What does it mean that I have to clean my glass daily?

[Anemone0524]

I'm at the point now that my glass has buildup that needs to be cleaned daily, or it gets pretty thick.

what does this mean, specifically?

Too much inorganic N&P?

Too much feeding?

Inefficient skimming?

Thanks!

[L98-Z]

Could be one or all three.

[CorkPullerPHL]

+1 :o

[eyebedam]

As far as cleaning it off? What are you cleaning, Coraline growty or brown algae---Im guessing it depends on what the growth is your cleaning.

[Anemone0524]

a combination of both. Mostly brown algae though.

[Fig]

Do you run GFO?

[j2707ah]

How long has the tank been running? Is there algae any where else?

[mcoomer]

I would check nitrates and phosphates and get back to us. I suspect you're going to find one or both are high. What does your water change schedule look like? What kind of skimmate are you pulling out? I'd probably adjust my skimmer to skim a bit wet for now and do some frequent small water changes.

Mike

[JeF4y]

It means you have a reef aquarium! Welcome to the club...

[DLANDINO]

Pictures would definitely help. Cyano sometimes presents first on the glass and then begins to spread to the sand and rocks, diatoms do this too. Have you tested your water for Silica? Diatoms thrive on it.

[Anemone0524]

I do run GFO, although sometimes i feel like it's not strong enough. It's one cannister in a BRS Two part reactor, using the good stuff (ROWAPHOS), connected to a MaxiJet. dunno, seems like it never makes a difference.

Tank's been up since June 2009. I have had plague algae since inception (GHA, then Bryopsis, then Red Turf, now some sort of leafy Halimeda looking stuff). Bottom line is i have too much nutrients.

No3 is at 1ppm thanks to Vodka. Po4 is is undetectable. Both of these facts are irrelevant since my algae is fat and happy, meaning they soak in the N and P so my test kits read this way.

I suck with water changes. Maybe 5% a month.


My skimmer is a MXS200, but i've NEVER been impressed with it's organic matter removal. Seems like it takes me weeks to get skimmate worth dumping, like 1 to 2 inches of it. With my bioload, I would expect more.

Other facts:
My refugium is worthless - my chaeto grows slower than my SPS.
I run carbon in the other canister of my reactor.


I've never tested for silica....but I don't have a cyano problem or a diatom problem.

[hyperfocal]

I suck with water changes. Maybe 5% a month.


You won't find a magic pill that works better than just doing regular WCs.

[Anemone0524]

i'm gotten to the point of desperation: I'm planning and researching a Algae Scrubber. Apparently these things are hot stuff. "10 to 20 times more efficient than a skimmer at pulling out inorganic nutrients".

We'll see. :|

[hyperfocal]

Apparently these things are hot stuff. "10 to 20 times more efficient than a skimmer at pulling out inorganic nutrients".


See above, regarding magic pills.

[j2707ah]

QUOTE : My refugium is worthless - my chaeto grows slower than my SPS.

what kind of flow and light do you have in your refugium?

[FunkieReefJunkie]

It means you are OCD. But 8 out of 10 reefers are so feel you are in good company. ;)

[Stuart60611]

I have two suggestions that are somewhat inter-related which made a big improvement for me. With respect to the msx200, I would take a look at adding the "red demon" pinwheel which can be purchased at premium aquatics or warner marine. It makes a big improvement in terms of skimmer air draw and ultimately skimmer performance. Also, I would look into carbon (vodka) and bacterial (prodibio, zeo bak, or microbacter) dosing. I have also tried growing chaeto in the refugium and found it to be not that effective. Since I have been carbon and bacterial dosing, my skimmate production has more than doubled and no longer have any algae whatsoever in the system. I barely clean the glass once per week, despite my heavy bioload and feeding. Moreover, my system has now become so low nutirent that I cannot even grow chaeto which now just dies in my system because there are not enough nutrients to maintain it. I willing to bet that these two suggestions will completely solve your issue because they did for me.

[Anemone0524]

QUOTE : My refugium is worthless - my chaeto grows slower than my SPS.

what kind of flow and light do you have in your refugium?

It's in a 37 gallon tank that receives 30-40% of my drain from the display. (Drain is probably 500-600 GPH). I also have a K4 powerhead in there for no good reason.

The light is 4-6 inches off the water. It's a CFL (23w?) 6500 Kelvin.

I have no sand in there. Just Rock and Chaeto.

I have been planning on changing the bulb to 5100 Kevlin to see if that makes a difference in growth.

I've also been told that some Chaeto might be a bad 'breed'. (?) They were telling me that some grow better than other, and I may have just gotten a bad batch.

Who knows.

[j2707ah]

I have heard that to much flow can cause the chaeto to not grow well. As for the bad breed, in my last tank I had started with some chaeto and it never grew. when I added another batch from a local reefer it grew like crazy and my HA went away. I think each tank works allot different, so you might just try one thing at a time.

[Metal Man 1221]

i noticed that after i started dosing vodka i had a good amount of cyano build up along my sand bed and in the corners, now i have to clean off a film of bacteria that collects on the glass pretty much over night, if you dose vodka that might be your issue

[dcombs44]

If it's brown, it may not be algae, but diatoms instead.

Diatoms thrive on silicates with can be found in your water supply or in some substrates. I fought diatoms for years. Finally did some research and found out that the miracle mud that I used in my refugium was chalk full of silicates, hence the continuous diatom blooms.

