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View Full Version : Chemical fixes and buying a critter to eat something: both bad ideas.


Sk8r
06/07/2011, 07:15 AM
Especially in a new tank.

The most frequently asked is about algaes and cyanobacterial sheets, and various red slime removers. Bad idea with a new tank. First, your sandbed is 'baby,' and while these antibiotic fixes are pretty selective and don't totally blitz your bacteria, (much), and even if you follow instructions perfectly, they do throw a big bioload of dead bacteria into your system. If your skimmer isn't up to the job, you can damage or even crash a tank. You can lose your copepods, you can disrupt your delicate no-see-um critters, and I strongly advise against any such. Just turn your lights out 3 days a month for reefs or fish onlies, while running your skimmer at top efficiency, and you'll see it go. If it comes back, do it again next month.

Don't dose nutrients you don't have a test for. There is no magic potion to turn your tank into Tank of the Month. The three you may want to dose and track are calcium, magnesium, and reef buffer. Your salt mix has some. If you have stony corals, you will need more. FIsh-onlies get by on water changes and buffer.

New critters to eat a plague become a plague. If there were any secret critter that could solve your algae problem, don't you think we'd say, "Oh, easy! Of course! Get a Graceful Fragilistica, and he'll clear it all up!" and everybody in the universe would get one and have no problem? The fact is---there ain't no quick fix. No snail, no urchin, no sea hare eats all your algae. Nor should. If you don't clean up the phosphate that's in the algae, you get more algae the minute the critter poos what he ate back into the water. No crab eats bubble algae in quantities great enough: 1-2 bubbles max---but even emerald crabs will take a nip at your fish. Urchins knock your rockwork over, and can't reach the crevices. Snails just leave trails through your green film algae. They help, but don't fix. Hermit Crabs are among the best: they do clean up spare food very nicely---but still poo the chemicals back into your system. Your SKIMMER is what takes the spare amino acids out. A GFO or fuge will remove spare phosphates. Your SANDBED removes broken down waste by the nitrite>ammonia>nitrate>nitrogen gas cycle, which is the most efficient of all: waste becomes gas and floats away to the surface as a bubble. Bioballs and filter cannisters can't do that last bit, the gas, which is why they can raise your nitrate too high for healthy water for corals, and why fish-only people have to change filters often, and why reef people don't have filters at all.

Hope that helps explain. Believe me, if there were magic fixes for problems, the whole community would be all over it. The only real magic is sandbeds, well-maintained sandbeds of the proper depth and maintenance done by a nassarius and (for 50 gallon up) fighting conches and multiple nassarius. Of all critters, for a tank 30 g and up, that is the only one I recommend: it cleans sandbeds safely and thoroughly, and keeps them in good running order without your having to EVER disturb them (a generally very bad idea).

thebkramer
06/07/2011, 07:18 AM
:bounce3:
EXCELLENT POST!!!
:bounce3:

Thanks Sk8r!!!! :D

disc1
06/07/2011, 08:06 AM
Since I got back into this hobby with this tank, I have been religiously following the Gospel according to Sk8r. My tank is happy and clear. You can't go wrong with this advise.

phenom5
06/07/2011, 11:21 AM
Good post as always Sk8r, but I think the title is a little misleading. There are plenty of cases where chemical fixes or critters to eat something...or a combination of both are very effective.

Sk8r
06/07/2011, 12:32 PM
Not nearly as many as float around in the new-to-the-hobby forum. In newbie conditions, most always the answer is "water quality". Just occasionally do you run into a situation (usually involving a hitchhiker of some sort) where you need something more specific, but if your general reaction is "I need a crosscheck with expert help" ---note---before I buy a critter to eat whatever, or before I dump a chemical into my tank,...then you'll get through your first year in good condition. Do not take word-of-mouth as your sole guide or worst of all, take the word of someone who says "I go against all advice and I'm doing fine". It's so rare to be that lucky. I've watched a lot of those crash and burn.

And please, please, please ask around BEFORE you dump a chemical into your tank, no matter what your lfs said. It's so hard to get it out again.

Buying critter after critter to take care of specialty situations just leaves you overrun with critters you really didn't plan for. And you don't have that many slots in your ecosystem. Before you buy anything---research it. You'll usually find they're not as good for X-situation as you heard they were...as in...not much at all.

So just assume you're going to fix your water quality first---and once that's handled, all the rest of the Situations can be managed much more easily.

Chris27
06/07/2011, 01:44 PM
I'm glad to see you support the use of a good clean up crew that includes hermits....their importance is often overlooked by many. They are just too darn good at what they do to leave them out of the mix.

It's also important to remember that all the nuisance algae we get in our tanks comes from the ocean where it does grow, despite perfect parameters. Setting up a control system that mimics that of mother nature is of the utmost importance.

For example, waves on the beach drive DOS out of the water (protein skimmer), inverts / fish (CUC) control excess algae growth, and tides/waves (powerheads) create water movement to flush corals and keep low flow areas to a minimum .

That said, there is always a way around using a chemical solution to a common problem.

BTW, nice thread Sk8r, your input and experience is much appreciated by many!

Sk8r
06/08/2011, 08:02 AM
That statement that "it comes from the ocean where it does grow" is important. The more your tank is in balance, the less crazyiness it has. Excess nutrients of an odd type lead to 'blooms' of creatures, eg, an abundance of stars, snails, algaes, etc. If you can get your water in good oceanic balance (check my sig line for an example of good parameters---and I'd add: 'and very low phosphate readings') it will go a long way toward reining in a wild overgrowth of a particular species.