Origami

You can also try picking off as much as you can using your forceps. Then, with a toothbrush, lightly scrub the rock while siphoning off the water and debris that comes loose. There is a reef-safe chemical treatment that will wipe out the GHA and/or Bryopsis. I had luck with it many years back when I had a GHA outbreak and finally needed to do something drastic. I don't think you're anywhere near there yet. But, if it did become a problem again, consider Fluconazole. You'll find instructions online. But you pre-dissolve one 200 mg capsule for every 10 gallons of water, adding it to your tank. Do this every 24 hours for 5 days. Plan on making some partial water changes during treatment as the algae dies off. You should see improvement within 5 days and, if not, discontinue the treatment as it may not be susceptible. The results are long-lasting, too, in my experience. Just another tool in the arsenal.

Yeah, your call. But, if it were me, I'd be starting to think about getting a new tank, or resealing the old one the right way. It may take forever for it to fail or grow to where it's intolerable, but it's just one of those things that, if it's going to happen, it'll happen when you're not home or, worse yet, on a long vacation. From your description, this is the bottom, front left corner? Does this tank have a frame or is it frameless? If frameless, is it sitting on a flat, hard surface or a dense foam surface that has some give?

Picture? Location on the tank. Is the water coming from a seam? From an overflow? If a seam is failing, then caulking over the problem won't fix it and bigger problems could arise. On the other hand, if a bulkhead or plumbing is weeping, it's an easier problem to deal with. Since water flows down, the location of the salt residue only tells you where the water has settled. The leak may be elsewhere. If the leak is light enough, both locations may be the same. But not always. Sent from my Note 10+5g using Tapatalk

Agreed. Sounds like GHA is most likely. Especially if it pulled out easily in tufts with tweezers. I've found it easier sometimes to identify Bryopsis while it's in the tank. The water keeps the branches separated, making it easier to see the branches. Sent from my Note 10+5g using Tapatalk

I like Rick. He's been in the hobby/business forever. He's also a good friend of Julian Sprung of Two Little Fishes. Not many can say they go back as far as those two. Eight months has got to be life hanging. I'm glad that you're looking forward and trying out something new. Saltwater tanks are a bit more involved than fresh. Have you read any books on saltwater aquarium setup and animal husbandry? Sent from my Note 10+5g using Tapatalk

I can't see detail, but is it green hair algae (filamentous, single strands) or filamentous but branching strands (like Bryopsis)? ? Sent from my Note 10+5g using Tapatalk

Welcome and thanks for joining us as a member. As Eric mentions in the post above, feel free to ask questions. What attracted you to the hobby? Where do you want to go with it? What, if any, experience do you have with saltwater tanks (or even freshwater)? Have you established a relationship with a local fish store (LFS)? If so, where?

Has it been compromised, or was it C0m%r0m153d? A little password humor there. ;-)

Calcium and magnesium are fine. There's no need to avoid water changes in nitrate levels become too high and you have higher life forms in the tank. Anaerobic bacteria populations develop more slowly, in part, because of nutrient limits set by diffusion. If you have no higher orders of life in the tank that could be adversely affected by high nitrates then, sure, let it sit awhile. You might even turn the temperature up to stimulate bacterial division. Continue feeding the tank, watching ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels and, eventually, you'll see nitrate stop accumulating and begin decreasing. This is the classic sign if the anaerobic bacterial population catching up. Sent from my Note 10+5g using Tapatalk

Years ago, I used an Avast ATO with a shortened sensor tube in my Biocube. I used an old kitty litter pail to hold my tipoff water as it fit perfectly in the stand next to my small chiller. Sent from my Note 10+5g using Tapatalk

Fascinating presenation. Thanks for linking it here.

The tiny specks of purple were coming off the rock and coming to rest on the sand? That explains why light didn't seem to affect it and, yet, it was purple! Kind of funny, actually.

