davjbeas

I use ESV bionic 2 part. I also use the ESV salt mix. I don't have any complaints I have a 80 gallon tank and I measure CA and Alk daily with "Salifert" test kits. Recently I have been adding 12 ml of alkalinity and 8 to 9 ml of Calcium. I adjust the amount I add based on the measurements. My Alk swings swings 8.6 to 9.3 and calcium swings 450 to 460. I don't test for magnesium although I have a bottle of magnesium. This has worked for me. I do a 20 gallon water change once a month. I try to keep parameters stable. I think you could add as much as the starting dose which for me was 20ml. I don't think you want to have a shift of 1.0 DKH Alk or more overnight. 31 ml is a lot to add every day. How many gallons is your tank? I have a magnesium test kit you can use although I might be to far from you. I am in Reston, VA.

Lots of snow here in Reston. I have a battery backup on a MP40 and 4 battery powered air pumps for circulation. No power loss so far.

I was looking online for bleach and I found different types available I found concentrated, Germicidal, disinfecting, low splash Does it matter what type to get? I have some disinfecting bleach on hand Thanks

Thankyou YHSublime

What type of bleach and how much do you use?

I found the item on Amazon and the description says "Can be rinsed and washed" Do you use bleach or vinegar? Djplus1 - Thanks for the reply, I believe they can be rinsed and washed

I have a need to re use filter socks on my Innovative marine 80 gallon all in one. They are out of stock and I don't know when they will have more My concern is detergent or some other chemicals will remain in the sock and poison the tank. I am thinking to run the laundry machine empty so as to make it as clean as possible Put the filter socks in the laundry machine and add standard bleach (I don't know how much to use) Air dry the socks after the washing process. Thanks for any input

I am a big fan of adding a creature that eats the problem. Mexican Turbo snails for hair algae Pitho crabs if you have bubble algae The above may or may not help. I had a tank with the same problem years ago. I ended up giving away the coral and took down the tank. My current tank has 3 turbo snails and 3 pitho crabs. It might be worth trying adding 10 turbo snails some type of mithrax crab I have have had good luck with reefcleaners.org. They have a minimum order of around $50 and shipping is $49 overnight delivery Some other options are an urchin and some crabs although I don't have experience with those.

I had a good experience with www.reefcleaners.org

I had a very positive experience with www.reefcleaners.org. My tank had bubble algae in several areas. I sent a message to customer service asking what would be suggested and John responded to me that I should try 10 Pitho crabs. So I ordered online what was recommended. I got overnight shipping and each crab arrived in a separate bag. The package arrived around 9:30 in the morning. I followed the acclimation instructions. Today I have almost no bubble algae. If you are looking for a clean up crew they have anything you could ask for. David B.

Looks like it will be very beautiful.

OK. Thanks

I was wondering if there are still t-shirts available Thanks

Snails sure can get around. I am glad that the pump on the skimmer started back up. Sometimes pumps don't start up after being off for a bit.

Today I removed the protein skimmer to clean it. The skimmer had not been cleaned for several months. I noticed that the output of the skimmer was very little which is not normal. There were 2 baby snails blocking 2 of the 4 holes where the pump intake is. Now the skimmer is functioning as it should.

Thanks for al the attention. I decided to add 4 turbo snails and an emerald crab. I did blast the rocks and changed the filter socks on Friday.

Is there a particular brand you recommend?

It is good to know at least what the algae is. I did not know about that medication. Is that med reef safe in that it does not harm corals? I agree it is not bad enough right now to go that way. I currently have 2 camel snails, and a lot of baby snails. I have been doing research on reefcleaners.org. I have found that there are lots of options for critters that eat hair algae and bubble algae.

I am changing out the filter socks tomorrow. I will blow the rocks with a power head before changing them. I have lost a tank to hair algae so I don't want it to get out of control. The emerald crab I want to add is for the bubble algae.

I think it looks more like green hair algae. But where I manually removed some with tweezers there are a few strands that I couldn't get and those look like they could be Bryopsis. I am thinking to get 3-5 Mexican turbo snails and an emerald crab(I have some bubble algae).

in one spot it looks like fur. When I removed some with tweezers it looked like very thin threads.

I have this algae popping up in about 10 places. I am looking into getting snails or hermit crabs. Please let me know if you can ID this algae from the pictures. The area is about 1/4" or a little bigger pic 1 by David Beasley, on Flickr pic 2 by David Beasley, on Flickr Thanks for looking

Thanks for the replies. I really appreciate the info. David

I have a large leather coral which I believe is a "Sarcophyton" It has grown in my tank for years. It is very big and has several babies. I am not sure how to go about cutting it and mounting cuttings on frag plugs. I have plugs and super glue. Here are some pics of how the coral looks pic 2 by David Beasley, on Flickr pic 1 by David Beasley, on Flickr

I do have a moderate flow tank. Right now I hope I got rid of them. I will be keeping a look out for new polyps to show up. Happy Reefing