Here is my 90 gal setup.

[Parrothead]

It has in my opinion taken over the tank.
The house is next I guess.
NO3 remains at 25, but today PO4 had a .5 reading instead of zero.
Where did that come from??
Doing a 20 % water change tomorrow.
This is making me crazy.

Thanks
Vin

Vin,

Did you use ro/di water at the intial set-up?????

[ChemGuy]

I did. I keep testing that as well it's always TDS=0.
I hate it when I don't know whats going on.

Thanks
Vin

[Parrothead]

do this, take a water sample to your lfs, have them check it for PO4, sometimes phosphate test kits are iffy at best, try that, let me know what you find out

[Parrothead]

Also what salt mix are you using???????

[ChemGuy]

LFS is a 40 min drive so I won't be doing that today.
Using Instant Ocean Salt.

[zhenya]

Vin,

I think there is nothing wrong with your water sourse or the salt mix, personally. I really suspect that your "live rock" is leaching the phosphates and who knows what else, hence fueling your hair algae outbreak.
The easiest thing to check for it is to remove a piece of your live rock into a freshly mixed water (aged preferably) and let that rock soak in it for a few hours or a day even. Then test the water for PO4, I'm sure you'll see some heavy reading. Test for NO3 as well to see if rock is leaching it back into the tank.
Unless something is broken in your nutrient export scheme I don't see why your PO4 and NO3 levels wouldn't fall to more manageable levels that could be corrected with water changes and/or some media to help in removal of it (ferric oxide and the likes).

[Parrothead]

His rock is supposed to be fuji prem, and totoka, from the website, I thought there was a ban on fuji rock, I know from what I've heard from charlie and cdearing that the totoka can take a bit to cycle in, but I don't recall either seeing anything like this, I hope he didn't get duped, as the price is really, really low on both types of rock...


Good Idea on the soak

[ChemGuy]

OK I'll give the soak the rock thing a shot and see how it turns out.
What if it is the rock ?? What then start over ??

Thanks
Vin

[Parrothead]

Lets not go there just yet, it could be a number of things,

soak the rock, check in the morning and let us know tomorrow

[ChemGuy]

Ok yesterday I took a piece of each type of rock, bagged it with some aged salt water.
Test today showed no PO4 and no NO3.
Main tank this morning had NO3 = 10 and PO4 less than .25
Both better than yesterday.
Scrubbing rocks and 20% water change tomorrow.
Stay tuned for the continuing saga.

Vin

[ChemGuy]

Here is a before and after pic of my tank after working most of the weekend on it.
Water test look good this morning.
[IMG]file:///C:/Users/Vin/Desktop/Salt%20Tank/DSC01383.JPG[/IMG]

[Parrothead]

Good Job on the scrubbing, that was a mess

Do me a favor and get me a close up shot of the fuji prem rock, I can see the totoka, I would like to see a close up of the fuji though.

Thanks Vin

[ChemGuy]

Here are two shots of the Fiji.
The second one has something dark brown growing out of the top.
I tried not to disturb it to much and left some green stuff .
I think it's a sponge but not sure.

Thanks
Vin

[Parrothead]

thanks, it's not what I was expecting, that's a good thing, we are gonna have to wait for Gene to jump in and see what he thinks, if the soak the rock thing showed no phosphate, it's gotta be something else. Be patient, we'll get if figured out

[ChemGuy]

Well the green algae is getting ahead of the cuc.
Water test show no NO3 or PO4.
The only thing I can think of is to increase the size of the cuc.

[Parrothead]

We need Zhenya back for this one

[ChemGuy]

Well the green algae is taking over the tank again. This mornings test are all fine no PO4 or NO3.
I assume the algae is consuming the Nitrate & Phosphate as soon as it's available and that's why they test at zero. So where is the algae food coming from?
Theory #1: It's coming from the live rock either the Fiji or the Tokra . But putting a piece in a bag with some fresh salt water showed nothing. Perhaps if I take a small piece of each type and boil it for a few min this will drive the Phosphate/Nitrate out???? What do you guys think???

Theory #2: I bought some really good live rock , however spending 5 days in a cold box due to shipping problems killed everything. So the phosphate/nitrate is coming from the dead stuff inside the rock.??
This weekend when I scrubbed all the rock I did notice a soft spot on one piece of rock. I pushed on it and discovered it was a hole that went right through the rock. It was filled with a truly disgusting pile of rotting junk. And there are lots of holes in the Fiji that I have no idea if anything is in there.

Tank has been up with rock and sand for about a month. Water tests have been good for about 3 weeks. Could I add a fish now? Not that I reall want to at this point but was thinking a Lawnmower Blenne (<== spelling?) could help with the algae.

I really need to figure out that the hell is going on with the algae. This is the most expensive ugly tank I have ever had. Twenty + years in freshwater never anything that I could not fix.
Thoughts??

Thanks
Vin

[Parrothead]

Vin,

Check this article out, I just got done reading it, it will help with the spread but we still need to find the problem.

Green Hair Algae can be conquered!

and if it's growing back that quickly, yes, the gha is probably eating all the phos and nitrate in the system.

[ChemGuy]

I already read that article and all others I could find.
What did you think about my 2 theories and the fish??
Vin

[Parrothead]

Vin,

If you had to make an educated guess, your there - I'm here, which rock seems to have the most hair algea growing on it?????????