Need some serious help here. I was on vacation for 10 days. I left my tank in the care of an experienced reefer, but that person got sick and just left the tank for the last 5 days of the 10 (he sent someone else over to feed). Somewhere in that time frame the tank had an algae bloom (serious bloom). I returned tonight to find a GREEN tank. When I say green, I mean pea soup! Given that its 2 in the morning, I can't really get any new water or salt to make new water. I plan to do a massive (50%) water change first thing in the morning. What else can/should I do to fix this? I kicked on the lights to see if I could see who was swimming around, but I can't see through the murk. This is horrible. I've never had anything like this happen before.
Vacation Nightmare! Help!!!!
- Thread starter sfloridasalty
- Start date
only a junior member here, so take this advice with a grain of salt.
do you have calupra in the tank? might have a mass "die-off/spawn"of this macroalgea. my first tank i had calupra and one night they just released all there belongings to make my water green. i had a canister filter laying around so hooked it up with carbon and the green was gone in about fifteen hours. i did not do that much of a water change, maybe only 20%. in my opinion 50 is way too much. how big is your tank? reef? if using carbon, do not forget to add trace elements back to the tank hope this helps out.
do you have calupra in the tank? might have a mass "die-off/spawn"of this macroalgea. my first tank i had calupra and one night they just released all there belongings to make my water green. i had a canister filter laying around so hooked it up with carbon and the green was gone in about fifteen hours. i did not do that much of a water change, maybe only 20%. in my opinion 50 is way too much. how big is your tank? reef? if using carbon, do not forget to add trace elements back to the tank hope this helps out.
vitz":e0kkf8vb said:a small canister filter like a hot magnum will do a great job-run it with the pleated micron filter cartridge.what size tank you got?
heh, I guess it was late and I forgot to give all the details.
Its a 75gal reef. Currently running a sea life sump (minus the bioballs). About 50 lbs LR and LSB.
Luckily I do have a spare hot magnum laying around. I'll get that out and give it a try.
Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks everyone for all the good advice. My LFS (Bluewater in Boca Raton, FL) was nice enough to lend me a big diatom filter (thanks Sal!). I've got that running as well as the Magnum with the pleated sleave. Now its just a matter of time.
Dizzy, I'm unclear about the UV steralizer. I have one, but have never hooked it up. I've often read here on the board that people don't (as a general rule) use them in reef tanks, as they remove too many trace elements etc. Do you use one and what are the benefits/drawbacks?
Thanks!
Dizzy, I'm unclear about the UV steralizer. I have one, but have never hooked it up. I've often read here on the board that people don't (as a general rule) use them in reef tanks, as they remove too many trace elements etc. Do you use one and what are the benefits/drawbacks?
Thanks!
salty,
I can assure you they don't remove trace elements. They are very effective at killing green algae cells in the water that goes through them. They can also kill protozoan and other types of parasites that go through them if the flow rate is not too fast. The downside is that they can kill beneficial zooplankton and phytoplankton. Parasite infestations and green water are the time to use them.
I can assure you they don't remove trace elements. They are very effective at killing green algae cells in the water that goes through them. They can also kill protozoan and other types of parasites that go through them if the flow rate is not too fast. The downside is that they can kill beneficial zooplankton and phytoplankton. Parasite infestations and green water are the time to use them.
imho-uv's should generally not be run on reeftanks, for a variety of reasons,including the one danmhippo mentioned-it does not discriminate between beneficial and non, micro-organisms.
though it will help with preventing algal blooms-for an existing bloom-it will kill the algae in the water column,releasing the nutrients that fed the algae in the first place,back to the system.
mechanical removal is a way of using the microalgae/phytoplankton bloom as nutrient export.(skimmers do the same with the microalgaes, and they also are responsible(partly) for the color of your skimmate
:wink: ).
whether one is pro uv or not-the best they can do for disease/protozoan outbreaks is possibly slow down the rate of transmission of disease via the water column-organisms have to get to the uv to be killed-and can spread in the tank w/o ever going through the uv.
my intuition tells me that some of the microscopic disease organisms also have microscopic predators,and that the uv kills them too.
having said all that-i think uv's definitely have a place in store type systems,as transmission barriers between tanks, and as reducers of micro-parasites/algaes in multiple tank fish only systems, since maintenance schedules/higher overall wasteload/continual additions of new and stressed specimens lead to a need for any devices' help in lowering risk factors.
though it will help with preventing algal blooms-for an existing bloom-it will kill the algae in the water column,releasing the nutrients that fed the algae in the first place,back to the system.
mechanical removal is a way of using the microalgae/phytoplankton bloom as nutrient export.(skimmers do the same with the microalgaes, and they also are responsible(partly) for the color of your skimmate
:wink: ).
whether one is pro uv or not-the best they can do for disease/protozoan outbreaks is possibly slow down the rate of transmission of disease via the water column-organisms have to get to the uv to be killed-and can spread in the tank w/o ever going through the uv.
my intuition tells me that some of the microscopic disease organisms also have microscopic predators,and that the uv kills them too.
having said all that-i think uv's definitely have a place in store type systems,as transmission barriers between tanks, and as reducers of micro-parasites/algaes in multiple tank fish only systems, since maintenance schedules/higher overall wasteload/continual additions of new and stressed specimens lead to a need for any devices' help in lowering risk factors.
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