steelerfan's 30 Gallon Breeder Journal/Build

Ace25 said:
Sea hares are another bad choice.. they eat algae about 10x as much as turbo snails... and there are many problems that go along with them (being picked on by fish/crabs, flow issues, release toxins, and require ENORMOUS amounts of hair algae to sustain them. I don't think even a 100G tank infested top to bottom with algae would be enough to sustain a sea hair for more than a few months.

Never heard of "flavored interceptor".. seems odd to flavor a pill that you put inside your pets food. They will eat the pill regardless. While it is good stuff to have, in my experience it is very hard to get a prescription without an actual reason at the time for it. I always had to show current video/photos of a tank with red bugs in order for my local vet to prescribe it. I believe that if you can get a prescription then you can get it filled online at a place like petmeds.com and get the non-flavored variety. Yes, I think it would be a bad idea to use flavored interceptor in a tank.

Oh ya, one more thing, if you have ANY detectable ammonia, do not put inverts like snails or crabs in the tank, they are super sensitive to ammonia. Just throwing that out there... I think your main tank is all cycled so no issues for you with that.
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yeah ace,

i kind of thought the flavored interceptor tablet was not the 1 of choice :-).

gotcha with the ammonia and invert thing too, thanks.

someone on another board threw somthing out there and i dismissed it at first but now i think he may be on to something.

i had kept a couple balls of cheato in my dt to seed it with pods when i first started. well said cheato would break lose and blow around the tank so i eventualy removed it.

i do have a few hair algae pieces, don't get me wrong, but a lot of the stubble stuff i see on the rock indeed does look like cheato.

i got the cheato because all i read was that it wasn't really sexual like calurpa, but it indeed appaers that a lot of this stuff i have is cheato on my rock.

am i screwed with this stuff always growing or will a same snail variety eat this stuff too?
 
Chaeto is usually pretty easy to pick out. There may be a lot of it to pick out and it may take time, but otherwise it isn't difficult. Usually the horror stories of macro-algae infestations are the heavy rooting ones. Caulerpa (mainly Grape and Taxifolia) and Halimeda seem to be big ones, since ripping them out often leaves part of the plant still in the tank to regrow. Chaeto doesn't seem to root like that so it is more a matter of hunting down all the pieces.


As for finding something to eat macro-algae, probably not a good option for you. It usually involves fish that are too big (Tangs) or tricky inverts (cucumbers/slugs/seahares).
 
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Khemul said:
Chaeto is usually pretty easy to pick out. There may be a lot of it to pick out and it may take time, but otherwise it isn't difficult. Usually the horror stories of macro-algae infestations are the heavy rooting ones. Caulerpa (mainly Grape and Taxifolia) and Halimeda seem to be big ones, since ripping them out often leaves part of the plant still in the tank to regrow. Chaeto doesn't seem to root like that so it is more a matter of hunting down all the pieces.


As for finding something to eat macro-algae, probably not a good option for you. It usually involves fish that are too big (Tangs) or tricky inverts (cucumbers/slugs/seahares).
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thanks for info khemul. just don't know what the stuff is. i can see some hair algae that i know its that but the short stuff is what has me stumped.

the good news is that i just got 1 turbo and 3 astrea snails from the lfs.

the turbo hasn't been in tank for 1 hour yet and he has mowed down 2 body lengths of it.

whatever it is he likes it. maybe he was starving in the lfs because there wasn't algae in their tank.
 
greech said:
Agreed. I don't think I have ever actually seen chaeto root so I doubt that is what you are seeing. A few links that might help you ID your macro. I suspect what you have won;t be an issue but maybe you can ID it better...

http://www.saltcorner.com/AquariumLibrary/browsegroupspecies.php?GroupID=86
^you can go back and search for other alages as well. ^this is just the macro page.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-09/reefslides/index.php
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gonna check those links now greech.

as i said, whatever it is the turbo is liking it. at this rate it will be gone by morning :-)

also, i took a sample of my tank water and my top off water from a deer park plastic jug that i keep near the tank for top off.

the lfs used the api test kit and surprising that the topoff ro/di water tested higher for phosphates than my tank water did.

he said it could be because my tank water has the algae using some of the phosphates, but at either rate my plain ro/di water is showing phosphates according to his test.

i am going to get a sample from my brute container where i store the water and see if it could be the deer park plastic bottle leaching out, but i just don't know how accurate these api test kits are.

he said his is brand new and it should be pretty good.

he did not try to pawn any magic item off on me which i was happy about. said i may look into a phosban reactor but he himself couldn't recomend 1 because he has never used it.

