phosphate/hair algae

[robert55?]

hi i am currently using kent marine phosphate sponge also i am dosing vodka as well phosphates are low but i know i have a problem have 77x turnover rate with power heads do not feed but 4 days a week sparingly recently bought 200 blue leg hermits.Metal halides are just going on 6 months old 14k.Run a Euro reef Cs6-3 skimmer on a 120 tank.Have been dosing vodka for 3 weeks plan on doing up to 2 months to see if it makes a difference.Weekly 20% water changes with rodi water. Any suggestions would be appreciated.Maybe zeolit if this doesnt work?

 

[pfish]

I'm haven't been very impressed with the phosphate sponge. I would go with a phosphate reactor. What is your wattage /gal ?

 

[Hop]

Time to cook the rock? That is a lot of band-aids...

Perhaps running a po4 reactor and reducing the lighting period will have some effect, but do things slowly. implementing many quick fixes all at once can cause as much trouble and the original problem

 

[crvz]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14662726#post14662726 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Hop
Time to cook the rock? That is a lot of band-aids...

Agree, I kind of went through the same routine for a while, trying all the tricks to get the nutrients down, but ultimately ended up by "purging" or "cooking" the rocks for a number of months.

 

[Anemonebuff]

hard to cook rocks with corals attached.

 

[reefnoobie86]

rock

rock

what a pita

 

[Hop]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14663274#post14663274 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Anemonebuff
hard to cook rocks with corals attached.

Aye... But the corals will recede if the po4 continues to increase. Catch 22... Its a tough call, but I've just come to expect on rearranging every four to six years with a cookout in the middle somewhere:lol:

 

[Anemonebuff]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14663447#post14663447 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Hop
Aye... But the corals will recede if the po4 continues to increase. Catch 22... Its a tough call, but I've just come to expect on rearranging every four to six years with a cookout in the middle somewhere:lol: [/QUOTE

Not really a catch 22. The rock cook is guaranteed death, whereas the PO4 removal may do the trick.

I would add some GFO to your sump or add it to a reactor. I got mine from Bulk Reef Supply(pellets). The Phosphate sponge is not really that good IMO/IME.

 

[Hop]

Death? I would just move the corals to one half of the tank and cook that half of the rock that now has no corals, then move the corals to the cooked rock when I put them back in the tank and cook the other half... I wouldn't cook the rock with corals on them:lol:

I really think this is an area of tank keeping where so many people have issues at the 4-6 year mark. Their rock becomes loaded with PO4 and they begin running band-aid after band-aid until finally it reaches the point where things begin dying and they term it a tank crash...

 

[robert55?]

zeolite maybe ??????????? any thing else ideas ?