what to do with algea

[lpsluver]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11081572#post11081572 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by gasman059
Well much less food -much less light and u win.
Simple fact of reefkeeping. feed once every 3 days
reduce your light schedule to less than 6 hrs.

Manny, What is your feeling on what the impact would be of a reduced lighting regimen on clams? If I were to do this, hypothetically, would the best approach be all lights on for 6 hours and off at the same time? Or would you still do the dawn and dusk thing and have less time for the halides?

I got to wonder what impact this regimen would have on my pipefish?

I do agree 100% that we all over-feed our tanks.

 

[Miamireefer]

Do any of you have a brown algae issue?? I wish mine was green...when it was green my flame angel took care of the problem...Now I have a fuzzy like brown algae buildup thaqts just plain nasty... I have added a phosban using rowaphos and only run lights 7 hours daily..

What is the average time for a phosban to have a good effect on the tank? 1week 2weeks a month or 2? I am not sure of this either.

The unfortuneate thing is feeding....I have to keep an eel happy but he gets fed every third day and my fish get fed daily.... Should I cut back to feeding every other day? What are the feeding regiments of others here?

Nick

 

[jessp]

lawnmower blenny will definately take care of brown stuff

 

[ReefWreak]

I'm in a run, so all I'm going to say is follow Manny's advice with cutting down feeding. I used to have to hand feed about 6-7 mysis shrimp in my 24g nano to 3 fish, and when I did that I never ever had algae problems, and this was before phosphate reactors and stuff.

lawnmower blennies are a decent answer for thick growths, but keep in mind that you've got to do either water changes or aggressive skimming to get rid of it once he consumes it, otherwise it just comes right back

Phosban makes a difference in 24 hours, but you've still got to follow up with testing to see when the media is exhausted. There was recently a really good thread about this a few months ago, probably in the lighting/equipment forum, but to be honest I forget. I will find it if noone else can by the time I'm back from class.

 

[gasman059]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11083021#post11083021 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by lpsluver
Manny, What is your feeling on what the impact would be of a reduced lighting regimen on clams? If I were to do this, hypothetically, would the best approach be all lights on for 6 hours and off at the same time? Or would you still do the dawn and dusk thing and have less time for the halides?

I got to wonder what impact this regimen would have on my pipefish?

I do agree 100% that we all over-feed our tanks.

Bob I don't see that baing abig problem-meaning lights in your clam tank for about 6 hrs or so and then progressively incerease back up to 8.

I would reduce only the MH's and leave your supps alone.

 

[pedromatic]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11080898#post11080898 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jessp
what pump do you guys use for your phosban reactors? also if i buy the phosban, do i just add the whole container to the reactor?

Since I'm cheap and want to run the least amount of electrical equipment possible, I run my phosphate reactor using a tee off the return line. Since the flow through the reactor is slow, you're not diverting too much from your display. Otherwise, and little powerhead will do the trick, e.g. MiniJet, Rio (prefer the MiniJet).

Put a valve before the reactor to control the flow. Follow the recommendations on the media's label for amount to use for your size tank.

BTW, the big Mexican Turbo Snails do a great job at algae control on glass and rocks. If your rocks aren't secure though, they can cause a rockslide.

 

[cubano2480]

I only have blue legs hermit crabs and 2 urchins the blue legs take care off the rocks and the urchins the glass,Chef Reef that`s good u have a kid now u can share u toys and have fun, live this here kid I really don`t need this $%#$% reef central is a place for reefing and have fun,please do what I ask IGNORE me thank u KID .............

 

[Chef Reef]

*sigh* i sent you a pm btw cubano.. learn to leave crap off the fourms and take your own advice..

 

[ReefWreak]

As far as the feeding reduction thing goes, when I had the 24g nanocube with a bunch of fish (5+) to reduce the waste in the tank, I would only feed every 2-3 days, not once or twice a day. And all the fish did fine, I didn't have problems with them eating corals, and most importantly the algae stayed in check without a skimmer, fuge, or phosphate binding materials. The only thing I used to have in the tank was Purigen because the LFS guy up here swore by it.

 

[davester1]

Maybe its a coincidence but i upgraded from a asm g3 to a g6 and in about a week my green algae subsided and is nearly non existent. No change to feeding, lighting or anything else.

