RSM 250, Replacing the 1200l/h pump and algae issues

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mistral82cy

New Member
Hi guys, greetings from Belgium,

My secondary pump is out of use...

do you think an aqua medic ocean runner 3500 will create too much wave for the aquarium? should I go for something around 1200l/h as the original one?

I have one more question,

I have a great algae problem going on for a couple of months. (I neglected my aquarium quite a lot lately) but my corals still seem to be going well, and expanding.
Last evening I took measurement of NO3, PO4 and SiO2, everything gave me normal readings... Maybe algae is using all the NO3 and PO4, so this is why i get normal readings?

could it also be a problem of not having a good flow rate in the aquarium? (at the moment only the 2400l/h and a tunze 6025 are running)

I did some water changes (40-50 litres per week the last 2-3 months), but still have the problem with the algae.


Any ideas, suggestions?

thanks in advance,

constantinos
 
Y

YNot

Member
Low flow can contribute to algae growths. As can (as you know) poor maintenance and over feeding. Bulbs that are over due to be replace can also contribute to this.
Not knowing what type of algae you are dealing with, I can only offer these suggestions. Having fought a seeming endless battle with Bryopsis algae, I can tell you what I've done that appears to have eliminated the nuisance algae.

1. If you are running the T5 bulbs and they are nearing 12 months old, replace your bulbs.

2. Get a small, stiff brush and brush away the algae. I did this with a poly filter in place and I left the filtration running while scrubbing the rock.

3. Heavy water change. This will help remove the nutrients that the algae is feeding on. I did about a 60% water change. This is a rather drastic change but...you are fighting something that WILL take over the tank and needs to be addressed aggressively. Do this water change immediately after scrubbing the rock. At some point you'll loose sight of the rock due to all of the debris that you'll generate while scrubbing the rock.

4. Once the heavy water change has been completed, do a daily water change of about 4 to 7 liters. Again, this will dilute the nutrients that are feeding the algae.
You'll want to continue this water change routine for at least two weeks. Also, smaller, more frequent water changes are easier on the tank as a whole than one large change. For me, it only takes about 5 minutes to pull and replace 4 to 7 liters.

5. Reduce the amount of time that the lights are on to about 6 hours for a couple of weeks. Then take it back up to 7 for two weeks, then finally 8 hours.

6. If possible, double up on the algae eating clean up crew. Consider some sort of algae eating fish as well. Yellow Tangs come to mind.

7. Keep the stiff brush handy. At least once a day, inspect the rock. Go in and scrub any algae that you see. Then do your daily water change.

It's a PITA for sure but your tank will thank you.

After about two weeks, you can consider going back to a weekly water change or stick with the daily water change. IMO, the daily water change is better for the tank. It helps keep the trace elements at a steady level. One of the (many, many) keys to this hobby is stability. And it's a constant reduction of pollutants (nutrients to the algae).

The livestock that we keep do not appreciate wild swings. :cool:
 
M

mistral82cy

New Member
Thanks a million for your reply YNot,

The algae I have is Bryopsis algae like you did..

I already changed my T5 to LEDs.... I guess I should reduce the amount of time the lights are on, this will not harm the corals? ( for the moment I have a controller which is emulating sunrise sunset base on live values...

concerning scrubbing the rock, I can do that, but only at places where there are no corals... I also have some algae between the corals..

I will try to make a big water change as you suggest... need to fill up my buckets :)

Another mistake I did, was that I didn't have a cleaning crew joust a couple... I already purchased some last week, as well as a yellow tang as you suggested... I am also expecting a frind to shut down his tank this week, and he will provide me with additional cleaning crew, as well as another tang.

I am in the process of selecting a replacement pump and as well an additional circulation pump.

Hope this will help solve problems.


Again thanks for your reply and suggestions...
 
Y

YNot

Member
Bryopsis algae is a witch (not the word I normally use to describe it ;) ) to deal with. You can try using Tech M. I recently learned that there are different strains of Bryopsis. It seems that the strain that I had was not impacted by my Tech M treatments. I kept raising the Tech M and finally stopped at 2200. This took out all of my CUC as well as several prized corals.

I've since brought it back down to 1350 and I feel that the key to my Bryopsis removal was harassment.
While it did not seem to like the Tech M, I think it was the massive water change, heavy scrubbing and daily water changes and daily scrubbing that seemed to have caused it the most harm. I've found that it would rather be left alone. If left alone, it'll thrive. But like most plants, if you screw around with it (scrub it) enough and starve it (reduced feedings and daily water changes), it will go away. So far, there are very few creatures that will eat Bryopsis. There are some nudibrac (sp?) and a few urchances (sp?) and perhaps a a sea hare that will but they are sometimes hard to find and do not address the root cause of the Bryopsis.

Regarding the reduced lights and the corals, no. You can shut off the lights for two or three days and not harm anything. Of course, they will not be happy about it but they'll survive and do just fine once the lights come back on.

