Need experianced reefer to test my water please

[BigReefing]

I have green hair algea and everything tests out fine. I dont have a tds tester, or magnesium, but I am buying a magnesium soon. I plan on buying about 100 turbo snails for my100 tank this weekend. I would like to mail out 2 samples of my water one of ro and one of my tank, to see what you can come up with. Thank you very much for your time. When I test with seatest everything comes out perfect. Please let me know if you would be willing to test my water for me and how much water you will need. Thanks.

 

[Paintbug]

do you have a LFS? most will test your water for free.

 

[BigReefing]

I live in a very small town in ohio. So that wont work.

 

[Sk8r]

Personally I like the Seifert tests: I'm not in a position to do that, but easiest if you could say where you are, so someone who lives near you might give you some help. The Seifert tests, btw, are not that difficult to do. Which ones you get is determined by what you want to have in your tank: for fish, it's one set, nitrite, nitrate, ph, for starters; for corals, you need the calcium, magnesium, and alkalinity---if I had to pick one to keep track of first and foremost, probably alkalinity. Others might advise other things: every tank is different in its behavior. Once you know what additives your tank will tend to need, and I gather you're in the first cycle, you can buy only those: you don't need every test under the sun and you don't need every supplement ever made---just the ones your particular tank runs short in. But you're right: your initial tests should cover a broader front than most first-timers have on hand, and if you could get into a local club and get some assistance, it would save you headaches. Good luck to you.

 

[BigReefing]

I can ship it anywhere. So if anyone would like to help out let me knoe. No it is not the first cycle.

 

[Mickey]

Just keep in mind that if the hair algae is caused by too many nutrients in the water, the Salifert tests may not tell you that.

How new is your tank? Give us more description (tank size, inhabitants, how long has it been set up, feeding schedule and amount, frequency of water changes and how much, etc) and we may have more advice.

Also try to find a local Reef club. It's a great resource.

Mickey

 

[Habib]

Testing for magnesium will say nothing about algae nutrients.

Shipping water is also not a way to do since a day in a bottle can change (reduce or increase) nitrate, ammonia, nitrite and phosphate.

The algae tell you something is not 100% OK.

Removing them, water changes and using a good skimmer and if possible reducing feeding/number of fish can help in controlling algae.

 

[BigReefing]

hmm, i guess i will just keep doing what i am doing then.

 

[Alaskan Reefer]

Testing the water probably won't say anything about nutrients either, as the HA is using the nutrients to grow -- if it's widespread any excess is likely consumed before you can test for it.

I wouldn't buy a mass of snails -- they will make the tank look better, but they'll just release what they eat (minus the energy they use to move around) back into the tank as snail poop. If that gets it back in the water column and then skimmed / consumed by competing macroalgae great, if not it's just a very small net loss in nutrients. I have 6 big Mexican turbos in my 125 and it's just the right number for me.

Order Salifert kits. For a reef, IMO you need at least ALK (concur that it's the most important one), CA, pH, and NO3.

Have you changed anything else about the system since the HA started? Add a better skimmer? Refugium? Have you harvested the HA manually and then blown out the rock to help remove detritus?

The problem with testing the water is that you don't have to -- you already know there's a PO4 and likely NO3 problem just via the presence of HA.

 

[BigReefing]

I think this happend because i use to feed with mysis shrimp and didnt rinse them in ro water. It was a used tank that I purchased a year ago from a guy and it was running fine for him, but i have an algea problem. I have very little livestock. He had more and sold his live stock off seperate. I saw it before he sold them off and it was fine. I have 4 fish that I want to get ride of to help me in this fight. I have a purple tang, hippo, flame, wrassey. They are all about 3 inches. I have a cabbage coral, some kind of brown bigginer stoney, 2 clams, star polyps, yellow zoos, and a zenia. I know there has to be something wrong with the water because the zenia is doing well and i have hair algea, but who knows. I have some big powerheads in there now that help alot. I have 2 seios. I have a sump and a skimmer. It is a good one that I customized my self. I run charcole. I had a phosphate spunge in there one day but my clams didnt like it so I took it out. It didnt seem to do any good anyway. I am thinking about doing a 100 percent water change. I did two 50 percent water changes, one a month ago and the other a few weeks ago because I was desperate. I usualy change 20-30 gallons every week.

 

[Alaskan Reefer]

You've got PO4 saturated LR, I'm telling you. Mysis is the worst food we feed as far as PO4, especially when you don't rinse it. I had the exact same feeding idea on my 75 that I've mentioned in several of your threads.

The HA will grow well alongside the Xenia because there is no PO4 in your water for the reason stated above.

Chemical phosphate removing media works great (lots of people use phosban reactors and the like with great results), but you have to let it work for a few days to "heat up" before you'll see results. If your clams don't like it, though, you shouldn't use it.

Big water changes won't do anything other than thin out the PO4 that is suspended in your water column -- and there's probably none if you've got a healthy HA crop.

You have to get the PO4 out of your LR. Harvesting HA daily, blowing the rocks out daily, and doing a water change after the blown detritus settles is the best way to do it in your tank. Do it daily. It takes time. Skim as wet as you can tolerate while you're doing it. Every time you pull HA out and it grows back, you're exporting PO4 from your system as long as you're not adding more with food.

Until you get the PO4 out of your LR, the HA isn't going anywhere.