Remove GFO?

[bryan]

so I have taken my skimmer off line now but still a bit hesitant to take gfo offline...still got some red algae popping up all over...been about 4-5 months running gfo and scrubber...any additional advice?

[SantaMonica]

How much are you harvesting?

N and P ?

Display and scrubber pics would help.

[bryan]

I haven't posted a pic in so long, don't even remember how....N and P are literally not measurable. As far as how much I'm harvesting, about every week and it's about the size of a golf ball, maybe a bit bigger when all water is squeezed out. I've been replacing GFO reactor with new BRS hi capacity stuff about every 4 weeks. Red slime is on the rocks. Tried lights out for 3 days only to see it return. It's not on the sand at all, just on live rock. Tank flow is great, almost too good. No more green hair algae at all. All in all, think things are going well with only one scrubber on a 500gal system. Coral growth has returned and is exploding as we speak. I'm only feeding dry food and two sheets of nori. Dry food is about a tablespoon a day.

[SantaMonica]

Without pics and more info I'd say the gfo is slowing the scrubber, which should have much more growth weekly. However if the tank is improving then this is the goal, so I'd say stick with in.

Post pics by clicking the "insert image" icon.

[bryan]

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[bryan]

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[SantaMonica]

Well I see a lot of coralline.

But I actually meant pics of the scrubber.

[bryan]

I wish that was coralline...its red slime algae and a lot of it. Will get pics of growth in scrubber in a couple days...just cleaned it.

[bryan]

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[bryan]

The above was about 10 days growth.

[SantaMonica]

Ok well at the least, you need to take it to the sink and toothbrush all the surfaces and strings so you can see the white again. The slime is not allowing more gha to attach. And there might be food particles rotting on the bottom of the box.

After that, run the light for 22 hours a day, and of course bubbles for 24 hours a day. Also check the air tube outlets for lime buildup (clean with a paper clip). The FW will also remove any pods.

If you remove gfo now the scrubber might grow dark, so wait on that.

Taking it to the sink is more work, it does make for better filtering.

[bryan]

so with the dark growth, that is an indication there is still nutrients present in the tank even though im not detecting any through testing?

[SantaMonica]

There's always a flow of nutrients to one place or another. Dark just means it needs more light strength/hours.