Thinking of going fauna

[marie]

So I am toying with the idea of going to the fauna marin ultra lithe system in the new year.
I have a 175g bowfront with approx 200g total water volume, mostly sps that are doing wonderfully well with good colour and fantastic growth.
The problem is the algae which is also doing wonderfully well with good colour and fantastic growth.
I test for alk only and that every 3 months or so, water changes are approx 60g at a time and infrequent.
What would I need to do, what would I need to buy to start the process and would I be better off just leaving things alone...Oh and did I mention I'm lazy?

recent pics

[marie]

I should also mention I run a couple of cups of carbon passively and do not use phosphate removers

[fencer]

Hi Marie
Leave it alone...
Having said that.
Make sure your Nitrates are down
Make sure you have your Phosphates under control...use Phophate remover
Make sure you run Carbon and due at least 10% water changes a week using ro/di water
Salt make sure it has high potassium levels....some salts are not compatible with Ultra

Then we'll talk more

[marie]

Thanks Fencer
I guess my biggest question is what happens to the tank if I decide to quit after a few months? Is it similar to Zeo in that tanks can crash if not done right or if its discontinued for some reason?
I wouldn't be doing this for my corals, I have no complaints there, the colours are bright and if the polyps extended any further they would no longer be attached to the coral...and all this with a serious case of red bugs.
I have algae of every make and model though and sometimes I do feel like the "dirty bubba" of fish tank world it would be nice to get rid of them.

I guess if I was more diligent about water changes and lowering phosphates, it would solve the algae problem and I wouldn't need ultra lithe

[fencer]

Yes you have to slowly get off of Ultra like Zeo. I think you should do the easier stuff first...water change etc

[Delphinus]

When I dabbled in Zeo with my old 75g the folks over at the zeovit.com forum advised me that older tanks don't always react well to switching to a ULNS system and that one should ease themselves into it slower. Can't remember what all the potential symptoms were of shock but the one thing I do remember is I got a wicked and persistent cyano bloom a few weeks in. I ended up running a red slime remover treatment to get rid of it.

I don't really recall that it got rid of any nuisance algaes. I know for sure it did not starve out the stupid caulerpa problem that particular tank did have.