

Jim

my sand bed is 1", I sometimes even do 3g w/cs and ive never had a problem with any of this. i just ordered new filters so we'll see if the ro/di unit was the problem. i am cutting my photoperiod down by 2 hours for a week or so, maybe the changing of the new bulbs did it?

 

[Anonymous]

I recommend you stop with the dry goods, you don't need them with proper husbandry practices, and you won't have to wonder which one of them went bad if something like this happens.

How thick is your sand bed?
You need to get more aggressive with your water changes when not running a skimmer...22 year of doing this has taught me that 2 gallons on a tank that size every two weeks is not enough. Every tank is different, so experiment.

Try 4 gallons and see if things improve, but be advised that you have a detritus accumulated in your sand bed, you'll be fighting a losing battle.

Jim

my sand bed is 1", I sometimes even do 3g w/cs and ive never had a problem with any of this. i just ordered new filters so we'll see if the ro/di unit was the problem. i am cutting my photoperiod down by 2 hours for a week or so, maybe the changing of the new bulbs did it?

3 gallons is not 4 gallons, and I was being conservative. You can easily do a 50% water change without stressing the animals.

 

[Clarkii3]

really didn't want to skim on this tank as fear of having the water too clean for my shrooms and the xenia covering the entire left glass of the tank........but idk

 

[Anonymous]

Phosphate – 0.1 ppm

there ya go !

 

[pcardone]

I have Zenia and mushrooms doing well in my tank for 5 years and I've never turned off my skimmer. Actually the Zenia has covered the back portion of my glass in one section. Anyways Some times you get dead spots where the water flow doesn't remove the nutrients and you get Algae growth. move a power head or add a cheap one . sometimes deep sand beads harbor the bad guys.

 

[Anonymous]

i change 2 gallons every week and have only skipped once or twice

a 10 gallon wc done monthly would be far more effective-personally, i'd do 10 gallons every two weeks at the minimum

this will be far more effective at the phosphate removal as well

 

[Clarkii3]

i change 2 gallons every week and have only skipped once or twice

a 10 gallon wc done monthly would be far more effective-personally, i'd do 10 gallons every two weeks at the minimum

this will be far more effective at the phosphate removal as well

i think i'll up it to 4g every week, i also cut my photoperiod down a little and will be removing all the chaeto from the tank and syphoning back there

 

[JKDMan]

eally didn't want to skim on this tank as fear of having the water too clean for my shrooms and the xenia

in my experience/research your water cant be too clean,
IMO

nutrient rich water is diffrent from dirty water :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

Get a phosban reactor.

B

 

[Clarkii3]

eally didn't want to skim on this tank as fear of having the water too clean for my shrooms and the xenia

in my experience/research your water cant be too clean,
IMO

nutrient rich water is diffrent from dirty water :wink:

hmm..... good point

 

[Clarkii3]

Get a phosban reactor.

B

im gonna get a skimmer, or a phosban reactor, not sure which i should get. im still going to do 4g weekly.

 

[Anonymous]

If you're doing 4 gals a week that will take care of the DOC's. I ran a 10 gallon without a skimmer for a long time.

THe phosban reactor will get rid of the phosphates you add when you feed your tank.

B

 

[Clarkii3]

well my salifert kits arrived, here are my params...........
Ph-8.2
KH/Alk-6.8
Mg-1280
Ca-415
SG-1.026
PO4-0.1
NH3/NH4-0
NO2-0
NO3 0

my Mg is kinda low, and my Alk is very low as it seems, how can i bump these leveles up? im doing b ionic right now, should i add a little more alk to the mix?

 

[Clarkii3]

bump

 

[Clarkii3]

heres what im dealing with