can thise be my green hair algae contributor

[Daddyrawg]

I have been trying out what is the possible source causing me to have GHA when I use rodi o tds and do weekly water changes...

Here is my filter sock cleaning regiment..

I Simply power wash first with hose outside house to reduce gunk.. then I throw it in washer cycle for 15 min with clorox, then let it dry for a couple days atleast.. rinse and repeat..

my Question I guess is, can Filter sock be acting as a phosphate sponge or is it all released after days of being dry?

[mcgyvr]

Your washing process is likely more than sufficient..

Do you test for phosphates?
How old is your tank again?
GHA should be accepted as common/normal in a new tank..

[Daddyrawg]

Originally Posted by mcgyvr

Your washing process is likely more than sufficient..

Do you test for phosphates?
How old is your tank again?
GHA should be accepted as common/normal in a new tank..

Thanks again MAc, ok just trying to weed out source. Tank is about 6 months now. I dont test often, but Im thinking of getting a hanah checker. Last I checked I was below 0.25.. the color charts drive me nuts..

If I test what patterns should I look for? I'm thinking of picking up hannah today

[tjm9331]

What kind of rock did you use in your tank?

if you used anything like Pukani then they could be leaching phosphates back into the water.

I used Pukani in my 75, took about 6-8 months before the GHA started to subside and it subsided because the phosphates had dissipated from the rocks.

[Daddyrawg]

Originally Posted by tjm9331

What kind of rock did you use in your tank?

if you used anything like Pukani then they could be leaching phosphates back into the water.

I used Pukani in my 75, took about 6-8 months before the GHA started to subside and it subsided because the phosphates had dissipated from the rocks.

Here is a pic of my rocks.. a LFS saw the pics and said that those are man made rocks and that they do leach phosphates and bacteria do not live on these rocks? does this make any sense lol

[Daddyrawg]

another pic with algae

[Uncle99]

Phosphate is too high at .25......maybe an LC and a 1 micron sock.....or good GFO......
Should be .02-.04, absolute max at .1
Something is adding phosphates, watch foods even frozen, the "juice" is not required.
The other factor is light, right amount, colour and intensity.
Based on the pics, that's not a serious problem, but true, can be cleaned.
Tank is still young....

[Pdisner]

What are you’re feeding habits? Like explain what you normally feed and how often. Do you target feed? What’s you’re skimmer rated at? Have you tried to run some ferrous oxide?


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[Pdisner]

Originally Posted by Daddyrawg

another pic with algae

Man, that’s nothing. You’re fine. Leave it be for some snails and Amphipods to graze on.


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[Daddyrawg]

Originally Posted by Pdisner

What are you’re feeding habits? Like explain what you normally feed and how often. Do you target feed? What’s you’re skimmer rated at? Have you tried to run some ferrous oxide?


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I feed frozen mysis 1/4 cube only a day.. and some nori seaweed.. I watch my feeding habbits.. skimmer is fine..

I have tried gfo for a month, used flukanazole and its back.. dosing 4 ml a day nopox past week..

[Daddyrawg]

Originally Posted by Pdisner

Man, that’s nothing. You’re fine. Leave it be for some snails and Amphipods to graze on.

It gets worse than that pic.. I have a couple snails about 5 died and lawnmower blenny... they dont touch the long strands.

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[Daddyrawg]

Originally Posted by Uncle99

Phosphate is too high at .25......maybe an LC and a 1 micron sock.....or good GFO......
Should be .02-.04, absolute max at .1
Something is adding phosphates, watch foods even frozen, the "juice" is not required.
The other factor is light, right amount, colour and intensity.
Based on the pics, that's not a serious problem, but true, can be cleaned.
Tank is still young....

I said its less than .25 although in the past I have tested at .25...

Ok I will keep doing what I do since tank is still young.. I should probably pick up a phosphate hannah checker since Im battling algae and have no idea what my exact readings are

[mcgyvr]

6 months.... pfft....

[Daddyrawg]

Originally Posted by mcgyvr

6 months.... pfft....

lol

[Daddyrawg]

Originally Posted by mcgyvr

6 months.... pfft....

Im ok with ugly hair Algae as long as Its a phase and I eventually beat it

[homer1475]

GFO, aggressive scrubbing, and some more time is all it will take to beat it back. It may be ugly, but at least it's not dino's, or bryopsis, and it can be cleaned up.



6 months is nothing, thats just about when the uglies really tart to kick in. Just keep at it, you'll beat it back eventually.

