Yea!
Figured as I would start my own. I am about ready to pull my last hair on my head out over this, so help would be greatly appreciated.
First, what I know (from liquid kits or other more specific tests):
pH: 7.8
KH: ~250
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
sg: ~1.26 (refractometer)
Other good stuff:
tank size: 75g
lighting schedule: 1 hour of blue/moon, 10 hours of blue/white, two hours of blue, 11 hours of darkness.
circulation: 2 aqueon 500's
Sump: yes (return at 750-1000 gph; can't determine exact model, but know this is the range)
live rock: 20 pounds in the sump, 70 pounds in the tank.
Clean-up crew: what reef cleaners recommended; I've got 120+ snails of various sorts.
Temperature: 78C
Critters: mushrooms corals, one damsel, one clown, 120+ snails
water: ro/di still testing by tds, which reads 0. Yes; I've calibrated the TDS. Initial fill and top offs by same ro/di.
Salt: Instant Ocean
I've got nice bright white sand that I can't see. I can't see it because it's covered with cyano. Literally. Every square inch.
Would now be a good time to point out I am obsessive compulsive this this compeltely sends me over the edge? :frustrat:
Blackouts and repositioning the circulation pumps won't do a darn thing to this. I've done three blackouts of 3-4 days each over the past two months. Nothing. Still there, maybe got a 50% kill the first time I did it at best, less every time there after. I've had this for about 3 months and can't make a dent in it. About 30% water changes after every time I did a blackout.
My first step was reef cleaners to get a proper cleanup crew. That was a month ago. No blackouts since as it stopped working. I've been cleaning out by hand and performing ~30% water changes. No improvement in the cyano,
My next step was to setup a phosban reactor. That was two weeks ago. No improvment in the algae.
So here I sit. Those of you that remember, will know I hate my skimmer. I think it's complete bullox.
As far as I am aware, this type of algae feeds off nitrates/phosphates/flow. I've fixed the phosphates, and flow should not be the issue.
That leaves the nitrates and the skimmer. I don/t trust the nitrate or phosphate tests due to the algae problems. I'm being given false excellent readings here and I know it.
My skimmer won't even produce a cup of skimmate every month; and that is when I did blackouts and had massive algae kills as a result of it.
I ma getting a little nervous at continually throwing money at this trying to find the root cause and continually failing. At this point, I want to say it's the skimmer, but I really want to make sure before I throw a few hundred more at the problem.
Due to size problems with my sump, I am looking at a Reef Octopus hb2000. I would really like an in sump, but this sump is a custom build and I can't find anything that will fit.
Thoughts, ideas suggestions?
Thanks in advance!
Figured as I would start my own. I am about ready to pull my last hair on my head out over this, so help would be greatly appreciated.
First, what I know (from liquid kits or other more specific tests):
pH: 7.8
KH: ~250
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
sg: ~1.26 (refractometer)
Other good stuff:
tank size: 75g
lighting schedule: 1 hour of blue/moon, 10 hours of blue/white, two hours of blue, 11 hours of darkness.
circulation: 2 aqueon 500's
Sump: yes (return at 750-1000 gph; can't determine exact model, but know this is the range)
live rock: 20 pounds in the sump, 70 pounds in the tank.
Clean-up crew: what reef cleaners recommended; I've got 120+ snails of various sorts.
Temperature: 78C
Critters: mushrooms corals, one damsel, one clown, 120+ snails
water: ro/di still testing by tds, which reads 0. Yes; I've calibrated the TDS. Initial fill and top offs by same ro/di.
Salt: Instant Ocean
I've got nice bright white sand that I can't see. I can't see it because it's covered with cyano. Literally. Every square inch.
Would now be a good time to point out I am obsessive compulsive this this compeltely sends me over the edge? :frustrat:
Blackouts and repositioning the circulation pumps won't do a darn thing to this. I've done three blackouts of 3-4 days each over the past two months. Nothing. Still there, maybe got a 50% kill the first time I did it at best, less every time there after. I've had this for about 3 months and can't make a dent in it. About 30% water changes after every time I did a blackout.
My first step was reef cleaners to get a proper cleanup crew. That was a month ago. No blackouts since as it stopped working. I've been cleaning out by hand and performing ~30% water changes. No improvement in the cyano,
My next step was to setup a phosban reactor. That was two weeks ago. No improvment in the algae.
So here I sit. Those of you that remember, will know I hate my skimmer. I think it's complete bullox.
As far as I am aware, this type of algae feeds off nitrates/phosphates/flow. I've fixed the phosphates, and flow should not be the issue.
That leaves the nitrates and the skimmer. I don/t trust the nitrate or phosphate tests due to the algae problems. I'm being given false excellent readings here and I know it.
My skimmer won't even produce a cup of skimmate every month; and that is when I did blackouts and had massive algae kills as a result of it.
I ma getting a little nervous at continually throwing money at this trying to find the root cause and continually failing. At this point, I want to say it's the skimmer, but I really want to make sure before I throw a few hundred more at the problem.
Due to size problems with my sump, I am looking at a Reef Octopus hb2000. I would really like an in sump, but this sump is a custom build and I can't find anything that will fit.
Thoughts, ideas suggestions?
Thanks in advance!