RW09903

I stocked up a LONG time ago right before Dr. Foster and Smith was acquired by Petco. They had 20' rolls for dirt cheap. I'm glad you started this thread because I'm actually down to my last roll.

Slight photo dump. I've been lucky enough to have buddies in the hobby with great coral collections.

Wow. It's been a while since I've updated. I learned fast that a 4 gallon DIY scrubber wasn't sufficient for this system. I ended up sectioning off half of the sump with egg create for a refugium. Chaetomorpha has been doing well since.

Everything looks great! Is this the only system you're running now?

Thank you!

I was finally able to get the green hair algae under under control by July. There is still a little in the sump, however, it's not an issue. I Starting adding a few montiporas and acroporas in August. Most of which are settled and began setting their base. As you can see, this has always been a marathon, not a sprint!

It was a long journey but I was able to successfully combat hair algae over the course of a year and a half. It might seem like a long process, however, quick fixes aren't often the answer and there may be other underlying issues. Here are a few things that worked for me: -Pinch and siphon the hair algae off the rocks and glass into the sump, filtering the water through a mesh filter sock to capture and remove the algae. -Utilitarian fish/Inverts. I have a tang gang + foxface lo and a few tuxedo urchins. From my observation, they both prefer shorter hair algae, and didn't touch the long pieces. -Use GFO to lower phosphates. I used 1/2 the recommended amount of GFO for my tank size. I ran it through a fluidized reactor. Even though the readings for phosphates may be with range, there was likely additional phosphates available, as the algae kept coming back. - Change the feeding regiment. I use to dump a mix of frozen and pellets, daily. The food would swirl throughout the tank and some would travel down the overflow and breakdown in the sump. I still feed daily, however, I cut back on the amount pellets I feed. The phosphorus content in pellets are higher than with frozen. - Use filter socks or something to trap and remove waste. After I installed a filter roller, this process became easier compared to swapping out filter socks biweekly. It helps to keep waste from breaking down in the water column.

Over the weekend, @miggs76 and I took our annual road trip to@Pacific East Aquaculture. Dr. Mac has a very unique selection. I highly recommend a visit if you haven't had the opportunity. Here are a few pieces I was able to hand pick. They're destined for ValaWan's reef after a brief quarantine period.

Thank you, Matt! You have to stop by one day to check out the build in person!

Putting it in perspective, here is how much GHA I was pulling from the display, weekly, before and after the bucket refugium.

Fast forward a few months, I'm still dealing with slightly elevated NO3 and PO4. GFO and increased water changes are helping, however, I wanted ValaWan's reef to stay relatively "natural." I looked into algae scrubbers and chaeto reactors, but for something that grow algae, they were a bit expensive... I started looking through threads on R2R and stumbled on a youtuber (Coral Euphoria) who made his own bucket refugium. This was a great idea for me specifically as a previous attempt to use my sump as a refugium failed. The light spread just gave GHA another place to take over. The bucket refugium idea was a relatively cheaper option because I already had a couple Tunze LEDs laying around. Here is the bucket refugium and results after a month of growth. Thank you @dmatt56 for providing the chaetomorpha!

This is going to look amazing.

Thank you!

Thanks Isaac! Those are chalices from PEA, btw 😅

I added a few test corals a month back and everything looks great. I hope to add a few SPS soon.

This has been my practice over the past 8-10 months. My poweder blue and purple tang are bullies, even to larger fish. I place a mirror on a side aquarium panel a day or two prior to introducing any new fish. After adding the new fish, I keep the mirror in place for a week or two and allow everything to establish.

Took some pictures with natural lighting prior to the panels turning on. Can't wait to add some SPS.

Ariel and Jhay were at it again. They swung by last weekend to help me install an 80 watt UV sterilizer. The unit is plumbed from the return and feeds directly into the display. I plan on operating the sterilizer during night time, 12 hours a day.

You're in luck! I turned the lights on for a few hours this afternoon. The fish were spooked. I am running GFO at the moment and GHA is 100% gone. I am quarantining some feather caulerpa to help with nutrient export.

We cut around the reef tank only. Everything else was emptied and moved.

Speaking about a nice design! I like the concept of having viewable panels that are not obstructed by equipment/pumps. Do you have any flow issues on the left side of the tank?

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade? Right before RAP NY, a bad storm flooded our basement after the sump pump failed. This wasn't the first time, and I'm sure it won't be the last. Out with the old, in with the new! We took the opportunity to change the floors throughout the basement and rebooted the freshwater aquarium to boot. Time to get ValaWan's Reef back on track.

Thank you! I have a few tangs (purple, powder blue, and sailfin) and a foxface, that eat the shorter gha strains. Luckily, I do not have corals yet, so the lights have been off for the past 5-6 weeks. This knocked the gha back to just a few small patches. I plan on making a DIY chamber in the sump for macro algae.