Minimal to 0 algae in reef tank that started with 1/2 tap

[JLAudio]

Ok, the point of this thread is not to start another movement to use tap water but rather understand what is problematic, helpful and useful in running and maintaining a healthy reef tank.

My setup is a 125 reef with probably 100 lbs. of LR, OCT 160 skimmer, fuge w chaeto, phos reactor (phosban, chemipure together), filter sock with polyfiber in it, 4 watt angstrom UV, and (2) 36" 4 bulb T5 lights.

I was semi forced to set up my tank w half tap water during a move and was expecting to get smashed with algae, however I didnt. A brief week of excess glass algae and sand, but now crystal clear everyday. I do stick to 5-10 WC's a week of RODI and RODI top offs but still wonder how this is possible.

I beleive a lot of the "Tap nutrients leaching into rock and sand" is urban myth because my tank right now should be a garden but was fairly easily cobatted with water changes once a week, uv, phosban and some polyfloss. I have almost No clean up crew besides 2 or 3 hermits, 1 snail, but have 3 crazy yellow tangs and a algae blenny, and a sand sifting star and have zero algae forming and feed once a day.

I guess the point of this thread is to challenge myth and see what is necessary and over thought out in reefkeeping. I will try and post pics to guve validity to my arguement but some other members have seen it and can back up my post

 

[junglebase]

Hey Jason, i am glad you are having success in your tank!.. i am a proponent of "why fix something if it ain't broke"... so you should continue doing what you are doing if it means success.....

 

[JLAudio]

Thanks Alex, im curious if the lack of physical presence of algae may just be superficial due to the UV. I have to test the trates and phos to be sure

 

[KathyC]

How long has the tank been set up?
Has the UV been on since the start? Probably has a lot to do with the lack of algae.

 

[JLAudio]

The tank has been up a little over amonth, so premature to make any definitive statements, but this is probably the 8th tank Ive setup in probably as many years and usually get hit with that initial algae bloom with in first cpl weeks especially if running anything stronger than regular flourescents. I have been running the UV from about a week after starting it and feel it might just be helping with the vanity issues, but also corals have really been blossoming and regrowing. I lost most after move due to a mess up in the salinity level and having it at a hypo level, that wiped out most, but the strong are back and flourishing again.

Maybe this thread points toward more reasons to run somesort of UV if not just for the viewers interest, but to also keep up with necessary maintenance and filtration

 

[Wes]

you mentioned you use phosban. so you can't really say it's not a myth since you are actively removing phosphates from your system.

even after phosphates have been absorbed by rocks and sand, it can be reversed with aggressive phosban use.

 

[JLAudio]

Yea not so worried about debunking myth as I am about making this hobby as operationalized as possible and seeing whats are the steps to getting to stages we all want clear green algaeless water, positive coral growth and healthy livestock with minimal negative nutrients

 

[KathyC]

Jason, while I agree that you can minimize the expected algea growth in a new tank, you will still experience some as it is the 'norm', and necessary for all of the different things that we do need to be growing in our tanks..algae wise. The pods and snails and starfish, fish and the corals too eat the different types of algae that are part of our mini eco systems and some will not survive without the others therefore causing the system to never fully 'establish' itself.

The addition of near half a tank of tap water was offset to a degree by the phosban reactor, as mentioned by Wes, and your water changes and maybe even the UV light. So I doubt it has had much of an opportunity to leech into your rocks and sand and will be a minimal issue, if one at all, in your case.

But I still do think you will go through all of the different stages in growth of the different algaes..and expected diatom bloom..but to a slightly lesser degree, or a more lengthy degree due to the addition of the UV.

 

[JLAudio]

I will definitly keep the thread posted, and hope that by keeping up on all maintenance the blooms are minimal and this may give people who are setting up large tanks a little relief from making a few hundreds of gallons of RODI, which is time consuming to say the least or pay a LFS some $1 a gallon

 

[KathyC]

Great! ..and I look foward to following this as the tank moves forward and seeing what others also have to say

 

[regal]

I will definitly keep the thread posted, and hope that by keeping up on all maintenance the blooms are minimal and this may give people who are setting up large tanks a little relief from making a few hundreds of gallons of RODI, which is time consuming to say the least or pay a LFS some $1 a gallon

Jason, why are you trying to re-invent the wheel?:biglaugh: If you are doing WC with RO water, which means you already have a RO unit, then why don't you use it to fill up your new tank. If you are going to use phosban to minimize the amount of phosphate, why don't you start it off right and use RO water. If you are going to set up a large tank, I am sure you will put alot of thought and time to plan it. So what is that extra few days going to cost you? For me, I would rather take extra time and knowing that I've done everything possible from the start so I don't kick myself when things don't turn out the way it supposed to be and have to fix it down the road. If you are going to setup a tank with thousands of gallon of water, I can understand.

