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Ga
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Post subject: How do it get rid of Red and brown alge?  Posted: Jan 31, 2006 - 02:23 PM |
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FishGeek Member
Joined: May 13, 2005
Posts: 56
Location: Great Britain
Status: Offline
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Hi can any one help me with my Brown and red alge problem?
I have it growing all over my tank on the sand on the rocks over my soft corals and polips it is making my tank looks so dirty and horrible!
DATE 23/01/2006
PH 8.2
AMONIA 0
NITRATE 10
NITRITE 0
PHOSPHATE 0.5
CALCIUM 500
KH180
DH 10.2
100 litres of water changed per 2 weeks i do admit it is not Ro but is dechlorinated and salted heated and bubbled over 48 hours before put in to tank! i know should be Ro but just cant afford it at the moment!
I have a 4 ft by 2 ft by 2 ft marine fish tank which has live rock 2 x fluval 402 power heads in and a reena filstar xp3 external canister and fluval 303 external canister i use rowa phos in my reena xp3 to reduce my phosphates tank has been up and running since june 17th 2005 i feed 1 block of artemia a day after being defrosted in a container then strained to get rid of liquid before i put in tank i have got a berlin protein skimmer in the tank lighting is Arcadia t5 lights 4 bulbs and 2 normal t8 bulbs power glo and marine blue glo all set on timers that come on in stages from 11 in morning and go off at 11 in night with t8s coming on first and going off last!
My contents of the tank are
1 Yellow tang, 1 copper band butterfly fish, 1 cleaner shrimp, 1 fire shrimp,17 nassarius snails. 10 turbo snails, 25 red legged dwarf hermits, 1 blue cheek goby, 1 blue damsel, 2 short spined urchins, 1 long spined urchin ,1 pair percula clowns, 1 orange tree sponge, 1 sand sifting star fish , 1 malu anemone. And live rock. Xenia on live rock .1 emerald crabs.pulsing xenia . 1 sulphur toadstool . 1 orchid dottyback . 2 purple fire fish
I have tried to attach a picture of my tank hope you get to see it to advise me what to do!
any help will be gratefully recieved as it is starting to frustrate me now that i cant get rid of it and keep my tank looking good!
waiting with fingers crossed
Gareth |
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| Brown and red alge problem |
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beaslbob
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| Post subject: RE: How do it get rid of Red and brown alge? Posted: Jan 31, 2006 - 03:49 PM |
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FishGeek Member
Joined: Jan 17, 2006
Posts: 5262
Location: huntsville, al
Status: Offline
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First of all I have seen much more algae in thriving tanks then you have.
To replace the plant life (algae) you don't want the best thing to do is add plant life you like. In the display halimeda is a good choice. But it does use calcium and alk. Chaetomorphia (brillo pad probably spelled wrong  ) macro in a refugium is a good way to go also. Once you get your tank "overwhelmed" with good algae then the uglies in the display simply run out of nutrients. regardless of the quantity of nutrients or where they are coming from. And the fast majority of those nutrients come from the bioload. |
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fw planted (since 1979), salt fo (since 1979) mixed reef (since 2002) strong emphasis on the tank taking care of themselves. no water changes, untreated tap water, Fw no filtration or circulation, no dosing except baking soda and calcium on reef.
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Ga
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| Post subject: how do i get rid of brown and red alge Posted: Jan 31, 2006 - 03:57 PM |
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FishGeek Member
Joined: May 13, 2005
Posts: 56
Location: Great Britain
Status: Offline
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Hi and thank you for your reply to me beaslbob i have got calerpa in my tank is that any good? but it still seems to get covered with the brown and red alge too!
or do i just keep adding the stuff hoping to starve the bad alge out?
Gareth |
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beaslbob
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| Post subject: RE: how do i get rid of brown and red alge Posted: Jan 31, 2006 - 05:02 PM |
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FishGeek Member
Joined: Jan 17, 2006
Posts: 5262
Location: huntsville, al
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I think your fish will eat the caulerpa before it has a chance to expand.
So you might try halemida to see if you can get that established.
I added an in tank refugium which is just an eggcrate to partition the tanks into a display and refugium area. before that I cultured macros in another tank. And added some to the display each week.
but I think you are on the right track. Especially with a tank that has been running for 6 months or so. You may find this algae just goes away over a week or so period. |
_________________
fw planted (since 1979), salt fo (since 1979) mixed reef (since 2002) strong emphasis on the tank taking care of themselves. no water changes, untreated tap water, Fw no filtration or circulation, no dosing except baking soda and calcium on reef.
http://www.aquaria.info/index.php?name= ... highlight=
http://www.aquaria.info/index.php?name= ... highlight=
http://www.aquaria.info/index.php?name= ... ic&t=64318
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Ga
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| Post subject: how do i get rid of this red and brown alge Posted: Jan 31, 2006 - 05:23 PM |
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FishGeek Member
Joined: May 13, 2005
Posts: 56
Location: Great Britain
Status: Offline
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Hiya and thank you beaslbob for your replies and help!
yes well they do peck at my calerpa every now and then but it does seem to be running through the sand and not over the rocks at the moment so with a bit of luck it will really take hold and lower my nitrates and phosphates even more for me!
