algae issues

[MaiNpHRaMe]

You need sand sifters? IE:Orangespot diamond goby (fish) or nassarius snails (snails) or some sand sifting starfish. To me it looks as though you aren't maintaining your tank the way it should be maintained. keep up on your maintenance or your tank will bloom like crazy.

 

[hborch60]

Tank maintenance

I Understand and practice good tank maintenance. Do you see the previous posts?

 

[Brad.Sedore]

You need sand sifters? IE:Orangespot diamond goby (fish) or nassarius snails (snails) or some sand sifting starfish. To me it looks as though you aren't maintaining your tank the way it should be maintained. keep up on your maintenance or your tank will bloom like crazy. You can't be lazy and hope you get a healthy tank. This is salwater not freshwater - you are trying to recreate the ocean in an enclosed enviroment put in the effort bro.

wow dude. if the man didnt care about his tank he wouldent have put so much time into this thread... IMHO at least. not trying to start a fight but to me it seems like hes trying... at least since he started the thread

-Brad

 

[hborch60]

Thank you, well said. But back to the aquarium. Just measured my phosphate levels in my tank and RO/DI water. Noticeable difference, in that the RO water shows ~0.25ppm while my new TDS meter reads 1 ppm. Water reads 0 phosphate level. Anyone have some useful ideas?

 

[Brad.Sedore]

well for the glass i removed it all manually. papertowel syphen and some patience.

if infact they are diatoms i believe they should burn out

-Brad

as for the algae coming back im in the same boat as you brother. 3 power heads running to keep the flow up heat lowered to stall growth. and turbos to try and eat up what they can.... nothing... comes back as quick as it goes.

-Brad

 

[rugie]

do not rely on your lfs for good advice they only want to sell products. reduce your total photo period to 6-8 hrs per day, taking into consideration other sources of light in the room, shield from sunlight. run actinic and purified white at same time. do not use any additives. or "removers" they are a waste of money. test your makeup/ exchange water for po4 & no3 do not use if you get a reading. you can beat these problems, be patient. take an aspirin & relax.

 

[rugie]

problem with cleanup crew ( turbos etc) is what goes in the front comes out the other end changed very little in nutrients, (po4 & no3 that was contained in the items they ate) although a few work well in a tank, but we expect to much from them, they are not like garbage men who come to our house an cart it all away in a truck.

 

[rugie]

B-- heat has very little to do with algae growth

 

[Brad.Sedore]

i figured 3 degrees couldent hurt.. it was high anyways..


you should try and put all your posts into 1 single post.. just so we dont get into trouble

-Brad

Also to me i dont feel like im asking too much out of the clean up crew... im not expecting them to clear up my problem in a day but rather to cut the cycle up... eat at least the ammount that dies off to reduce the phosphates that would be produced by the plant die off.. in turn killing the algae

-Brad

 

[rugie]

your tests indicate that you indeed have po4 in your ro water, once you put it into the tank it is assimilated by the alga's & diatoms and gives you a 0 reading of your tank water. po4 bonds to the substrate, to calcium, and other objects in the tank including live rock. kalk drip will bind po4 and your skimmer will remove it. hike your skimmer up a little for a wetter foam, (watch it does not overflow the cup.

 

[rugie]

any sand sifters can create a problem. the sand bed is divided into layers as it applies to the nitrifying bacteria, there are anaerobic & aerobic bios, one uses oxygen and the other does not. when the sand is stirred the bacteria become skewed. trapped po4 is brought to the surface to be dissolved and the nitrate is also released be for it can be changed to nitrogen. the Gobi is a problem, do not stir or vacuum your sand, let it set, the micro flora and benthic lifeforms will take good care of it.

 

[rugie]

diatoms do not"burn out" until all of the free silica in the tank are used up, which is usually fairly fast, (their cell walls are made up of silica.) but that is another long story.)

 

[rugie]

brad as I stated if po4, no3 are contained in the items the crew eat then those same nutrients will be excreted at about the same strength that they had when ingested

 

[melosu58]

All post that did not pertain to the OP question were removed. Please do not post several post that could be in one post. Thank you

 

[Brad.Sedore]

brad as I stated if po4, no3 are contained in the items the crew eat then those same nutrients will be excreted at about the same strength that they had when ingested

if what you say is true.. why would anyone have a turbo snail.


i always thought the snails decreased PO4 and increased No3 in the stuff they consumed...

-Brad

 

[hborch60]

algae and cleanup crew

In my tank the cleanup crew clears all the algae on the surface of my sandbed. But, the algae quickly returns, esp. when lights are on.

I am including a pic of my whole aquarium. Is it overloaded? Several coral have spread since purchase. How do I limit their growth?

Next I am going to run my skimmer 'wet'. I would like to increase h2o changes but doesn't make sense if I am just adding phosphates. I am going to contact the company that makes my filter and see if they can help. I might also buy a different test kit, just incase.

 

[Brad.Sedore]

those still look like diatoms to me... maybe you have silica coming from somewhere?

 

[hborch60]

Do you know of a way to measure silica levels and its source in an established aquarium?

 

[melosu58]

I`m not saying it`s not diatoms. It very well could be. but I have seen cyano start out looking like that also. As far as the tank make sure that you have several inches cof space between the LPS corals. They have sweepers that could harm other corals.

 

[hborch60]

Ok, I contacted the company that manufactures my RO/DI system and was asked to test the TDS and Phosphate at: my tap, after the membrane, and after the DI stage (the 'clean' water). Here is what I found:

TDS Phos
tap 263 0.25
membrane 11 0.25
DI 0 0.25

Well, so good job eliminating TDS, but not so much for phosphate......