Water is screwed up. Need help.

[jeweldamsel]

I've overfed my reef tank and now there is a brown algae bloom. I am going to do a massive water change to try to fix this, but not sure how much. Does anyone have any experience? Any other suggestions are also welcome. Thank you all.

 

[spleify]

What size is the tank? What are you're params? What do you consider a "massive" water change? How did you "over feed"? How long has this been going on for? Is anything suffering from it?
Get the point? We need more info to help you.

 

[AZDesertRat]

What are you using for water, RO/DI I hope.

 

[jeweldamsel]

My tank is 210 gal big with 2 250W MH. I have been keeping mostly soft corals for about 2 years. Everything was fine until last month I start feeding them more food for no good reason. Over two weeks ago the brown algae starts growing and some fish are also getting sick. I have changed over 10% of water, but no use. I am not using RO/DI water, but I have been using fitered water. The PO4 of the filtered water is almost 0. I am thinking about a 30% water change next. Below are the parameters of my tank. Of course I've also cut back down on food supply. Any suggestions and comments are welcome.

CA = 395 ppm
AK = 10.9 dKH
PH = 8.4
salinity = 1.025
PO4 = 0.5 ppm
NO3 = 12.5mg/l
temp = 78F

 

[McCrary]

Your phosphates are through the roof; I would start with doing a 50% water change. You may want to start running carbon and a phosphate remover, that would definitely help.

 

[Paulairduck]

I am not a fan of doing anything drastic, keep up your normal water changes and go back to normal feeding. The RO/DI in the saltwater realm of things is very important. So hopefully you will plan on getting one in the near future. I would look into getting a reactor that you can run phosphate remover in, keep your skimmer clean and running efficiently and progress on from there.

A fifty percent water change with non RO/DI saltwater, probably will not help things.

 

[CruzinKim]

When my tank goes out of wack like this, I usually do a 30% water change and then about 3 days later, do another 30% water. If parameters are still off, another 30% about a week later.

My question is why didn't your skimmer remove all the excess waste from the overfeeding? Maybe you need to relook at your skimmer and see if it is a good match for your system. Also, do add a phosban reactor to your system.

 

[davidryder]

It seems like when troubleshooting algae the first thing people ask is if you are using RO/DI but honestly that's one of the last things you should be concerned about.

Of all the things that contribute to algae problems, water source <i>usually</i> has the smallest effect.

<b>1. Nutrient export</b> - Nutrient export is achieved by increased water changes, the use of macro algae, skimming, or a combination of those.

<b>2. Nutrient import</b> - If you have been overfeeding that would definitely be a point of concern. Most commercial foods (frozen/flake) have phosphate - a known contributor to algae

<b>3. Light exposure</b> - well, without light algae cannot survive. There is a thread about leaving your lights off for three days to help control an algae outbreak.

<b>4. Physical removal</b> - Allowing algae to grow to plague proportions than wondering where it all come to and how to get rid of it makes it much harder to get rid of.

<b>5. Water source</b> - if your tap water has low phospates/nitrates and a TDS reading below 300ppm IMO RO/DI isn't necessary. Although water source is important it's usually over-exaggerated and blindly accused.

No Lights for 3 Days

Tap water and RO/DI poll

 

[AZDesertRat]

I would have to strongly disagree with your statements on RO/DI water. Water is the single largest ingredient in a reef system by far. With RO/DI you provide stability. Tap water quality can and does change day to day, season to season, and considerable after a storm event when treatment techniques change drastically.
Considering you add water daily or weekly for topoff and for waterchanges, every time you add tap water you increase and compound the contaminants that are present in it. Always provide the best water you can and you take that part of the problem away. In an enclosed system we do not have the "solution to pollution is dilution" factor in our favor so strive to provide only the best.

For export, I would recommend a Phosban Reactor or similar device. They have a proven track record and if introduced slowly should not have an adverse effect on corals or inhabitants.

 

[davidryder]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10927151#post10927151 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by AZDesertRat
I would have to strongly disagree with your statements on RO/DI water. Water is the single largest ingredient in a reef system by far. With RO/DI you provide stability. Tap water quality can and does change day to day, season to season, and considerable after a storm event when treatment techniques change drastically.
Considering you add water daily or weekly for topoff and for waterchanges, every time you add tap water you increase and compound the contaminants that are present in it. Always provide the best water you can and you take that part of the problem away. In an enclosed system we do not have the "solution to pollution is dilution" factor in our favor so strive to provide only the best.

For export, I would recommend a Phosban Reactor or similar device. They have a proven track record and if introduced slowly should not have an adverse effect on corals or inhabitants.

So you think that when it comes to algae water source is the largest contributing factor in all/most cases?

I'm not saying it's unimportant I just think it's importance is vastly overstated. Anecdotally, people have the same algae problems whether they use tap water or filtered water - according somewhat to the poll I linked and casual observance of the hundreds of algae threads that pop up yearly.

I also know there are a lot of factors that determine how harmful an individuals tap water can be: water change frequency, phosphate level, nitrate level, TDS, etc but I can't believe that tap water ever plays a larger role in algae population than the other factors above I listed.

And don't mistake my argument - I would always recommend filtered water by a high quality unit.

 

[jeweldamsel]

It seems like my phosphate level is too high and it is contributing to the algae bloom. Thank you all for your suggestions and I found them all very helpful. Thanks again.

 

[deansreef]

i would suggest a phosban reactor as well as the ro/di...you will see significant improvment once the reactor is in use. I added 2 of the two little fishies reactors loaded with rowaphos on my 180 reef and within 2 months all the brown and red algea disappeared. I had been using ro/di all along though before adding the reactors.

 

[AZDesertRat]

It may only be a minor contributor but it is still not a good idea to use tap water. Water and the way we treat it have changed over the years and consider we now add phosphates to tap water on purpose to control corrosion. Or we may have naturally occuring nitrates up to 10 ppm legally. Add to that silicates and the amonia from chloramines among other things. Its all above board in drinking water but would you really want to add it to your expensive reef system on purpose?
Not me!

 

[Kannin]

Also... The things in tap water that we don't like don't evaporate... so you just keep compounding the problem by using it.

 

[NaH2Ofreak]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10931228#post10931228 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by AZDesertRat
Its all above board in drinking water but would you really want to add it to your expensive reef system on purpose?
Not me!

Ya! It's fine for drinking....just dont add it to your reef tank!:lol: :lol:

LOL! A true blue reefer thru and thru!!:dance:

Dennis

 

[AZDesertRat]

Phosban (GFO) is not a chemical it is a granular semisolid media made up of basically iron impregnated sand. It has an unbelievable capacity to suck up contaminants like arsenic which is what it was originally designed for and used in municipal drinking water treatment. Here in the Southwest arsenic in drinking water is a very big concern so GFO is in use at hundreds of facilities all over Arizona.
GFO also is good for phosphate removal since it is chemically similar to arsenic. It does not dissolve or leave anything in the reef system and it does not release contaminats when it is exhausted so it is a perfect treatment media unlike aluminum based products that do release contaminants when exhausted.

 

[McCrary]

Phosphates are present in reef tanks even when using RO/DI water of high quality. To get rid of them, a phosphate remover can be used. A good phosphate remover will take phosphates out of the water and then not let them go even when the media is full. It can be much more effective than trying to do water changes when the phosphates creep up a little. But in the tank above, a good size water change with RO/DI water would probably do wonders. A reactor can then be used to help maintain good water quality.