On the same note, turning off the lights for a week or more will not have any negative impact on the Bryopsis.
Starving and harassment seem to be the key. At least it was for me.

I'm on my third week of this plan of attack and even the Bryopsis that I could not get to with a brush seems to have gone away.

Just keep in mind that it, like every living thing, must feed. It you reduce the food source (nitrates and phosphates), it has no choice and will die off.
If you add in the daily harassment of brushing, it'll die off even faster.

I know that if I were being harassed every day and always starving, I'd die or go away as well.
 
Y

YNot

Member
As far as replacement pump(s) go, you might want to consider a Eheim Compact+ Pump 3000. There are several folks here who use the Eheim Compact+ Pump 3000 in their 250. I've got one sitting on the shelve but have not installed it yet. My pumps are working just fine at the moment.
 
Y

YNot

Member
Yeah, you've got a hot mess on your hands. It'll take the better part of a day of cleaning and water changes but if you'll jump in and be persistent, it'll look 1000% better within 24 hours.
 
Y

YNot

Member
Good deal.
Just remember, if you starve it, it will die.
Follow up last night's clean up with a heavy (50-60%) water change then starting the day after, do the mini water changes every day.
Scrub it as often as you can.

BTW, are you native to Belgium?
I've passed through Belgium 6 or 7 times and never stopped.
I really wanted to but I would wind up being in a hurry to get to some other place and never managed to do it.
 
M

mistral82cy

New Member
Not sure if i have that much water ready.... I guess it is only like 30% maximum... Need to buy another bucket and wait 1-2 days to prepare this amount...

i am not belgian.. I am from cyprus but live here since 2005..


Sent from my RM-941_eu_belgium_296 using Tapatalk
 
M

mistral82cy

New Member
Here is a recent photo of the tank... still a lot of cleaning to be done...

23tm5w4.jpg




I have also this kind of algae

dndafk.jpg


It was recognised as codium in another forum... do you know if I should keep it or not?


thanks
 
Y

YNot

Member
I see the bryopsis but I'm not an algae expert by any means.
I'm fairly sure that if you can rid the tank of what is feeding the bryopsis, the other algae will go away as well.
 
Malexiam

Malexiam

Member
1 Lawnmower Benny and 10 Mexican Turbos plus Clear FX worked for me, my looked worse then your and its clean as crystal now!!!
 
M

mistral82cy

New Member
Thanks guys for all the feedback...

Last weekend I clipped a lot of algae off my rocks, added 10 turbo snails (i only had 1-2 before) and also a lemon tang. Could not find a lawnmower yet, hopefully next week.

yesterday I 've replaced the 2nd pump which was out of order (I guess for more than 1-2 months) with a tunze 1073.20 which can circulate up to 2400l/h - 630 US gal./h. It just fits the secondary pump chamber.

I will start with the water changes this evening, (around 80-90 litres) each time, still need to buy another bucket so that i can prepare more water for larger water changes.

Still need to reconfigure my controller to reduce the amount of time the lights are on. hope to do this tonight as well.

I also have a wave controller which i don't use at the moment. Do you think putting it on will help for this problem? or is it just an add-on for corals?
 
Y

YNot

Member
mistral82cy said:
Thanks guys for all the feedback...

Last weekend I clipped a lot of algae off my rocks, added 10 turbo snails (i only had 1-2 before) and also a lemon tang. Could not find a lawnmower yet, hopefully next week.

yesterday I 've replaced the 2nd pump which was out of order (I guess for more than 1-2 months) with a tunze 1073.20 which can circulate up to 2400l/h - 630 US gal./h. It just fits the secondary pump chamber.

I will start with the water changes this evening, (around 80-90 litres) each time, still need to buy another bucket so that i can prepare more water for larger water changes.

Still need to reconfigure my controller to reduce the amount of time the lights are on. hope to do this tonight as well.

I also have a wave controller which i don't use at the moment. Do you think putting it on will help for this problem? or is it just an add-on for corals?
Click to expand...

I think using the wave controller will not harm anything. If anything, it'll help keep nutrients from settling into an area that's being protected from a constant, one way water current.

And remember, my suggestion (because it worked for me) was to do one massive water change (50-60%) then do much, much smaller changes every day.

And like Malexiam mentioned, check the phosphates. I checked mine with an API and Hanna Checker. They both showed zero. I suspect it was because the algae was consuming it. Even after three weeks of being algae free, I'm still showing zero phosphates & nitrates. I contribute that to the smaller water changes I make every day.
 
M

mistral82cy

New Member
Wll,

I already tested phosphates and I have zero... I believe this reading is misleading though for the same reason Ynot says... the algae is "eating" it all to expand... same for nitrates...

Do you believe I should try to raise the magnesium level as well? or this may cause additional problems?

Is it better to buy ready made water from one shop? or the one I produce with my RO is ok?

mistral82cy
 
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