Algae removal... am I on the right track?

[kronikwisdom]

Ok.. First tank specs..

30 Gallon
45 lbs live rock
2 dual day 65w, 1 dual actinic 65w.
3'' sand bed
Aqua C remora Skimmer w/maxi 1200
2 - maxi 900

Water Condition - Salt: .024, Phos: .5, 0 for all other tests.

Fish:
1 clarkii cown
1 six line wrasse
1 pigme angel
30 red leg hermits
15 misc snails

With that out of the way... The ultimate goal is to remove all algae from the tank. I've been reading up on sources that cause the type of green hair algae and red string algae and have come to a few conclusions.

1: The food I'm feeding may contain phosphates and could be fueling the algae growth. Its a mixture of two frozen foods: Aqua Yums: krill and Fish Gum drops brine shrimp. After contacting both companies regarding the phosphate levels of their products, they claim to be phosphate free. Hmmm.. Seems the best solution is to make my own food, any suggestions?

2: As you can see there is some phosphate in my tank. I'm currently running a phosban media removal for the past week. This product states I can leave it in the tank for up to 6 weeks. The bag in the the eclipse return area where the bio filter normally would be. The water reading is from before the phosban was added, and the level was much lower today.


In conclusion, am I on the right track to having an algae free tank?

 

[Anonymous]

Brine shrimp if I remember is high in phosphates

Keep doing water changes with 0 TS water (RO/DI).

Pull the algae out where you can.

Blast the LR with a turkey baster or power head a few times a week.

 

[Anonymous]

Are you using RO?

 

[kronikwisdom]

Water changes are done every two weeks, 7.5 gallons of distilled water. I'm currently using Instant Ocean salt, which doesn't have any phosphate or nitrates. I also top off with distilled water.

The turkey baster technique is something I've never heard of. Just suck the algae right out of the tank with it I guess.

For the food, I have found frozen Mysis shrimp by bio-pure and freeze dried cyclopeeze. Both are available at my LFS, which I will pickup later today. Is there any kind of nutrients mixture I could add to the food, and could I also use table shrimp as a substitute?

 

[ChrisRD]

The turkey baster or powerhead is used to flush detritus out of the rockwork, not to suck up algae. :wink:

If you can get the frozen cyclopeeze, personally I prefer that over the freeze dried. Chopped seafoods like shrimp, squid, clams, etc. are good choices too.

As for something you can use to enrich foods - Selcon is an example of a popular lipid/vitamin supplement.
http://www.marinedepot.com/aquarium_add ... sp?CartId=

HTH

 

[Swapfoot]

Hope no one minds if I jump in on this thread. I have setup a new 125 with LR and sand. I did not put any powerheads or anything other than the output of the pump from the sump. I thought with RO/DI water I wouldn't have a brown algae problem, but I do. I now realize by reading here that I probably don't have enough circulation esp. down toward the rock. I am instaling a couple of powerheads today.

My question is can I put some snails or something in the tank to eat the growth, but surive the cycling?

I have 80W of T5 actinic white and 80W of T5 actinic blue. I am leaving the lights on 12 hours/day. I have a HOB to a sump, protein skimmer and mechanical filter to get the substrate 'dust' out of the tank. I don't plan on putting much in the tank until I get the rest of the lighting going.

I am in week two with only live rock in the tank. I have amonia, nitrite, nitrate, ph 8.4, and 1.023 sp. I'm sure I'm leaing stuff out. Thanks for the help.

Greg

 

[kronikwisdom]

IMHO, if you are still cycling and you only have live rock in the tank... take it out, scrub it off and put it back in there.. Once you get the power heads blowing that might slow down the algae growth, but I wouldn't put anything in there until the cycle is over.

sure someone else will chime in with some better suggestions...


**as for the my post, the turkey baster is multi-functional. I've glued a little bristle brush piece toward the end and can scrape off some algae and blow out the rock at the same time!!

 

[SnowManSnow]

if its brown alage just have patience. all new tanks cycle through the diatom stages.. (or at least the vast majority do).

B