Mechanical filtration

[luckycat]

OK so I have a question for everyone... i have a 90g with a basement fuge.. my 90g overflow goes down to two rubbermaid holding tanks - one with my ps and one with a ton of chaeto macro algae. From these two, water flows from the top to a middle rubbermaid tank which contains my return pump and nothing else.

I have been having a terrible algae issue...it is growing uncontrollably everywhere - I have small traces of phosphates (0.05mg/L), use RO water, and have a cleanup crew (my snails seem to die quite quickly for some reason, but fish, shrimp seem to be fine)... anyway I thought that perhaps an issue might be that I never included mechanical filtration in my basement setup.

I recently started adding some cheap polyester floss to the returns mentioned above in some media trays that I devised (using egg crate), and change those once a week. They seem to trap quite a bit of brown stuff!

First, do any of you use any form of mechanical filtration in a LR-based filtration system? And might the additional removal of this stuff aide in my algae problem?

 

[dorian965]

i think it helps as long as you make sure to clean it often, at least once or twice a week. also try using a very fine media. poly filter maybe? i noticed that mine turns brown quite fast also.

 

[lando]

First thing to do is to tackle the PO4 issue. Are you using RO water or RO/DI water? A standard RO unit will do nothing to get rid of PO4. What are you feeding, how do you prepare it and how often?

First, do any of you use any form of mechanical filtration in a LR-based filtration system?

Yes. I run PURA filtration pads (combo of mechanical and chemical filtration) in my large reef and Poly Filter in my nano.

And might the additional removal of this stuff aide in my algae problem?

No. The algae isssue is a product of too many excess nutrients in the water and mechanical filtration will really do nothing to help with it.

 

[luckycat]

Thanks for the info - I have only a RO filter now, I'll get an RO/DI. I feed very little, infrequently - every other day, or every third day, spirulina flakes mixed with Nu Life Spectrum thera-A.

I'll change the poly fiber filter once a week or more, it certainly seems to be taking things out of the water, which can't be bad.