10gal. AGA...one last attempt

[Kaos]

So, I've been at this hobby for about 5 years now. There has been allot of changes in that short time, but one thing has always remained the same (atleast for me)... hair algae. I've set up several tanks and used countless equipment and still I get it. Well, this is my last attempt to create a tank without the ha.

Equipmet:

10 gal. AGA
Coralife Aqualight 96w Quad
Aqualight Moonlight
Remora w/ MJ 1200
Red Sea Wavemaster Pro w/ 2 MJ 400's (105 gph ea.)
Ebo-Jager 150w (inside Remora)
Coralife digital temp.
2 gal. RO resevoir w/ MJ 1200 (for top-off)
TopDose Single + (not hooked up yet)

Live Stuff:

30lbs. Carib-Sea live sand (Bahama Ollite)
10lbs (approx.) Marshall Is LR
lots of spaeromatid isopods

Maintanance:
Top-off water daily (until my ATO gets hooked up)
1gal. water change every week (after the ATO gets hooked up I'm working on an automated w/c system)

So far this tank has been awsome. It's been setup since late Jan. I went through a small cycle w/ algae, but the spaeromatid isopods quickly took care of it (in less then 2 days). Since I believe allot of my algae problems in the past were due to overfeeding the fish, this tank will be an invert only. I think this will eliminate the build up of PO4 and other bad stuff.

In the short time I've had this tank it has taught me allot things, and reinforced other things I had heard. This is the simplest setup I have had so far. It is concetrating mostly on biological filtration and very little on mechanical. This is proving to be easy to mantain and very effective.

This by no means the only way to setup a tank and may not be the best, but IME it has worked better then anything else I have put together so far.

 

[FavaBean]

Kaos.....really nice......just wondering if you have a sump/fuge tank or is that the Remora.........thanks

 

[BiggySmalls]

looks nice

 

[InvaderJim]

If you continue to get hair algae your are defiantly overlooking something. Are you using RO/DI water? And have you tested for phosphates?

 

[InvaderJim]

Double post.

 

[Kaos]

FavaBean: Thanks. That's the Remora on the back of the tank.

BiggySmalls: Thanks, I appreciate the complement.

InvaderJim: In the past, I've used RO/DI water and tested for PO4. I've tried allot of stuff to get it to go away. I think the over feeding led to allot of problems and I have reason to believe some of the base rock I was using caused problems also. I think I got it right this time. Time will tell...

 

[InvaderJim]

Well either way, don't give up. There has to be an explanation for it's presence.

 

[AVALover5498]

Are you still using ro/di?



-Chris-

 

[Kaos]

InvaderJim: I think I've got it this time, so I'm hanging in there.

AVALover5498: Yes.

 

[FavaBean]

Kaos: do you plan on using a sump/fuge tank with some more rock or are you done with all you need and you are just waiting now?

 

[ezcompany]

here are some tips for your ha. i'm sure u know most of them, but i'm going to say them anyways:

good skimmer
kalk for top off
phosphate media reactor
refugium with macro algae
vacuuming sandbed often

 

[Kaos]

FavaBean: No plans to add a sump or fuge. Right now I'm just waiting and reacting. I want to do the opposite of what I've done before and keep this setup as simple as I can possibly get it. I would have left out the skimmer but it hides my heater and temp probe and I had it laying around.

ezcompany: A reminder never hurts. The skimmer I have on this tank isn't the most effecient but I feel it will be adequate. I'm not using kalk since I've been very methodical w/ my w/c's. A phosphate reactor is in the back of my mind if things go south. I've already got a UV if I need it. I think I am going to add some Chaeto. to the display. I like the way it looks and it will give the pods one more place to populate. I haven't thought of vaccuming the sandbed. I may do that since it's starting to get a little "dirty" looking. I would prefer to get a critter to take care of it though. Seems I've got a little research to do.

This tank has been going extremely well for the last month. But now I think all of my bragging on it is catching up to me. I'm starting to see some very small signs of ha here and there. I think I can narrow down the source. It could be one or a combination of things, but it will take some testing and tweaking to determine what the cause(s) is/are. Time and patience will tell. Thanks for the suggestions and feedback.

*edit*
Another sign sign of things going bad is the malfunction w/ my ATO. I bought a top-off unit a few months back (brand new) but never hooked it up on my last tank due to ha problems. I've been wanting to get it going on this tank for awhile but kept running into obsticales. Tonight I finally got it online only to have a wire come loose inside the unit when I went to unplug the pump from the back. This was very frustarting and I have contacted the manufacter. Hopefully, they will resolve this without a hassle. As best I can tell it's a small business or hobbyist that made the unit. Hopefully they will back their product and I'll have it running shortly.

