Barrett's Aquareef 300 Series 2

[BK_120]

Looks like Photobucket finally caught me. Time to move all my photos somewhere else.

[BK_120]

Tank and chiller have been running fine for weeks. Go away for 3 days over Christmas and come back to find the chiller had decided to leak at the outlet valve. Dumped about 60 l of water over the floor until the sump level dropped below the pump intakes. Nothing in the tank was looking happy but a quick refill and getting the circulation going again has everything looking happy again. Only lost a starfish so got lucky with that one.

[BK_120]

So I am having a massive problem with a green hair algae of some form. I have been dosing the tank with Red Sea Algae Management (which I believe is basically carbon dosing) for 4 weeks now as per the directions supplied and it is not really having any impact on the algae growth. It must be some form on nutrient imbalance but at this point the algae is using everything up and testing is coming back at nominal levels for phosphate and nitrates. I am rapidly getting to the point of shutting the tank down due to the issue.

Can anyone give me some suggestions that might help?

[Autonomy]

Hang in there mate, at one time or another we've all gone through the wars when it comes to getting on top of the algae issues. The last time I had to deal with an ongoing green hair algae issue, it took me about 8months before I finally managed to get on top of it.

Excerpt from ‘Algae – A Problem Solver Guide by Julian Sprung.’

The ‘greens’ are the most diverse grouping of algae, with more than 7000 species.

“Common Name: Green Hair Algae, GHA. (Scientific: Derbesia)

Description: Dark green extremely fine filaments, loosely attached under low velocity water movement, tightly adhering under strong water flow.

Desirable/undesirable features: Good substrate for amphipods, copepods, worms and other foods for mandarin fishes.

Controls: Maintain Alkalinity above 8 dKH, use phosphate export via protein skimming, algae filters, or phosphate adsorbing media. Use toothbrush to remove small patches. Herbivores.

Herbivores: Hermit crabs, Amphipods, Surgeonfish, Rabbitfish, Angelfish, Diadema Urchin, Tuxedo Urchin, Astraea Snail, Trochus Snail, Turbo Snail, Limpets, Elysia spp. sea slugs”.

[BK_120]

Well an update on this. The tank started to crash so the algae was a symptom. Had a second tank lying around into which I managed to get all my fish. I've now stripped the main tank, given it a major clean and am starting the setup cycle again with new base rock and sand. Going to upgrade the skimmer, as I am fairly sure the stock unit was not doing a good job.

[Autonomy]

That is definitely not good news, tank crashes are never a fun thing to deal with.
Following along, so good luck with it all and keep us all posted.

[BK_120]

So its been cleaned and scrubbed. New sand has gone in along with the part of the fully cleaned base rock. Its been filled with water and I am waiting for it to cycle. I replaced the stock skimmer with a Aqua Excel which is doing a much better job. I have added a big block of marine pure into the sump instead of the coral rubble I had there before, that should make that section of tank easier to keep nice and clean. Now just to sit back and wait for it to cycle.

[BK_120]

Its finally finished cycling. I've done a partial water change and will give it another week before I move the fish back in. I have set aside an area of the sump for some macro algae so hopefully that will suck out any excess nutrients which are in the system. I am getting a higher phosphate reading (0.12ppm) than I would like so will need to work on fixing that. Its coming in with my NSW so not a lot I can do about it, hopefully the algae in the sump will suck it out.