Actinic and Algae

cuttingras · 08-06-2007, 05:39 AM

I can't seem to get rid of my algae and my rock is turning black.I have huge mexican turbos(3), many many snails of different sorts(have to keep replenishing them cause they die, ALOT),I was told by my lfs to only run my lights about 8 hours a day not on at 7am off at 7pm to control algae. If I was to use just my 2 super actinics, would it do the same thing? Can I run these all day for a few days, without freaking the fish, inverts or the flower anemone out? I am using PhosBan, RO/DI(TDS tester comming in this week), Emporer Bio Wheel with the standard blue filter with carbon in them and filter floss, which gets changed every 5 days. The water is beautiful and clear and always tests perfect. The temp is a consistant 77 degrees. The last water change I did, I used Nutri-SeaWater, in hopes that it will correct this. I can't seem to get coralline to grow, no matter what I do. Purple up was no help what-so-ever. What now????

geekdafied · 08-06-2007, 06:27 AM

Coraline will not grow if there is other nuisance algae already. Another thing, the algae might be feeding off all the nitrates so it tests out perfect. Also High nitrate levels will kill off snails and other inverts thus mucking up the water even more.

How old is your test kit? They do expire.

Have you tested your calcium levels?

cuttingras · 08-06-2007, 06:45 AM

I got my test kit this past Feb. Calcium tests at 480 Nitrates/Nitrites are always 0...I have green algae(hair, and flat on glass) and cyano. I tried Chemiclean Red Slime Remover without luck. Do I need to take out all of my rock and scrub it under ro/di to get it all off then cycle the tank again? How can I do this without hurting the occupants as bad levels will go up during the re-cycle.....

djnzlab1 · 08-06-2007, 07:42 AM

HI,
Once the phos is in the tank its trapped in algae so you need to break the cycle of algae dying and releasing more phos to feed the next algae.
One way I did this was to add a iron based phos remover to the filters it captures the phos as its released by the algae dying off this may help break the cycle. many flake foods are rich in phos adding to the bloom .
Another plus is the phos remover may help lower silicates that may be present in your water your adding or the sand.
Ive found many fish are great at eating algae small tang will eat its weigh in algae, it poo out the phos feeding the next bloom unless you extract the phos with a media like rowena phos remover. Many dwarf angels areg reat at cleaning algae.
I bought a phos reactor on ebay for 20 bucks its a simple tube that has sponge at the top and bottom to trap the media and then you plug it into a power head I put it in the sump the media can last for months. Just be sure your water flow is slow to fast and the media tumbles and grinds it self up and you'll have brown filter pads.
So there's alot you can do it takes a little money but it really helps.
You have skimmer too right....
Doug
remember algae is a plant that needs light, food. if you take away the food (nitrates,Phos,silica) it can't grow.

geekdafied · 08-06-2007, 08:07 AM

Who is feeding the fish and how much are they feeding while you're gone through out the year? Somebody could be over feeding.

cuttingras · 08-06-2007, 04:25 PM

when my mother in law feeds them(son is banned from it) I have her feed only every other day and I've showed her many times how much good pinch size....yes I do have a protien skimmer, I forget what kind it is but it really pulls out green slimey smelly gunky stuff.. I will try that with the phos reactor and see if that helps I am using 1/3 of the phos ban(bottle good for 150 gal) in the bag supplied and tieing it up and putting it into my emperor bio wheel filter section. I think it need more through and through contact with the water.. OK I'll check back later tonight for more suggestions.

Thanks everyone!

Otty · 08-06-2007, 06:20 PM

As far as your inverts dieing, do you have power heads in the tank?? If you do you may have stray voltage and that will kill inverts. Take a multi meter and test for it.

cuttingras · 08-09-2007, 06:46 PM

Geek figured out it may be that my fish have outgrown this tank. I'm going with that and looking to buy another filter. The Emperor 400 might not be big enough, since I want to keep the fish that I have.

Anyone have a decent canister set up they want to sell(cheap)?

I took out my rock today and pressure washed it. I know that sounds strange but it was the only way to get the red(cyanobacteria) off it. It wouldn't scrape off, I tried to get it off with a wire brush!! It came off with the pressure washer and I got alot of the green off, too. I added a capful of marine bio booster to the water, to put back some of the good stuff that I washed off.

I'm not turning on my lights for 3-4 day and I'm going to cover the front with cloth, so no light gets to it. Maybe that, along with 1-20% water change a week, will kill
most of the algae's I have growing and then I can(hopefully) get some coralline to grow. I also siphoned the sand, got out a bunch of old shells, scraped the walls and changed the filters. Put new PhosBan in the filter's extra media holder.

Otty, yes powerhead new one in fact(1week old). The kind with the magnet. No voltage, I checked that.

djnzlab1, yes I have a p.s. it's a Aqua C Remora w/MaxiJet 1200, Works GREAT!

Not sure what else I can do other than break it down and sell it all.