mud or sand???

darkside1 · 05/10/2009, 10:58 AM

I have a 4 yr old 50 gal reef tank witha 30 gal sump, lots of light (aquamedic 700 watts), lots of water movement. The tank is very successful. About 1.5 yrs ago I purchased a toadstool that was 6" across and its now 2' across and has divided 3 times. I have never purchased a plate coral and now have 5. The largest is 6" across. The plate was a high-jacker on a peice of live rock.
Now the problem, yep - hair algae.
I have all of the standard maintenance crew - snails, hermit crabs, lawn mower blenny, rabbit fish...(none of them will eat the hair algae).
Sump contains magic mud and fine sand and cheato algae. Nitrates and phosphates test at O.
I did a 20% water change about 2 yrs ago and will never do that again. The tank took 3 months to recover. I do add 3-4 gallons of tap water per day. I had my tap water tested at a commercial lab and it tested <.0000001 phosphates and nitrates and calcium was quite high.
Water temp is a little high at 80-83 F. All other parameters are perfect.
I am considering cleaning out the sump and putting in a sand bed (shallow vs deep?). I have had success in the past with Carib Sea products but have never done a change from one to the other. This was my first experience with Magic Mud and think it may be the source of my hair algae problem???
Here are some pic's
http://www.darkside.ca/tank1.jpg
http://www.darkside.ca/tank2.jpg

05/10/2009, 10:58 AM	#1
darkside1 Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Calgary Alberta Posts: 51	mud or sand??? I have a 4 yr old 50 gal reef tank witha 30 gal sump, lots of light (aquamedic 700 watts), lots of water movement. The tank is very successful. About 1.5 yrs ago I purchased a toadstool that was 6" across and its now 2' across and has divided 3 times. I have never purchased a plate coral and now have 5. The largest is 6" across. The plate was a high-jacker on a peice of live rock. Now the problem, yep - hair algae. I have all of the standard maintenance crew - snails, hermit crabs, lawn mower blenny, rabbit fish...(none of them will eat the hair algae). Sump contains magic mud and fine sand and cheato algae. Nitrates and phosphates test at O. I did a 20% water change about 2 yrs ago and will never do that again. The tank took 3 months to recover. I do add 3-4 gallons of tap water per day. I had my tap water tested at a commercial lab and it tested <.0000001 phosphates and nitrates and calcium was quite high. Water temp is a little high at 80-83 F. All other parameters are perfect. I am considering cleaning out the sump and putting in a sand bed (shallow vs deep?). I have had success in the past with Carib Sea products but have never done a change from one to the other. This was my first experience with Magic Mud and think it may be the source of my hair algae problem??? Here are some pic's http://www.darkside.ca/tank1.jpg http://www.darkside.ca/tank2.jpg