Algea out the whahoo and no skimmate??

[sikpupy]

Rant:

Tank had some nasty cyano till I got mad and just blasted it with vodka. In all that time, I produced hardly any skimmate. I had to skim extremly wet to get anything. I thought Po4 was supposed to get skimmed out? Whats the use of a skimmer if i still grow algea? I might as well just get a GFO reactor and be done with it. That was kind of a wasted $300 at this stage :mad2:

 

[Alaskan Reefer]

What kind of skimmer?

 

[sikpupy]

MSX-200

 

[E.intheC]

I've heard that's a good skimmer..

Try to keep at it and make adjustments. (It's tough to be more specific without actually seeing what you're doing.)

The reason you're not testing any phosphate is because it's being used up (by the algae and cyano bacteria)...

FWIW, you can have both a skimmer and a GFO reactor.. but you don't even need to buy one.. you can put GFO into a HOB filter (if you have one) or in a bag in the sump (although this method is much less effective).. make sure you treat it like carbon and rinse it well

 

[THE ROOK]

My MSX is pulling some dark, nasty, stinky, dry foam since I started dosing vodka last week. I am using the new purple pinwheel but would bet any wheel would work right now.

How long have you had the MSX? I feel it took nearly two months for mine to really break in. That's even with a two day vinegar bath in the beginning.

It's generally not recommended to use GFO while dosing as the GFO will pull out what the vodka needs to work.

Oh, & I'm only up to 0.3ml per day for 75 gallon tank.

 

[sikpupy]

I dont think there is a "break in" per say other than maybe runing it for a few days. I honestly think that by the time the skimmer picks up anything, thats when the tank finally gets loaded with crap. I have had the skimmer online since x-mas and I dont get squat for skim.

No, I had no fish and I figured what the heck so I bombed the tank with about 3 tbl sppons of vodka. I kept the skimmer going but low so it would just bubble and mix in oxygen. Got real cloudy in there and the house smelled like a drunk for 2 days, lol. It turned the red cayano into brown, but only got rid of half the algea. Again, noda in the skimmer 3 days later until I tured it all the way up to "extra wet skim", then i got a "little" of something.

Stuff in the tank stopped growing, but, the remanants does not go away, it keeps shifting. scrape it off the glass and it moves to another side of the glass. My rocks are covered and growing nicely, :mad2: , thats why I think it is time for mr GFO. For a little 2 fishies unit at $35, eh, would like to have an efficiant reactor.

Will do with the rinsing, thanks for the tip.

 

[Aquarist007]

Re: Algea out the whahoo and no skimmate??

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14858213#post14858213 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sikpupy
Rant:

Tank had some nasty cyano till I got mad and just blasted it with vodka. In all that time, I produced hardly any skimmate. I had to skim extremly wet to get anything. I thought Po4 was supposed to get skimmed out? Whats the use of a skimmer if i still grow algea? I might as well just get a GFO reactor and be done with it. That was kind of a wasted $300 at this stage :mad2:

A skimmer may remove a little nitrates and phosphates but mostly other organic compounds.

Better methods for nitrate and phosphate reduction include a refugium with chaeto macro algae and or a remote deep sand bed(the dsb is better at removing nitrates)

 

[sikpupy]

Yea, I have like 6" in the display and a fuge. My cheato all but melted away. Guess there was no food for it, so, I am wondering why the algea survived so well?????

 

[Aquarist007]

try this setup running the chaeto in the display tank. The dish on the right is in the tank--the one the left is to show you how big these dishes you can get--all for one buck!

 

[Aquarist007]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14867875#post14867875 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sikpupy
Yea, I have like 6" in the display and a fuge. My cheato all but melted away. Guess there was no food for it, so, I am wondering why the algea survived so well?????

the algae in the display tank was competing with the chaeto for the available nitrates and phosphates and consuming them before they left the display tank.
With the chaeto on the same playing field as the algae in the tank with use of these soap dishes then it will have no problem outstripping the nuisance algae

 

[sikpupy]

I may have to give that a try, though, I have that setup in my 20 and works okay but the cheato or whatever else algea always floats out the top. I raised the edges above the water a 1/4"-1/2" and it collects goo. I need to find a 4 sided encloser that would hold it like the soap dishes do so i could submerge it.

 

[THE ROOK]

You could simply tie the cheato to the container with some fishing line or just poke a ziptie thru it. Doesn't take much to keep it from floating away.

 

[Aquarist007]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14870433#post14870433 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by THE ROOK
You could simply tie the cheato to the container with some fishing line or just poke a ziptie thru it. Doesn't take much to keep it from floating away.

I don't even have to do that---just stuff it in but make sure I rotate it once a week and harvest the growing ends.

