gfo causing stn?

[jjoos99]

Everytime I start using a fresh batch of gfo my sps will start to stn from the base upwards. I am starting to get quite a bit of hair algae and need to drop my phos levels, thus the addition of a cup of fresh gfo in my tlf reactor. I shut down the reactor tonight. After a week of running the fresh gfo the corals have gotten worst. What are my options for lowering my phos? Will the biopellets cause any issues with stn? I have always contributed the stn from alk levels but I tested my level tonight and it was good at 9.6. I am getting frustrated to the point of quiting. Any advise would be appreciated.
thanks
Jeff

[bertoni]

Hmm, how big is the tank and how much GFO is in the reactor? GFO can cause coral problems, as far as we can tell. Is the phosphate level measurably above zero?

[jjoos99]

My tank is a 180 gallon. I only put a cup of gfo in the reactor. I just tested with my salifert and it doesnt show any phos. but I used the clubs hanna a month or so ago and it was at .06 and the algae has gotten worst since them. I have tried the route of biopellets but couldnt keep them from not clumping in my modified tlf reactor. I guess I need to maybe start some carbon dosing. I removed my substrate quite some time ago thinking it was adding nitrates/ phos into the water but it didnt help. I did have some really nice size colonies of sps but over the last year or so they have gone through many different bouts with stn and they really just need to be cut up and salvaged for what can be saved.
thanks for any advise
Jeff

[brandon429]

One option not being considered is simple removal and no changes to the tank chemistry

Gfo is a preventative not a remover, that's a huge tenet in the pm I just sent you regarding my thread in the nanos forum. Starving it further will work, but check my thread for a bazillion pics using another method. At least you have two options now. Algae presence does not always indicate a nutrient problem.

[bertoni]

Well, I would try leaving the GFO off-line at the moment. If any signs of phosphate problems started showing up, I probably would restart the GFO reactor with a lot less media, and work from there. A couple of tablespoon might be enough for starters.

The algae problem might require some GFO eventually, but I'd wait until the corals have been stable for a while, if that's possible, and then consider restarting the GFO with a small amount of media.

What kind of algae is this?

[jjoos99]

I did a 20 gallon water change tonight and removed as much as the algae I could get out of the tank. I did shut down the gfo. The algae is a dark green soft hair algae.
I will read the nano thread this weekend when I get a chance.
thanks
Jeff

[Psyops]

This may be obvious but worth an easy solution. Do you flush your GFO before hooking it up to your system? From a very experienced reefer here on RC I tried Poly-filter. I put one in my sump with a high flow area for 2 days. I do not have any RTN anymore. Don't know what was introduced in the tank but that seemed to do it. I put one in first two days of each month for the past 4 months and my SPS is looking the best ever. I never had much luck with SPS before. Again I don't know this would solve your problem, but it seemed a harmless try and not that expensive. Hope this helps.

Alex

[bertoni]

You're welcome! Good luck!