started a saltwater talk back in July (I believe) and has since been battling non-st

[jeffaquarius]

Nah, no house lights. Just the bedroom light, which is on the ceiling pretty far from the tank. That is on maybe 5 hours a day at night. Only one of the lights is adjustable. The one that is adjustable, it is turned on all the way, yes.

I have the feeling that your lighting fixture could be the cause of your algae problem. The left side of tank seem to have a full spectrum at 100% and the right side has blue at 100% also. Not a good combination or set up but you can reduce the intensity of both lights. Minimize the white light as much as you can. If it is not adjustable, add plastic screen on top of egg crate to make it dim. You can also just turn off the white and just move all corals on the blue while turning it down during this elimination process.

 

[jehenry89]

Ok, just give me a quick recap of your current issue. I'm sorry but I can't sift throught 6 pages of posts.

I cannot get this dino algae to away . Been battling it for like 5 months straight.

 

[jehenry89]

I have the feeling that your lighting fixture could be the cause of your algae problem. The left side of tank seem to have a full spectrum at 100% and the right side has blue at 100% also. Not a good combination or set up but you can reduce the intensity of both lights. Minimize the white light as much as you can. If it is not adjustable, add plastic screen on top of egg crate to make it dim. You can also just turn off the white and just move all corals on the blue while turning it down during this elimination process.

I can turn down the light on the left but I cannot adjust the one on the right. I guess ill try it. I will have to see if I have something laying around the house I can use. I actually think you might be right because when we had a glass canopy, it was manageable but we had to get rid of it because it was getting too hot in the summer. Guess I will give it a try and see what happens.

 

[VADM_Mustang]

The ATS will strip your tank clean of nutrients. It allows you to grow the algae in a controlled environment, then clean it out of the ATS once a week. I'd say, start the ATS, let it run one week, clean it. Then the next week, keep a 16 hour light cycle on the ATS, and turn off all lights in the tank, covering it with a bed sheet. With no loght in the tank, the algae will begin to die, releasing the nutrients into the water, where the ATS will collect them. Algae dies in the tank, clean out the ATS, 5% water change at the end of the week. Problem solved. After that, 6 hour light cycle in the tank, 16 on the ATS. Your fish can live a week without food or light. That's how I got rid of my Cyano problem.

 

[jeffaquarius]

I can turn down the light on the left but I cannot adjust the one on the right. I guess ill try it. I will have to see if I have something laying around the house I can use. I actually think you might be right because when we had a glass canopy, it was manageable but we had to get rid of it because it was getting too hot in the summer. Guess I will give it a try and see what happens.

On another thought, make sure the specification of your taotronics light fixture is intended for reef tank and not for plants. Otherwise, your tank becomes a refugium cultivating algae which you are having now.

 

[jehenry89]

On another thought, make sure the specification of your taotronics light fixture is intended for reef tank and not for plants. Otherwise, your tank becomes a refugium cultivating algae which you are having now.

They are 100% sure of reefs. I will look into the Algae Turf Scrubber tomorrow, its bed time.

 

[mr_X]

Algae can grow under any color light if nutrients are present. It doesn't have to be red or white. My refugium is lit with a blue fixture most of the time and algae grows just fine. If it was the light that was doing it, then one side would have more algae than the other.
My friend just went through this same thing. 6 months and keeping a nutrient starved reef is what took it away. He even blacked out his tank for 4 days and it did nothing.

 

[jeffaquarius]

Algae can grow under any color light if nutrients are present. It doesn't have to be red or white. My refugium is lit with a blue fixture most of the time and algae grows just fine. If it was the light that was doing it, then one side would have more algae than the other.
My friend just went through this same thing. 6 months and keeping a nutrient starved reef is what took it away. He even blacked out his tank for 4 days and it did nothing.

It depends on what kind of algae you are dealing with. There are algae which are actually a kind of bacteria and do not need light to grow. Real algae do need lights for photosynthesis.

http://www.liveaquaria.com/PIC/article.cfm?aid=5

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/dealing-with-algae-in-your-aquarium.html

One reason why fluorescent bulbs are replaced regularly is because they changed light bandwidth that favors SOME algae. That means color of light does affect their growth. In algae turf scrubber you pick the right color of light for efficiency.

It's good to starve your tank as long as you don't kill your fish. Just don't use algae control products in salt water tank.

 

[Gregcoyote]

Magenta colored hydroponics led over a big ATS. Nuisance algaes love this color of lighting.


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[george griffith]

Phosphates phosphates phosphates ! Get rid of them, lights have nothing to do with it once you get Phosphates under control


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[jeffaquarius]

Phosphates phosphates phosphates ! Get rid of them, lights have nothing to do with it once you get Phosphates under control


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How do you get rid of phosphate when it reads 0?

 

[Sniperhank]

If you see phosphates above 0, you have a big problem. When things decompose and go through the nitrate cycle, you get about 16 to 1 ratio if I remember the rough math correctly. That is, for 16 nitrate you will get 1 phosphate. This is why you want to have very precise phosphate test kits to know what is going on. When I had big algae issues in my tank my phosphates were at .16! Currently, they are at .05.

 

[jeffaquarius]

It follows that the first step for OP is to throw away that API test kit and get a low range phosphate test kit such as Salifert that can read below 0.1 and go from there. However, those algae has to be manually removed first otherwise it will catch those phosphates first before any other media can be effective. With strong light algae can grab those phosphates faster. So you can not say that light has nothing to do with it. Algae use light for photosynthesis to absorb phosphate.

 

[Sniperhank]

With my hanna checker, I've never had a problem with detecting the phosphates in my tank.

 

[jehenry89]

This week when we do the water change, I plan on changing rhe reactor media. Even when the media was brand new and I did some manual removal, it didnt do anything. I had a peice of plexy glass laying around that I put on top of the left side of the tank, I dont have one for the right side just yet. Going to see if that does anything. Hopefully it does. Ill keep you all posted.

Thanks so much for all of ypur input.

 

[jeffaquarius]

I would stop feeding frozen food during this process until algae is under control. Use pellets cause they are low on phosphate.

 

[Maridia]

That would be a wise gift for him. Some hobbyists have changed their ro/di filters only to find later that they installed it incorrectly resulting to high tds.

I'm joining this party a little late. But I'm getting ready to change out my sediment/carbon/DI resin on my BRS 4 stage for the first time... What would be an incorrect way to install it? Cartridges upside down? Too much DI resin? Too little?

 

[jeffaquarius]

When replacing ro/di filters, there is a chance that the cylinder filter may tilt a little bit when tightening the canister. When that happens the rubber seal will not set properly on top and bottom and some of the tap water will leak out bypassing the cylinder filter. Apply lubricant (any oil) on the canister rubber gasket when reinstalling and tighten it by hand only.

 

[Maridia]

When replacing ro/di filters, there is a chance that the cylinder filter may tilt a little bit when tightening the canister. When that happens the rubber seal will not set properly on top and bottom and some of the tap water will leak out bypassing the cylinder filter. Apply lubricant (any oil) on the canister rubber gasket when reinstalling and tighten it by hand only.

I'll keep an eye out for that. Thanks


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[mr_X]

I would stop feeding frozen food during this process until algae is under control. Use pellets cause they are low on phosphate.

You could feed fresh food. I wouldn't put that store bought frozen food in my tank. go to the supermarket and get some fish and shrimp and make your own.
Here's one recipe-
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f20/marine-fish-food-thread-287198.html