swampthing
Member
I've got a chronic algae problem. I've been running a 90 gallon reef tank for better than 2 years now. At one time I had beaten the algae and the tank looked great, so I know it can be done.
All and all, the tank seems pretty healthy. Too healthy, really. When I first put in the turf scrubber, the green hair algae slowly subsided until there was almost none. In fact, all my bigger snails died off from starvation. I started fumbling around with Hbh Balance Blocks, trying to keep the pH in a tight range. This was the only thing I did differently. After about a month and perhaps two packages of blocks the algae just went crazy.
I tried using the algea killing liquid product. This went poorly. The green algae became a yellowish, bubbling algea which became red slime algae. This went on for another month, before I stopped adding anything at all to the tank, increased the filter flow, changed the floro bulbs, and decreased the lighting period.
It's been another month and the tank has gone back to green algae (some dark green, some less dark). All the while, I've been scooping out 4-8 oz. or more of the stuff every day. The growth seems to have tapered a bit, and it only loosly grips the rock, so removal is easy, but it keeps coming back. Anybody got any suggestions? Too much food? Too much light? Give it more time? Add a carbon reactor? Less/more water changes? I'm not too keen on adding anything like medicines or suppliments.
What I've got in my 90 gallon tank:
90+ pounds of live and base rock. 3-4 inches of argonite sand with another 1-2 inches of live carribean sand on top of that.
The filters are in the basement one floor down. I'm putting about 50 gal/hour through the filters. Inside the tank, I've got two 125gph Powersweep pumps and a single (I'd guess) 250 gph static powerhead. All my softs are swaying in the water, and the flecks of snow swirl around the tank fairly well. The drain is at about 75% capacity (I'd guess).
First a trickle filter (5 gallon bucket filled with blue sponge foam and then bioballs) with a phosphate reactor getting maybe 5-10 gal/hour of the flow, and then second it all goes over a turf scrubber (an angled 15"x18" window screen lit by four 18" florescent tube lights on one side, lit 18 hours a day).
In the sump, maybe 10-15 gallons, I've got 8# of live rock along with the heaters and main pump. Also in the sump is a protien skimmer rated for 100 gallons.
I keep 5-6 mature blue/green chromis, 2 mature chalk bass, and 2 smaller clownfish (the orange ones with a white stripe) in the tank. There's the fattest blue gobie you've ever seen stuck in the back partition that hides the drain and return plumbing. Say 23 inches or so of fish in total.
Every day I feed them two piches of crap cuisine pellets, two pinches of marine chips, and a half block of frozen emerald entree.
/>I keep all soft corals. Two green sea mats, several dozen assorted mushrooms, and a half dozen big ricordia. And another soft that I can't recall what it's called. They're all fully extending and growing just fine. I've got pink and green calcerous aglae making inroads where they're able.
Also in the tank are numerous little snails, some peppermint shrimps, an anenomie crab, a bristle work that won't take the bait in my tube trap, all manner if copepods and amphipods, and the occasional glass anenomie that I kill when I find.
I have one 48" semi-actinic floro and one 36" sunlight floro going for 12 hours a day. Then I've got 4 six-LED floods down the middle going for 10 and a half hours a day.
My water chemistry is as follows:
pH roams around between 8.00 and 8.20; Calcium is in high, in the 680-720 range; Hardiness is good at between 161-179 DK; Nitrates stay between 0-0.25; Phosphates stay between 0-1; Iodine is a bit high at 0.09; Iron is a bit low at 0.05 ; Temperature roams around between 76 - 80 farenheit.
All the water from a Might Mite RO/DI filter. I'm changing out 5 gallon every other week.
Any ideas?
All and all, the tank seems pretty healthy. Too healthy, really. When I first put in the turf scrubber, the green hair algae slowly subsided until there was almost none. In fact, all my bigger snails died off from starvation. I started fumbling around with Hbh Balance Blocks, trying to keep the pH in a tight range. This was the only thing I did differently. After about a month and perhaps two packages of blocks the algae just went crazy.
I tried using the algea killing liquid product. This went poorly. The green algae became a yellowish, bubbling algea which became red slime algae. This went on for another month, before I stopped adding anything at all to the tank, increased the filter flow, changed the floro bulbs, and decreased the lighting period.
It's been another month and the tank has gone back to green algae (some dark green, some less dark). All the while, I've been scooping out 4-8 oz. or more of the stuff every day. The growth seems to have tapered a bit, and it only loosly grips the rock, so removal is easy, but it keeps coming back. Anybody got any suggestions? Too much food? Too much light? Give it more time? Add a carbon reactor? Less/more water changes? I'm not too keen on adding anything like medicines or suppliments.
What I've got in my 90 gallon tank:
90+ pounds of live and base rock. 3-4 inches of argonite sand with another 1-2 inches of live carribean sand on top of that.
The filters are in the basement one floor down. I'm putting about 50 gal/hour through the filters. Inside the tank, I've got two 125gph Powersweep pumps and a single (I'd guess) 250 gph static powerhead. All my softs are swaying in the water, and the flecks of snow swirl around the tank fairly well. The drain is at about 75% capacity (I'd guess).
First a trickle filter (5 gallon bucket filled with blue sponge foam and then bioballs) with a phosphate reactor getting maybe 5-10 gal/hour of the flow, and then second it all goes over a turf scrubber (an angled 15"x18" window screen lit by four 18" florescent tube lights on one side, lit 18 hours a day).
In the sump, maybe 10-15 gallons, I've got 8# of live rock along with the heaters and main pump. Also in the sump is a protien skimmer rated for 100 gallons.
I keep 5-6 mature blue/green chromis, 2 mature chalk bass, and 2 smaller clownfish (the orange ones with a white stripe) in the tank. There's the fattest blue gobie you've ever seen stuck in the back partition that hides the drain and return plumbing. Say 23 inches or so of fish in total.
Every day I feed them two piches of crap cuisine pellets, two pinches of marine chips, and a half block of frozen emerald entree.
/>I keep all soft corals. Two green sea mats, several dozen assorted mushrooms, and a half dozen big ricordia. And another soft that I can't recall what it's called. They're all fully extending and growing just fine. I've got pink and green calcerous aglae making inroads where they're able.
Also in the tank are numerous little snails, some peppermint shrimps, an anenomie crab, a bristle work that won't take the bait in my tube trap, all manner if copepods and amphipods, and the occasional glass anenomie that I kill when I find.
I have one 48" semi-actinic floro and one 36" sunlight floro going for 12 hours a day. Then I've got 4 six-LED floods down the middle going for 10 and a half hours a day.
My water chemistry is as follows:
pH roams around between 8.00 and 8.20; Calcium is in high, in the 680-720 range; Hardiness is good at between 161-179 DK; Nitrates stay between 0-0.25; Phosphates stay between 0-1; Iodine is a bit high at 0.09; Iron is a bit low at 0.05 ; Temperature roams around between 76 - 80 farenheit.
All the water from a Might Mite RO/DI filter. I'm changing out 5 gallon every other week.
Any ideas?
