zkilloy
Non-member
Hi Guys,
I have a heavily stocked 120g with 8 bulb T5HO, 40B sump with 1/3 rubble zone 1/3 refugium zone and 1/3 skimmer return pump area, running this setup since 2014. Mostly soft coral and easy LPS in the display with a lot of fish. I dose kalk with a DIY reactor and it can keep up with my coral load, thats it for the main setup.
When I first set up the tank in 2014 I was transferring from a 40 gallon setup, I added all the old water and rock and some sand, along with over 90 gollons new water and an additional 100lbs or so of new previously dry reef rock.
For the first year the tank looked great, and I was harvesting about 1 gallon volume of chaeto (half of the total volume) every week for nutrient export. after that I started to get some Cyano, then some more and more.. also saw a huge decline in green algae, no macro algae in the display at all, and the chaeto in the sump was growing very slowly, at the same time more red cyano on the sandbed and rocks, and green film algae would form on the glass after only two days. I saw a decline in how fast my soft coral was growing too. The hammers and other LPS seemed unaffected and were still growing like weeds but they also eat a bunch of fish food every day.
After about 4 months and no intervention, the Cyano seemed to reach an equillibrium, but it stayed on the rocks and sandbed, I pretty much left everything as is until about 2 months ago, for about 2 years the Cyano was getting no better or worse, and there was still no green algae growth. After reading about iron dosing on BRS and R********L I figured that may be what my tank is missing, there may be an iron deficiency.
I started dosing iron using dissolved fergon tablets like Randy recommended. Within the first week, the cyano growth completely stopped, the display glass stayed clean, and my chaeto growth increased significantly. Ive been dosing ever since, now im starting to get some green algae growth on my rocks and may cut back the dosage, but no cyano whatsoever, and iron dosing was the only change I made. Hopefully I can use this at the right dose to keep both nuisance algae and cyanobacteria in check.
Im dosing 5ml of iron solution (solution is one 27mg fergon tablet dissolved in 100ml of DI water) once per week right now.
I have a heavily stocked 120g with 8 bulb T5HO, 40B sump with 1/3 rubble zone 1/3 refugium zone and 1/3 skimmer return pump area, running this setup since 2014. Mostly soft coral and easy LPS in the display with a lot of fish. I dose kalk with a DIY reactor and it can keep up with my coral load, thats it for the main setup.
When I first set up the tank in 2014 I was transferring from a 40 gallon setup, I added all the old water and rock and some sand, along with over 90 gollons new water and an additional 100lbs or so of new previously dry reef rock.
For the first year the tank looked great, and I was harvesting about 1 gallon volume of chaeto (half of the total volume) every week for nutrient export. after that I started to get some Cyano, then some more and more.. also saw a huge decline in green algae, no macro algae in the display at all, and the chaeto in the sump was growing very slowly, at the same time more red cyano on the sandbed and rocks, and green film algae would form on the glass after only two days. I saw a decline in how fast my soft coral was growing too. The hammers and other LPS seemed unaffected and were still growing like weeds but they also eat a bunch of fish food every day.
After about 4 months and no intervention, the Cyano seemed to reach an equillibrium, but it stayed on the rocks and sandbed, I pretty much left everything as is until about 2 months ago, for about 2 years the Cyano was getting no better or worse, and there was still no green algae growth. After reading about iron dosing on BRS and R********L I figured that may be what my tank is missing, there may be an iron deficiency.
I started dosing iron using dissolved fergon tablets like Randy recommended. Within the first week, the cyano growth completely stopped, the display glass stayed clean, and my chaeto growth increased significantly. Ive been dosing ever since, now im starting to get some green algae growth on my rocks and may cut back the dosage, but no cyano whatsoever, and iron dosing was the only change I made. Hopefully I can use this at the right dose to keep both nuisance algae and cyanobacteria in check.
Im dosing 5ml of iron solution (solution is one 27mg fergon tablet dissolved in 100ml of DI water) once per week right now.
