Refugium or protein skimmer?

[Mappelbaum37]

I'm currently battling hair algae/diatoms right now. This is what I have done since the algae started occuring...

1) Switched from spring to RO water
2) Went from 5 to 10 gallon weekly water changes
3) removed noodles in fluval due to the 100 lbs of live rock in my tank
4) Am running chemi-pure in fluval, in addition to carbon.
5) Clean fluval 405 bi-weekly
6) switched from oceanic sea salt to Red sea salt (includes calcium, natural elements, nitrate and phosphate free)
7) increased flow
8) hooked up a phosban reactor
9) put chaeto in the tank
10) switched 2 out of 4 bulbs in light fixture fixture

Now I was looking to upgrade from my prism protein skimmer to an octo BH300F (below). I was talking to someone else today and he said to get the cpr HOB refugium w/ a protein skimmer. I have a few questions about this. (everything needs to be HOB bec. I have no sump)

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=12591

http://www.reefspecialty.com/product_info.php?products_id=266

- Is the skimmer that is attached to the HOB fuge better then the prism I have?
- In the future I know I will probably get 1 more fish for my tank. In the long run, for the algae and amount of waste/fish in my tank, which product would be more effective? (7 fish total)
- I am running phosban to lower phosphates and the RO water I started using has already decreased my nitrates to about 10 ppm. Will adding caulerpa or chaeto (which I already have and it isnt doing so well) to the fuge even do well? seeing as I am already removing most of the phosphates/ nitrates with the phos. reactor and RO water.
- If the macro algae wont do well, then whats the point to the fuge?
- Overall, for my situation, which would be better to spend my money on?

Thanks a bunch.. Just making sure I spend my money wisely.

 

[DidYouSayReefer]

There are many variables. How big is your tank (75 gal I assume)? The more water you have the better.
How big are your fish? Bigger fish equal more waste.
How old is your tank? Cycles can last for several months and never really end. It is all about an equalibrium.
What color temp are your bulbs? 5500K will encourge algae growth.

Protein skimmer is number one.
Fuge is number 2. A hang on the back is really not large enough to be more effecient than a skimmer.
If it were me I would do whatever you can to get a sump, then you can have both plus more water. Good luck. Keep reading.

 

[Mappelbaum37]

thanks for the response. answers for your questions.

75 gal. tank

Fish:
- 2 occlearis clowns
- bangaii cardinal
- flame hawk
- 6 line wrasse
- coral Beauty
- Yellow tang

The only fish that exceed 3" is the coral beauty and the yellow tang.

Tank is 1 year old but in late dec. early January I emptied the tank and added 20 lbs. of live rock and switched from crushed coral to 20 lbs of live sand 40 lbs of non live sand. Thats what flicked the switch, especially because I topped off about 15-20 gal. of spring water that day. Its been 4 months already of a tank full of algae.
(100 lbs. of live rock total)

The day I did the change I would've moved the tank somewhere else in order to have a sump but there is literally no where in the house that has room for this size tank except for where it is right now.

T-5 Nova extreme lighting fixture

-Current T-5 HO 54 watt 10,000K daylight
-Current T-5 HO 54 watt 10KK daylight
-2x- T-5 HO 54 watt 460nm actinics.
4 tubes in total- 216 watts

I know what you mean about the HOB fuge being too small for my tank. I think your words of wisdom have already brought me to the executive decision of getting the BH300F skimmer oppose to the sump. (seeing as its all about the equilibrium)

thank you

 

[Daecrist]

How long do you run your lights? You said that you've had your tank for ~1year, it's possible that your bulbs might be slowly degrading to a spectrum the algae like. I had trouble with an algae bloom when my system was a year old and replacing the bulbs did the trick.

 

[Agu]

If it has to be HOB I'd recommend a good skimmer. However I stopped using skimmers so someone else needs to chime in to evaluate the choices.