Algae Problems, Blah.

[reefwars]

Originally Posted by garwood

I thought that just as diatoms is one stage, that gha came next in succession but should fade in time. And to think i was happy to see the diatoms (finally something happening). If the gha is hogging all nutrients (like nitrate) im worried that any anaerobic bacteria wont have a chance to grow and that nitrates would always be avail to gha first and therefore the gha support it self in an on going cycle. I dont know where the nutrients are coming from, it was happening even before the cuc.

No it's not , green hair algae is certainly something that you don't wait for or ride out and has absolutely nothing to do with the nitrogen cycle , if your phosphates manage to get to 1.6 the you allowed the nutrients to control you and gave the algae a food source , you waited too long before taking action. a great tip is its easier to prevent then it is to remove

I'll use my own system as a perfect example , this system does the opposite of what most reefers will tell you what to do , it's loaded with don't do this or you'll end up with that's... Going by the rules of reefing I should have a nutrient soup of pests but I don't in fact I have a purely algae free system , loaded with corals and fish , rock is Coraline covered and an abundance of sponges and feather dusters all over the tank and this system is around 10mths old.you'd be hard pressed to find a white spot of anything anywhere in the tank it's packed in full.

My recipe for disaster:

Tap water
No live rock
All pukani
No acid or bleach
No cure
No live sand


So why is my system running perfectly and how did I go around all this?

I manipulated the nutrients as I needed them , I first stripped the system bare and added what I needed when I needed it and removed anything I didn't ......it's that simple I didn't jump on the boat and go for a ride I hopped my own boat and drove exactly where I needed to go