PO4 and hair algae

[tommyz44]

Hey everyone, Im looking for a little advice. Im about ripipng my hair out but patiently getting my hair algae undercontroll. I originally set up the tank with our well water and ran for 4 months. I did switch to RO-DI 0TDS. I resently bought a hanna checker to help me with this and found some dry rock i had yet to put in and found it was most likely the cause of my phosphates. It was well over .5 as of last week and into this week i see it down to 0-.06 in this area flux most likely due to pulling the algae. I did let it get way out of hand it seemed to almost blow up over night one night.

How long does it usually take for the phosphates to be removed from the rock? And also any one have suggestions on how to keep my PO4 down?

i do 10% water changes every sunday.


30 gal and 20 gal with 10 gal sump system
GFO reactor pushed to GAC reactor and use reef crystals.

1.023 salinity
400 calc
1200 mag
0 ammonia
0 nitrates
0 nitrites
13 alk
I also have chaeto and mangroves in the system. And also as of last week i stoped dosing mag and cal.

Any advise is good advise! Thanks

 

[tommyz44]

Didnt think to add the GAC is rox .08 and GFO is the standard BRS GFO. Also have a red sea prizm skimmer in my 20 gal and a aquatic life 115 in the sump. As well as 2 HOB filters with carbon filters and GFO in mesh bags.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

suggestions

suggestions

1)push GAC into GFO

2)bring specific gravity (S.G.) up to 1.026

3)not ANY advice is GOOD advice... but these 3 suggestions are!

 

[tommyz44]

Gac into GFO? Is that so the Gac filters out impurities and organics and leave the GFO to eat the PO4?

Also while I have it on my mind, I dont run a filter sock but i recently order. Obviously this will help to keep lots of gunk from settling in my sump. Do you believe this would help alot or is this just a "fine tuning" for the tank.

Any good recomendation on how slowly to bring the SG up? During the water change should i run a slightly higher salinity to slowly up the SG?

And i guess your right ANY advice could put me into some trouble :X but having read tons of your posts i would trust your advice anyday!

Thanks Gary!

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

ALL types and brands of GAC have impurities. To prevent GAC from introducing any PO4 into your system drive GAC into GFO.

Why not try to fine tune any aquarium?
You'll find it's impossible to have EVERYTHING exactly how you want it... but you should certainly strive for what you want to acheive!

IMO/IME (after YEARS of on and off experimentation) I personally believe mechanical filtration is the correct choice for the vast majority of reef aquariums. In the long run it's gonna help u a lot.

To bring up SG topoff for evap with saltwater rather than kalkwasser.

 

[tommyz44]

Thanks for the advice! Sunday during my water change i need to replace the GAC and GFO so ill switch the reactors. I just received my filter sock today. i could see a small color difference in the first hour of the water in the sock and sump. Amazing how many fine particles are floating around i would have never imagined. Thought the skimmer would take most of that out! Ill keep an eye on it to see how often to clean. Hope this clears up soon i'd love to try out some SPS!

Thanks again for the advice. Hopefully when it clears up a bit more i can get some good tank pics!

 

[Breakbeats2334]

+1 on Gfo its one of the easiest ways to control phosphates and "not pull your hair out". ive used both phosban and brs standard gfo. I like the brs gfo more only since i find it easier to get as i order other stuff from them.

 

[tommyz44]

I actually switched from Phosban to BRS standard. I notised a much larger drop in phosphates when doing so. Looks like im on week 2 of staying under .06 Which is much better form seeing it well over .5 or so. I purchaced a mexican turbo the other day and it seems to be eating it well. For some reason i have had almost no luck with emerald crabs, hermits, and even a pincusion urchin.

I just installed a filtersock 25 micron. Wow what a difference. I knew that it would filter fine particulates but im shocked as i can see if i look close a slight yellowish tint to the water in the sock and crystal clear in the sump now. Its picking up alot of the algae as i pull it from the rock as well to prevent it from spreading.

Where does everyone buy their filters from? Also any easy way to pick those pods out or just do it by hand?

 

[SantaMonica]

Of the things you mentioned, only the GFO pulls out any real quantity of phosphate. But the more you pull out, the faster the phosphate will be removed from the rocks. Think of it as using a syringe to suck water out of a sponge.

