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View Full Version : Question on Algae

newreef25
02/25/2007, 09:47 PM
OK, so here goes, i know that everynow and then you need to clean the glass becaseu there is a light green haze like algae which starts forming. The thing is i have to do this everymorning becuase its very bad. Also i have a bad time keeping fish alive. I do use tap at the moment because im at school, but i get my water tested and all come back well. Any ideas what could be wrong???
alan214
02/25/2007, 09:53 PM
You really need to stop using tap water. There are things it adds to your tank that the "standard" water tests do not catch. I'm not saying that is what is causing the film on your glass but I'll bet it's a huge contributing factor.
reefworm
02/25/2007, 10:07 PM
I agree - don't use the tap water. your tests may not be picking up the particulates that will cause the trouble. If you're not in a position to buy and rig up an RO/DI filter, you can buy RO water from your LFS, or see if there's another reefkeeper nearby that could supply you. make sure you offer to pay for it
davidryder
02/26/2007, 07:39 AM
yeah i'm pretty sure the big thing is phosphates. tap water is full of them and that is probably what is fueling your algae. if you must continue using tap water, cut back on water changes to stop introducing more phosphates and pick up some phosban or something like that to chemically filter them out
newreef25
02/26/2007, 08:15 AM
The RO/DI Unit, is that something which i could easily hook up (at school so trying to figure out best solution)
alan214
02/26/2007, 09:08 AM
Yes, you just need a normal water hose connection somewhere as well as someplace for the waste water to drain.
DunnoMuch
02/26/2007, 06:15 PM
At the very least you should use the $0.25/gallon vending machines outside the grocery stores.

http://www.glacierwater.com/index.htm

It's not RO/DI, I think it's RO. In any case it's probably better than tap water.
zoomfish1
02/26/2007, 06:22 PM
As for keeping fish alive, that probably falls in line with using tap water also. It does contain large quantities of phosphates and that leads to high nitrates which can kill fish. Treated tap water also contains things like trace amount of arsnic (sp) and copper and a lot of other bad things. At least use distilled at the minimum till you can start using RO/DI.