impossible algae eradication

[Anonymous]

Yeah, I never heard of the CC/Bio-ball configuration- but it doesn't sound good. I would remove it. Urchins can be good, the best I have used are tuxedo urchins, the ones with the broad blue stripes.

And lotsa snails! Mexican turbos eat the hair algae. Queen conchs possibly also.

 

[qwit10]

Thanks for the reply. I put the layer of bioballs below the cc to prevent it from falling through. It's kind of a screen effect more so than for the bio filtration. I put the cc in the sump because I figured that it would be much more porous and therefore have a much larger area in which nitrifying bacteria to colonize. If I remove it, what would you recommend as a replacement. As I said before, I am thinking of adding a refugium to the system in addition to the wet/dry. It seemed as if the current configuration was working great for the first nine months the tank was set up. Do you think that the sump reached it's carrying capacity and therefore is maxed out, rendering it incapable of properly breaking down nutrients? It seems like it should be working fine in theory. As I said before, water parameters are all pretty good. Nitrite was 0.02mg/l and nitrate was about 1mg/l when I tested on the 8th. I did a ten gallon water change and added a new polyfilter pad.

 

[Carpentersreef]

Get rid of the bio-balls, the cc and the poly filter.
Replace the bed with some sand of a finer texture. You need anaerobic areas of SAND, not DETRITUS. That's the problem with cc (crushed coral). It's too big. Anaerobic areas in cc are formed with detritus, not the sand itself.
In a cc sandbed, by the time that you have an anaerobic area built up, it's filled with detritus. That's why your system worked fine for 9 months and is having problems now. With a sandbed of finer particles, anaerobic areas will build up sooner and start properly processing detritus AS IT BUILDS UP. A polyfilter never has a chance to completely process detritus, as water is constantly flowing through it.

What books are you using for reference?

Mitch

 

[das75]

Had been having a hair algea problem as well. Was using RO/DI not feeding much, etc., and was getting to the point of not wanting to look at the tank. I finally changed my bulbs and though I can't say I'm hair free, it's close to gone.

 

[Supergenius74]

changing my bulbs in my PC definitly had an effect on hair algae, How about trying a lawnmower bleny? http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod ... &pCatId=94 I was pondering getting one.