The mantra of ATM Aquarium Products is to bring quality tools to the consumer, the same tools used by pros in all levels of aquatics. What many do not know is that the team at ATM Aquarium Products is a team of aquatic and environmental specialists, with decades of experience working in many natural aquatic habitats around the world in a variety of industries. We often work with our own affiliates and operations around the world solve problems in practical ways.
“ATM Takes On” will feature some issues that are commonplace among aquatic enthusiasts and how we’ve gone about correcting them.
Meet our first problem tank: “ED”
Tank Manager: Curtis Beardman, ReefTastic, Tarboro, NC
ATM Project Consultant: Stacey Blood
Habitat: Reef
Age: 7 years
Volume: 1,135 L (300 gal)
Live Rock: ˜ 136 kg (300 lbs)
Temperature: 26 C (78°F)
DKH: 8 (143.2 KH) To convert DKH to KH use a multiplier of 17.9
pH: 8.25
NH4: 0
NO2: 0
NO3: 0
PO4: 0.00
Calcium: 280
Salinity: 1.023
Issue: Hair Algae Infestation
Impasse: No NO3 or PO4 in water column
Our first tank is a 300 gallon reef tank we will call “Ed”. It has recently been inherited by Curtis Bearden’s aquarium service company, ReefTastic in Tarboro, NC. Needless to say, the tank came with its set of challenges. Curtis and ATM’s Stacey Blood discuss the project.
Curtis: “This tank had a serious hair algae problem, as you can see. I had been tasked with turning this tank around, but I wanted to take a different approach on this one. The team at ATM tends to have some great ideas so while in a meeting with Stacey Blood about a different subject I brought this up.”
Stacey: “Curtis made my day with this one because I’ve been looking for a real raging fire to put out so I can document the case. Since I am usually consulting remotely I rely heavily on expertise on-site and I knew Curtis would make it all go according to plan and catch the subtleties that emerge during the process.”
Curtis: “The real catch with this situation is that nitrate and phosphate were both zero. My first instinct is always to reach for Agent Green and start plowing through phosphate, but with none in the water column it kind of took that weapon out of the arsenal for the time being.”
Stacey: “When I get the parameters of a problem tank I start looking through them to find my place to attack. In this case, 280 calcium jumped out and I heard the angel choir.”
Curtis: “So that’s where we hatched the plan. Death by calcium. I thought this would be fun because there is a lot of debate online about whether this method really works. Stacey was very convincing in his argument for this route and I agreed its the best way so I said alright let’s do it!”
Stacey: “The key is to forget the algae is there. This is always a nutrient removal exercise whether you pull it out of the water column or pull it from out of the algae. Thinking of it this way will keep your eye on the ball. With the algae currently enjoying a pleasant 280 value, it should bring the algae to its knees rather quickly jumping it up to 450. We’ll pull the nutrients out with it through the skimmer.”
Curtis: “Can it be as simply as cranking the heat up on the calcium and using the skimmer to pull all of this out?
Stacey: “Guess we’ll find out! Now there’s more to this than it seems, so the following is Curtis’ log that details his logistical procedure and how it all went down. Enjoy!”
