Ugly Stage HELP!!!

[tonkadawg]

Tank is now 7 months old and has hit the ugly stage (maybe 4-6 weeks ago) and I'm trying to figure out if I should continue with the current course or make some adjustments to get through this.  Goal is a thriving SPS dominated tank - details are here:
https://wamas.org/forums/topic/99623-innovative-marine-100-ext-sps-build/  

Tank was started using BA Microbacter7 and Start and pods were added.

 

Current Conditions:

• Brown algae (diatoms?) covering rock and glass
• Some red (cyano?) on rock
  • both are easily blown off with a turkey baster or power head
• Cloudy water
• No coraline algae
•  Current water params (as of this morning)
  • CA 485
  • KH 7.9
  • MG 1410
  • PO4 0.25
• NO3 6.6
• Feed frozen 2x day and pellets 1x day
• Weekly 10 gal water changes

 

I'll bring KH and Mg up while dropping NO3 slightly

 

I've watched the BRS WWC hybrid videos countless times and pulled from them that for my tanks age I should be targeting the following:

• CA 480
• KH 8.6
• MG 1440
• NO3 2ppm
• PO4 0.5ppm

I'm not trying to chase these exact numbers but using them as a guide with focus on stability. 

 

With all this in mind, I'm wondering if I should resume using Microbacter7 and maybe adding Clean?  But if adding Clean will that reduce PO4 and NO3?  Looking at everything I see a lot of conflicting info and I'm hoping you all can help me straighten it all out.  I really just want some coralline algae to start so I can trying adding frags again (I have added some established rock w/ coralline for diversity).

 

 

[ReefdUp]

I'd start with reducing your phosphates. If you're hoping to keep SPS, then target it <0.06ppm (decimal place was off). 

[howaboutme]

There's probably a plethora of things you can do to see what the results may be but I usually start w/ the easiest, give it a few weeks, then tweak if necessary. If this was my tank, I'd do three things before I do something more drastic. 1) Take 1 of your feedings away but don't add more food in those other 2 feedings, 2) lower your light cycle. Not sure what they are now but reducing likely won't hurt what you have. 3) add more CUC, blue-legged hermits, snails, etc. A tank your size should be crawling w/ these guys.

 

Also, I noticed that your picture shows the tank w/ sun coming from a nearby window. How long is your tank exposed to that sunlight? Can you shade the window a bit as another test? Slow and steady.

[tonkadawg]

I’ll lower phosphates @ReefdUp ?

 

some great suggestions !!@howaboutme  

 

As I was doing my weekly maintenance I realized that since I only have fish, lights aren’t necessary and turned them off. They were running 12hrs. I’ll leave them off for a few weeks and see what that does. I’ll also cut back to feeding 2x while keeping portions the same. 
 

Then since I was done with chores I decided to sit and have a cup of coffee. As I was reading your post I look over at the tank and see this:

 

In the morning the sun comes in in the right side of the tank then moves across as you can see now.   Not sure how I overlooked this important detail

 

Would adding 1-way window film help with this or do I need to think about moving this to a better location?

 

[DaJMasta]

I definitely agree that the sun could be contributing (and the sun is much more intense than our lighting, generally), but bare bottom tanks without established rock are always going to have prolonged ugly stages, too.  If you have space in the sump, I'd consider adding some ceramic media or a refugium with deep sand - the surface area of the sand that isn't in your system is very high and the stuff that lives in it is not necessarily the same as the rock, so having some (or just the extra surface area) would probably be a benefit in the long term.

I'd agree that the phosphate is on the higher side too, it could certainly be from feeding (frozen seems to raise phosphate proportionally higher than nitrate, from my experience and what I've read), but it's known that some dead rock can leech some amount out of it as well, so you could also try treating with lanthanum chloride or running some GFO for a few weeks or a month and then seeing if it rebounds because of feeding.

If you want coralline, any kind of coral frag with some growing could bring it in, a lot of CUC will have it on their shells (do you have any snails/crabs/urchins?), and you can also buy it in a bottle - I've seen pink and purple bottles sold, and they do actually contain active algae spores.

While it's not the best look, especially without coral it's not doing any harm, so you have plenty of time to try and determine the cause, and even if you don't, the time will probably help solve it eventually.

Edited November 19, 2022 by DaJMasta

[howaboutme]

Can you put some window treatments at the top to help control the lights? I put that easier than moving the tank but I guess it has to pass the wife test. I get it.

 

By the way, I have corals and I don't even keep my lights on that long. I think I'm at about 10 hrs. It's all about a balance. It sounds like you have a plan. Try it out bit it's not days or even 1 or 2 weeks. Give it some time and see what happens.

 

Just looking at a few pics, I don't see snails on glass, etc. I'm thinking maybe add 10 to 20 or more CUC members to help. Again, that "balance" also includes things that can eat the nuisance algae.

[tonkadawg]

Yeah I don’t think the boss will approve new window treatments. Would something like this make a difference?

https://a.co/d/7KrjlQz

 

I hear you about patience and giving it time.  I’ll also bump up the CUC too

Edited November 19, 2022 by tonkadawg

[howaboutme]

2 hours ago, tonkadawg said:

Yeah I don’t think the boss will approve new window treatments. Would something like this make a difference?

https://a.co/d/7KrjlQz

 

I hear you about patience and giving it time.  I’ll also bump up the CUC too

 

Probably but if your wife is like mine she'll probably think that's uglier than getting a nice set of shades or curtains....