 

[FavaBean]

Kaos...sorry to hear about the ATO......i am getting ready to set up my 10 gal and may have to copy your idea's.....hope you wouldnt mind....lol....o how is your flow? are you happy with it? if not what would you change..once again thanks

 

[Im Lon 2]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9385613#post9385613 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Kaos
I think the over feeding led to allot of problems

This could be a big key to help you control most of your algae problems.

How often do you do water changes?

A Phos-pad would help a reduce phosphates but you really don't have a place to put it with no sump.

 

[Kaos]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9388330#post9388330 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by FavaBean
Kaos...sorry to hear about the ATO......i am getting ready to set up my 10 gal and may have to copy your idea's.....hope you wouldnt mind....lol....o how is your flow? are you happy with it? if not what would you change..once again thanks

Sorry, but all my ideas have been patented and you will be sued to the full extent of the law for each one you steal...

For the most part I'm happy w/ the flow. As you can see in the pic. the MJ400's blowing water against the glass has pushed the sandbed toward the middle and made the edges shallow. In the future I may add another pump to aggitate the water's surface more as I have a little film there.

Im Lon 2: I do a one gallon w/c every week. I think the overfeeding did contribute to some of my ha problems which is why this will be an invert only tank. I could maybe, cut and put a phos-pad in the return side of the Remora surface skimmer box. That's an idea I hadn't thought of....thanks.

 

[Kaos]

Well, it's been awhile since I last updated. I've been trying to overcome a few problems.

A few weeks ago I started seeing some ha forming. At first I wasn't too concerned since my pods took care of my last algae epidemic (during the initial cycle). But then the ha just started spreading. It wasn't covering everything but was getting around. So now I'm thinking; "Great, there goes another tank!" "That's it, I'm quiting!"

Well, I did give up for a few days but then the success I had in the very begining started motivating me to atleast try to combat the ha. I ran accross some Chaeto. for sale here and decided to give that a try. The Chaeto. really didn't do anything to get rid of the ha, although I did notice a slowing (to an almost stop) in the spreading of the ha. Getting frustrated again I started trouble shooting and looking for things that could be the cause. All my inquiries pointed to one source: the stupid lfs water. I dug out my old tds meter and tested the lfs's "ro" water. Sure enough it had a tds of 175 ppm! :angry: Now I'm mad because I really don't want to have to put more money in the tank w/ my new house starting to be built. But I sucked it up and bought an Optima Vision ro/di from Purely H2O. And wouldn't you know it a couple of days after the unit arrived an E-Bay auction for a SpectraPure CSP-DI 80 was ending w/ a bid of only $1. Of, course I had to atleast bid. To my suprise I won the unit for $1 plus $20 for s/h. This is perhaps my best deal ever on E-Bay. Anyway, once the SpectraPure arrived I hooked it up and started making water. The unit was used and needed a new di cartridge but still produced 1 ppm tds. After a week of using the ro/di water my ha stopped growing all together and my pods cleaned up what was in the tank.

Now, I'm not really sure what to do w/ the Optima Vision unit. I didn't have the heart to hook it up and run any water through it since I was getting an already used unit. I may sell it or try and incorporate it into my new house somehow.

I picked up some Salifert test kits the other day. After testing my water param's (for the first time) I confirmed what my pod population, coralling, and the overall success of the tank was already telling me; every param. was perfect (except for pH which was 8.0). A long time ago a guy on this board named PrinterDown told me that he never tested his water. He just kept an eye on the inhabitants. He had an awsome 10 gal. tank.

Ok, so I'm done bending your ear...for now. Here is a current pic of my tank:

 

[Shooter7]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9388053#post9388053 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ezcompany
here are some tips for your ha. i'm sure u know most of them, but i'm going to say them anyways:

good skimmer
kalk for top off
phosphate media reactor
refugium with macro algae
vacuuming sandbed often

And just to show another angle:

I don't have a skimmer on my 10g
I don't use kalk for topoff on the 10g
I don't have a phosphate media reactor on it, although I have used a phosphate removing fabric stuff from time to time
I don't have a refugium or macro in the tank
and I don't vacuum the sandbed


........and I never get hair algae in my 10g tank.

Good flow, light feeding, frequent water changes (weekly to biweekly), keeping water topped off, all keep my 10 in good shape. This is not to say that all the above things wouldn't help, because they would, just saying there's more than one way to skin the cat.