Equipment for a 50 gal
- Thread starter sman
- Start date
lecithin
Member
Originally Posted by bgrae001
What kind of water are you using? Are you using RO/DI water? If you use water out of the tap without it being filtered it will feed the hair algae and it will grow out of control.
Bingo, he's dead on. Make sure its RO water or at least test your tap water for every imaginable thing.... Most tap sources can't be used. There are a few posts on the best way to remove hair algae, you can yank it out and there are some other solutions such as removing the piece and scrubing it once its pulled. I haven't had much trouble with hair but I tend to yank it out and as your tank matures it hopefully becomes less of a pain.
An emerald crab would eat it and they are typcially docile but I don't have a lot of experience with them and am not sure how they act after they run outta the algae... I think they would also munch on any beneficial macroalgae which I have a lot of and is why I don't have one.
Maybe i'm wrong on the macro though....
As for other ways to combat algae, the biggest is lighting, they loooove light and if your fixture is running 10-12 hours a day you're really helping that stuff out. So cut back on your light cycle as you combat it.
What kind of water are you using? Are you using RO/DI water? If you use water out of the tap without it being filtered it will feed the hair algae and it will grow out of control.
Bingo, he's dead on. Make sure its RO water or at least test your tap water for every imaginable thing.... Most tap sources can't be used. There are a few posts on the best way to remove hair algae, you can yank it out and there are some other solutions such as removing the piece and scrubing it once its pulled. I haven't had much trouble with hair but I tend to yank it out and as your tank matures it hopefully becomes less of a pain.
An emerald crab would eat it and they are typcially docile but I don't have a lot of experience with them and am not sure how they act after they run outta the algae... I think they would also munch on any beneficial macroalgae which I have a lot of and is why I don't have one.
Maybe i'm wrong on the macro though....
As for other ways to combat algae, the biggest is lighting, they loooove light and if your fixture is running 10-12 hours a day you're really helping that stuff out. So cut back on your light cycle as you combat it.
sman
Member
Readings are still the same. Yea I have the lights on about 10 hours a day, I will cut back on that. Im working with my employer to get our office setup for RO delivery that will come out of my check. They come once every 2 weeks, so I was going to have them drop 10 gallons each time. Do a 5 gallon change each week, sound like a good plan. I dont really want to do an RO unit, as there is really no place to put it, nor anywhere to route the waist water.
bgrae001
Member
Originally Posted by sman
Readings are still the same. Yea I have the lights on about 10 hours a day, I will cut back on that. Im working with my employer to get our office setup for RO delivery that will come out of my check. They come once every 2 weeks, so I was going to have them drop 10 gallons each time. Do a 5 gallon change each week, sound like a good plan. I dont really want to do an RO unit, as there is really no place to put it, nor anywhere to route the waist water.
If your planning on getting water delivered that is used for a water cooler. I would forget it. They add a ton of stuff back to the water for taste. It will cause a massive algae bloom and you will be fighting with trying to balance your tank all the time.
I would check with your LFS and see if they sell RO water. It would be better to get it from there as they wont add anything back to the water.
On another note. My first FOWLR tank that I had set up I used RO water from Wal-Mart. I had a hair algae Forest in my tank and it was only 39 gal. No matter what I did I could not get rid of the hair algae. Then I added a fuge with Macro algae and in 3 months the hair algae was gone. I struggled with it for over a year trying to get rid of it. All I did was get an overflow box a 10 gal tank and a return pump. I cut up some Plexiglas and glued it in place. It worked great and my tank was much cleaner.
Readings are still the same. Yea I have the lights on about 10 hours a day, I will cut back on that. Im working with my employer to get our office setup for RO delivery that will come out of my check. They come once every 2 weeks, so I was going to have them drop 10 gallons each time. Do a 5 gallon change each week, sound like a good plan. I dont really want to do an RO unit, as there is really no place to put it, nor anywhere to route the waist water.
If your planning on getting water delivered that is used for a water cooler. I would forget it. They add a ton of stuff back to the water for taste. It will cause a massive algae bloom and you will be fighting with trying to balance your tank all the time.
I would check with your LFS and see if they sell RO water. It would be better to get it from there as they wont add anything back to the water.
On another note. My first FOWLR tank that I had set up I used RO water from Wal-Mart. I had a hair algae Forest in my tank and it was only 39 gal. No matter what I did I could not get rid of the hair algae. Then I added a fuge with Macro algae and in 3 months the hair algae was gone. I struggled with it for over a year trying to get rid of it. All I did was get an overflow box a 10 gal tank and a return pump. I cut up some Plexiglas and glued it in place. It worked great and my tank was much cleaner.