Algae Control Products

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MarkW19

Aquarium Advice Addict
Joined
Mar 25, 2004
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Are they any good? You're meant to be able to add some to your tank to prevent unwanted algae growth.

Anyone have any experience with them, or do you advise leaving chemicals like this out of your tank?

I have lots of hair algae all over my rock and live sand :(
 
I had the same problem. Steve helped me out, he told me it was because my phosphate was to high. I bought a phosphate pad from my LFS and used it and within a day you could see it working. HTH
 
It is a pad that goes in your filter and it fust lowers the phosphates. I'm sure there is many other ways but that is the only thing I could find at my LFS and it worked great! Go to you r LFS and ask them what they have, also bring them a water sample so they can see how high it is. HTH
 
Cool - I have an Eheim canister filter, which uses the filter media balls, rather than foam pads.

Don't know where I'd put the phosphate pad...
 
Mark, here in UK pretty much everyone uses Rowaphos.. it comes with a little sock that you fill with the granules and then you either put it in your cannister or in a high flow area in the tank. It works very well.
 
Ahh, great - how often does it have to be replaced, and how much is it? :)

The granules being my filter media balls?
 
The rowaphos is granules.. I already threw away the box so I'm not sure how much was in there but it was just over a tenner for enough to treat 300L w/ 1ppm phos.. basically if your phosphates are crazy high then you use it acutely, ie replace the whole lot every couple days.. then when your levels drop you use it more long term, ie the same granules are left in for a month.

I know some people who just run it continously like carbon.. and because their levels are so low they don't have to change it for months.
 
Cool - and will I have enough room in my Eheim (2327) for the bag??
 
Atari said:
.. and because their levels are so low they don't have to change it for months.
Just be sure if you do it is not an aluminum based product (which Rowaphos is not), it will affect coral health.

Cheers
Steve
 
MarkW19 said:
Cool - and will I have enough room in my Eheim (2327) for the bag??
I'm not familiar with those.. I run a totally empty fluval 304 for extra flow/volume, and occasionally put some carbon or rowaphos in it for a couple days. You can just fill the sock as much as will fit in the available space. Or even cut it into two smaller bags.
 
I think that the best algea control product is RO/DI water. Get rid of the phosphates in the water that are a food source for the algea and it will die. I am always leary of adding chemicals to my tank. Cutting back on lighting and keeping your tank out of direct sunlight will also help.
 
lando: I already use RO water, which is giving very good results (4ppm TDS).

May try one of these phosphate pads.

I have 12 hours of lighting a day, and no direct sunlight on my tank.
 
powderbluetang said:
pretty much any kind of tang will eat your hair algae like powder blues yellows sailfins and many more

This is incorrect. Some tangs such as Kole tangs may nibble on hair algae, but most tangs will steer clear of it.
 
I think I read somewhere that sailfin blennies like it, but I can't confirm this.
 
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