Pulsing Xenia shriveled up

[Beeba]

I lost the xenia. They all shirvled up and became little stumps that were barely hanging on to the rock. The hair algea is doing better with the snails. I doubt I'll have to get rid of any since it seems almost every other day I come home to find one upside down and dead on the sand. They have awhile before they could starve in my tank anyway.

I have a sand sifting star in my tank to mix up the sand and he seems to make his way around pretty good. I started feeding the phyto again about two weeks ago.

rugie... what did you mean by this... "if you are using filters shut them down. try bacteria for the no3." I do use bio balls (a rookie mistake two years ago thanks to my LFS) and my currently my nitrate, nitrite, and amonia are not a problem. I've had them for about two years and if I notice they are a problem I will remove them and replace them with live rock. I also use a skimmer. I usually run two powerheads in the tank but may put in the other two that I have.

My hubby is getting me a few new things for Christmas so I hope to have the tank in tip-top shape by the time that comes around. My family all think I'm nuts asking for stuff for my aquarium instead of wanting the newest hot items of the year. I look at it this way, the reef aquarium gives me enjoyment all year long in all types of weather.

 

[rugie]

Well it is wonderful to hear you get so much enjoyment from your reef. so do I in fact, I can not conceive being with out it. Beeba, if you have hair algae you have high po4 and no3 (phosphate & nitrate) the filters become, by the nature of their construction, nitrate factories, that is basically their job. removing them from the loop removes their ability to produce no3. bio balls are usually bad news in a reef tank. when you say your parameters are ok what does ok mean? most often when there is hair algae in a tank the po4/no3 are utilized immediately by the algae
so you will not get a reading on your test kit. more live rock may not be the answer, it really should not exceed 1 1/2 to 2 lbs per gallon of actual water volume. more circulation is good, use one of your pumps to blow off your rocks. sand sifting stars feed on detritius, the bio film and any flora/fauna in the sand bed. and it is not advisable for it to be mixing your sand bed. they are best left undisturbed. no3 in a reef tank should not exceed 2. ppm never over 3. ppm po4 should be less than .01 ppm. more questions? just holla. skimming can remove po4 if it is bound to another element ( such as kalkwasser) skimming will not remove no3. can you submit those test results?

 

[Beeba]

I will be happy to do a complete run of tests again tomorrow and post them as well as my last test numbers. I have read a lot about the bio balls and I agree they are probably best taken out. I have a 72 gallon tank and about 110 lbs of live rock in the tank. My husband and I have been blowing out the rock every evening and the algea is doing much better. My downfall in this is that I was never good at science and chemistry so that part is hard for me to grasp. That is pretty bad considering I'm a paralegal and I can read just about any legal document and understand it but when you start talking about this stuff I feel like your speaking a foreign language.

I do appreciate all the help and hopefully we can get this reef under control.