[Stuart60611]

i noticed that after i started dosing vodka i had a good amount of cyano build up along my sand bed and in the corners, now i have to clean off a film of bacteria that collects on the glass pretty much over night, if you dose vodka that might be your issue

If you dose live bacteria along with the vodka, I bet your cyno will go away. The problem is that cyno is bacteria that is also fed by the vodka. When you add live bacterial additions of nitrifying and denitrifying bacteria along with the vodka the cyno gets out competed by the live bacteria additions.

[Jstdv8]

I was going to mention the algae scrubber but it looks like you found that allready :)

[Anemone0524]

I did find the algae scrubber.

Here's why i'm tortured by the idea:

SOME people say it's a miracle worker. It brought their N and P to zero in 13 minutes, zero algae, and now SPS growing through the roof.

OTHERS say that the only way to have a good Algae Scrubber is to use Halide lighting and Surge Flow to grow Turf Algae. This is incredibly expensive and not practical for me.

So before I tear down my irrelevant refugium to build a Algae Scrubber, I need some good evidence it will actually solve my plague, otherwise i will have traded one useless idea for another.

[Anemone0524]

If i use RODI with zero TDS, and my sand is high quality sand, where in the world would silicates come from?

[gowingsgo]

I had a turf scrubber up and running for about 8 months. I set mine up to remove algae from my display tank and that is exactly what it did. But I also noticed that my skim-mate was much darker and that I ddi not have to clean it as much (about once every week not every other day). also my nitrates had never been undetectable (more like 5+ ppm) with the turf scrubber up and running they were 0. I had to take down my turf scrubber two weeks ago so I could redesign it. I was getting a lot of splashing in the sump area and a lot of salt creep. I hope to have the new design built and in place soon. I will say how amazed I am now that its not running on how much I have to clean my glass. With turf scrubber once every 4 to 6 days some times longer with out the scrubber I have had to clean the glass every day. The other thing I have noticed is the temp in the tank went up two degrees with out the turf scrubber. From 78 to 80 just by taking the scrubber off line. I know there are a lot of people on here that don't like them. I can only report what I have experienced with mine. Good luck in what ever you do.

[FunkieReefJunkie]

Algae scrubbers are for the tinkering type. They work... the question is can you do the same with carbon dosing and something like mmmm say Microblift's Special Blend? The longer I'm in the hobby the more I want to lessen and balance the work to result ratio. If your skimmer is productive then you are set.

[Stuart60611]

Algae scrubbers are for the tinkering type. They work... the question is can you do the same with carbon dosing and something like mmmm say Microblift's Special Blend? The longer I'm in the hobby the more I want to lessen and balance the work to result ratio. If your skimmer is productive then you are set.

+1. Algae scrubbers seem like an awful lot of work when the same benefits can be accomplished by carbon and bacterial dosing.

[Anemone0524]

I keep hearing that, but besides the initial installation, how is changing a screen every seven days hard work? Most people change their skimmer cup more often then that. Maybe i'm missing something.

I digress though.


I have two suggestions that are somewhat inter-related which made a big improvement for me. With respect to the msx200, I would take a look at adding the "red demon" pinwheel which can be purchased at premium aquatics or warner marine. It makes a big improvement in terms of skimmer air draw and ultimately skimmer performance. Also, I would look into carbon (vodka) and bacterial (prodibio, zeo bak, or microbacter) dosing. I have also tried growing chaeto in the refugium and found it to be not that effective. Since I have been carbon and bacterial dosing, my skimmate production has more than doubled and no longer have any algae whatsoever in the system. I barely clean the glass once per week, despite my heavy bioload and feeding. Moreover, my system has now become so low nutirent that I cannot even grow chaeto which now just dies in my system because there are not enough nutrients to maintain it. I willing to bet that these two suggestions will completely solve your issue because they did for me.

I'm definitely going to try this. Sounds like the one angle I haven't been working. I'm already on week five of vodka and MB7 dosing, but i think my skimmer is just not good enough.

My chaeto isn't growing, but isn't also not dying. I suppose there is enough nutrients in the system to keep it on life support, while my algae is acting as an algae scrubber....IN MY DISPLAY on my live rock. :(


How many people turn off their return pump when feeding to minimize food getting into the sump area? Maybe i'm not doing this enough , and loose food particles are accumulating too much.

[Stuart60611]

I keep hearing that, but besides the initial installation, how is changing a screen every seven days hard work? Most people change their skimmer cup more often then that. Maybe i'm missing something.

I digress though.




I'm definitely going to try this. Sounds like the one angle I haven't been working. I'm already on week five of vodka and MB7 dosing, but i think my skimmer is just not good enough.

My chaeto isn't growing, but isn't also not dying. I suppose there is enough nutrients in the system to keep it on life support, while my algae is acting as an algae scrubber....IN MY DISPLAY on my live rock. :(


How many people turn off their return pump when feeding to minimize food getting into the sump area? Maybe i'm not doing this enough , and loose food particles are accumulating too much.

I think you need to fine tune some things, and your problem will be solved. Two things jump out to me from the quote above. First, improving your skimming is definitely extremely important to your vodka/bacterial dosing b/c its effectiveness is predicated on exporting vasts amount of excess bacteria and all the nutrients they consume via skimmate. The red demon pinwheel will help you greatly in this regard.

Second, if it were me, I would remove the chateo entirely from my system. You say it is not growing, but it is not dying. I suggest it is slowly dying and actually releasing nutrients back into the system which is counter-productive. Your chateo is slowly dying b/c of your vodka/bacterial dosing. Remove the chaeto and perhaps also ramp up a bit higher on the vodka dosing (do it slowly) and get your system to a low nutrient state where it can no longer support the chaeto. At that point, your cleaning the glass problems will be over.

[Anemone0524]

Thank you for the good input guys - i'll report back in a few months with the results.