Carbon - Necessary?

[Mrbill]

After my canister filter leaking incident on Christmas day, I have totally removed it. The only thing that really concerns me is that I'm not running carbon, I was running it 24/7 before.

Thoughts?

Also, any thoughts on getting rid of hair algae? I thought the Blenny would help, but he's not doing much. (the algae was there with the carbon too)

46 gallon bowfront.
3-4 DSB
CPR BakPak2R skimmer
Approximately 60 lbs LR
3 Maxijets for movement

No sump or fuge
5 gallon water change every other week

2 clowns
3 chromies
1 algae blenny
1 blood red fire shrimp
1 camelback shrimp
1 brittle star

 

[Mrbill]

Oh yeah, I'm using RO water, and I replaced my 10 month old Power Compact bulbs just a couple weeks ago.

 

[schoeplein]

Reduce lighting hours.
Reduce feeding.

 

[Mrbill]

I have reduced lighting, and I only feed like an eighth of a formula one cube every other day, at most. My RO filters are good, bulbs are good, not overfeeding, I just can't seem to get rid of this algae.

I forgot to list 1 small hermit crab, 4 turbos, 5 olive snails, and assorted smaller snails.

 

[schoeplein]

Hmm... the only thing that causes algae to grow is by providing it with nutrients. Are you cleaning the frozen food in warm water before dropping it in the tank? What color is the algae?

 

[Mrbill]

Well I had cyano pretty bad for a while, and still do have a little bit here and there. Now I'm having a hair algae outbreak. The stuff is going crazy.

What I do with the cubes is cut off some very small slices (like Paulie cutting garlic in "Goodfellas" ) and drop it in the tank. It seems to all be eaten within minutes.

 

[schoeplein]

The frozen food is suspended in a liquid that is useless but harmless to fish and feeds your algae phosphates. Drop a cube or half a cube into your net and run it under room temperature tap water to leave the fish goodies only. Keep cutting back on lighting, and feeding to a minimal amount. Its the only way to fight the stuff. ChemClean will help destroy Cyano, but it will always come back unless you manage the source. Algae growth is also accellerated with warmer water: Try dropping it down a couple degrees.

 

[Mrbill]

Cool, thanks for the tips. I'll try anything at this point.

 

[Salttanker]

Does the algae grow in the same spots, or is it just all over? How long has the tank been setup? I had my share of cyano for a few months in the beginning stages before it finally went away.

Mike

 

[Salttanker]

Almost forgot: If you have a test kit, test the water to see what the parameters are.

Mike

 

[Mrbill]

Tank is just about a year old. The algae does seem to stick to certain areas, but oddly the areas have good flow. The hair algae is blowing around a lot.

I do have a test kit, always comes out good but I haven't tested in a while. I'll do that over the weekend.

 

[Salttanker]

Yeah, there is some algae that actually likes the flow. Just test the water and see what the results are. Your nitrates might still be on the high side. A simple water change can help that problem.

Mike

 

[myredsox1]

I'm fighting the same problem right now. I'm doing a lot of things to fight it right now but I have this problem with overfeeding. They just look so hungy!