Algae problems
- Thread starter Chaser
- Start date
Hi all.
First, I'm sorry for my bad English!!!
I think it's better to start with some history.
My tank is a 55 gal. I had it installed some years ago, and due to a moving it was dismantled, and it's now installed again for about one year.
The illumination was done with two NO fluorescent tubes (one daylight and one actinic).
The substrate was crushed coral, mixes with tiny shells, and maybe other things that I don't know, over an undergravel filter. My "old" (I don't trust them anymore!) sold me this as "the best of the best" for a substrate.
I have also 1/4 of my tank filled with live rock, a protein skimmer, and a Eheim canister filter (280 gph) for biological chemical and mechanical filtration.(I know You don't use it a lot there in U.S., but here in Europe it's quite common). It has Seachem De-Nitrate, Boyd's Chemi-Pure, and carbon.
After starting to read a lot at forums like this one, I decided to pull out my undergravel filter, and, after that, I noticed and increase at the water quality (nitrite, nitrate and ammonia were easily maintained low).
As I wished to maintain corals, I decided to upgrade my illumination to a 150W HQI (Aqualine Bausche) with two actinic fluorescent tubes.
Some days after the upgrade, I was "gifted" with and algae bloom (diatoms, I think), that covered everything, and lasted more than 2 months. My water parameters where Ammonia, Nitrite and Phosphates = 0, Nitrate = 1ppm.
I tried to put my lights higher (it’s almost 15” now), and to let the light less hours on (now 9 hours/day), and nothing seemed to help.
After a lot of reading, I thought it could be due to silicate leaching from the substrate, and decided to change it too. This weekend I've done it, and changed to Carib-Sea Aragamax. The aspect is much better, but I’m still feeling tired !
Well, now my question: What can I do to prevent the algae to come back ?
Yesterday when I came back from work I saw already some brown spots over my new sand. It’s very frustrating.
My tank inhabitants are: 1 Pacanthurus hepatus, 1 Zebrassoma Flavescens, 1 Sinchyropus picturatus, some 8 hermit crabs (blue and red legged), 2 turbo snails, 1 Sally lightfoot, and some corals: 1 Trachyphyllia, 1 Sinularia, 1 Sarcophyton and 1 Caulastrea (being overgrown by algae) I know You'll probably suggest a more "cleanup crew", but, I live in Portugal, a small country in Southern Europe, and it's very difficult to get some livestock here. For example, during this year I just could get 2 turbo snails, and I'm still trying to get a peppermint shrimp to eat some aiptasia.
I tried to order to some online stores in U.S., but the ones I contacted answered me tat they can send me anything that's not considered alive !
Is anything else I can do ? Or should I simply give up to trying to be a reefkeper ?
Sorry for the long post, and thank you for your patience if you read to this line !
Any suggestion or opinion is wellcome.
Thank you all,
Günther
First, I'm sorry for my bad English!!!
I think it's better to start with some history.
My tank is a 55 gal. I had it installed some years ago, and due to a moving it was dismantled, and it's now installed again for about one year.
The illumination was done with two NO fluorescent tubes (one daylight and one actinic).
The substrate was crushed coral, mixes with tiny shells, and maybe other things that I don't know, over an undergravel filter. My "old" (I don't trust them anymore!) sold me this as "the best of the best" for a substrate.
I have also 1/4 of my tank filled with live rock, a protein skimmer, and a Eheim canister filter (280 gph) for biological chemical and mechanical filtration.(I know You don't use it a lot there in U.S., but here in Europe it's quite common). It has Seachem De-Nitrate, Boyd's Chemi-Pure, and carbon.
After starting to read a lot at forums like this one, I decided to pull out my undergravel filter, and, after that, I noticed and increase at the water quality (nitrite, nitrate and ammonia were easily maintained low).
As I wished to maintain corals, I decided to upgrade my illumination to a 150W HQI (Aqualine Bausche) with two actinic fluorescent tubes.
