Good morning all, and Merry-Almost-Christmas Sorry for the length of what I'm writing - but trying to preemptively cover all the bases...
I feel like I'm starting over after a period of tank-neglect (all summer basically). I went all summer (March - October) without a water change ::. I know, I know. I started frequent (once-to-twice weekly) changes again a coupel of months ago, mostly because I was disgusted with how much algae had cropped up. It's the weirdest algae I've ever seen - it's very dense and forms mats - even going from rock to rock (almost like bridges). There's bubble algae in there as well - and I'd suspect there's also just standard old hair-algae.
I sucked it up and tested everything yesterday: 90 gal tank, about 175 pounds of LR, pH 8.2, dKH 8, nitrate, phosphate both 0, Ca 420, temp between 79 and 81. t5 (8x54w) on about 10 hours a day.
I'm in there with a toothbrush and trying to get as much as I can each time i do a water change, but it's not a winning battle as of yet.
Finally, the question to you experts out there: Should I consider adding to my minimal clean up crew now? Or should I keep plugging away with very-frequent water changes and toothbrushing and see if that helps? I was afraid to even test for fear of what I'd find in the levels - and I was surprised everything came out pretty good. Since the levels seem ok, should I get some algae-eaters?
I feel like I'm starting over after a period of tank-neglect (all summer basically). I went all summer (March - October) without a water change ::. I know, I know. I started frequent (once-to-twice weekly) changes again a coupel of months ago, mostly because I was disgusted with how much algae had cropped up. It's the weirdest algae I've ever seen - it's very dense and forms mats - even going from rock to rock (almost like bridges). There's bubble algae in there as well - and I'd suspect there's also just standard old hair-algae.
I sucked it up and tested everything yesterday: 90 gal tank, about 175 pounds of LR, pH 8.2, dKH 8, nitrate, phosphate both 0, Ca 420, temp between 79 and 81. t5 (8x54w) on about 10 hours a day.
I'm in there with a toothbrush and trying to get as much as I can each time i do a water change, but it's not a winning battle as of yet.
Finally, the question to you experts out there: Should I consider adding to my minimal clean up crew now? Or should I keep plugging away with very-frequent water changes and toothbrushing and see if that helps? I was afraid to even test for fear of what I'd find in the levels - and I was surprised everything came out pretty good. Since the levels seem ok, should I get some algae-eaters?
