Tap Water?

kcmo lawman

kcmo lawman

Just a SimpleMan
Dec 10, 2004
241
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54
Kansas City, Mo
Just a quick question. I have recently started getting a bad case of cyano algae in my tank. There have been no new additions, so the only reason I can think would either be my new lighting, or the use of tap water. Would tap water cause this? If not, any other ideas would be helpful.

Thank you,

Bradd
 
Thanks for the reply. That is pretty much what I had figured. Sounds like for a short while I need to get my water from the lfs until I can get a ro/di unit. I don't have a lot of hair algae, but I imagine that an ro/di unit would also help to cut down on that as well.

Once again, thanks for the reply,



Bradd
 
hair algae is more of a phosphate problem in the water, I don't know how much the RO water would change that, usually phospates are introduced from stuff sitting in your rocks. My friend uses RODI water and has a ton of hair alage.

RODI will help get rid of cayno, infact rather quickly if you do a few water changes. You just have to scrape it off and siphon it out then do a water change and I rid my 29gallon of it a few times (came back with introduction to old filter). Cutting the light period for now could stop its growth, or slow it.

Did you just start getting the cyano problem? Always used tap? Your tanks going on a year old right, if i can remember correctly?

Neil.
 
wastememphis said:
hair algae is more of a phosphate problem in the water, I don't know how much the RO water would change that, usually phospates are introduced from stuff sitting in your rocks. My friend uses RODI water and has a ton of hair alage.

RODI will help get rid of cayno, infact rather quickly if you do a few water changes. You just have to scrape it off and siphon it out then do a water change and I rid my 29gallon of it a few times (came back with introduction to old filter). Cutting the light period for now could stop its growth, or slow it.

Did you just start getting the cyano problem? Always used tap? Your tanks going on a year old right, if i can remember correctly?

Neil.
Click to expand...

Yeah, my tank is almost a year old now. I just recently started having trouble with the cyano. When I do my water changes I use pre-mixed salt water from my lfs, but when I add top off I am using tap water due to the fact that I don't have a ro/di unit yet. I am currently trying to save up to buy one. It seems that for almost the past year I haven't had any trouble with cyano. As stated before it just recently started after I got my new 400w metal halide light. For the first couple weeks the light was on for about 3 hours a day. After about 3 weeks I upped it to being on for about 6 hours or so, and now it is on for about 9 hours a day. I am wondering if the combination of the tap water and my new light is the cause for this.

Thanks for the response,

Bradd
 
there we go...

i bet that has something to do with it! try cutting that light period down and use RO water for top off (if your store has it).

side note: how high is your halide off the water, how hot do they get, how hot does your tank get, do you have a picture, what did you do for a canopy? hahah lot of questions there.

(I just bought 2x 250watt doubble ended halides for over my 65gallon tank and they get really hot and light up my whole kitchen. to make a canopy i have a temporary cardboard thing that covers the front and sides... i'm going to make it out of wood but i think i'll have to put fans on that and then keep my halides 12" off the water to prevent heating, i can't even imagine it over the summer)

Neil.
 
wastememphis said:
there we go...

i bet that has something to do with it! try cutting that light period down and use RO water for top off (if your store has it).

side note: how high is your halide off the water, how hot do they get, how hot does your tank get, do you have a picture, what did you do for a canopy? hahah lot of questions there.

(I just bought 2x 250watt doubble ended halides for over my 65gallon tank and they get really hot and light up my whole kitchen. to make a canopy i have a temporary cardboard thing that covers the front and sides... i'm going to make it out of wood but i think i'll have to put fans on that and then keep my halides 12" off the water to prevent heating, i can't even imagine it over the summer)

Neil.
Click to expand...


My light is roughly 1-1 1/2 feet above the water and I had to use a small box fan to help with the temperature of the light. The light itself gets pretty warm but not too bad. I made a temporary canopy out of 2x4s for it so the light doesn't effect the room too much. As far as the tank temperature, it stays roughly around 76-78 degrees so it seems to be fine. Keep in mind these pics are with a 20k metal halide light and not a very good camera so they look a little blue.

Bradd

IMG00018.jpg IMG00019.jpg IMG00020.jpg IMG00022.jpg IMG00023.jpg
 
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RO isn't the cure to this problem no way. I am having a cyano problem big time right now and I have been using only RO to do my changes for the last year. My 75 FOWLR is being invaded by this bacteria and I do 10 - 15 gal changes every week. Maybe I use my lighting too mush, 15 hrs per day. Just a PC fixture though. I quit using tap water altogether, don't even top off.







120lbs LS
110lbs LR
1 Yellow Tang
1 Coral Beauty Angel
1 Yellowtail Damsel
2 Common Clownfish
Handful Hermit Crabs
 
I was told that cyano is an indicator of not enough water flow and having dead spots (low flow areas) in the tank. Try rearranging your powerheads or adding more circulation. This solved my cyano problem in a few days.
 
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