Altohombre's 46 Gallon Showcase Showdown!

[cthegame]

Alto, i would completely keep the lights off for 3 days. Your fish & corals will be ok in that time. During these 3 days, i would do 10% water changes every day. I think that will really give the algae a nice shock and by the 4th day you should see it dying off.

 

[yote]

You'll need to manually remove as much of the algae as possible.If you dont,it'll release all those stored up nutrients right back into your tank when it dies.

 

[RyanG]

Alto do you have anyone that can test your water with a Hanna Photometer? It can show you exactly what you are dealing with phosphate wise. I have a couple of drastic measure that we can talk about if the manual removal and lighting changes dont work.

 

[Altohombre]

I constantly spend 3 hrs removing HA. I even took rocks out and toothbrush scrubbed em and they just keep growing.

I bought magnesium to try that method, but the directions are not for human brains and it appears I would need to use the whole bottle to just get a +50 or something ridiculously small.

some of my LPS aren't looking so good so that is why I don't want to go without lights for 3 days. My torch has been not extending for at least 3 months now.

 

[RyanG]

Alto do a google search of randy holmes_farley's diy two part recipe there is a third part that deals with mag. I think its eight cups epsom salts to a gallon of ro. If used constantly tou run the risk of having too much cloride in the water. A better way to do it is make an order through www.bulkreefsupply.com for magnesium hexahydrate and mix that 7 cups maghex and 1 cup empsom salt to a gallon of ro. There has also been some newer experimenting with lananthum chloride being drip into a 10 micron filter sock but all of the riskes haven't been figured out just yet. For those wondering lanathum chloride is a chenical that causes phosphates to flock and is used in pools most commonly

 

[d2mini]

Wow, I can't believe I just went through 17 pages and not one pic. :shock:

 

[RyanG]

Dennis there's a video somewhere maybe the photography section. Search alto video

 

[Altohombre]

yeah there is a video somewhere in this thread. Trust me soon there will be lots of pictures.

 

[Altohombre]

yesterday was the 4th day trying vodka dosing. I am up to .35 ml (seems like such a small amount) . Only noticeably difference at this point is that my skimmer is pulling more than usual which is one of the things that is supposed to happen.

Camera comes on the 6th, after I figure out how to take a picture, I will post some of my hair algae for all those who are into that sort of thing.

 

[bobby]

I seen the vid! I love the duncans. They're very pretty. One other option is cooking your rock. I have read it shed all the phosphate and ditrious out of the rock. All cooking your rock is, is putting them in a tub of brand new clean saltwater a power head heater and no lights. The rock will start to shed as all the nasty stuff in the rock becomes food because the water is clean. Just do water changes till the shedding stops(bottom of tub stops getting covered in garbage from the rock) Alot of poeple swear by it and say it stop the hair algae from growing on the rock because there is no food source for it in the rock.

 

[Altohombre]

thanks for the advice bobby, but I really don't want to move my rocks and disturb my corals and my fish's hang out spots. I am going to try feeding once every two days and continue running phosphate remover and doing the vodka dosing. If I still don't see much of a change I am going to keep my lights off for a few days.

 

[Bifferwine]

Try Marine SAT. It has worked wonders for a lot of people's tanks, including mine.

 

[Altohombre]

Biff, I read about Marine SAT and I saw a lot of people complain about it. Saying that their pods decreased substantially and that they saw an increase in slime algae of some sort. I am am still doing research on it.

 

[Bifferwine]

Yeah I have heard some bad things about it, but from my experience it worked really well. No slime algae here.

 

[yote]

I've never had that problem with the SAT,And I use it every time I do a water change.

Whats your alkalinity at Alto?

 

[reeffreak]

I asked the question to you(Yote) about Marine SAT in Ryan's thread.I think I got my answer,time for me to try the stuff.

 

[Piggy]

I used Marine SAT when I had the bad outbreak of algae. It worked I only used it until my algae was cleared up. I don't use it now.

 

[Altohombre]

Just worried about the pods decreasing since I have a skinny mandarin

 

[yote]

SAT wont effect the pods per say.
The lack of algae will reduce their numbers some what,since the pods use the algae for refuge.

 

[Altohombre]

since I just started vodka dosing I'd like to see how that works out. I would be afraid to do both Marine SAT and the vodka dosing. Wouldn't want too much bacteria fighting in my tank.

I got my camera, I am a little overwhelmed and want to read the manual before taking any pictures.