Ive read your post about problem algae. When was the last time you replaced your light bulbs? That sometimes can contribute to algae (shifted spectrum) Also, how old is the spectrapure inner resin?
You seem to have everything in order but do not mention the age of the above. Also I would recommend (personally) to use all kalk only...for make up water It seems strange to me that the snails are dying. IME some snails can be fairly delicate however over a reasonably short period of time 1 year + they should begin to reproduce in your tank. Then you end up with a much hardier snail. Typically theasteras reproduce fairly easily, at least mine do.
- using non purified tap water. are you using ro or di water? You should.
- Old light bulbs. I remember you had just got a new light setup.. are the lamps new?
- overfeeding I would only feed every 3 days or so
- in adequate skimming what kind of skimmer are you using? a backpak is probably good for a 30.
- how old is the resin in the ro/di? you know that gets expended.. maybe have to replace it
- sounds like the algae is getting a food source from somewhere... I have to think its the source water.
you say you have 110 watts from what I remember you purchased a much more powerful setup than that.
Look into the source water
My skimmer is the backpak. I have the blue bio material in the backpak and wash the sponge on the front out three times a week. Do I need to remove all of the bio material at once??
Ok it will probably take about a week for you to see noticeable drop in nitrate, but you should definitely see much lower numbers in that time span. You also *may* see an increase of ammonia (don't worry about it) as the bacteria relocate to your rock & sand. Again, without knowing your tank... I would suspect the water, silicates usually. Maybe time for a redo of the internals of the water purification system?
I have been changing water one week then the next. Its a 30 gal with 30 lbs live rock 2 inches of crushed coral substrate bak pak filter skimmer and 110 watt of light. I have huge bushes of hair algae and my nitrates are 70 or so. I have been considering a CPR wet dry filter would this help my problem or make it worse??? Would I need a sump box?? Please help real frustrated...
The most common causes for algae are
A wet dry will produce nitrate so I would definitely not use it
I would, I bet that is where the nitrate is coming from. Remove it and then test the nitrate in a week or so. I bet you have zero
I plan to test Nitrate again tonight the tank looks better overall tonight than before I did this get rid of algae stuff.
Simplified Reefkeeping