Yep. An incomplete nitrogen cycle can deplete alkalinity. There's a unit of alkalinity consumed in the process of converting ammonia to nitrate (by aerobic bacteria). That unit is replaced in the process of converting the nitrate to nitrogen gas (by anaerobic bacteria). Anaerobic bacteria populations grow more slowly than aerobic bacteria, so during cycling, we often see a build up of nitrate. If we perform a water change at this stage (to reduce the nitrate), the alkalinity that was lost will never be replaced. How are you testing salinity? Is your meter calibrated and, if so, with what? Finally, as Nikki noted in the post above, both calcium and magnesium is relevant here. But since this is relatively new saltwater, there *should* be sufficient magnesium in the mix to prevent abiotic precipitation; unless, of course, there was a quality control failure at Fritz - which isn't beyond the impossible. (Every once in a while you hear about a bad batch of salt coming from various manufacturers.) This, though, is pretty uncommon.

That is funny. I avoided much of the calamity in it's last years. There were several mods that I'd befriended, but WAMAS kept my focus back then. RC taught me a lot about balancing T5's for color; RHF and Boomer about reef chemistry (I still see Boomer at MACNAs from time to time); and their pump head calculator was useful to predict the effect of friction on your plumbing. Not to mention, watching in near-real-time the evolution of the BeanAnimal overflow. And who could forget RocketEngineer's tank stand design made from 2x4s? I see so many stands today that are derivatives of his contribution to the hobby. Skimmer design; media reactor design; kalk reactor designs.... it was all there.

That's a captive nut in a clip. On close inspection, are there any threads left in it? Or were they frozen to the screw and stripped out (or filled with threads stripped from the screw)? Sent from my Note 10+5g using Tapatalk

Many don't know it, but reef keeping magazine was published by Reef Central. Sent from my Note 10+5g using Tapatalk

There was an article years ago (I think it was written by Randy Holmes Farley) that included some coral skeletal composition data within. If I'm not mistaken, it may have been an article titled, "When Do Calcium and Alkalinity Demand Not Exactly Balance?" In it (or in the article I'm recalling), RHF notes that some tanks may see unbalanced calcium and alkalinity consumption depending on the mix of species in the tank as some species had a greater or lesser tendency to substitute a magnesium ion in place of a calcium ion in the calcification process. Coralline algae was up there as I recall. By the way, the article is an excellent read if you can find it. Sent from my Note 10+5g using Tapatalk

Yes, especially if you're cycling using an organic foodstuff or have some die off on Live Rock. Cycling most commonly refers to nitrogen cycling and the establishment of bacteria in your tank. We do not attempt to balance the the phosphorus cycle in our initial tank cycling. Sent from my Note 10+5g using Tapatalk

Very cool. As long as you're comfortable with crabs as part of your cleanup crew, I'd say it's worth keeping him and seeing how it goes.

Congratulations and, yes, 1250 is in the acceptable range. Natural seawater has an average Mg concentration of 1280 ppm. Running higher allows for you to run higher alkalinity and calcium levels without abiotic precipitation. Acceptable range is often quoted as 1200 - 1400 ppm, but I've not seen a lot of evidence that slightly higher levels are harmful. A tank with higher levels of magnesium may favor coralline algae formation a touch more simply because it tends to have a higher magnesium concentration than most other calcium-carbonate forming life in our tanks.

Here's a great site at UC Berkeley that I perused years ago that can help with identification. As I recall, the one that hitchhiked in on my TBS rock was a Neogonodactylus wennerae (a smasher). It lived for several years in what was a backroom tank (plumbed into the main system) dedicated to it's existence. It was easy to train it to take bits of shrimp and squid off the tip of a bamboo skewer.

The journey begins anew! I'm looking forward to your updates. We're all learning something from this.

Moving to General Discussion forum for the benefit of a wider audience.

Moving to General Discussion forum for the benefit of a wider audience.

Moving to General Discussion forum for the benefit of a wider audience.