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I'd agree unless you're washing it daily and even then probably isn't doing really anything for you, and for the love of reefing, I want to see a background on the tank... blue, black, heck even the faux underwater reef shot hehee
Update on a problem that has been a pain for me for AWHILE now, I don't know what to do about it honestly. Check these shots out.
Back of the tank is all red pretty much, along with the rocks
Side of the rocks
Sand is Red as well
I use a turkey baster almost everyday to blow this crap off my rocks. I just did a water change, again I'm not using RO but I am purifying the tap water and mixing it the night before. Again I've been battling this for awhile, it best fits the characteristics of "Red Slime" So I don't know what to do so i figured I'd throw it on here and get some suggestions.
Second this. Use this months group buy to get a less expensive yet good quality RO/DI unit. Your flow is enough. Cut the feedings a little bit.
If you have a place to run some phos+silicate removal medium do that too.
Don't add chemicals to your tank if you can help it. Better to do the right thing and get a good unit.
you can buy phosban with a media bag. would also suggest chemi pure elite and carbon and put it into your sump also - i was doing one at the time and changing every 2 weeks.
Looks like you have the mini fuge setup pretty well. What I would do is just add the phos+silicate remover in the filter pocket. You need to make sure you change the filter on a very regular basis.....you could probably get away with cleaning it one week and throwing it out after the second week. Depends on your feeding schedule.
You might get some other viewpoints that contradict this saying you shouldn't have the filter pad at all. IMHO so long as you regularly change it you are OK. What are you using for a skimmer now still the RIO?
Ryan I know you hope to upgrade soon so it might not be worth the cost unless you can find someone who had one they will give you or sell you very cheaply, but since you have to do HOB things with this tank you can get another aquaclear filter (one of the smaller ones is fine) you don't have to mod it at all... just put a bag of chemipure or (mind blanking, what is the white one you can recharge.... it'll come to me) anyways I use both in my tanks though they are just tossed into the fuge or into the rear chambers on the nano's, would work much better in a HOB for you. Once you get your bigger setup with a sump you can get a phosban reactor.
Yes I just suggested using the filterbag you have there already. You can do whatever you like in this case I don't really think there is a huge difference. The one thing is you want to make sure you clean that filterbag really regularly.