[Daddyrawg]

Originally Posted by homer1475

GFO, aggressive scrubbing, and some more time is all it will take to beat it back. It may be ugly, but at least it's not dino's, or bryopsis, and it can be cleaned up.



6 months is nothing, thats just about when the uglies really tart to kick in. Just keep at it, you'll beat it back eventually.

Thanks, good to hear

[tjm9331]

Originally Posted by Daddyrawg

Here is a pic of my rocks.. a LFS saw the pics and said that those are man made rocks and that they do leach phosphates and bacteria do not live on these rocks? does this make any sense lol

Those rocks are most likely leaching phosphates, it will eventually subside but until then you will still have some GHA unless you remove the phosphates faster than the GHA grows using either NOPOX or GFO.

For the LFS to tell you that bacteria don't live on those rocks is just plain wrong. Bacteria will live on pretty much anything you put in the tank, whether its rock, sand or the little plastic clam bubbler that your kids want. How much bacteria depends on how porous the item is and how much surface area there is. Obviously the plastic clam won't house as much bacteria as the sand or rocks and your rocks will definitely house the most bacteria because they are the most porous and have the most surface area.

Like I said before I used pukani rock and fought GHA for most of the first year of my tank. I just simply kept yanking it out with either my hands or toothbrush and siphoned it out during water changes. I'll admit I did use Seachems Phosguard to help remove what phosphates I had but eventually the phosphates stopped leaching from my rocks and the GHA went away.

I still get a bit here and there but I think every tank does, the little bit I get my Yellow tang quickly gobbles up.

Just keep at it and you'll be fine, good luck!

[Daddyrawg]

Originally Posted by tjm9331

Those rocks are most likely leaching phosphates, it will eventually subside but until then you will still have some GHA unless you remove the phosphates faster than the GHA grows using either NOPOX or GFO.

For the LFS to tell you that bacteria don't live on those rocks is just plain wrong. Bacteria will live on pretty much anything you put in the tank, whether its rock, sand or the little plastic clam bubbler that your kids want. How much bacteria depends on how porous the item is and how much surface area there is. Obviously the plastic clam won't house as much bacteria as the sand or rocks and your rocks will definitely house the most bacteria because they are the most porous and have the most surface area.

Like I said before I used pukani rock and fought GHA for most of the first year of my tank. I just simply kept yanking it out with either my hands or toothbrush and siphoned it out during water changes. I'll admit I did use Seachems Phosguard to help remove what phosphates I had but eventually the phosphates stopped leaching from my rocks and the GHA went away.

I still get a bit here and there but I think every tank does, the little bit I get my Yellow tang quickly gobbles up.

Just keep at it and you'll be fine, good luck!

This is Great thank you... I tried rowaphos GFO, but felt like it got exhausted fast.. I am getting a hannah checker ult phosphate tester today so I can be on top of the testing to see patterns.. But I have been dosing 4 ml a day of NOPOX... I think this might be the way to go but il l know more once I get my hannah checker. wonder if its considered overkill to run GFO and NOPOX?

[Uncle99]

I run GFO and NoPox, 24 months now. My goals are nitrate 5ppm, phosphate less than .05, but not 0. Through daily use of NoPox and occasional use of GFO, I have maintained those numbers always.
That being said, I used an LC like agent green to clean up the majority phosphate, and the Rowa, only to mop up the last bits, yes, Rowa would exhaust in days with high phosphates.
Hanna is good but expensive, keep in mind that it just gives a result on colour.
I use the Salifert Kit which is half the price for twice the tests and find it easy to read between .05 and .25 or higher.
Use LC to get phosphate down to .1, then GFO to .05.....then take it out until you reach .1 then put it back in......
I found NOPox worked great for Nitrate, but it's effect on phosphate was minimal, but reduced a tad.
Keep in mind the NoPox enhances bio filter stuff which consumes and then is skimmed out, phosphate gets into the water potentially at source, in storage, by adding foods big time, hands in the tank...
Maybe this will help....just keep up what your doing....soon it will settle down

[Daddyrawg]

