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GiGalo
08/23/2008, 12:12 PM
I have battles with this since I started my salt water experience. I use DI water and keep up regular water changes. Can anyone tell me a way to stop this algea from growing.

Jflip2002
08/23/2008, 12:16 PM
How longs your tank been up? Do you have enough flow? Assuming its cyano, you can try to turn the lights off for a couple days. That did the trick for my 60g. Ive also used "red slime remover" before, and that worked as well. People will say that kills the bad bacteria along with the good, though.

hockyfn30
08/23/2008, 12:23 PM
You can run a phosban reactor, feed less, feed less often, reduce the number of hours that the lights are on, make sure that your protein skimmer is working properly and efficiently, run a refugium with macroalgae. Basically either put less nutrients into the water, or take more nutrients out of the water so that the cyano has little or nothing to feed on.

GiGalo
08/23/2008, 12:28 PM
This 56 gal. cube has only been up since May 08, but I took the water from my 125 when I tore it down. I have three of the Koralia 4 pumps(rated at 1200 gph.) and an emperor 280 filter(rated at 280 gph). The flow seems to be very good. I know that the filter is only rated for up to 50 gal, but I was told it would be fine. I am also running a skimmer.

GiGalo
08/23/2008, 12:33 PM
hockyfan, in my 125 I ran a 55 gallon fuge and still had the same prob with a reactor. As of right now I only run the 250w MH for 5 hours out of the 10 hours the lights are on. The rest of the time it is a simple corallife t5 fixture with one WH and one Actinic bulb. Standard output.

thecoralreefer
08/23/2008, 12:38 PM
How often and how much do you feed ???
Do you have leftovers falling in the tank at feeding time?
and lastly how much of a clean up crew do you have ???
Snails and sand stars will clean out the debris from your tank so you don't have too as often.and they do a much better job than the human hand can !!!

GiGalo
08/23/2008, 12:53 PM
I feed once a day and I usually only feed a little at a time. When the food I put in is all eaten I will add a little more. Very little makes it too the bottom. I have 5 hermit crabs, and about 5 or so snails. I am looking to get some sand siftes soon.

GiGalo
08/27/2008, 07:50 AM
Tank has been blacked out for over 48hrs and nothing has changed. I am going to go research some more on this dark-red algea. I have to find out how to rid my tank of this. Once the stuff starts it spreads like a california wild fire. Any other suggestion or known knowledge base will be helpful. Thank you all for your input.

Kannin
08/27/2008, 10:27 AM
I have successfully beaten cyano in both of my tanks without using chemicals.

Install a phosban reactor with Rowaphos and vacuum it out twice a week... and keep doing everything else you are doing.

GiGalo
08/28/2008, 06:51 AM
So you are saying to fill my reactor up with phosphate sponge and see if that helps. This stuff is only growing on the rocks and glass. It seems to be only where the current is strong. I do not have any phosphate in my water tests. Do you still reccomend doing this part. I am going to go today and get some more cleaners. I did notice on my last water test that my Nitrates are present, clacium is high(520), alk(9dkh), and ph is low(7.3) bare minimum for recommended... My ph has never been above 8 acccept for an accidental ph spike adding kalkwasser. Could this cause an instability. I know that my Nitrates are showing because I noticed that the biowheel was not moving at all. I have since then been watching to make sure that the biowheel stays moving. Any thoughts....Thank you!!

bolandess
08/28/2008, 11:12 AM
I am also new to SW but have done A LOT of reading and it seems to me that:
1. Get rid of the nitrates, also 0 nitrites and ammonia
2. Alkalinity seems low...(should be 10-13dkh on average)
3. pH is VERY low...(concensus seems to be around 8.1-8.3 is optimum)

If I am misleading GiGalo, anyone please feel free to correct me, I too am at the bottom of the knowledge pole!

GiGalo
08/30/2008, 06:40 AM
No you are not missleading those parameters are correct. The alk is debateable, some like high(above 10dkh) while others prefer it to be closer to 10(between 8 and 10dkh). My ph is at minimum for recommended. And finally there should never be any trace of Nitrates in any system. I know the reason for the nitrate prob, but even when the params are all consistantly perfect I still get the algea. Anyone have any favorite doseing juice to help with ph. The rest of the params will come around, but ph has always been low in my tanks, no matter the test or what other params look like. Thank you for pointing out those water params. That is good information...There is a lot of information available and the theory of "To Each His Own" is definitly part of that information. Of the variety of information, each individual system is going to require its own stability methods.

DLANDINO
08/30/2008, 07:04 AM
GiGalo, have you confirmed that this is in fact cyano? If not, there is a harmless dark red coralline that you can grow, it is less common that the pink and purples but does exist. Please see here for more details.

http://www.melevsreef.com/id/red_coralline.html

best of luck

GiGalo
09/09/2008, 06:03 AM
DLANDINA, This is exactly what I have, but it spreads quite rapidly. Is that normal. I do not think it is cyano because when I blacked the tank out for 48+hrs, it did nothing. I have also noticed that the snails in the tank like to eat it. Are their any other methods to try and diag this. Thank you all again for your input. Somethimes when many people search things they end up with different results...

WinnipegDragon
09/09/2008, 08:47 AM
If it is Cyano, your emperor filter is a culprit too. It has biowheel and biowheels are nitrate factories.