Help! How bad are phosphates for your fish? I have red algae problem

sixers3

sixers3

Member
I know that phosphates are causing my red algae problem. I have a porcupine puffer in a 55 gal by himself. I have some hermits and turbo snails. I use ro/di water. my bulbs were just changed. i've reduced the time they are on. i do water changes. my ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates are all good. i've removed my filter media/carbon cartridge from my filter and added a phosphate sponge. I use a skimmer that works great.
So my question is:
Other than not looking very good because of all the algae growth, are high phosphates bad for my puffer?
I have a lot of red slime algae on my rock and sand bed. It is like a sheet on the sand. It gets bad after the lights are on. It kinda goes away over night, but is back quickly when the lights are on.
What should i do?
 
sixers3

sixers3

Member
By the way, i feed him once a day, only a couple krill or a silverside. Sometimes he doesn't eat the silverside and it lays in the bottom of the tank. I know this is not good, but he will eat it later. Sometimes though, it is broken down in the tank, but it doesn't seem to affect my ammonia, nitrites or nitrates.
 
shrmnator

shrmnator

Member
try a different salt mix. i used red sea and had a nice bloom of red slime and now i use reef crystals by instant ocean. the red slime has calmed down quite a bit but still grows a little. i have been reading alot lately about dosing with vodka. yes. that is right! vodka! not sure how good it is to use or if there are any side effects but it is becoming very popular in other countries. the red slime is a bacteria more then an algae. it is photosynthetic so the lighting does affect it. one thing you can do is to blow it around and use a vaccuum to get it out of the tank before it settles again.
what kind of salt mix do you use?
 
zabadoo

zabadoo

New Member
I have the same problem with red agae. It's just starting. I did a partial water change this morning, cleaned out the filters and washed out some of the bio balls in the sump. I've heard that that would lower the nitrates in my tank.
My tank is 125 gal. and is about 5 months old. I have both metal halides and actinic lighting and it is on about 7 hours a day.
I also do a 5 gal water change each week. Am I doing the right thing? Will the red algae get worse?
 
vanos

vanos

Member
I've been having this same problem to a small extent ever since my yellow tang got caught in my power head and died. But the lfs said that yellow tangs don't eat red algae. I use ***** water and/or ro/di water that my lfs has for sale and do 5-10 gallon water changes every other week. I have a 55G and my lights are on for 6-7 hours/day and recently changed the compact fluorescent bulbs which I do every year.
 
farslayer

farslayer

Active Member
Increase flow to help keep the cyno from sticking and try a phosphate remover such as Phas Gard or Phos Ban (no reactor needed). I use PhosGard because even with RO/DI water I still had detectable phosphates, now I have undetectable levels.
 
zabadoo

zabadoo

New Member
Have been using filtered water (pur water filter) and regular tap water. Think I will change to distilled water insted. Just put in a phosphate patch in water. Hope this will help before it goes crazy.
 
farslayer

farslayer

Active Member
Don't use distilled water, it is typically distilled using copper tubes which can introduce copper into your tank. I used to use Wal Mart drinking water since it is RO water and have had awesome results. I have an RO unit of my own now.
 
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