Is my water too clean?

[asonitez]

I'm having a strange problem with my Macro Algae.

For about 4 months while building my 180 I had a Clump of macro growing in a nano tank until it filled in the entire 12 gallon nano. I mean rock solid to where light could barely penetrate to the sand. Macro algae was the only thing in there. Its not chaeto its the green long stuff that looks like tangled hair( Culerpa maybe?) All i know is it dosen't go sexual stays together easy and flourished in the nano.

Nano Details

12 Gal Nano
15lbs LR
10lbs LS
1 X 24Watt PC 10K
1 X 24 Watt PC 03 Actinic
SG 1.026

2 X Hydor Koralia Nano PH's


Well After the 180 was up I transferred the Macro.


180 Details

140lbs Live Sand
190 lbs Cured Live Rock
4X Hydor Koralia 4's
1200 GPH overflow

Sump 40 Gallon Long.


Skimmer

AquaEuro 250
500mgh Ozone generator on a Coralife Ozone Controller Plugged into the Air Intake of the Venturi on the AquaEuro Inline. (Allows both normal air and ozone to get in)

The Overflow drains into 2 socks into the skimmer compartment which injects it with ozone and skimms the water. It pours over into the bubble trap into the Refugium section with LR Rubble covering the floor and the macro rolling around it. I have 2 Mangroves in there that are flourishing. After that it goes into the return which has 2 reactors phosphate + carbon and Ammonia Chips + Nitrate Reducers at around 200 GPH each reactor.

Lately the macro went from being green to brown to pale then Cyano seemed to take over and then I see some Macro Ok and Some Dead or with Cyano on them. I think my Refugium is failing to flourish. I'm scared this will foul my water and I'm thinking of taking out all the macro clean off the cyano and leave it bare. Maybe Put the reactors in there or something. Is my water too clean???

Fuge is lit by a 6500 PC bulb in a Fixture.

[asonitez]

Fuge is also lit 24/7

[areze]

first off, jumbled hair like a brillo pad is cheato...

with that said, cheato needs light to grow, letting it become a mass where no light can penetrate is not good for it, you need to remove it so it can continue to grow and recieve light all the way through its mass. keep it cut back as it grows.

if there is cyano growing, then the water is certainly not too clean(though it could be if the macro was dieing off, but not with algea growing elsewhere)

cut back the macro to free it up to grow again.

[reef_doug]

You're using ammonia chips in salt water? Which ones?

Most are a form of zeolite that does not work in saltwater. There are exceptions though such as the special ones that ZEOvit uses.

[areze]

btw, I dont see a reason for ammonia chips. ammonia is easily handled in a cycled aquarium. any ammonia products like prime, chips, ect, just create dependence on a wasted additive. fine to have on hand for the random ammonia spike, but I dont think should be run 24/7 otherwise.

also, get a pic of your macro, if it is cheato, darkness is good for it to help grow, just an hour or 2 is fine. need to be sure that its cheato though, as others need the 24/7 to not go asexual. so get a pic if you can so it can be identified.

[asonitez]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14043660#post14043660 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by reef_doug
You're using ammonia chips in salt water? Which ones?

Most are a form of zeolite that does not work in saltwater. There are exceptions though such as the special ones that ZEOvit uses.

sorry for the miss into,

its the media stuff from kent marine to remove the nitrates it looked a lot like my ammonia media for my FW discus tank and i thought ammonia remover lol.

[areze]

macro consumes nitrates, this could be a problem if your nitrates are at 0.

[asonitez]

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3221/3050733825_d03a67e3a0.jpg




and your last comment about consuming nitrates. i think this may be the case. considering i have a big skimmer i do 20 gallon water changes weekly. no hair algae, no diatoms, just normal green algae on the glass and a little dirt and grime on the rocks that i blow off during water changes. i have few fish

1 yellow tang
1 japanese swallow tang
5 chromis tiny
1 freidmani
1 hippo
1 rabbit fish
1 lawn blenny
1 red coris.
a handful of softies

[Meisen]

Chaeto.

And yeah, it can get clogged up with cyano and micro algae species so just take it out, rinse it in a bucket with tank water in it (easy to do when you are doing water changes) and replace the algae back into the fuge.

You may want to sift through the cleaning bucket to pick up a few amphipods and ministars or whatever you have in there just to reseed the population.

[asonitez]

i saw one of my wrasses a little sicky tonight. I tested and i seemed to have a slight ammonia spike. dunno what it was but i was out of town for a few days. I amquelled the tank and made some water. I'm gonna do a few 18 gallon water changes over the next few days and through the weekend. Basically try to dilute about 100gals into the tank.