About to give up

[chickadee]

a phosphate test kit is a great thing to have. However, just cause your test reads 0 doen't mean that phosphates aren't present in your tank. The algae can devour the phosphates before you read it. So, the best thing to do is test your food and water for phosphates. If you're using tap water, stop right now!

 

[who dey]

just skimmed this thread but noticed the diagram of your emperors. Ditch the emperors and get a sump set up. I battled red slime forever and found my emperors were a nitrate factory. I had plenty of flow, siphoned the he$# out of the cyano and it kept coming back. I ditched the emperors, bought a sump with an expensive skimmer adn bought phos removing pads from tropical science that had a powder additive that promised to remove cyano and it really did. I couldn't believe it. don't give up

 

[happypants]

Originally Posted by kender
HEEEELP! I recently switch out my tank from crushed coral to live sand because I was told that was better. I also was having a red algae problem that I figured would go away once I changed everything out and added the two new powerheads. I changed out my lights to a 10k bulb and a blue actinic bulb. Everything was great for about two weeks and now I have an outbreak of red algae occurring again. What am I doing wrong. Is there some sort of algae eater I need to get or what.
Any advise is greatly accepted. Thanks ahead of time.
Never give up! Always remember you are trying basically to replicate the ocean and it takes time to gather all the info and learn how to. Sometimes little care is better and sometimes too much care is needed. You have to find that balance. It can be done!

 

[kender]

Originally Posted by HappyPants
Never give up! Always remember you are trying basically to replicate the ocean and it takes time to gather all the info and learn how to. Sometimes little care is better and sometimes too much care is needed. You have to find that balance. It can be done!

I am going to build a sump as soon as I can. I have a ten gallon that I am going to convert, but this is a piece by piece operation. :hilarious I have reduced the lighting on the tank to 6 hours and I will slowly adjust back up. I have some 5g jugs for walmart water that I will go fill up in a few days for my top off's as far as water changes go could I get by with say a 5g change once week? I just dont want to have 10 5g jugs sitting in my living room. hehe. I readjusted the powerheads a little to better hit the spot where I was having the largest outbreak. We will test that and see if that helps out.
Again thanks to everyone for all your help!

 

[merredeth]

Originally Posted by kender
I am going to build a sump as soon as I can. I have a ten gallon that I am going to convert, but this is a piece by piece operation. :hilarious I have reduced the lighting on the tank to 6 hours and I will slowly adjust back up. I have some 5g jugs for walmart water that I will go fill up in a few days for my top off's as far as water changes go could I get by with say a 5g change once week? I just dont want to have 10 5g jugs sitting in my living room. hehe. I readjusted the powerheads a little to better hit the spot where I was having the largest outbreak. We will test that and see if that helps out.
Again thanks to everyone for all your help!
Find a closet to put the water into if you are looking at water jugs. Since they are sealed they can sit on a floor someplace more out of site. Or you can get a Japanese soji screen for the area where you need to put the water if you want to avoid looking at it.
The rule of thumb in this hobby is 10% weekly if you want to avoid problems. If you want to keep having problems, go ahead and do half that amount.
However, you asked us to help identify the problem and we have done that. While I hate the thought of hearing about tank problems because the livestock are affected - I cannot control what you do with your tank and am stepping back.
We gave you the solutions - what you decide to do is up to you.
Denise M.

 

[symon]

Originally Posted by Merredeth
Find a closet to put the water into if you are looking at water jugs. Since they are sealed they can sit on a floor someplace more out of site. Or you can get a Japanese soji screen for the area where you need to put the water if you want to avoid looking at it.
The rule of thumb in this hobby is 10% weekly if you want to avoid problems. If you want to keep having problems, go ahead and do half that amount.
However, you asked us to help identify the problem and we have done that. While I hate the thought of hearing about tank problems because the livestock are affected - I cannot control what you do with your tank and am stepping back.
We gave you the solutions - what you decide to do is up to you.
Denise M.

Here is something i have learned! And I am as guilty as anyone is just gettin lazy!
This is an expensive hobby, you spend alot of time, energy and of course money to get a tank going!
You put your sweat and sometimes tears into it getting it to where you want it! Then for some reason, ( Life takes over) You decide to cut back on water changes, testing ect !
Now all of the sudden you have alges growing , things are dying or just not growing like you have once seen them grow!
Now you have to make a decision, do you give up , keep doing just the bare minumum to keep things going OR do you step up and do what you know will work!
Well I for 1 don't give up that easy, so i step up and get the RO unit to have ro on hand all the time, I buy my salt in bulk so i don't run out, test my tank constantly, do my 20% water changes once a week, Because i know this is what works for not only me , But everyone else too!
Sorry for the rant, LOL was not meant to be that at all , My point is, cutting corners will lead to problems, which will lead to dissapointment, and we only want you to be happy with your passon! So get back on schedual and do the water changes and test your tank for everything else that needs to be done!
Good Luck and have fun!

 

[whitey_028]

12 hours of lights are a bit much try lowering to 8 to 10 should help out greatly...

 

[arandacole]

Originally Posted by kender
I have been using tap water but when I check my levels with trates and trites an ph everything is checking out okay.
Hi,
I was also using tap water that testing out perfect! I was getting really bad red hair algae. I decided to follow the advice of getting an ro unit even though I truly believed that my tap water was fine.
It's only been 2 weeks and with using the ro water and doing water changes, I have almost no hair algae. I have to believe it's the tap water (as everyone was telling me)
Good Luck!
Love,
A

 

[acrylic51]

The RO/DI unit will pay off!!!!!