i am having a serious algae problem!!! im cleaning my glass off every day and doing water changes every 2 weeks and still cant seem to keep up!!! i am running 3 regant dual filters,two maxjet powerheads and a seaclone skimmer. i am also adding kalkwasser and my temp is at 78.salinity is at 1.023.do i need a better skimmer? r.o. unit?(not using one at this time)better filters? help!!!!!! any pointers on my setup would be appreciated
algae out of control !!!
- Thread starter john
- Start date
ScottT1980
Well-Known Member
Are you just using tap? How many fish? How big is your tank? How often and what are you feeding? Also, I don't know what a regant dual filter is...is it a canister filter or a hang-on the back type of filter?
This should get us started
This should get us started
nigle
Member
Oi!
Stop using tap water and if your corals can handel it turn off your lights for a few days.
I'm convinced that algae is more a result of light than anything else, but tap water also has too much 'gunk' in it. Reduce the amount of light in the tank until the algae is under control.
Cheers!
nigle
!~!
Stop using tap water and if your corals can handel it turn off your lights for a few days.
I'm convinced that algae is more a result of light than anything else, but tap water also has too much 'gunk' in it. Reduce the amount of light in the tank until the algae is under control.
Cheers!
nigle
!~!
EdgeKrusher
Member
Dang that's alot of food, way too much IMO! and the tap water is a no-no, it probably contains elevated amounts of phosephate. If you want to continue using the tap water call your local water company and ask them for a water analysis report. That will tell you exactly what's in the water, and you might be surprised at what's going into your tank.
Algae thrives on phosphate and of course light, and most of the foods we introduce into our systems are saturated in phosephate. With only nine fish in that tank your feeding schedule and the amout you are feeding can wreck havoc on your system. I would feed maybe 3 times a week, and use about half of what you are using for now. also decreasing the length of time your lights are on has been known to help out too. Do you have any corals? or is this a FO tank? You never mentioned what kind of lighting you have.
Algae thrives on phosphate and of course light, and most of the foods we introduce into our systems are saturated in phosephate. With only nine fish in that tank your feeding schedule and the amout you are feeding can wreck havoc on your system. I would feed maybe 3 times a week, and use about half of what you are using for now. also decreasing the length of time your lights are on has been known to help out too. Do you have any corals? or is this a FO tank? You never mentioned what kind of lighting you have.
Cosmic
Member
IMO,
cutting back the light cycle is a temporary (at best) solution. The only thing it WILL do is stress your corals some.
Algae responds to light, true, but it also needs a food source to feed upon. if this food source is available, the algae will utilize whatever light they can get to grow.
But what happens while the lights are off? The nutrients aren't going anywhere. Sure, it might kill the lagae present at the time of the lights going off, but you don't think new algae is going to pop back up to take advantage of those nutrients?
All you will accomplish by turning the lights off is to delay the REAL problem, which is too high of a nutrient level. Algaes will feed off of Phosphates, nitrates, and to an extent, silicates (mainly). By limiting all (some) of the above, you will limit the algae growth without turning the food source (light) for your corals off at the same time.
Some possible culprits are any bio-wheels/balls/etc in the filtration path. Remove these slowly over a few weeks time to allow the bacterial processes to move to other areas of your tank. This helps to reduce nitrate levels, hence algae levels.
Try running a phosphate sponge. An iron-based sponge is more desirable than those made of aluminum simply because of the health of our animals in the tank. Soft corals especially can show negative response to the aluminum based products.
Add a deep sand bed to help remove nitrates. This gets nitrates (food) out of the water and trapped in the sand bed.
Rinse any frozen foods before adding them to your tank. If feeding flakes, rreduce this amount substantially. As mentioned almost every copmmercially-prepared food contains phosphates to some extent.
RO/(DI) water will help a ton in controlling phopshates and silicates by removing them from the source water, keeping them from entering your tank in the first place. Any serious attempt at algae control should start here, IMO.
Any of the above recommendations will help to reduce algae levels in an aquarium. What is best implemented and works best all depends on you and what you feel most comfortable doing, although each and every one are contributing to the overall problem.
-HTH-
Cos
cutting back the light cycle is a temporary (at best) solution. The only thing it WILL do is stress your corals some.
