Algea

joe53170

joe53170

New Member
We'll I've been battling hair algea, bubble algea, Diatom blooms and the dreaded cyno bacteria. And I've won the battle but not the war yet! But I predict almost certain VICTORY!!!!!!
What I did first was add some caulerpa, It did a little but not much.
Then I started weekly 5 gallon water changes. But what really did was I bought 2 seaclone 100 protien skimmers and put one on each side of the tank. So all that plus the skimmers has the tank looking like a hot latin lady :)
Now here's my theory.
What makes plant's grow and thrive? Fertalizer of course. So feeding. lighting, poop,pee all make a tank hi in nutrients I think fertalizer. So the caulerpa competes with the algae the water changes take some of the stuff out and te skimming does the rest.
The tank was looking pretty sloppy with all this dead algea hanging all over the place so I took one of the power heads and started storming very lightly and low and behold I saw what I thought was my live rock with some real serious coral line growth how beautiful.
My rock when I got had no coral line growth and wow was I amazed.
So all my fellow reefer's this might work for you also.
MADD LOVE AND RESPECT
FROM THE BOOGIE DOWN
JOE
p.s. sorry for my spelling
 
harald

harald

New Member
I too had problems with hair & bubble algae. I, however, added three types of good algae, Red Fern, Red Plastic Grass, and Purple Ochotodes macroalgae. The Red Plastic isn't doing well, the Tuxedo urchin kept breaking pieces off. The Red Fern is doing alright, growing, but slowly. THe Purple Ochotodes is growing fast. When I got it it was about 2" x 1" x 1". Now, it's 8" x 8" x 6" and a piece that broke off a few days ago is growing as well, it's almost doubled in size. Some Grape Caulerpa has also started to grow in my tank in the last month and a half.
The point of this is that I removed my skimmer over 3 weeks ago, after 3 weeks of not having to empty it. The skimmer was completely clear. My water is still clear, and smells clean, and all my animals are happy and some are even breeding.
If you put in the right algaes, the bad ones won't be able to grow, and you won't need the heavy skimming or heavy water changes either. I haven't changed my water in 2 months, only fresh water top-ups as needed. Though now my wife wants me to move the tank, which means a heavy water replacement...sigh...
 
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