Algae

I

Infalable

New member
Hey all,

I have recently recovered from heart problems and have not tended to my 46 gal tank as I should. My friend has been helping out. His wife wont let him have a tank so he likes helping me out. My tank is doing great, but I have tons of hair algae. All parameters look good except trates wich is about 15. I need to get those down a bit. Since I am still limited a bit I was think of getting some mechanical help. I created my own small fuge above my tank a few years ago (my tank is not drilled and sits on my bar), but it looks like I need extra help here. I was reading about an Eheim wet/dry and that looked loke something that might help, but when reading about it it only mentioned how it affects ammonia and trites. It said nothing about trates. Any thoughts about this?

I will add a few turbos and do more frequesnt water changes than my usual 5-10% once a week.

Any ideas are greatly appreciated. Thanks.
 
Glad to hear you're better. Could you give some more info on your system? Sea Hares and Lawnmower blennies are known to help keep HA down. IMO Wet/Dry filters should only be used for running carbon etc. Sumps are better.
 
If you've got an overflow and a skimmer, I wouldn't spend the cash on the cannister filter unless you want to run carbon through it. I run an Eheim in conjunction with my overflows and skimmer but I only run it temporarily for carbon. It'll pull more particulate matter out of your water, without a doubt, but I'm not sure using it specifically to help you deal with a HA issue is really worth the cost of it + the time to clean it out every day or so. The filters are extremely expensive for permanent use (something like $15.00 for a box of 3). I haven't even touched the substrate balls (look like cocoa puffs, I swear) because I fear their nitrate-producing insanity.

If you're running nothing but a HOB filter, the cannister might be a beneficial buy for you.
 
Livestock is one bi-color blennie and a lemonpeel angel. The usual assortment of inverts - 9 peppermint shrimps, a few hermits, 5 turbos, and a buch of corals, etc. I have a HOB skimmer, a small fuge (water pumos up - gravity back to tank), a small cannister filter. I dont usually run carbon tho.
 
its great news your better, great news as for your trates have you got a refugium if not cleaning detritus from your lr and any slack areas can also help, as for the wet/dry i have one and i find unless you clean it regually it raises trates
 
I should mention I'm also slowly battling the hair algae. The biggest results I saw were after we scrubbed down the rocks and ran a gravel vacuum through the top inch of the sand bed. That might be more work than you're able to do right now so hopefully someone else can confirm that a sea hare or some sort of conch will help out.

The blenny will definitely control the problem but they seem not to eat hair algae that's more than an inch or so long. My fish guy tells me long hair algae is bitter but I've never actually eaten any to find out. :p
 
I am going to add an additional powerhead, couple of turbos, cut back on feeding, and additional water changes. maybe with luck I can see some improvement.
 
Glad to hear you are better! For what it worth I have been fighting the HA and this is what I have done so far and I am seeing slow but definate improvements:

Increase water flow (a lot - I'm up to 1800 gph in a 72 gal tank)
Phosban reactor (I'm now using Rowaphos in it)
frequent water changes
sea hare
clean the sand bed (I replaced mine -it was 7yrs old & exhausted)
macro algae for export
Dose with kalk

I was looking for instant relief but just learned it takes about 8 weeks or so

Everyone is great here and will help!
 
I would recommend to make sure you are using RO/DI water, and if you are make sure that the TDS is at 0.

Also get a phosban reactor, that will help, but you won't see improvements right away. Have a feeling that you have a good deal of phosphates locked up in the rocks, which will take a while to be removed. Odds are that is fueling the HA.

Best of luck.
 
Thanks all. A few have commented on the sand bed. Can you explain cleaning out the sand bed. I thought that would be more disruptive than helpful. Thanks.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12430804#post12430804 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Toddrtrex
I would recommend to make sure you are using RO/DI water, and if you are make sure that the TDS is at 0.

Also get a phosban reactor, that will help, but you won't see improvements right away. Have a feeling that you have a good deal of phosphates locked up in the rocks, which will take a while to be removed. Odds are that is fueling the HA.

Best of luck.
Click to expand...

Ditto on this!!!
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12431682#post12431682 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Infalable
Thanks all. A few have commented on the sand bed. Can you explain cleaning out the sand bed. I thought that would be more disruptive than helpful. Thanks.
Click to expand...

Before thinking about cleaning the sandbed ( which I do with each weekly water changed ) what type of sandbed do you have? Is it a deep sandbed or a shallow one?
 
Sandbed is about 3-4 inches. There is not a lot of exposed sand as the LR is spread throughout. I have about 120lbs in my 46 gal tank.
 
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