great! try to get me a morning test, just before lights on. If it's significant enough to register on a color-comparison test, it's a sure sign you need better ion/bicarbonate support. We can also infer that to some degree from your alk tests and no-dosing/aged tank situation. I wanted to add that it is very possible to have high pH in the presence of low alk...alk just works to eliminate the shifts and swings in pH that can run high to low throughout the course of a photosynthetic cycle, which removes pH-lowering CO2 from the water, for example. With decent carbonate/alk support your pH will still fluctuate, but not nearly as much and not so much as to stress the system which is currently happening IMO. Consider this notion as well, as hard as it sounds:
start over.
Although not required for success, you can still turn this around with Time (and big patience/faith in the new approach) a new dosing schedule, and hard work with water changes... But, with the size of nanos we work with it's so much easier to perform basic screwdriver surgery and chip off the corals you like from the stressed rock, glue them to new surfaces, and use all new LR and sand that hasn't seeded with the cyano fragments or spores, and other forms of eutrophication-in-the-making... I know how it sounds, but now that we've identified the husbandry practices that made this breakdown occur you can bet 100% (barring any hardware failure) your new approach will work and you won't have this or any other algae issue. The #1 thing I hope to achieve in this is a clean system, and trust in the activities within the pico reef that make it 100% predictable. I think there may be other ways to run a pico, but now that I've found one that works, in any container, I tend to recommend it over any other experimental approaches.
To rehabilitate this current system will require work and patience, why not cheat and start over with something that won't require hard work to regain? I don't blame you for accepting the bio-challenge, however, if you choose to use this current setup. That can be fun in it's own right. Also, I am really only referring to new live rock and a handfull of sand, I'd just use a paper towel to wipe the brown off the glass walls (leaving the beneficial bacteria intact) and replace sand and rock, filter media too. Just a bio-restart, not a hard reboot
Dosing: If anyone finds easier ways to maintain the high-alk/high calcium readings we seek in SPS systems consistently in the pico reef, let us know what works. I only know this systme worked for me, in all sub-gallon setups. The dosing on C-Balance two-part additives is surely 1/2 capfull in the mornings before lights on, alternating days of the parts a and b...skip weekends. Its okay to skip a day or two every now and then, but alternate days w/ skipping weekends keeps the water pristine and will grow that sps twice as fast.
For another comparison, I'd go ahead and retest your sytem with the next water change (test the change water/log the results) and sit some extra change water out to the side in a capped container. Preferably, 1/2 gallon worth. At the end of the week, test the calcium and alk readings in the non-used test water and compare that to the test readings you get from your tank at the end of the week, that will get us an even closer earshot of the acid/alk demands of your system and we can dose even closer to the required amounts. If you don't have C-balance, the other poular solutions that say to add one capfull per 20 gallons are roughly the same equivalent (Iveused capfull of Seachem alk supplement/Ca+++ as well). Start low-using any is better than none, but test the water first when using these proportions as I've only worked with C-Balance in these small containers.
start over.
Although not required for success, you can still turn this around with Time (and big patience/faith in the new approach) a new dosing schedule, and hard work with water changes... But, with the size of nanos we work with it's so much easier to perform basic screwdriver surgery and chip off the corals you like from the stressed rock, glue them to new surfaces, and use all new LR and sand that hasn't seeded with the cyano fragments or spores, and other forms of eutrophication-in-the-making... I know how it sounds, but now that we've identified the husbandry practices that made this breakdown occur you can bet 100% (barring any hardware failure) your new approach will work and you won't have this or any other algae issue. The #1 thing I hope to achieve in this is a clean system, and trust in the activities within the pico reef that make it 100% predictable. I think there may be other ways to run a pico, but now that I've found one that works, in any container, I tend to recommend it over any other experimental approaches.
To rehabilitate this current system will require work and patience, why not cheat and start over with something that won't require hard work to regain? I don't blame you for accepting the bio-challenge, however, if you choose to use this current setup. That can be fun in it's own right. Also, I am really only referring to new live rock and a handfull of sand, I'd just use a paper towel to wipe the brown off the glass walls (leaving the beneficial bacteria intact) and replace sand and rock, filter media too. Just a bio-restart, not a hard reboot
Dosing: If anyone finds easier ways to maintain the high-alk/high calcium readings we seek in SPS systems consistently in the pico reef, let us know what works. I only know this systme worked for me, in all sub-gallon setups. The dosing on C-Balance two-part additives is surely 1/2 capfull in the mornings before lights on, alternating days of the parts a and b...skip weekends. Its okay to skip a day or two every now and then, but alternate days w/ skipping weekends keeps the water pristine and will grow that sps twice as fast.
For another comparison, I'd go ahead and retest your sytem with the next water change (test the change water/log the results) and sit some extra change water out to the side in a capped container. Preferably, 1/2 gallon worth. At the end of the week, test the calcium and alk readings in the non-used test water and compare that to the test readings you get from your tank at the end of the week, that will get us an even closer earshot of the acid/alk demands of your system and we can dose even closer to the required amounts. If you don't have C-balance, the other poular solutions that say to add one capfull per 20 gallons are roughly the same equivalent (Iveused capfull of Seachem alk supplement/Ca+++ as well). Start low-using any is better than none, but test the water first when using these proportions as I've only worked with C-Balance in these small containers.
