Hubby ready to give up, RED SLIME ALGAE

[dorkfish]

It is fantastic.

That is of course assuming that it doesn't cuase your tank to crash, like it sometimes does.

 

[Quiltgal]

Not this product. Here is a link: http://www.boydenterprisesonline.com/pages/8/page8.html

I have used it with great success, no harm to any of my inhabitants. In fact, I had forgotten about it until I read this thread and it took me a few minutes to remember the name of it. I may try it again to clarify my water. It is very safe. Go to the link and read about it.

Cheryl

 

[luvdfish]

With all this help - how could you go wrong

I went to the Chemi-clean site, sounds like a great option to get things under control so that we can focus on the real problem. At this point I think that I need to be more cautious about the amount of food I am giving them. We are also going to try more frequent water changes - change smaller amounts twice a week. Do you think that this would help? :idea:

 

[dorkfish]

Not this product. Here is a link: http://www.boydenterprisesonline.com/pages/8/page8.html

I knew exactly what your talking about and yes, it is that product. Here is a link if you don't belive me: http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=84822

 

[fsn77]

Our Salinity - we are a bit confused by what you said. All of the books recommend 1.022 - even the hydrometer has 1.025 as just on the edge of becoming not safe. I always would take the assistance from someone who has or is fighting some of the same problems over a book that may or may not been written by a true fish lover. I guess some more feedback will help.

1.024 - 1.026 is most commonly recommended for a reef tank, as it is closer to the specific gravity found in nature.

I do tend to overfeed according to my husband and I did not realize that flake food could cause problems if it is not the correct kind. Yes my frozen is store bought but rinsed before feeding - could you recommend better options? Today our phosphate is at 0, I would guess that it will vary at different times a day before or after a feeding or a water change?

Unfortunately, most phosphate test kits do not really measure in a range that is truly useful for reef keepers. Phosphate levels in the 0.1 range are high enough to possibly result in nuissance algae. If a test kit doesn't measure something between 0 and 0.1 (like 0.05), than it really doesn't let you know you have a phosphate problem until a level is reached where the nuissance algae may already be starting to show up.

The thing to remember about any nutrient measurement is that you are measuring what is available in the water. This is no measure of what anything (including cyano or nuissance algae) has already taken up. A low reading only means that if you have cyano or nuissance algae, its demand has caught up with the supply of that excess nutrient. As more feeding occurs, more nutrients will be added, and will likely be consumed by the outbreak faster than a measurable level can be reached.

There's nothing wrong with feeding frozen foods, as long as they are being rinsed to remove the excess nutrients from the solution they are frozen in. If you are worried about stripping out vitamins / minerals, you could always soak the food in some Selcon (or similar product) to add more nutritional value. (Selcon contains no phosphates and no nitrates.) As far as recommending flake / pellets for feeding, the best thing to do is read the back of the labels. Most of them have a listing for phosphates. If you buy all your food online, you might need to compare foods side by side at the LFS / pet superstore to get a better idea of a product that is lower in phosphates than what you are currently feeding.

Our lights are about 6 months old but we do have new ones on the way When you say that 9 -10 of daylight is plenty - do you start with Actinics and then add the daylight or do you turn the Actinics off when the daylights come on?

We keep the actinics on while the daylight bulbs run, which keeps the tank from looking overly washed out / yellow in color.
Here's an example of how our lights run:
8am: actinics on
10am: daylight bulbs on
7pm: daylight bulbs off
9pm: actinics off

Nitrate 50 ppm (is this to high - what is recommended?)

Yes, 50ppm is too high. 0 is ideal, but < 20 ppm is acceptable and a reasonable goal.


IMO, I'd avoid using a product like Chemi-Clean simply because it is only a short term solution. If you cannot figure out the major factors causing the cyano outbreak -- be it low flow, bad bulbs, elevated nutrient levels -- the same problem (or a similar one) is likely to return a few months down the road.

 

[fsn77]

I went to the Chemi-clean site, sounds like a great option to get things under control so that we can focus on the real problem. At this point I think that I need to be more cautious about the amount of food I am giving them. We are also going to try more frequent water changes - change smaller amounts twice a week. Do you think that this would help? :idea:

Focussing on the real problem(s) will result in the cyano outbreak beginning to subside on its own, especially if you continue with the manual removal of it.

Smaller, more frequent water changes result in more stable water conditions, but are not a solution to fixing a water related problem. To fix a water related problem, more frequent water changes of the current size or even somewhat larger would be more effective.

