Need advice

I was going to the LFS tonight and buy some coral (I am starting over since a huge outbreak of GHA).

I still have some GHA lingering. my turbo snail is working on the back wall and it is almost gone. (I wish I could program him like the robot vacuums).

My husband says to wait until it is ALL gone. There is some still on the rocks that the crabs are working on.

I replaced my lights in Jan, cleaned out my pump for better flow, cleaned my powerhead (which I am going to do again tonight). My parameters are:

Amonia:0
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 1 ppm (down from amlost 2)
Salinity: 1.25 (refractometer)
PH 8.2
magnesium: 1325
temp: 79
I am getting a calcium test tonght.

I pulled all my rocks forward so my snail could get to every inch of the wall. I will be rescaping later.

Here is a full tank shot, you can see some on the wall, and on the rocks.

 

If it was my tank I would wait till it was straightened out to add any coral.

Get a KH/dkh test kit as well as a Calcium test kit. If you want to keep corals you'll need to know the Alkalinity as well as the Calcium.

 

+1 on above

Your husband has given you some sound advice IMO

I am not saying that corals would not be OK to add
but with no corals in there, should the CUC not keep up with the GHA and you then have to result to removal and cleaning again
having no coral in there, will make that task so much easier

are your running any GFO - phosphate removing resin as this can help control the nutrients reaching the algae , coupled with the work of the CUC may help to defeat the algae

Steve

 

:-X

My magnisium test also tests for Alkalinity. My daycare kids came early so I had to stop testing and didn't get the Alk test done.

I have a bag of Purigen in my tank (I will buy a new one tonight), but I don't know what GFO is.

 

Granular Ferric Oxide

 

Sadie

GFO is Granular Ferric Oxide or rust LOL

It absorbs phosphates , which are one of the primary fuels of algaes, along with Nitrates

Purigen - I use that and it is capable of dealing with low levels of nitrates and is a great product IMO

google Rowaphos, Phosban etc as these are brands of GFO
BRS also have a cheaper and effective bulk buy option which saves money
but in a small volume set up, probably not that cost effective

Steve

 

Soooo, say at nap time, when the kids are sleeping. If I scrape off that little bit on the back wall, and vacuum it as I go, pull out the few rocks and manually remove it, I should still wait at least a week to see if any more grows, right?:-/

Aww, I hate it when my husbands right!! (and he's always right)

Well, I guess I can still get the test kit I need, I'm gonna look up the GFO names Steve mentioned, maybe they will have it at the LFS and I can get that going and by next week, I can buy some coral.

I guess that would give me a chance to get a pic of the acan I was looking to buy and post it on my other thread too.

Thanks guys for the advice.