irony in my fish tank

[clownlover]

bought this phosban reactor to lower phosphates and get rid of algae. not working out as planned

 

[ellebelle]

WOW. I think you need to take more aggressive measures than just adding GFO

 

[jhale]

how often do you change the media in that?
wrapping it to block the light would help also.

 

[Tonyscoots84]

if ur not using an rodi now might be a good time to do so. also cut down on feeding and do some really big waterchanges I can only imagine how bad ur parameters are. also try using carbon and also phosar high capacity phosphate remover

 

[clownlover]

well, i use only ro di. i had cut back feedings to once a day. the media is virtually new. my phos last i checkd was .03 i think. i am going to do another test now. i did wrap it up and they turned white and i thought htey died but it came right back.

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

I love this thread:biglaugh:

 

[ming]

what is the TDS output of the RO/DI?
How much do you feed per feeding?
How new is "virtually new"?

 

[jhale]

what test did you use? .03 is really low. you should not have PO4 related problems at that range.

 

[clownlover]

ok so i tested my tank again and i took the phosban reactor out and cleaned it out.

ph 8.16 - hanna
ca 440
nitrate 2.5
phos .03 - .1 hard to tell with the colors
photoperiod 9am to 6pm, have the solaris light
78 degrees

-all tests done with salifert.
-have an ehiem 2217 that had been running caron for a couple months and floss. i opened it up oday and cleaned the whole thing out. dont know if this matters at all.
-the media is like 3 or 4 month old but the algae got in there w.i. 3 weeks
-tds is 0 at the ro and 0 at the di stages. i tested for chlorine to see if they were going bad and if the tds was wrong and there was zero chlorine.
-feed either 2 cubed of mysis or a couple pinches of flake per day. used to feed 3 times per day and there was algae everywhere. at one time a day all the algae went away dont know if i should increase or not. the fish seem ok. my cardinal and clownfish breed regularly. corals reproducing well.
-the pic looks bad but really there are only 3 or 4 small dime sized spot of it in the tank. when i see it in the tank i put joes juice on it and it goes away. the patches i have left are too close to corals to try this so i just manicure them until i find a way to kill it off

any ideas?

 

[nyfireman3097]

you should be changing it out monthly @ least. Also check your TDS. Anoter ting is salifert sucks for nutrient testing. I bet on a hanna meter it would be over 1.0

Same goes fr carbon @ least once a month it should be changed

 

[House of Laughter]

Nick, I am with you - I believe Loismustdie did an analysis with Rich on salifert and Hanna and the deviation was as much as .08 - I am with you, likely over 1 and that is pretty hearty for algae.

Clown - I would take drastic measures - inverts, water changes, new media rinsed thoroughly, carbon feed every other day for 2 weeks etc

Oh, and more water changes.

Good luck

House

you should be changing it out monthly @ least. Also check your TDS. Anoter ting is salifert sucks for nutrient testing. I bet on a hanna meter it would be over 1.0

Same goes fr carbon @ least once a month it should be changed

 

[tadashi123]

well now you have a phos reactor AND a refugium all in one! hehe

I second house of laughter's suggestions. also manually remove the algae and double check the tds on your ro/di.

 

[OctaviousMonk]

Also take into consideration that your nutrients are being taken up/exported by that algae giving you a lower then actual reading.

 

[clownlover]

yea i know i shoulddo it more often. laziness is a big factor. how do i test the tds? is hanna phos kit reagents or is it the 200$ gizmo thingy?

 

[nyfireman3097]

yeah thats t BUT find someone local with one and ask them to tet the water for you.

 

[clownlover]

umm. anyone have that tester in brooklyn i could use??

 

[nyfireman3097]

where in brooklynare you ? I have one if you wanna make a trip to SI

 

[clownlover]

ok. so it seems people prefer the dry phosphate media. is any particular brand the best?

 

[nyfireman3097]

Ive usd them all just about lol I love PhosarHC the best so far