Quick example:
For simplicity sake, let's just say there's 100g of actual water in the example tank, 50ppm of nitrate, and 1ppm of phosphate. These simple calculations assume there is no significant amount of nutrients being added back into the tank between water changes, which is unlikely unless the tank is put on a hunger strike or feeding is at least drastically reduced. While there isn't a kit to measure 45.5ppm, the point is the calculated difference in what would result, knowing that the difference itself may not be measurable on a test kit because the kit is not sensitive enough to detect the change.
Changing 10% once weekly:
Water change: 10g out, NO3 drops to 45ppm and PO4 to 0.90ppm
Changing 5% twice weekly:
Water change 1: 5g out, NO3 drops to 47.5ppm and PO4 to 0.95ppm
Water change 2: 5g out, NO3 drops to ~45 ppm and PO4 to 0.90ppm
Changing 10% twice weekly:
Water change 1: 10g out, NO3 drops to 45ppm and PO4 to 0.90ppm
Water change 2: 10g out, NO3 drops to ~41ppm and PO4 to 0.81ppm
Changin 15% twice weekly:
Water change 1: 15g out, NO3 drops to 42.5ppm and PO4 to 0.85ppm
Water change 2: 15g out, NO3 drops to ~36ppm and PO4 to ~0.73ppm

Basically, if you hope to bring down nutrient levels, there needs to be an increase in the total amount of water changed, be it through a single larger water change once a week or via multiple water changes per week that total a water volume being changed each week that is larger than what you are currently changing on a weekly basis.

 

[Quiltgal]

I knew exactly what your talking about and yes, it is that product. Here is a link if you don't belive me: http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=84822

That is terrible. I sure didn't have that problem. I have to believe that it wasn't used correctly. I didn't use as much as it directed also, the little scoop that comes with it is really tiny, so I think that sometimes people think if a little is good, a lot will be better. I tend to be cautious and start out with the minimum until I see how it works. A little of this stuff does go a long way. And for some, like me, I think it at least gives you a chance to get your reef back in control and give you hope. I wouldn't hesitate to use it again. JMHO.

 

[Quiltgal]

And another thing, I have a little tip that I discovered. I have been bad about my water changes in the past, but I made an early New Year's resolution to do my water changes more regularly. I came up with an easy way to do it which will help me keep my resolution. I buy my salt water from my LFS and I have them put it in 5 gallon buckets. I bought some airline tubing (actually it is just a tiny bit bigger than airline tubing) and I put the bucket on top of my canopy and attach the airline tubing to the bucket with a little clamp and start it siphoning into the tank, then on the other side of my tank on the floor, I put an empty 5 gallon bucket and use the airline tubing and siphon water from the tank into that simultaneously. I am doing two of these buckets every other week. It seems less stressful on the tank and easier for me and less messy. I have know idea how other people do it, and maybe this is already how some do it, but I thought I would pass it on for those who hate water changes.

 

[Mahlhavoc]

I don't mean to critisize anyone for how they want to take care of their tanks, but IMO putting a band-aid over a bad situation has taught nothing more than how to use a band-aid and not how to keep from having to use a band-aid.

There is no need to use hurry and fix me up techniques if you take care of root problems at the root. Find the disease and cure it so to speak. Do I say never use phosguard? No, but try to eliminate what caused a rise in phosphates and cure that which is cause and root of the problem. I have found, through trial and error (lots of error), that keeping things as close to natural as possible creates less problem.

A saltwater tank is actually super easy to care for, just time consuming. Add enough bio filtration via live rock or the like for waste reductions, lots of flow like the natural oceans, don't over crowd or over feed and do water changes to keep water perameters in line, everything else will and does fall into place for so many Marine Aquarium keepers including me.

Again, no offense to anyone, just adding in my 2 cents on my take.

 

[Quiltgal]

I agree with you on the band-aid thing. But I also know how it feels to have a tank that feels so far gone that you just want to give up and it you think there is no way of getting it under control again. When I used chemi-clean, I got a glimpse of what my tank should really look like, and it worked quickly. I then felt like I had it back under control and my attitude towards it became much better, I felt like working on it, and I did and I have not had a trace of red slime algae in over 3 years. I only used the chemi-clean two times and never again since then. Of course the people selling the product recommend that you use it all the time, I don't.

Oh and about my earlier post about water changes, I never said how I was doing the water changes before now. I was still buying my saltwater from the LFS but I was having to turn all of my equiptment off, siphon out two buckets of tank water using a big hose, (I really got tired of nasty saltwater in my mouth), then I would pour the new water into the tank and splash it all over the place disturbing everything. That is why I hated water changes.