Algae barn with no fuge

[woodyth]

Morning.

Been suffering from a high phosphates number and was looking at natural ways to resolve. Found algae barn.com and was curious about the macro algaes they have. Also "pods". It seems both are usually used in the "fuge" my 28 gal bowfront doesn't have. My question is, can I incorporate some of these macro algaes/pods directly in my tank? Would my cleanup crew just decimate it when I put it in?

Any input would be greatly appreciated!


A bit of background on my tank , 28 bow, hdprime running brs, tunze9004dc, aquaclear 70 just added 2 weeks ago with rowaphos as a layer with bioballs and thick filterfloss. I used the package from www.tbsaltwater.com , to start my tank so have 35 lbs of liverock and a 1 in layer of live sand. (Highly recommend!)
No fish yet, just some hermit crabs and stafish and shrimps.

Woody

 

[mcgyvr]

Seems you are a new user and posted some external links or images...This site "jails" those posts for moderation so we can't see what you posted yet.. Moderators will typicalky approve in 24 hours or less then your full post will show..

 

[Sk8r]

By my experience, there is only one magic fix, and that is to hammer your water chemistry down to much, much lower nutrient in general. Algae won't grow in low phosphate conditions, and the removal of excess from the tank rests largely with getting something to absorb it. Lowering the phosphates to near nada can be done by treating with a remover like Phosban, in a reactor---and changing the medium about once a week until you can see the algae getting thready and unhealthy. Why change it that often? BEcause it can only absorb so much, and once it's saturated, it's doing nothing more for you. Second point: if your chemistry has been that phosphated, it's a bet your nitrates should get a look. If you have nitrate above 5-10, your skimmer may not be enough. Third, get rid of the bioballs and floss, and rely on live rock only. Bioballs and floss will give you endless nitrate grief. I don't have any filter at all in my reef, just the rock and sand. CAN you run a tank with bioballs? Limited. Your rock and sand does a better job: the floss is just where waste goes to cause problems. And fourthly, take a look at the water parameters post. That will help you a lot. WIthout a sump, your ability to raise pods is minimal, and the cheato moss would probably cause you some grief in the pump. Where is that extra phosphate coming from ? If you are not using ro/di filtration on your water, or set up with tap water, that could be it. Phosphate also lurks in rock and sand and takes a while to dissolve out, so the problem can continue until the last of it is dissolved and out.