I have only just swopped to rowa phos in the last week so i am more than likely not giving it enough time to work and lower the phosphate levels every one around here swears by it!
have you had any experience with it? is it good?
i might bite the bullet and do my next water changes with ro water from my lfs to give it a helping hand just incase i am putting phosphates back in to tank that it is taking out!
i have been told that it is poor circulation as well that does not help although i didnt think i had that in my tank with what i got on it which is 2 x fluval 402 power heads and 1 x reena filstar xp3 external canister and 1 x fluval 303 external canister!
i was thinking about buying myself the new fluval thats out for my birthday on feb the 5th
FLUVAL FX5 Canister Filter
Professional and Extremely Powerful Canister Filter .For aquariums of up to 1.500 litres.
Pump performance 2.300 litres (3.500 litres - without load) per hour. 5.9 litres of filtering volume. Innovative lift-out stack of media baskets for optimum access and easy changing of the filter media. By means of the two T-handles you can easily lift and take apart the fIlter baskets. Multi-stage Filtration with 3-step mechanical filtration.3 media compartments for
flexibility and multiple filter media arrangements
what you think do i need to get it?
have i got enough circulation in my tank or not?
can you have too much circulation?
sorry for all the question!
as always gratefull for any help
Gareth |
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| full view pic of other side of tank |
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jack-o
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| Post subject: RE: how do i get rid of brown and red alge Posted: Jan 31, 2006 - 05:34 PM |
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Moderator Extraordinaire
Joined: Feb 20, 2005
Posts: 3051
Location: Maryland
Status: Offline
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To add besides cultivating macros, which will help. I would also, increase the turnover in the tank to at least 20x per hour, you appear to be not even hitting 10x per hour. So for your tank your looking at least 2400gph in water movement. This will keep the nutrients in suspension longer, so they can be removed biologically or mechanically. What else do you run in your canister filters, filter media, bio balls,etc. these are all things that will contribute fuel for nuisance algaes. Cyano(not really an algae) and most other nuisance algaes show up because there is insufficent water flow, and nutrient export mechanisms(macro-algaes, protein skimmers).
How much skimmate is your skimmer pulling out daily, try to tweak it to get it pulling out around 1/2 to a full cup a day. It can be wet it doesn't have to be really thick. I'm not familiar with the berlin skimmers, so I can't tell you exactly how to adjust it, but most are adjusted by either controlling the air or water being sucked into the skimmer. |
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Spuds725
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| Post subject: RE: how do i get rid of brown and red alge Posted: Jan 31, 2006 - 09:50 PM |
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Moderator Extraordinaire
Joined: Mar 02, 2005
Posts: 3817
Location: NW Ohio
Status: Offline
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Nice tank other then your "nuisance" problems... most of the suggestions above should help-- I think the increase circulation will benefit you as it will push off the cyano and probably stimulate your macro to grow a little better and compete for nutrients
I had cyano problems in my old tank until I switched to RO/DI-- i was running RO only before this. |
_________________
Bill -- 125 gallon (almost a) reef
100 gallon sump (50 gallon Refugium), ASM G4X Skimmer
Fish (Date added)
1 Orchid Dottyback (Feb 2004) 3"
1 Bicolor Angelfish (Mar 2004) 4"
1 Blue (Regal) Tang (Mar 2005) 5"
2 Ocellaris clownfish (Oct 2008) 2.5"
1 Yellow Tang (Sep 2009) 3"
Mixed reef
~200 pounds of live rock.
Coming Soon: Mandarin... (maybe)
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Coopattack
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| Post subject: RE: how do i get rid of brown and red alge Posted: Feb 01, 2006 - 08:32 AM |
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FishGeek Member
Joined: Jul 20, 2005
Posts: 473
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| left a message in your other post. |
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75G mixed reef tank
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beaslbob
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| Post subject: RE: how do i get rid of brown and red alge Posted: Feb 01, 2006 - 09:30 AM |
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FishGeek Member
Joined: Jan 17, 2006
Posts: 5262
Location: huntsville, al
Status: Offline
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IME caulerpa profilera is very tollerant of light conditions and seem to prefer to "root" in the sand and not on the rocks. Grape caulerpa seems to need higher lighting and prefers to (very strongly) "root" in the rocks.
You might try killing the lights for a few days until the reds and browns on the sand die off. Then resuming reduced lighting to help the caulerpa be more in control.
Also increasing nitrates about 5ppm by adding calcium nitrate. The idea is the reds are cyano which "fix" nitrogen from nitrogen gas where as the caulerpa need nitrates. The faster growing caulerpa will consume more phosphates and help out compete the cyano.
Just a thought.
Bob |
_________________
fw planted (since 1979), salt fo (since 1979) mixed reef (since 2002) strong emphasis on the tank taking care of themselves. no water changes, untreated tap water, Fw no filtration or circulation, no dosing except baking soda and calcium on reef.
http://www.aquaria.info/index.php?name= ... highlight=
http://www.aquaria.info/index.php?name= ... highlight=
http://www.aquaria.info/index.php?name= ... ic&t=64318
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beaslbob
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| Post subject: RE: how do i get rid of brown and red alge Posted: Feb 01, 2006 - 09:36 AM |
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FishGeek Member
Joined: Jan 17, 2006
Posts: 5262
Location: huntsville, al
Status: Offline
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