Algone....has any1 heard of this product?

tinydove · 02-16-2004, 03:28 AM

Hi All,

I am new to this hobby and was wondering if anyone has heard of this product called... Algone? It is used to keep your nitrate in check and also for help with brown algee and other things. www.algone.com

I have a 55g new set-up that has been cycling for just over 4 weeks now and I noticed that I am getting brown algae on my LR and on my glass. My salitity is at: 1.022 , Ammo. 0ppm , PH 8.4 , Nitrite 0.ppm and nitrate 5.0ppm. ( just tested all)

Has anyone ever heard of this product or ever used it and do you know if it is safe for a new set-up?

Any input would be of great help to me, thanks all.

Scuba · 02-16-2004, 05:11 AM

What did you use to start your tanks cycle? As to the Algone, I would try to stay away from it if you can, get some kind of Algae eater kit.

Jason McKenzie · 02-16-2004, 05:23 AM

I think SCUBA is correct. Adding any chemical algae controller is always hit and miss.
As part of a tanks maturation process there is always a brown algae bloom. I would get some snails and hermit crabs. Then wait out the algae. It will go away. But first it's going to get really bad. You just have to be very patient and live through it.

Personally when this occurred in my tank. It drove me nuts. So I performed small water changes. But I removed the water with a very thin Airline hose and used it like a vacuum. It made me feel better but did little to slow the advancement of the algae. But trust me it goes away in about two to three weeks.

J

02-16-2004, 05:39 AM

Scuba Duba Doo and Mr Boo Jakets are correct.
Your tank is still cycling here. Get some snails and crabs or as some call them a cleaning crew.
A lawnmower blenny would help out also.
What fish etc do you have in your tank right now?
Using a sump or refugium?

DC5 · 02-16-2004, 07:09 AM

relative to the topic... I am having a mix of green hair algae on my glass and a carpet mat of red (or red slime) algae on the substrate. It drives me nuts too cuz I have been changing 10% water everyweek, and my lawnmower blenny is not helping much. (I think he is still acclimating to to the tank?? It's color has started to change dark recently...)

Q. Would the scarlet hermit crab eat these red slime algae?

Jason McKenzie · 02-16-2004, 04:15 PM

Alanova How long has the tank been up?
Have you checked the Phosphate levels?
Do you feel your fish are eating all the food you feed within a 3 minute time period?
How is your water flow?
How long is your photo period and what Colour Temp are your lights?

These are all factors of Algae blooms and each can cause different or all algaes to take hold.
Most algaes bloom then exhaust the fuel and die out. It is when we the keepers are perpetually adding fuel that Algae becomes an ongoing troublesome problem

Let us know the answers to the above questions and we shall get to the bottom of this

Jason

DC5 · 02-17-2004, 06:14 AM

Hi Jakets, good to hear from you, you always have been very helpful to my problems. (my user name used to be DC5) Anyways, on to your questions to my questions...

The tank has been up for 2 months now. It is a 30 Gallon tank. I have a fluidized bed filter, seaclone protein skimmer, magnum 350 caniter filter, 1 powerhead/wavemaker, a 96 watts 10000K + actinic light.

Livestock:
1 damsel (green chromis)
1 lawnmomer blenny
1 cleaner shrimp
3 turbo snails

Well first of all, I don't know the phosphate level, I think it is time to buy a testing kit, but I thought that the protein skimmer would take care of that... Also, I have donated the damsel to my LFS, however, I always feed less than it needed once a day with dry bloodworms. (So no overfeeding), I have also reduce my lighting hours from 10 hours a day to 7 hours a day now. I am not feeding anything now since my livestock are either herbivores/scanvergers (I have been doing this for about a week now)

My Nitrate level is around 10 ppm, but that is not accurate because I am assuming the algae has taken in some, my ammonia/nitrite are untraceable.

Jason McKenzie · 02-17-2004, 12:32 PM

Alanova,
Ok so things look good
You are right about the nitrates. But I would have to say you are in the same boat as Tinydove. This type of algae is typical of a new system and will go away over time.
You have a very low bio load so that isn't the problem.
You may want to get a Phosphate test kit and some Phosphate sponges.
Phosphate sponges come in white crystals about the same size as crushed coral. You can buy it in a large container then fill a filter bag with the crystals. Rinse it very well and add it in a high flow area so that water needs to pass through it.
Next you could stand a few more Hermit crabs and snails. If you shop on line check out some of the web sites that have "Clean up Crew" Packages. Check out the amount they have for your tank then forget about the star fish the urchin's and the emerald crabs. Just look at the quantities of snails and hermits. Then go to your LFS and buy about 2/3 of what the on line store recommended. This should bump your Clean up crew to a healthy size. You can always pick up the cool Star fish, Urchins, and cucumbers later once your tank stabilizes.

But to be quite honest IMO your tank is just at the stage were it will go through this Algae bloom. If it's anything like mine it will get worse before better.
One other thing you can try is to vacuum it up. As described above (third post from the top)

Keep us updated
Jason

DC5 · 02-20-2004, 09:02 AM

Hey Jason, an update on the Algae problem. I got a Phosphate test kit made by Hagen (I think it's quite good). Anyway, my reading is ~0.25 mg/L, and they said it is okay as long as it is less than 1. I did another full test on my tank again last night. They are:

specific gravity: 1.023
Temperature: 79F
Ammonia: 0 or untraceble
Nitrite: 0 or untraceble
Nitrate: 10 ppm
pH: 8.3
Alkalinity: 120 ppm

I've got some snails and hermit crab 2 days ago, one side of the glass in the fish tank has significantly improve. But still the algae mat on the substrate is still a problem. It seems like no Livestock are eating them???

I'm trying to siphon/clean the substrate once a week, but I'm afraid to increase any more stress on my Lawnmower Blenny. He seems stress because his top half of body was light tan, but now he is very dark, like he got burn or something.... Is it possible that it is from the PC light?

Jason McKenzie · 02-20-2004, 09:23 AM

No I would say your Blenny is OK. Is he fat or loosing weight?
Not much will eat that carpet of algae, but don't worry it will go away. The blenny may not be eating because of the substrate being covered with algae so make sure you are ensuring he gets his far share of food.
I would siphon out as much as you can and increase the frequency of water changes. But make then smaller. You could even, and this is what I did, keep a 10G mix of SW on hand. Then nightly siphon of the algae and replace it with new SW. Make sure you top up with fresh water first to combat evap. So that your not just adding SW to your tank and increasing the salinity.
Doing this daily for a short period may greatly help. But ensure your not doing too much water per day. Maybe like 2G per day for a week

J