What you want is fast growing macro algae or cheato because when it is growing it is uptaking nitrates and phosphates.
So rather then strive for a ton of it encourage the growth of what you have:
harvest the growing part once a week by ripping the ends--frayed ends grow faster then straight cuts
rotate the chaeto
add iron occasionally

 

[tkeracer619]

Dumping vodka in your tank will do nothing good if you don't follow the instructions. You won't cure your problem overnight and it seems to me that is what you want to do.

What are your parameters?
What are you feeding the tank?
What kind of water are you using?
Do you do water changes?

 

[sikpupy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14870433#post14870433 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by THE ROOK
You could simply tie the cheato to the container with some fishing line or just poke a ziptie thru it. Doesn't take much to keep it from floating away.

I have the small very thin wiry stuff. I barley tapped the stuff into the container in my 20 and it blew apart like a grenade. Now I have a bazillion 1/16 peices of cheato floating around. I dont know WHATS wrong with this stuff!? :mad2: :mad2: :mad2: ****ed me off so bad, I went and drove 60 miles one way to get a differant strain. The stuff I had before was thin and curly like pubic hair (awsome analogy, eh?). The stuff I have now is thick, like angel hair pasta and not so , uhm, curly. I will see how that does.

tkeracer619:
I did not have anything in the tank, so, I just bombed it with vodka for an experiment to see how the cyano would react. Actually took care of it but now I have brown stringy fuzzy hair type algea.

-Before bombing, my perams were all 0
-feeding spectrum pellets, but, useually no more than the fish eat and a few extras (12 or so?) for the shrimp and snails.
-I have a MSX-200 skimmer running at all times.
-RO/DI water with a "0" TDS reading
-Well, was going to start water changes when I started to see algea, and, my skimmer started to produce something, or I started to get some readings on the test kit. I was going by the assumption that things in a reef change slow, so, I thought I had time, but, in a week, BAM! The cyano was upon me. After the cyano popped it ugly head up, I started doing 10g water changes a week, well, after the vodka subsided.

My point ot all this was that when the algea popped up, my skimmer was going. When I scraped the tank, crap was floating ALL over the place. In all that termoil, my skimmer did not pick up SQUAT!

Its not the fact that I got algea, just that in the beginning, middle and end (not that I am there yet) my skimmer seemed for the most part useless. I bet filter socks and a reactor would have been the better, albiet bandaid, choice. Least I would not have algea in the tank. Isnt that whatwere all after, a nice looking tank? Sure, if I was a scientist and or wanted a science project with this tank, I would find the natural way. I am not intrested in that. I want my fish to be happy, inverts to be happy, corals to be happy bandaids galore or not.

Anyways, back to the subject that I used $300 for a skimmer at the wrong tme? Hmmm..........

 

[THE ROOK]

I don't think that the skimmer would pickup algae simply because it mostly floats. You simmer pump is 7-9 inches under water. Given time, the vodka will bind some of the nutrients & then these will be skimmed out. That's why many, including myself, get really dark, nasty skimmate while dosing vodka.

By "bombing" your tank, you likely caused a bacterial bloom. This is exactly why they recommend starting very slow with low doses. I started with 0.2ml for three days, then 0.3ml for another three days, etc.

Vodka is a slow cure to algae problems. Products like GFO or AlgaeFix Marine would strip those nutrients much quicker, I believe. This can also be an issue, as some corals may not be able to handle the quick reduction those methods provide.

Honestly, I wasn't happy with my MSX 200 'till about 2-3 weeks ago. i feel the lack of pulling gunk added to my algae problem. Now this thing is a beast & I feel that I have a chance to beat my algae problems now.

I know you feel like you wasted enough but the large PPW has also helped my unit keep a steady foam head.

 

[sikpupy]

Well, that bombing cleared up the red stuff alright but transfered it into another genis, then off the sad bed to every where else, lol.

PPW? Prurple pin wheel, lol? I have the newer PW that came with it. Is this the one you talk about?

 

[THE ROOK]

Reef Specialty carries a new pinwheel designed by ATB, I believe. It's been named the large purple pinwheel. It produces 30-33 scfm & seems to be more stable than the mesh.

The MSX pinwheel is decent & there is only 5-7 scfm gain by the switch. It costs $40.00 shipped so it's a judgemnet call. I personally like the wheel.

I will tell you mine does start a little tougher than the stock wheel but I'm not one to shut my skimmer down too often. I just feed my tank & within 10 minutes the skimmer is worthless from the oils in the food. That's when I clean the cup without shutting the unit down.

 

[sikpupy]

K, thanks for the info.

 

[RRaider]

Imo the lack of skim mate and the algae blooms are two different issues. The skimmer tends to remove dissolved organics more than anything, so it is removing the organics before they break down into the phosphates and nitrated that the algae needs to grow. Just because you don't have much in the way of dissolved organics doesn't mean you have no nitrates and phosphates. Even the best skimmer working to it's full potential will not prevent all nitrates and phosphates because they can and do come from many different sources. I personally would keep running the skimmer and add some GFO either in a reactor or in an HOB filter.