OK, I screwed up. Now what do I do?

[allendavant]

Alright, I was an idiot and didn't do a water change in 2 months. Now I have an algae outbreak. It's a 29 gallon biocube with a sump. It's an SPS only tank. I just did a 5 gallon water change with RO/DI. I'm going to try to do a water change every day for the next couple of weeks. Is that too much? Should I go with every other day? I also changed out my GFO which was also two months old! I'm also thinking about stopping soaking the food in garlic for a while since I've read it's high in Phosphates.

Is there anything else I'm missing or is frequent water changing my only option?

Thanks for any help!

Allen.

[CUNAReefer]

Hi Allendavant,

Hope all is well!

As you suspect, your algae issue is most likely due to a spike in phosphates. Yes, you can do a series of water changes multiple days in a row. I recently did 13.3% water changes daily for four consecutive days. You probably do not need to perform the daily changes for an extended period such as two weeks. You want to perform a change and then test your phosphate levels. Do you have a way to test your phosphate? If you do not have one, I highly suggest picking up the Hanna Phosphate Checker.

I also agree that you should suspend feeding your garlic soaked foods.

Warmest Regards,
James

[mf2055]

not doing a water change should not cause an algae outbreak unless you are doing some serious heavy feeding... I know many reefers that have gone years without changing more than a tank full of water over the whole time. A lot of those with Ca reactors don't do nearly the recomended water changes. I would not get bent out of shape about it unless you are seeing inverse reactions from your corals. If you are supplimenting Ca, ALK, and Mg you should be good for SPS for the most part. Espeically if you have a Ca reactor. ... Regular small water changes are a great thing, epsecially if you can incorporate it into a minor cleaning routine, but doing a 20% change weekly is near insane on a system set up for Major and minor element additions and nutrient export.

[jamey1010]

Check your TDS number out of the ro, I suspect it's the direct cause of the phosphates/algae I'm going to have to disagree doing more water changes is a good idea at this point until you investigate that and change your di resin more than likely.

Also yeah there are a lot of guys who don't do water changes but I've tried both ways over a number of years and always shown much better colors and growth with at least 10% weekly water changes so 20% is certainly not out of the question and yes I run a calcium reactor and utilize several different methods of nutrient transport, including an ats, gfo, skimming, and occasional carbon.

Saltwater has many more elements to it that corals need than calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium so unless you somehow are testing and adding other elements such as potassium, strontium, iodine, boron to name a few your best to be doing regular water changes to supplement them.

[allendavant]

Well, I've only been feeding once a day, so I don't think I've been over feeding. Maybe I should cut back on the amount of food I put in, but my fish eat everything I put in. I haven't even been feeding Rotifers or Oyster feast like I usually do because I have been a little short on cash.

I don't have an RO/DI unit of my own. I have just been using water from the LFS. I have just been assuming it is 0 TDS. Maybe I should buy a TDS meter so I can test it.
Or better yet, after I recover from the $1000 in car repairs I just had to spend I will just buy my own RO/DI unit. I have been wanting to buy one for a while anyway.

As far as test kits I only have an API test kit for Phosphate and Nitrate, which I know isn't that good, but hopefully it will give me a ballpark figure. A Hanna Phosphate Checker is definitely on my list in the near future. I think they make a high range one and a low range one. Which one should I get? I'm thinking the low range, but I'm not sure.

For Cal. Alk. and Mag. I kave been using ESV B Ionic two part and Aquavitro for Mag. I want a Calcium Reactor really bad, but haven't had the money.

The tank is only about three months old. Could that have something to do with the Algae outbreak?

As far as the Corals, they are all looking very good. All of the color is looking super good, but I was thinking that is because of the LEDs that they are under compared to the old Metal Halides that they were under.

[allendavant]

One other thing I noticed is that the temp is at 82 could that be contributing? I'm not really sure why it is so high. I have LED lighting and we have central air.

[Naiad]

What are you feeding? Is it frozen or a pellet? Also what kind of fish and CUC do you have? If you don't have a specifically predatory carnivore you can suspend feeding for a few days and let them snack on the algae. Those than don't eat it wont be hurt by a few days diet. I feed once a week, for the rest of the time they feed off what the tank supplies. As your tank is just starting you may have to feed more than that but you get the idea. The more food in the more phosphate and nitrate out.

Jen