said he had a customer who had well water in the country like me and he said in the summer time the guys phosphates were off chart because of farms and chemicals and the such but winter they were fine so he doesn't know if that's what i got going on.
 
steelerfan67 said:
the lfs used the api test kit and surprising that the topoff ro/di water tested higher for phosphates than my tank water did.

he said it could be because my tank water has the algae using some of the phosphates, but at either rate my plain ro/di water is showing phosphates according to his test.

i am going to get a sample from my brute container where i store the water and see if it could be the deer park plastic bottle leaching out, but i just don't know how accurate these api test kits are.

he said his is brand new and it should be pretty good.
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1. Yes, API test kits for phosphates are crap. I wouldn't even bother using them they are so innacurate. Phosphates, in my opinion, can only be measured with a meter. No other way has the accuracy required for our needs. API is good for Alkalinity and ok for Calcium as well from my experience.
2. Reactors are always good to have, they super charge whatever media you put into them.
3. Wasn't aware you were using well water, is that straight well water or filtered through RO/DI? Either way I would agree with his idea of higher issues from run off during growing season than non-growing season.

Ya, that turbo is going to clean your tank in 24 hours.. then what? ;) Guess you get to tell your LFS that turbos do eat algae though. lol
 
Ace25 said:
1. Yes, API test kits for phosphates are crap. I wouldn't even bother using them they are so innacurate. Phosphates, in my opinion, can only be measured with a meter. No other way has the accuracy required for our needs. API is good for Alkalinity and ok for Calcium as well from my experience.
2. Reactors are always good to have, they super charge whatever media you put into them.
3. Wasn't aware you were using well water, is that straight well water or filtered through RO/DI? Either way I would agree with his idea of higher issues from run off during growing season than non-growing season.

Ya, that turbo is going to clean your tank in 24 hours.. then what? ;) Guess you get to tell your LFS that turbos do eat algae though. lol
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i think iagree with you ace on the api phosphate kit.

i just tested water in my brute and it tested at .25.

i then just took plain tap water from the faucet and it tested at .25.

i think there would have thought there would be a difference.

the meter you talk about is that a hanna checker?

if so i had it checked a month or so ago and it was .03.

yes, i am using well water, but i have a 4 stage brs ro/di that i use reading 0 tds.

i don't really have any farms close to me but i do live on a lake that i would guess is heavy polluted, so i am not sure if that is what is going on.

i think if/when the turbo cleans tank i will hope that he eats the green algae strips as i think the guy is really cool.

don't know if it was you or greech that said they remind you of an elephant but that is what i think too.
 
Ya, the Hanna checker is ok.. I like the Hanna meter over the checker but it is hard to justify an additional $150 for the meter. The "egg" checkers just seem to be a little on the frustrating side for me so I was glad that I bought the big meter a couple years before the "egg" checkers came out. Once the checkers came out I had to get one to compare against the $200+ meter.. when the checker works, it seems to be about the same as the meter, but when it doesn't work (which seems like 50% of the time when I use them) the results swing wildly. Say if you know your phosphates is .07... checker will report 0.00 one time, .18 a second time, and .07 the 3rd time. I found that way to frustrating when compared to my meter which seems to give accurate results every single time without headaches.

Turbo's will eat algae on the clips.. but they will eat a 2"x2" piece in under 30 minutes.. they are pigs.. or yes, I said it.. elephants. lol.
 
Ace25 said:
Ya, the Hanna checker is ok.. I like the Hanna meter over the checker but it is hard to justify an additional $150 for the meter. The "egg" checkers just seem to be a little on the frustrating side for me so I was glad that I bought the big meter a couple years before the "egg" checkers came out. Once the checkers came out I had to get one to compare against the $200+ meter.. when the checker works, it seems to be about the same as the meter, but when it doesn't work (which seems like 50% of the time when I use them) the results swing wildly. Say if you know your phosphates is .07... checker will report 0.00 one time, .18 a second time, and .07 the 3rd time. I found that way to frustrating when compared to my meter which seems to give accurate results every single time without headaches.

Turbo's will eat algae on the clips.. but they will eat a 2"x2" piece in under 30 minutes.. they are pigs.. or yes, I said it.. elephants. lol.
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i think he put some powder sollution on his checker so i can see how it may not be too accurate but yes, 150-200 for me is too much to spend right now as i am pretty sure i have phosphates and will hope as tank matures i can get more a grip on it. just really hope it is not in my top off water.

the algae strips will be a small price to pay for that guy as he is a trip to watch. he still has quite a bit of work to do so i am not sweating it yet.
 
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