dburt520
04/02/2014, 12:23 AM
I recently did a tank upgrade, Thursday will actually be 3 weeks exactly. I used BRS Reef Saver Dry rock in the DT, with a few pieces of live rock from the "old" tank in the DT and the rest in the fuge, along with a softball size ball of cheato. All of the sand is new, and was not "live sand".
With the tank upgrade I have seen virtually no cycle, obviously a good thing, but I am getting a bunch of brown algae/bubbles everywhere that the light is hitting the rocks. Perhaps this happens often, it just is not as noticeable on cycled/cured live rock as it is on the bleach white dry rock?
I have a couple issues going on that all point me in the direction of to much nutrients, however some could be light settings and that is what I am trying to figure out. The light is a Maxspect Razor, and I have been slowly increasing the intensity (it has only been three weeks, however I used a DIY Razor copy on my previous tank, so the color/intensity is very close). Can the lower light intensity be causing this?
Here are my symptoms:
Pineapple Sponges growing in a few places (moved from the old tank, I knocked the ones that I saw off, however I obviously did not get all of them).
Other sponges growing in zoa colonies - not smothering the colonies yet, however are noticeably there.
Brown Algae/TONS of bubbles on all live rock that the light hits, it is not under any of the ledges or back of the rock structure. The higher up on the rock structure you go, the worse it gets (I say worse/bad, but in reality it probably is not that bad).
Here are my current tank parameters:
Nitrite - 0 (API test kit)
Ammonia - 0 (API test kit)
Phosphate - Between 0 and.25, hard to tell with API test kit (API test kit)
Nitrate - between 0-5 (API test kit)
Calcium 440 (Red Sea test kit)
Alk - 11 (Red Sea test kit)
MG - 1330 (Red Sea test kit)
PH - 8.2-8.3 (measured with a freshly calibrated Reef Keeper and API test kit)
Temp - 77.7-78.0 (Measure two different ways, glass hang on, and Reef Keeper)
Sal - 1.025 (Measured with Refractometer)
RO/DI water (made in house, with a spectrapure unit producing 0 TDS)
My parameters seem to be where they should be, what am I missing? My feeding schedule is every other day, 1/8th of a cube of the frozen mysis (only feeding 2 Ocellaris clowns, cleaner shrimp, and once or twice a week I spot feed my corals).
I have good flow through the tank and corals/fish/inverts are thriving, it is just ugly to look at lol. The bubbles start on the rock, and as they get bigger they break from the rock rise to the surface, or pop before they reach the top and create several micro bubbles that get blown around by my MP10. I know algae creates Oxygen, so that is the reason for the bubbles, however what is causing the algae?
Last thing to mention is I am skimming, and my skimmer is possibly overkill for my system, but I had it and that's what I used. It is a ASM G2 Skimmer, the tank is 50 gallons with another roughly 30 gallons in the fuge/sump. Skimmer is working amazing and pulling out great skimmate.
Sorry for the long winded post... wanted to make sure I was as detailed as possible as I have been reading posts for a few hours and 99% of them the OP was not detailed enough and a problem/resolution was never found.
With the tank upgrade I have seen virtually no cycle, obviously a good thing, but I am getting a bunch of brown algae/bubbles everywhere that the light is hitting the rocks. Perhaps this happens often, it just is not as noticeable on cycled/cured live rock as it is on the bleach white dry rock?
I have a couple issues going on that all point me in the direction of to much nutrients, however some could be light settings and that is what I am trying to figure out. The light is a Maxspect Razor, and I have been slowly increasing the intensity (it has only been three weeks, however I used a DIY Razor copy on my previous tank, so the color/intensity is very close). Can the lower light intensity be causing this?
Here are my symptoms:
Pineapple Sponges growing in a few places (moved from the old tank, I knocked the ones that I saw off, however I obviously did not get all of them).
Other sponges growing in zoa colonies - not smothering the colonies yet, however are noticeably there.
Brown Algae/TONS of bubbles on all live rock that the light hits, it is not under any of the ledges or back of the rock structure. The higher up on the rock structure you go, the worse it gets (I say worse/bad, but in reality it probably is not that bad).
Here are my current tank parameters:
Nitrite - 0 (API test kit)
Ammonia - 0 (API test kit)
Phosphate - Between 0 and.25, hard to tell with API test kit (API test kit)
Nitrate - between 0-5 (API test kit)
Calcium 440 (Red Sea test kit)
Alk - 11 (Red Sea test kit)
MG - 1330 (Red Sea test kit)
PH - 8.2-8.3 (measured with a freshly calibrated Reef Keeper and API test kit)
Temp - 77.7-78.0 (Measure two different ways, glass hang on, and Reef Keeper)
Sal - 1.025 (Measured with Refractometer)
RO/DI water (made in house, with a spectrapure unit producing 0 TDS)
My parameters seem to be where they should be, what am I missing? My feeding schedule is every other day, 1/8th of a cube of the frozen mysis (only feeding 2 Ocellaris clowns, cleaner shrimp, and once or twice a week I spot feed my corals).
I have good flow through the tank and corals/fish/inverts are thriving, it is just ugly to look at lol. The bubbles start on the rock, and as they get bigger they break from the rock rise to the surface, or pop before they reach the top and create several micro bubbles that get blown around by my MP10. I know algae creates Oxygen, so that is the reason for the bubbles, however what is causing the algae?
Last thing to mention is I am skimming, and my skimmer is possibly overkill for my system, but I had it and that's what I used. It is a ASM G2 Skimmer, the tank is 50 gallons with another roughly 30 gallons in the fuge/sump. Skimmer is working amazing and pulling out great skimmate.
Sorry for the long winded post... wanted to make sure I was as detailed as possible as I have been reading posts for a few hours and 99% of them the OP was not detailed enough and a problem/resolution was never found.