My humble algae filled 4ft reef tank.

[sankar27]

Hiyo people!

I am in this hobby for more than 1 year, have always been a silent viewer to learn from the rest of the peeps here. 

I have a 4X 2 X 2 ft. 

I have rescaped my tank on some time end of Jan 2017 and basically went through a mini cycle so im now facing the algae issue again.

With my new scape, i think it might be a good time to start logging my activities and progress of my tank while trying to combat the algae issue. 

Well, here we go.

[sankar27]

Equipment list:

1. Tank: 4 feet long 2 feet wide and 2 feet tall 3-sided 12mm glass. 

2. Sump: 3 feet long 1.5 feet wide and 1 feet 8mm glass

3. Lights: 2 units of Radion XR30w pro LEDs.                              2 units of Hydra 52 HD LEDs. 

4.Skimmer: Deltec SC1455 

5. Return pump: Jebao 12k

6. Wavemaker:

Maxspect Gyre XF150 x1, Maxspect Gyre XF130 x1,Jebao RW 8 x 1

8. Dosing pump : Jebao DP-4 dosing pump.

9. Media: 3 marine pure blocks, 3 boxes of marine pure sphere. 

10. Scape: >50kg of live rocks. Threw away appx +/- 50 kg when i rescaped. 
 

[Jairus]

nice bro, is that coralline algae on the back of ur tank?

[sankar27]

Yes, unfortunately my tank is against the wall, so I'm not able to scrap away corolite.

[sankar27]

Just sharing my ssc before a kh swing in my tank , it was a pretty bitch until recently before i rescape, my tank went through a kh swing where kh dropped as low as 4.5 dkh.

Now its a pale strawberry with stn from the base. It's recovering really slowly at the moment. *Fingers crossed* Learnt it the hard way to do weekly testing. Guys, will it ever heal to like before ?  

[Bunster]

Nice scape... pity about the ssc... that sure looked pretty

[Beagle1]

wow... I admired your bravery. I'm also a silent viewer. I have a 3ft tank but keep mainly fishes and abit of Yuma. My tank looks pale in comparison with yours. However I like to do rescaping to my tank and have started preparation for that. But still I'm worried I might kill my live stock. Any advise?

[sankar27]

3 hours ago, Bunster said:

Nice scape... pity about the ssc... that sure looked pretty

Thanks for the compliments!

[sankar27]

2 hours ago, Beagle1 said:

wow... I admired your bravery. I'm also a silent viewer. I have a 3ft tank but keep mainly fishes and abit of Yuma. My tank looks pale in comparison with yours. However I like to do rescaping to my tank and have started preparation for that. But still I'm worried I might kill my live stock. Any advise?

Fortunately this time round I had no corals that died on me, only lost of colours. My rocks were out of water for around 2 hours. That probably was one of the factors why my tank went through another cycle. I did a larger then usual water change(almost 3 times as much) and complemented it with half a bottle of fritz live bacteria. 

[sankar27]

Not to forget, it's better to Google ideas of how you want your scape to be first.  I did mine last minute without planning, and got very lost about 10 mins into rescaping.  I was lucky my girlfriend helped me out and saved the day! Otherwise I believe it would have been longer then just 2 hours!

[alun2211]

Kudos to the gf. Lol

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[sankar27]

48 minutes ago, alun2211 said:

Kudos to the gf. Lol

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Got to agree with you. Credit should be given to her!

[Beagle1]

1 hour ago, sankar27 said:

Not to forget, it's better to Google ideas of how you want your scape to be first.  I did mine last minute without planning, and got very lost about 10 mins into rescaping.  I was lucky my girlfriend helped me out and saved the day! Otherwise I believe it would have been longer then just 2 hours!

thks for the advise...

[kenyee]

If possible rescape without removing the rocks from the water..my FOWLR tank had rescaped dunnoe how many times le n no such thing like mini cycle.. Heez..anyway, nice suggestion to plan ur scape roughly taking into considersation ur rocks pattern..google really got a lot of nice scape..cheers n happy reefing

[sankar27]

17 minutes ago, kenyee said:

If possible rescape without removing the rocks from the water..my FOWLR tank had rescaped dunnoe how many times le n no such thing like mini cycle.. Heez..anyway, nice suggestion to plan ur scape roughly taking into considersation ur rocks pattern..google really got a lot of nice scape..cheers n happy reefing

Too much cleaning up around the house after rescaping.  Will probably not rescape anytime soon. Next rescape will be done when I upgrade!

[sankar27]

Just test my parameters and results as below

Mag: 1350

Cal : 420

KH : 7.0

PO4 : 0.025 

How do i lower my PO4? 

[Admiraltian]

U can run a fr with gfo media like rowaphos to absorb phosphate from ur tank. Btw ur po4 reading is ok, dun hv to lower any further. What are u using to read po4?


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[sankar27]

1 minute ago, Admiraltian said:

U can run a fr with gfo media like rowaphos to absorb phosphate from ur tank. Btw ur po4 reading is ok, dun hv to lower any further. What are u using to read po4?


Sent from Singapore Reef Club mobile app

I'm alr running a fr with rowa phos.  But my po4 readings are not stable, sometimes higher, sometimes lower. Using a hanna checker to check. Is it because my no3 readings are undetectable?

[JasonLim]

What is your red LED setting?


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[sankar27]

2 minutes ago, JasonLim said:

What is your red LED setting?


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24 on the radions and hydras.

[JasonLim]

Reduce to below 10% for red leds.


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[sankar27]

1 minute ago, JasonLim said:

Reduce to below 10% for red leds.


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I'm using the preset ab+ and didn't change anything and copied the exact same thing into my hydra settings. Reducing the reds is for algae growth or po4?

[JasonLim]

Reduce red is for algae growth. Try to reduce white below 40% too.


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[sankar27]

1 minute ago, JasonLim said:

Reduce red is for algae growth. Try to reduce white below 40% too.


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Will try it out. Thanks!

[JasonLim]

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