Originally Posted by Uncle99

I run GFO and NoPox, 24 months now. My goals are nitrate 5ppm, phosphate less than .05, but not 0. Through daily use of NoPox and occasional use of GFO, I have maintained those numbers always.
That being said, I used an LC like agent green to clean up the majority phosphate, and the Rowa, only to mop up the last bits, yes, Rowa would exhaust in days with high phosphates.
Hanna is good but expensive, keep in mind that it just gives a result on colour.
I use the Salifert Kit which is half the price for twice the tests and find it easy to read between .05 and .25 or higher.
Use LC to get phosphate down to .1, then GFO to .05.....then take it out until you reach .1 then put it back in......
I found NOPox worked great for Nitrate, but it's effect on phosphate was minimal, but reduced a tad.
Keep in mind the NoPox enhances bio filter stuff which consumes and then is skimmed out, phosphate gets into the water potentially at source, in storage, by adding foods big time, hands in the tank...
Maybe this will help....just keep up what your doing....soon it will settle down

Great stuff thank you Unc! Ughhh I have been puttin my arms in tank to toothbrush algae off occasionally. I don't think I feed much.. I have the salifert test kit as well but just
can't tell what levels i'm at exactly. If nopox isnt that great at reducing phoshpate levels
I may need to get more GFO, but want to test first .. I still think I wanna pick up a $50 hannah cheker lol.. ughhhh...I think knowing my phoshpate levels to the T will come in handy down the line anyway.

LC option maybe too advanced for my taste. I think Nopox and water changes and time/Testing and manual removal will do the trick! I may need to grab a siphoning mechanism to siphon out the remaining HA

[lapin]

Originally Posted by Daddyrawg

Great stuff thank you Unc! Ughhh I have been puttin my arms in tank to toothbrush algae off occasionally. I don't think I feed much.. I have the salifert test kit as well but just
can't tell what levels i'm at exactly. If nopox isnt that great at reducing phoshpate levels
I may need to get more GFO, but want to test first .. I still think I wanna pick up a $50 hannah cheker lol.. ughhhh...I think knowing my phoshpate levels to the T will come in handy down the line anyway.
LC option maybe too advanced for my taste. I think Nopox and water changes and time/Testing and manual removal will do the trick! I may need to grab a siphoning mechanism to siphon out the remaining HA

I use the hanna . Its pretty easy once you get the hang of it. My tank is now at 8 months. At 6 months it was clearing up. Just bit of hair to feed the critters and the cyno went away. 2 N and .04 on the P I decided to add a fuge and some pods and macro. Fed phyto for the pods and nitrate for the macro. hahahahaha big mistake. Now the cyano is back and hair is growing faster than the critters can eat it. So no more phyto and no more dosing nitrates. 2 weeks later and things are getting back to normal. Will take prob another month. Just keep at what ypou are doing and it will pass if you keep your numbers in line.

[Daddyrawg]

Originally Posted by lapin

I use the hanna . Its pretty easy once you get the hang of it. My tank is now at 8 months. At 6 months it was clearing up. Just bit of hair to feed the critters and the cyno went away. 2 N and .04 on the P I decided to add a fuge and some pods and macro. Fed phyto for the pods and nitrate for the macro. hahahahaha big mistake. Now the cyano is back and hair is growing faster than the critters can eat it. So no more phyto and no more dosing nitrates. 2 weeks later and things are getting back to normal. Will take prob another month. Just keep at what ypou are doing and it will pass if you keep your numbers in line.

do yoy use phosphate or ulr phosphorous hanna checker?

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[Uncle99]

Originally Posted by Daddyrawg

Great stuff thank you Unc! Ughhh I have been puttin my arms in tank to toothbrush algae off occasionally. I don't think I feed much.. I have the salifert test kit as well but just
can't tell what levels i'm at exactly. If nopox isnt that great at reducing phoshpate levels
I may need to get more GFO, but want to test first .. I still think I wanna pick up a $50 hannah cheker lol.. ughhhh...I think knowing my phoshpate levels to the T will come in handy down the line anyway.

LC option maybe too advanced for my taste. I think Nopox and water changes and time/Testing and manual removal will do the trick! I may need to grab a siphoning mechanism to siphon out the remaining HA

LC is the easiest and cheapest to mop up phosphate, just dose, the water will cloud (this is the binding of the phosphate ) then the fine sock picks up the floculent (with the phosphate in it) and presto, drop in phosphate, you then can repeat same each day. I do at night, then clean sock in morning.

Good luck, your doing all the right things

[Daddyrawg]

Originally Posted by Uncle99

LC is the easiest and cheapest to mop up phosphate, just dose, the water will cloud (this is the binding of the phosphate ) then the fine sock picks up the floculent (with the phosphate in it) and presto, drop in phosphate, you then can repeat same each day. I do at night, then clean sock in morning.

Good luck, your doing all the right things

Sounds easy actually. You dose LC every night? or just when the need arrises?