Now cyano is another story altogether.

So far to get rid of that, I upgraded the skimmer, bought a 6 stage R/O, cut feedings down to 1 a day from 2.

Does anyone think lowering my lights closer to the tank would eliminate it? I raised them when the summer came to reduce the heat and thats about the time the cyano appeared.

 

[ninjamini]

Here is a post I put up a while back:


Do you have hair algae?
If you have a hair algae problem then read my cure all. I just recently took a tank off someone's hands, a very experienced reefer too, who had a hair algae problem that they could not fix. But the fix is so easy when you understand it. This is the instructions for a established tank. If your tank is under 3 months old read below* first.

Hair algae wont grow if you don't feed it.

1. Use Ro/DI water ONLY. If your not doing this then you are making a fatal mistake.

2. Pick off the big clumps of hair. Pull the rocks out you can and pull pull pull. Dip them back in the water to get the algae to hang down. Turn off the flow for the rocks you cant remove while you pick it off. By picking off the big clumps you remove the nitrates and phosphates from the water.

3. Know why it grows. It consumes nitrates, phosphates and light. Export the nitrates and phosphates with water changes and some cheto. Rember if you test says that you have 0 Nitrates and 0 Phosphates that does not mean you don't have them. It just means that they are consumed. If you have algae growing then you have nitrates and phosphates. Yea there in there.

4. Cut back on feeding. Where do you thing those nitrates and phosphates come from. If you have any really piggy fish then you may want to move them to QT.

5. Turn down the photo period by shutting the lights off and only turn them on for 6 hours a day. Most corals can handle this for a month. Just think of it as the rainy season.

6. Get a emerald and some mexican snails. Yea the big ones. They will both eat the short stuff.

7. Time. Give it 3-4 weeks then start to turn the lights to 7, 8...more hours till your back to a normal amount of time.


Done. Now I have my nano cube filled with sand, rocks, zoos and fish because I was able to follow this plan and he was not. Which is weird since he has an awesome sps tank.

*If your tank is new that is less than 3 months old then the question is not how to get rid of them but understanding that this is only part of the natural cycle of a new tank. If this happened just as your ammonia and nitrites test at 0 then its going to grow. Its the same reason because there is alot of nitrate and phosphate in the water. This would be the time to do your first water change and then add your clean up crew. They will take care of the algae along with water changes.

Remember don.t feed your nuisance algae and it wont grow.
Good Luck.

 

[mhurley]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11094139#post11094139 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Chef Reef
*sigh* i sent you a pm btw cubano.. learn to leave crap off the fourms

That's a really good idea for both of you, because if there's a post like cubano's again, someone is losing their posting privileges here.

Thanks!

 

[ReefWreak]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11095010#post11095010 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by davester1
Maybe its a coincidence but i upgraded from a asm g3 to a g6 and in about a week my green algae subsided and is nearly non existent. No change to feeding, lighting or anything else.

Now cyano is another story altogether.

So far to get rid of that, I upgraded the skimmer, bought a 6 stage R/O, cut feedings down to 1 a day from 2.

Does anyone think lowering my lights closer to the tank would eliminate it? I raised them when the summer came to reduce the heat and thats about the time the cyano appeared.

The first part is probably not coincidence, but a combination of better skimming, the RO/DI, and cutting down feedings.

Cyano should also go away with nutrient reduction as well. Raising or lowering the lights does not make a difference I believe.

Are you a big fan of ASM or something? I don't know how much the g6 ran, but I would have gone for something from a different brand (even though that g3 was a bit undersized for your really large system). I've never really been impressed by the performance of an ASM, but maybe it's just me..

 

[cubano2480]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11095273#post11095273 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mhurley
That's a really good idea for both of you, because if there's a post like cubano's again, someone is losing their posting privileges here.

Thanks!

that is over for me long time a go i don`t really win anything with this bla bla bla I got real problem and this place is for relax my self....

 

[davester1]

ReefWreak,

I have not been doing this long enough to be a big fan of much of anything. I took advice on buying the ASM g3 which was fine until I saw the g6 on this forum slighly used for a steal so i upgraded.

I see in some of the postings ASM has its fan base but being so new i dont have much to compare it too.