Our Red Sea Max 250 is now 2 years old

So we’ve had the tank up and running for 2 years now. It seems like we’ve been through everything from Hair Algae, Cyanobacteria, things dying, things killing other things and the list goes on. To say we’ve learned a lot would be quite the understatement. We went into this not knowing a thing about saltwater aquariums and although we’ve learned so much, we still have so much to learn.

I was looking at our corals the other day and started wondering why we have not seen as much growth as I would expect. One thing Mellina brought to my attention was that we tend to buy frags so they start small and we are experiencing growth, but since they started so small, it is hard to see. The other thing (and this is completely my fault) is we have super low calcium in the tank. After battling hair algae and other problems over the last 6 months, once those were eradicated, I just left the tank do its thing. I still do the expected water changes and cleanings but other than that I was pretty much hands off. So I checked the calcium level last week and it was 220 PPM, way below the proper level of 420 PPM. So, I ordered the Recipe 1 solution from Bulk Reef Supply and started dosing to bring up the Calcium. Right now we are at 400 PPM so much better shape. I’ll keep testing over the next few weeks so I can determine the proper amount to dose weekly and start doing just that.

View my photos here: Flickr

Our newest additions

The only thing in the tank for the last 4 or 5 months have been a Yellow Watchman Goby and the cleanup crew. It has been pretty boring and not fun to look at. So the other day we rewarded ourselves with a bubble tip anemone and a new clownfish. Within hours of being in the tank the clown hosted the anemone and we couldn’t be happier!!

Victory is at hand!

After all the trials and tribulations, and losing some of the battles it seems like we have finally won the war. Our hair algae problem seems to have been resolved. It has taken months but we feel we have won!!

So, what did it? Tough to put my finger on any single action but here is my guess:

1. Weekly water changes of about 20 percent.

2. The addition of a GFO reactor with media changes every 6 weeks.

3. Addition of a large cleanup crew (75 – blue legged hermits, 6 – mexican turbo snails, 6 – turbo snails, 3 – emerald crabs).

4. People told us not to do this last one but I feel it helped. We put a fine filter floss at the entrance to the sump and then used a toothbrush to scrub off the long pieces of hair algae. At the same time we swept a net through the tank to scoop up the longs pieces. After an hour or so we removed the filter floss and cleaned it. We did this every 3 days or so for a couple of weeks. It seemed to get the algae down to a manageable level for the CUC to maintain.

There a still a couple of very small patches in the back but I think they will be gone shortly. Considering we were about to tear the tank down and start over, we feel elated about its current condition.

I will say this, it took time, patience and effort to fix the problem. As they say, bad things can happen overnight in a saltwater tank but it can take a long time to correct those same issues, patience is key.

Hope

After everything we’ve done to the tank and being on the verge of giving up, there might be a light at the end of the tunnel. Over the past few weeks, we’ve seen a vast reduction in the amount of hair algae in the tank. About a month ago I was ready to give up and tear the tank down to start over again around Christmas time. Last week Mellina asked if she could scrub some more of the hair algae out of the tank since she hated looking at it. So, just like before, I put some fiber material at the entrance to each pump and gave her a toothbrush to start the task. She scrubbed and I used a net to catch the larger floating particles, the rest got caught in the fiber material. So we looked at the tank last night and amazingly, there seems to be very little hair algae remaining. It seems (and I hold my breath when saying this) that over the last few months, all of the things we tried are finally paying off. Our fingers are crossed but we are somewhat optimistic that we have the problem cured.

Hey world, any ideas?

I’m at my wits end trying to get rid of the hair algae in our tank. I’m going to ask if anyone has any ideas on what to do to help. Here are the things I’ve done:

1. Carbon reactor with Rox carbon.

2. GFO reactor changed every 6 weeks.

3. Installed new lights two months ago.

4. Removed filter sock from sump.

5. Removed bubble trap from sump.

6. Weekly water changes of 15%.

7. Added 10 Mexican Turbo snails.

8. Added 50 Blue Legged Hermit Crabs

9. Added a sea hare.

10. Pick it down as much as possible.

So does anyone have any other ideas?

Still battling

Well, we are still battling the hair algae problem. I’ve done three things very recently that hopefully will aid us in eradicating the hair algae. The first is removing the filter sock from water ingress into the sump. I had been changing the sock weekly but realized the sock is a nitrate trap and hence removed it. I also slowed down the flow through the Bulk Reef Supply reactor in the hopes that having the water spend more time in contact with the GFO will help with the problem. Lastly, I added a bunch of blue legged hermit crabs to help eat away at the problem. Mellina and I looked last night and we are hopefully optimistic that we are making progress. 

We don’t want to tear the tank down and start again, that would be miserable so we are trying everything possible to get control of the situation.

Scrub a dub

The sea hares seemed to be a tad overwhelmed by the all the algae so we took more drastic measures. During our last water change, we filled two buckets with a couple of gallons of water from the tank. Then we started the arduous task of pulling each piece of rock out and scrubbing the algae off of it. Then it was rinsed in the other bucket and set aside. We did this until we had cleaned all the rock and then started re-rockscaping. Mellina did an absolutely wonderful job of redoing the rocks. The setup is better than we’ve ever had with this tank. The algae has definitely receded but we’re really hoping that now the sea hares can eradicate the remaining algae and we can have our beautiful tank back.

Changing the reactor

I have been using a Magnivore Simplicity UV Reactor for activated carbon since the start of the tank. The only problem with it is that it’s completely sealed so you have no idea if you have flow or not. When the pump that runs this reactor stopped working, I had no idea for a couple of weeks and this lead to the hair algae outbreak.

I’ve had the ViaAqua Poly-Reactor sitting in my garage for a long time, so last night I broke it out. Set up is simple and now it’s installed in my sump. The nice thing about it is you can see the water output from the reactor. This gives me that warm fuzzy that water is flowing through the carbon. I like this setup much better.  I really wish I could fit another  Bulk Reef Supply reactor, but I’m out of room!

Making progress

Still fighting the hair algae problem and happened to be in Trident yesterday where I picked up two Sea Hares from Trident Pets and one beautiful Kole Tang. Hopefully the sea hares will chow down the hair algae and we can have our beautiful tank back again. They are well known to have voracious appetites and their main diet is algae. Fingers crossed. The sea hare is not the cutest creature you can put in a tank, but if they do the job…

The Kole tang is another algae eater. He’s a beautiful fish and he will hopefully also help eradicate the problem.

Hating life…

We have been fighting a hair algae problem for a couple of months now. Nothing is worse than looking at your investment and seeing much of it covered in flowing green hair algae. Now, don’t get me wrong, this is entirely my fault. I didn’t realize a pump had stopped working that was running a CPE reactor. So while I was feeding Rod’s Food (a very high nutrient food), we basically had no filtration at all. This went on for a couple of weeks until I realized the pump had stopped and replaced it.

Well once the hair algae starts, it’s very difficult to control, much less get rid of. I’m doing weekly water changes, pulling out the hair algae almost daily, I’ve added ROX carbon to my one reactor and also installed a Bulk Reef Supply reactor filled with GFO to further reduce nutrients. I’m also only feeding about twice a week and only feeding pellet food.

Yesterday I added six Mexican Turbo Snails and am constantly moving them onto algae patches. We really haven’t seen any progress but hopefully we will begin to see a reduction soon. We have our fingers crossed.