LR's Red Sea Reefer 170

[liverock27]

I have started noticing some bleaching to my encrusting montis. All of my tests are in line(Cal 480, Alk 8.6, PO4 0, NO3 2ppm, Mag 1440) and PAR in the areas where my montis are located is around 250. Since the only change I have made over the past month is dosing Part C and AcroPower I decided to stop dosing both and see what happens over the next month. If they color back up then I guess I will need to figure out what to do with my second DOS and DOS Dual Container.

I am working with Matt over at Octo Aquatics to build a baffle for the Protein Skimmer portion of my sump. The baffle will divide that sump portion in half and allow me to have a refugium. I managed to find a Kessel 380 algae grow light that was new without a box for $100 under retail. It is over kill, but after watching some of BRS's videos on refugiums I can see where you would want a light that could compete with your main tank light. Everything is setup in the sump to be able to just insert the baffle, so once it arrives I am going to go visit Keith at Heisenberg Aquaculture and pick up some Chaeto and probably some more pods.

The only other update is that I am starting to see a lot of purple coralline growth on the rocks. All of my frags have been removed from their plugs before I put them in the tank so the only source is the ARC Reef Coralline in a bottle I used. I dosed two bottles(about $15.99 plus shipping per bottle) about a month apart and while I can't say that some coralline algae didn't sneak in with the corals I will say that I would use the product again if I started another tank with dry rock.

 

[liverock27]

The new baffle showed up this morning and I was able to get it and the light installed over lunch. I can't say enough great things about Matt and his company Octo Aquatics. He worked with me to get this baffling to fit perfect and any time going forward I need acrylic work done I will be calling him.

I'm hoping I can pick up some chaeto first of next week.

 

[liverock27]

I have been having a number of problems with the tank over the past month. The bleaching continued and I lost 5 of my SPS frags. Along with the bleaching I have had a lot of hair algae pop up.

Here is all I have been doing to try and solve my problems:

1. I have been testing the tank and all parameters are in line. I am sure that the hair algae is taking up the Nitrate and Phosphate so that is why I am getting low readings for those, but my Alk is 8.6, Cal is 450, and Magnesium is 1440. I am not dosing anything other than 2 part and adding BRS Magnesium to occasionally.
2. I bought a hand held TDS meter to make sure my RO/DI water is 0 TDS like the inline monitor shows and it is also showing 0 TDS. The filters and media in my RO Unit are only 4 months old and I only make 15 gallons every two weeks.
3. I have cut back on the lights in both the display and the refugium(10hrs each down from 12hrs each) and have added a good size clean up crew.
4. For the last month I have been doing 10% water changes twice per week and testing everything.

One of the local fish stores recommended picking up Brightwell Aquatics Razor when they get it back in stock to help treat the hair algae. Has anyone used this and had success?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.