Some days after the upgrade, I was "gifted" with and algae bloom (diatoms, I think), that covered everything, and lasted more than 2 months. My water parameters where Ammonia, Nitrite and Phosphates = 0, Nitrate = 1ppm.
I tried to put my lights higher (it’s almost 15” now), and to let the light less hours on (now 9 hours/day), and nothing seemed to help.
After a lot of reading, I thought it could be due to silicate leaching from the substrate, and decided to change it too. This weekend I've done it, and changed to Carib-Sea Aragamax. The aspect is much better, but I’m still feeling tired !
Well, now my question: What can I do to prevent the algae to come back ?
Yesterday when I came back from work I saw already some brown spots over my new sand. It’s very frustrating.
My tank inhabitants are: 1 Pacanthurus hepatus, 1 Zebrassoma Flavescens, 1 Sinchyropus picturatus, some 8 hermit crabs (blue and red legged), 2 turbo snails, 1 Sally lightfoot, and some corals: 1 Trachyphyllia, 1 Sinularia, 1 Sarcophyton and 1 Caulastrea (being overgrown by algae) I know You'll probably suggest a more "cleanup crew", but, I live in Portugal, a small country in Southern Europe, and it's very difficult to get some livestock here. For example, during this year I just could get 2 turbo snails, and I'm still trying to get a peppermint shrimp to eat some aiptasia.
I tried to order to some online stores in U.S., but the ones I contacted answered me tat they can send me anything that's not considered alive !
Is anything else I can do ? Or should I simply give up to trying to be a reefkeper ?
Sorry for the long post, and thank you for your patience if you read to this line !
Any suggestion or opinion is wellcome.
Thank you all,
Günther
Hi Gunter,
Sorry, I don't know how to get the two dots over the "u".
Are you using RO/DI water? Switching from just RO to RO/DI water helped me.
As for the Eheim, I would worry that it is still trapping nutrients rather than letting the protein skimmer do its thing. I just pour some carbon into a mesh bag and put it in my sump.
The last thing I did was to add a refugium. This has cut my algae growth substantially. I bought a CPR hang on refugium (although I'll soon be building an in-sump model), miracle mud (probably could've gotten live sand), a kit from IPSF, and a 13watt 6500k light from AH supply.
This set-up has worked well for me. If you do some searches on this web site you'll find that algae blooms are a frequently discussed problem.
Good luck!
Sorry, I don't know how to get the two dots over the "u".
Are you using RO/DI water? Switching from just RO to RO/DI water helped me.
As for the Eheim, I would worry that it is still trapping nutrients rather than letting the protein skimmer do its thing. I just pour some carbon into a mesh bag and put it in my sump.
The last thing I did was to add a refugium. This has cut my algae growth substantially. I bought a CPR hang on refugium (although I'll soon be building an in-sump model), miracle mud (probably could've gotten live sand), a kit from IPSF, and a 13watt 6500k light from AH supply.
This set-up has worked well for me. If you do some searches on this web site you'll find that algae blooms are a frequently discussed problem.
Good luck!
Hi Chaser, and thank you for your answer.
Dont worry about the ü !! I don't know how to do it directly on an US Keyboard. Mine is different! But, if you really want to do it, you can try holding the ALT key pressed, and key 0252 in the numeric keyboard. It may work !
Now back to aquariums. Thank you for your suggestionns, I'll try to put some in prectice. Indeed, I use RO water, and not RO/DI. Maybe the first try would be buying a DI unit.
Also, I may add a sump.
Best regards,
Günther.
[ August 28, 2001: Message edited by: ]
Dont worry about the ü !! I don't know how to do it directly on an US Keyboard. Mine is different! But, if you really want to do it, you can try holding the ALT key pressed, and key 0252 in the numeric keyboard. It may work !
Now back to aquariums. Thank you for your suggestionns, I'll try to put some in prectice. Indeed, I use RO water, and not RO/DI. Maybe the first try would be buying a DI unit.
Also, I may add a sump.
Best regards,
Günther.
[ August 28, 2001: Message edited by: ]
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