Saltcorner
By Bob Goemans
By Bob Goemans
Hi Bob,
I have e-mailed you a few times before about my 110 gallon reef tank (36" L x 30" H x 24" W). The aquarium is set up using a 1" plenum with a 4" sand bed using 2-4mm CaribSea Aragalive. My setup and maintenance is performed closely to your books. Up until hurricane Wilma in 2005 my tank was doing unbelievably well and beyond all expectations and thanks mostly to you. My acroporas and other corals were growing out of control and I was always cutting off pieces to give away to my friends. The water was crystal clear and I had virtually no aglae. During hurricane Frances in 2004 I was without power for 3 days. I ran the aquarium on a small generator during the day with only the actinic lights on. At night time I turned off the generator and had a baitwell pump connected to a car battery providing water movement to the aquarium at night for about 8 hours. This worked OK for only 3 days.
However, during hurricane Wilma in late 2005 I was without power for 2 weeks and I used the same method. Since then all of my hard corals have died off except for one piece of brain coral and now I have a major hair algae problem. I have tried removing it by hand and siphoning it out only to see it come back thick again in two weeks. I have never had an aquarium look worse. I removed all the dead coral thinking that it may have been fueling the algae growth. The hair algae in growing on the live rock, back glass and even covering the substrate. I have tried using Emerald crabs, Astraea and Turbo snails to clean it up, but they seem die after eating it for a few days. I also added a Lawnmower blenny but he doesn't seem to eat it. I have tried using sea urchins but they seem to clean around it. Since starting the aquarium my nitrate and phosphate levels have always been around 0.1 and 0.015 respectively or lower.
My test levels are as follows: pH 8.15, Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 0.1, Phosphate 0.015, Ca 445, Mg 1350, Sr 13, Kh 9.8, Iodide .03, Iodate .01, Water temp 80 Deg., Salinity 1.025.
My equipment is as follows: One 250 watt 10K MH light on 11:00 am to 4:00 p.m.; two75 watt URI Super Actinic 24", on 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.; two 75 watt URI Aquasun 24", on 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.; two 75 watt URI Actinic White 24", on 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.; 1 watt moonshine bulb. AquaC EV250 Protein Skimmer with Iwaki MD30RT, Main pump Iwaki 30RXT, X150 Eco-Aqualizer, Kent Maxima RO/DI water filter for make up and top off water, Lifereef LCR1 CO2 reactor. I also have 4 Rio 800 power heads alternating every fifteen minutes for additional current. I also keep about 2 cups of E.S.V. carbon and one Poly-Filter in the sump 24/7 and replace them about every two months. I originally used Reef Crystals salt and have tried Tropic Marin Pro Reef salt.
My general maintenance is cleaning the sump foam filter and protein skimmer once weekly and I stir the top 1/2" of gravel twice a month.
My feeding schedule is feeding the fish once or twice a day, adding 1/2 doses of Marc Weiss Coral Vital, LSB and Reef Vital DNA once per week. I also add 1/2 doses of Marc Weiss Black Power, Spectra Vital and Cyclop-eeze 1 to 2 times per week.
My latest try was adding a 1" Black angel, 1" Rock Beauty angle and a 3/4" Flame angle to eat the algae. Again they will not even touch it. However, that are getting along with each other and with my soft corals and gorgonians surprisingly well.
Is it possible that the algae is toxic and therefore killing the snalls that eat it? Will I have to remove all my live rock and bleach it and start all over?
Thanks for the help,
Bob Schichtel
Delray Beach, Florida
The coral die-off ready did it! And for them to all die, there must have been a major water chemistry/temperature/light intensity change! The die-off simply overwhelmed the biological capabilities of the system, which initiated the algae problem. And once begun, it's an almost never-ending situation, no matter how hard you try. I would think the bed is extremely dirty/filled with detritus, and 'if' its regular hair algae, it has spread its spores everywhere and needs little or no encouragement to begin new growth.
In all honestly, if its as bad as your say, you can go two different roads - spend a lot of money and time trying to beat the problem in the existing system, or simply start over. My recommendation would to be to start over. But the choice is yours, and if you want to stay with it, let me know and we'll form an action plan.
And just one thing else, cancel any iodine additions (and don't bother testing for it) and also any organic type additives at this point.
You may want to visit my website at saltcorner.com and go to the Algae page in the Guess Articles section and look at its 160 different forms of algae and its list of consuming animals. Just keep in mind, if they eat it, their waste products contain the nutrients, so if you don't vacuum often, they go back into solution! And if they don't eat it, it's a form that either does not taste good, or they have something better to eat.
Bob