Algae responds to light, true, but it also needs a food source to feed upon. if this food source is available, the algae will utilize whatever light they can get to grow.
But what happens while the lights are off? The nutrients aren't going anywhere. Sure, it might kill the lagae present at the time of the lights going off, but you don't think new algae is going to pop back up to take advantage of those nutrients?
All you will accomplish by turning the lights off is to delay the REAL problem, which is too high of a nutrient level. Algaes will feed off of Phosphates, nitrates, and to an extent, silicates (mainly). By limiting all (some) of the above, you will limit the algae growth without turning the food source (light) for your corals off at the same time.
Some possible culprits are any bio-wheels/balls/etc in the filtration path. Remove these slowly over a few weeks time to allow the bacterial processes to move to other areas of your tank. This helps to reduce nitrate levels, hence algae levels.
Try running a phosphate sponge. An iron-based sponge is more desirable than those made of aluminum simply because of the health of our animals in the tank. Soft corals especially can show negative response to the aluminum based products.
Add a deep sand bed to help remove nitrates. This gets nitrates (food) out of the water and trapped in the sand bed.
Rinse any frozen foods before adding them to your tank. If feeding flakes, rreduce this amount substantially. As mentioned almost every copmmercially-prepared food contains phosphates to some extent.
RO/(DI) water will help a ton in controlling phopshates and silicates by removing them from the source water, keeping them from entering your tank in the first place. Any serious attempt at algae control should start here, IMO.
Any of the above recommendations will help to reduce algae levels in an aquarium. What is best implemented and works best all depends on you and what you feel most comfortable doing, although each and every one are contributing to the overall problem.
-HTH-
Cos
i have 2 custom sealife pc with 2 96 watt 50/50 lamps with 10000 k actinics. i usualy run my lights 12 hrs on,12hrs off.i have a toadstool leather,candy coral, stripped mushrooms,and a few ricordia that are doing great!! growing very nice!! lot of green algae on the glass and brown and red algae on my crushed coral substrate.
EdgeKrusher
Member
As cosmic put it so well, the lights aren't the issue it's the nutrient level in your tank. Less feeding will help reduce the amount of nutrients that go in, and water changes with RO will help remove those nutrients that are already present. I do not necesarrily agree that adding a DSB is a long term solution, especially since there is no form of export, and the nutrients sink into the DSB. I myself run a DSB, with the knowledge that 2 - 3 years down the road I'll have to replace a large portion of it so as to not leech all those sunken nutrients back to the tank.
wooddood
the wood dude
get an ro unit or your gonna constantly battle the algea. the green algea on the glass is pretty normal just use a mag float to clean the glass. the red you mentioned sounds like cyno [a bacteria not an algea so to speak] do you have bubbles on the red? it's kind of ironic this post came up today because i have a 120 gal tank no substraight other then starboard [ a plastic cutting board material] and i use ro water only. i noticed cyno building up on 3 pieces of live rock only. so back when i did have a sand bed i had cyno on time also and used a product called [chemi-clean] made by boyd enterprizes with great results. so we treated the tank yesterday morning and today it's almost gone. it says to wait 48 hours and repeat if needed. alot of reefers dont like to add chemicals to thier tanks that they cannot test for but i have used it before and i did again with no ill effects the first time and none so far this time. so this is my advice to you, get a ro unit asap, if you cant buy water at the lfs. or wal-mart, or the super market but stop using tap water. as far as the chemi-clean it's all up to you. oh and the first battle i had with cyno i was using tap water too so we all make mistakes i know i have made my fair share so dont fell bad we all have. i do know this if you let it go it will take over your tank and kill everything trust me. you need to get a handle on this asap. take it for what it's worth. and good luck and please keep us posted on how you are doin with the situation.
Reef Geek
Reefus Geekus
John, you will be surprised how much that RO/DI will help! Over a month period the algae retreated and my corals started growing!
I have mine running to the fridge as well. Crystal clear ice cubes and the best tasting water you can get!! Better than bottled or well. I did a blind taste test on my family, they all picked the RO water as the best!!
I have mine running to the fridge as well. Crystal clear ice cubes and the best tasting water you can get!! Better than bottled or well. I did a blind taste test on my family, they all picked the RO water as the best!!