 

[tommyz44]

I dont know what i would have done with the GFO! The filter sock i ordered was from http://utahbiodieselsupply.com/bagfilters.php It really pulled out alot of stuff. Im thinking alot of that gunk kept circulating and or sitting in my sump could cause a bit of phosphates to leach. Though as im curring some rock now i found a large spike in phosphates so im almost 100% that its leaching from the rock.
After reading Gary's article on SeaKlear, i desided to go down that path. Just ordered a 10 micron sock and a bottle of LaCl3. Im going to do small doses since my phosphates are under .1 i dont have to worry about much phosphate swings but i can starve out the phos faster while i pull the algae. Also going to dose into my dry rock that im curing. Elminiate it now while i can.

 

[SantaMonica]

Good that you mentioned the gunk at the bottom of the sump. People let stuff accumulate there slowly, and don't realize it's a strong source of phosphate. Ironically, if it gets thick enough (like a half inch), in can start reducing nitrate, because it's a fine mud with no oxygen inside, similar to a DSB.

 

[tommyz44]

I was a big offender of a messy sump. Im wondering if that also let to phosphates being realsed and absorbed into my rock for a while. After 9 months i cleaned my sump. I re-did it to hold a DSB, mangroves chaeto and some peppermint shrimp. Just resently adding the sock i also cleaned out the gunk. Im hopping that all this will help me in the following months to eliminate my hair algae.

Hmm i wonder if thats how they make that high priced miricle mud?

 

[windyridge]

I had the same problem but also added a few crabs along with GFO. The little buggers got rid of the hair algae and the carpet algae in a few weeks. The rocks remain pristine. I am loving those crabs.

 

[LUCKYLATO]

what is gfo

 

[windyridge]

Granulated Ferric Oxide

 

[acorral]

Regarding how long it takes to cook the rock inside the tank and set it free from phosphates... I have almost a year and just started seeing results... I have used biopellets, lanthanum chloride and gfo... After those and lots of cyano and dynos i switched to an algae scrubber

 

[tommyz44]

Not alot seems to touch it. I can manually pull it out fairly easy though. Thanks for the info acorral. Ive stopped using well water for about 4 months now and also found my dry rock was originally full of po4. I currently have chaeto and mangroves for macros. I run GFO through a TLF reactor. i also have a small media bag in a small power filter in my sump. Ive noticed my sump is much much cleaner after adding the filter sock. So im guessing now is just a time will tell game. I ordered lanthanum chloride to help in my battle to starve out the algae.

When i build my 135RR I've planned up an algae scrubber in one of the designs. i've done some long reading on it. Seems its a very good natural way to help control.

 

[acorral]

Not alot seems to touch it. I can manually pull it out fairly easy though. Thanks for the info acorral. Ive stopped using well water for about 4 months now and also found my dry rock was originally full of po4. I currently have chaeto and mangroves for macros. I run GFO through a TLF reactor. i also have a small media bag in a small power filter in my sump. Ive noticed my sump is much much cleaner after adding the filter sock. So im guessing now is just a time will tell game. I ordered lanthanum chloride to help in my battle to starve out the algae.

When i build my 135RR I've planned up an algae scrubber in one of the designs. i've done some long reading on it. Seems its a very good natural way to help control.

Be careful with the lanthanum chloride, it can take out of balance the n to p ratio generating dinos

 

[tommyz44]

Im going to be taking it slow and diluted. Going to a ratio frmo Gary's 5ml in 1l for 300 gal for my 60 gallon system i would use 1ml in 1l of water. Im going to go .3 ml in 1l (under half dose ratio) to start i will do this just before a water change. Turning off my return pumps before i take the sock off just to make sure if any precipitates get released that it wont get up to my DT as ill suck out the water from the sump to be safe. As everyone likes ill keep posted with my personal results in the comming week. I have my 10 micron sock hooked up and im still waiting for the La to get here. If i get it this week i plan on dosing on sunday.


Being that i have a small system i only plan to use this to help me eliminate my algae issue. I dont seem to be gaining any ground with gfo except for the fact that now it stays under .1 but i am still seeing fairly rapid growth on my rocks.

 

[windyridge]

Hermits will eat those rocks clean. I wish I had before and after pics. I was amazed. I have nothing fancy, nothing complicated, just a 3 chambered sump with some GFO in a sock, some chaeto and a big sock with the inflow pipe in it. Rocks are now prisitine and I had some old well water rocks for awhile. The really bad ones were taken care of in no time by the crab. I have one hermit in a 92g tank and two other crabs whose names escape me but don't do the same job the hermit does.