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Anonymous

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How long can a clam, a few SPS frags, wesophelia and frogspawn live in a bucket with no strong light and no LR? Just a powerhead and heater.

If I can find the cash, I am thinking of getting all new LR and starting over again but dont want to lose the animals.
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Mouse

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are sand sifting stars really that predatory with all life in sandbeds??
i have just added two to my 75 gallon corner tank to help with dead spots in the sand.

Yep theyll certainly help proliferate the dead spots in your sand, and then theyll die themselfs.
 
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Maybe I should just sell everything and get out of this hobby. This is becoming a bakc hole of my money and time with no result.
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Carpentersreef

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This hobby is definitely one that requires patience.
One month from removing a suspected problem is not very long. It can take many months for a problem to go away, once you've identified it.
It's been pointed out to here you a possible source of your problem, but I'm not sure why you didn't respond to it.
You don't need to buy a phosphate reactor, just an absorbing media of some kind. I've never used any, so I can't recommend one.

Live rock is porous, so it makes sense that it can absorb stuff. The parts of the live rock that were previously buried under the sand didn't have water flowing past it, so phosphate could have concentrated in the live rock in those areas. The same could be said for areas of the live rock that had detritus accumulating in it's crevices, where there was little or no water circulating past it. Phosphate could have built up in those areas too.

Bacteria also lives within live rock, just like in a DSB, only the anaerobic zone is much closer to the surface than in a DSB. As the bacteria reproduces, it will actually push out particulate matter which needs to be blown away with water current.
That's also the principal behind the action of "bacterial turgor", someone correct me if I'm wrong.
In a DSB, on the bottom of live rock that is buried in sand and on live rock that has detritus accumulating on it, there is no water washing away the particulate matter, so the concentration of stuff like phosphate will only increase. The concentration will build up to a point where it can't absorb any more, so it will start leaching it out into the water faster than it can be taken away.
That's when the algae starts.

The bacterial turgor will clean the live rock, but it takes time.

In a perfect set-up, you would have a piece of live rock suspended from a string in the middle of a tank with a few powerheads pointed at it.:lol:
(which isn't too far from some of the "starboard bottom" setups I've seen!:wink:)

Sure, you can sell your live rock and buy new stuff, but the same thing will happen if you don't have sufficient water circulation and a means of nutrient/phosphate export.

Mitch
 

liquid

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How big of a tank are we talking about here anyhow? Salt and RO/DI water are cheaper than buying a lot of equipment.

Shane
 
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Anonymous

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Tank is a 58.

In the tank there is tons of flow.

Mag 9 on the return.
Blueline 40HD on the closed loop with a SCWD.
2 Maxijet 1200's on the bottom of the tank.
1 Seio 860 blowin fro mthe back through the LR and at angle.

Maybe I need 4 more maxi jets?

I agree that the LR can be loaded up with the Phosphate and etc.

The alsae has covered all the LR again in a month which means to me the LR is totally saturated with phosphate. This week alone it has spread across a whole piece of LR. The hair algae even has grown in the very high current areas on the undersides of the LR.

I understand that things cant be fixed in one day but it is really frustrating to do all this work and spend more and more money on equipment and etc and see NO progress.

If I wanted a green forest to look at I probably could have made a terrarium for allot less money.

I have not purchased a coral or fish in over 8 months. What is the purpose of having a reef tank with no reef?

This tank has really taken allot out of me.
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If anyone lived in the NY Tti-State area that is willing to come over and look over this tank and let me know what I am doing wrong it would be greatly appreciated.
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So more of the green forest for months to come.

What would hapen if I stopped trying to fight the hair algae, would it eventually die off or will it be an never ending cycle?

I dont want ot remove the LR and scrub it monthly.
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Carpentersreef

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Treat it like a refugium with macro algae, and keep pulling out hair algae as it grows.
Keep your skimmer going.
Use a powerhead often to get in all the corners and rockwork, over and above what your normal water circulation is.
If you just let it grow longer and longer, you'll start to get some pretty severe PH swings at night from photosynthesis, which wouldn't be good for your corals.

Mitch
 

liquid

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FWIW, it might be worthwhile to add a refugium/algae filter where you can grow macroalgae. The macroalgae will compete for the nutrients and if you keep on top of pulling out the hair algae, it might just starve it out.

Shane
 
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Would a 100% water change help?

Would weekly water changes help? bi-weekly? smaller or larger changes?

Would no lights for a week help?

Would adding 100 more astreas or other type of snails help? (Probably not sice all the astreas I have in the tank now just stay on the glass and the bottom)

Would lettuce nudibranch's help controll the algae?

I dont think there is a fish that would help keep the algae down until the PO4 is gone.
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liquid

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The following would help:

* large waterchanges on the order of 50% every 1-2 weeks. I'd probably do 2 weeks so as not to overly stress the coral you have in there.

* no lights for a week might help you get on top of it

* dunno on the nudi...

* not sure snails will be any added help as they're not munching on what you want to get rid of.

Shane
 

liquid

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Rob_Reef_Keeper":3jww9gd6 said:
If there is a way to get a refugium. How can I make it so no light comes out of it at night?

Put black contact paper all the way around all the glass. No light will come out then. :)

Shane
 

Carpentersreef

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Weekly water changes would be good.
No lights would slow or stop the growth of hair algae, but would harm the corals.
Snails would help, but they will just recycle the phosphate eventually.
Lettuce nudibranchs don't like high flow water, which is what you need.
You can wrap the refugium in anything like tin foil or black construction paper,....shroud in the light fixture, plumb it on the other side of the cabinet...

Mitch
 
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Anonymous

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How big of a refugium is needed?

I itred to make a refugium out of a 10 gallon green rubbermaid with a 65 LOA light about a year ago. I didn't like the heat factor of that light on the rubbermaid do I ditched the idea. The black constuction papper on the tank would work but will need to get a real refugium and light.

Who sells refugiums?

Who sells macros cheap?

I will not be able to run the lights 24/7 due to the fact that I do not have enough electricity in the singe circuit that is runing the tank and the livingroom TV/Stereo/lights etc.
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