 

[JLAudio]

Jason, why are you trying to re-invent the wheel?:biglaugh: If you are doing WC with RO water, which means you already have a RO unit, then why don't you use it to fill up your new tank. If you are going to use phosban to minimize the amount of phosphate, why don't you start it off right and use RO water. If you are going to set up a large tank, I am sure you will put alot of thought and time to plan it. So what is that extra few days going to cost you? For me, I would rather take extra time and knowing that I've done everything possible from the start so I don't kick myself when things don't turn out the way it supposed to be and have to fix it down the road. If you are going to setup a tank with thousands of gallon of water, I can understand.

I was not trying to "re-invent the wheel" but rather trying to set up a fairly large tank while moving my apartment, while working 70+ hrs. a week in minimal time. My water pressure was so bad in my new place that in 24+ hrs I had bairly 30 gallons of RODI, and with the 54 from old tank, I just wanted to set tank up asap and keep live stock alive and felt that the only real consequence I would have from tap would be from the algae and that is why that is the focus of the thread. I would of loved to do it correctly but in the middle of me painting, and a million other things I chose the easier route.

Many of my corals died, but as I stated earlier, the salinity was accidently set so low that its hard to say if the tap or the hypo was the culprit, but 100% of fish survived.

My thread is just pointing out that I was able to use the convenience of tap water with positive results (thus far) Im not advising people to go tap for their reefs, just stating maybe for a setup the negative effects will be minimal if you take into account the other filtration methods as well

 

[aznt1217]

I would like to use tap water!!!

 

[duke62]

what is not discussed here is the presence of metals being put into the system which wont come out in the form of algae but in the form of coral death and lack of growth.yeah sure it wont happen now but those corals that were once healthy and thriving will soon start to fade away

 

[JLAudio]

what is not discussed here is the presence of metals being put into the system which wont come out in the form of algae but in the form of coral death and lack of growth.yeah sure it wont happen now but those corals that were once healthy and thriving will soon start to fade away

This we will see. I am doing the WC's with RODI and Top off so they will dilute and once again, this may or may not be one of the myths of this hobby. I am not saying water with extremely High TDS is advised to be used but how much the effect of minimal amounts over time will be. I guess the future will answer this question

 

[aznt1217]

Well... I remember there being another thread on tap water with some guy with an AP24 and his seemed to be doing great.

Maybe your apartments water quality is good? And I am sure the water conditioner helps.

 

[Bob 1000]

I may have missed this but what type of lighting do you have??

 

[Paul B]

I ran my present tank for the first 15 or 20 years on tap water. All tap water is not created the same. I had no problems until the town put something in the water that killed all of my corals, twice. For the last 20 years I use ro/di.
Having no algae in a new tank is also normal. Sometimes you get it and sometimes you don't. It has a lot more to do with other things than tap water although that could contribute. Algae is not a disease and it's presence is not the harbinger of doom that many hobbiests think it is. It grows on all healthy reefs all over the world and if it does not, something is wrong.

 

[JLAudio]

I may have missed this but what type of lighting do you have??

T5 roughly 320 total watts, nothing crazy but still expected a forest with all that tap water and run it 12 hrs a day.

 

[JLAudio]

I ran my present tank for the first 15 or 20 years on tap water. All tap water is not created the same. I had no problems until the town put something in the water that killed all of my corals, twice. For the last 20 years I use ro/di.
Having no algae in a new tank is also normal. Sometimes you get it and sometimes you don't. It has a lot more to do with other things than tap water although that could contribute. Algae is not a disease and it's presence is not the harbinger of doom that many hobbiests think it is. It grows on all healthy reefs all over the world and if it does not, something is wrong.

Well said Paul, and im not saying my tank is some example of perfection but merely as good and clean as any of the other ones I ran on RODI for the past few years, and im not sure what to credit this.

This tank is fairly new so things may just be pre-mature, I was just pleasently surprised till this point, and dont plan on gambling with tap on a regular basis and will continue RODI WC's and top off to be safe