things are off in my tank

[dbacksrat]

Here's what is wrong: My frogspawn has not been fully extended in about a month as well as its other two frags. There are still areas of fierce hair algae resistance and my largest rock has a thorough covering of green algae with the texture of wires. There are areas of what appear to be hydroids, but none are causing any major problems. My caulerpa is dissappearing and there are sections of zoanthids not opening.
Here's what is going well: There are certain areas of coralline taking off, and my GSP polyps have reverted back to their original green color (as opposed to the drab brown they have been for awhile). My Sinularia dura (leather for those of you who don't like scientific names) are doing better than ever now that the Caulerpa is waning...there is red bubble algae in a darker area in the tank that I'm not worried about. There are also many types of macroalgaes thriving...

My params:
SG: 1.028 (it hasn't been like this for the past month)
pH: 8.0-8.1
NO3: ~0ppm using an Aquarium Pharmeceuticals test kit
I don't have a P04 test kit and don't plan on getting one since absolutely needed...I have been a little slack on water changes over the past couple months because of work and school (at least a couple gallons every two weeks).

My AquaC Remora has been putting out a full cup of skimmate daily...as for bioload there is my lone clownfish and a handful of corals. I don't have a cleanup crew for fear of a hidden assasin in my tank. Other than that, things are good.
Does anyone have any suggestions or ideas? I'm going to stay on top of those topoffs and larger water changes to see what happens...

 

[aresgod]

get the algae under control...just because you are testing 0 nitrates doesnt mean there arent any...water changes...and get a clean up crew, they are necessary...try a bait trap if you are really worried about it. it sounds like your Euphylia arent past saving...but if their condition continues this way they will deteriate, and quickly. Alse get your PH up higher and salinty down.

 

[wayne]

Nitrates are a guide, but not nedessarily the whole story. Bear in mind algaes prefer to assimilate ammonia than nitrate, and by trapping debris can prevent ever getting to the nitrate stage, so the whole 0 nitrates deal is not always very reliable.
I'd do some biggish water changes to get the SG down, and just to sort things out, and I'd also try aggressively blowing the algae to look for debris. how dep is your sandbed. You say you don't have much cleanup crew - if you have more than a few millimetres ofsand how are you maintaining it?
Assuming you can make water properly (prehetating, similar sg, so on) I don'tthink a few 10 gallon changes would hurt. It's what I would do.

 

[dbacksrat]

I am actually running very close to barebottomed...there are just patches of crushed coral gravel, but the majority is bare glass. I'm looking at RO units as we speak because I get my water from a vending machine at the grocery store (a major PITA). That will make topoffs and waterchanges a lot easier.

I have another question though: how would I return RO water from the collection bucket to my tank?

A quick explanation: The black rectangle is my tank, the green square is a couch that seen from the end. The white square is my counter area (not sure the correct term for that, its in the kitchen). In that white square you can see my crude drawing of the sink and piping. From what I understand, the RO unit is installed somewhere in the red box. The processed water drips into some sort of container (a bucket maybe), and when the container is full a float valve cuts off water production. How do I get this water from the container to my tank? Do I pump it out (the blue line with arrows in the pic)?

I'm just trying to figure this whole thing out...my mom of all people has been teasing me about a bigger tank, but not before I can get the algae/coral problems under control. My only pain with a big tank would be more water.

Thank you both for your input. I hope this was clear enough for all of you!

 

[wayne]

Fancy or simple?

Simple method means keep doing what you're doing, but replace bought water with RO, and a bit more anyway to keep that SG down.

Fancy means get an autotopup, and connect it to run a pump from the RO bucket to the main display (no sump). If you go this route, buy quality, cheap autotopups are not good. They stick, they tend to stick ON and adding 20 gallons of RO to your tank will not be good.

 

[1979camaro]

i just use a small ro/di unit to filter water into a bucket in my apartment and use that for top off...i guess that would be what you call manual top off. most RO units can be used with an adapter which replaces the aerator on the sink so you don't have to tap into the pipes

 

[dbacksrat]

So I got the tank topped off and did a six gallon water change (six more on Friday) and the Euphyllia finally opened up...things are glorious! I'm also amazed at how much crud the algae traps. It looks like I need a lot more flow!