Before and afters.. I'm confused.

OCDP · #1 01-08-2007, 06:14 PM

Looking back at my photobucket account of previous tank shots , etc.. man, I can't believe how much change my tank has gone through. Not all the change has been good.. I look at my tank before and it's so clean (or cleaner than it is now..) my tank was so simple back then it seems. I haven't changed anything really, in fact, I have lowered my fish count and lowered my lighting period and I feed as little as possible.. just doing small things to help my tank out.

My tank is filled with nuisance algae everywhere... (yes, it could be contributed by using tap water... but I was using tap water back then, and never had these problems..) I have this chaeto like algae that spreads over my rocks, taking away the whole rock appearance, I have cyano popping up in places, bubble algae, hair algae, this weird thick, easy to remove hair algae, its very brittle, bryopsis, etc... it's very discouraging when your doing weekly maintenance such as, skimmer cleaning, water changes, manual algae removal to keep it at bay.. I have even added a Phosban reactor which has been up and running for about 2 and a half weeks maybe. I am using phosar and carbon, and have my chamber 1/2 to 3/4 full, it's dialed in properly as per instructions. I am sure more time will help things along as well.

Anyone else where I am? Seems like my tank has tons of debris everywhere, I have no idea why... or where it's all suddenly coming from. I keep things as simple as possible these days, keeping hands out of the tank and so on .. I maybe have my hands in the tank once a week to grab a little algae here and there and to feed the fish. I am not doing anything to stir anything up or to cause any kind of harm.

Pretty useless post, just venting more than anything... I am frustrated. I won't let algae beat me out of this hobby, though. I just miss the good old days when I could put some zoo frags in and algae wouldn't take over the frag making the zoos like not so pretty. I miss all the thriving SPS frags, which I haevn't bothered to replace since the "crash" ..

Any suggestions ? I'm at a loss of what's going on , or what to do. Maybe just more time is all my tank needs.

Patwa · #2 01-08-2007, 06:36 PM

i'd say the first step is to move to RO+DI water.....there may have been an adverse change in the TDS of the water coming from the tap that may explain why you had less algae then and way more now.....in Toronto, TDS direct from taps can vary from 154 (my tap) to 250 (my buddy in oshawa, just to the eats of Toronto).....you need to have water with 0 to 4 TDS (the range I aim for).

definitely move to RO+DI water....that's the #1 source for phosphates - the main food for algae

also increase your flow (yeah i know you have two SEIOs) try and keep your detritus in suspension, so the skimmer can get to it......and use a turkey baster and blow water at the rocks, like, everyday....until you're sure there is no accumulation.

this is just a start....

good luck!

Zach.

OCDP · #3 01-08-2007, 06:44 PM

Thanks Patwa..

I know RO/DI is the biggest given thing here... but RO/DI is just not working out for me in my house with my current situation. My parents arent' on board with hooking up an RO/DI unit to their kitchen, etc, etc.. so I guess one should re-consider being in the hobby if I can't use the proper water. (a little late in the game to realize this, perhaps..

) but, tap water seems to be my only solution.

I figured adding in the phosban reactor would help, but no luck yet... perhaps it's the media I'm using that's not very effective. Just have lots of other friends in the hobby using tap water and their tanks are looking just fine .. also, they are using phosban reactors with different media, which makes me question the media again.

Anyways, thanks for the post.. I guess I have some thinking to do.

Ruth · #4 01-08-2007, 07:13 PM

Why don't you just buy RO water? That is what I have to do and I have 3 large tanks and 3 smaller ones. I know it is an extra cost but you don't have that big of a tank that it shouldn't run you that much extra $.

SJSobczyk · #5 01-08-2007, 07:15 PM

Thanks to Ruth being a faster typer then me she took my original idea. But i second what Ruth said, i mean you are only running a 20 gallon so keep 2-3 jugs on hand is a minor cost if you want to see some improvements.

Now you owe me a frag of one of your zoo's! J/K

Steve

OCDP · #6 01-08-2007, 07:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ruth

Why don't you just buy RO water? That is what I have to do and I have 3 large tanks and 3 smaller ones. I know it is an extra cost but you don't have that big of a tank that it shouldn't run you that much extra $.

That's a good idea, and I have no problems with that. The only thing is that I've heard it's not much better than tap and I'd be better off using tap and saving money... so I suppose I'm a tad confused? I am willing to try anything here..... getting RO isn't a problem, and if it means helping keep nutrients down then I'll give it a shot.

OCDP · #7 01-08-2007, 07:18 PM

Thanks as well, Steve.

PM me and see if we can work out something for zoos.. I may have a spare zoo frag or a few loose polyps I can make into a frag for you. I'll check things out tonight.

Ruth · #8 01-08-2007, 07:21 PM

At the place that I buy my water from I get them to test the TDS of their RO water (which they do regularly anyway). It comes out at less than 1ppm consistantly.

OCDP · #9 01-08-2007, 07:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ruth

At the place that I buy my water from I get them to test the TDS of their RO water (which they do regularly anyway). It comes out at less than 1ppm consistantly.

That's good to know...

We're talking about RO water you can get from grocery stores and what not, correct?

What's the (rough) cost to fill a jug of RO water? (the bigger jugs they have) I top up with about half a gallon per day, and I'd like to try and calculate my costs if possible..

Ruth · #10 01-08-2007, 07:26 PM

I pay around $3.25 for a 5 gallon jug but you might be able to get it cheaper down there. One thing I would recommend is that you get it direct from a water store and not the grocery type store as who knows how often they change their filters etc. Also a water store is more likely to have testing equipment right there that they can use on the water. I know in some of the bigger centers (probably Calgary) that you can get door to door delivery.