beyond frustration...

M

mmfrock

Reefing newb
Hello everyone, please help I am at my witts end!

So here's the scoop: I am continually battling green hair alagae and cyano bacteria in my 29 gallon tank. I need it to stop before it wrecks my gorgonian, not to mention that its ugly!!

Here's my specs: I use RO water, protein skimmer, on occasion carbon/phosphoguard in a hang on filter, feed every other day frozen food, water changes every other week, lights are Pc's on for about 8 hours total, overlapping. Ph 8.0, sal 1.024, temp 78, nitrate/rite/ammo 0. Never tested for phosphates...however in my old tank i remember testing for it and had a little bit, dont remember the number tho. 2 powerheads, one towards the top, one rotating on the bottom.

I am not new to the hobby and i battled this in my old 90 gal i used to have about 5 years ago. I know my tank is still young (6 mo) and could eventually go away on its own, it did eventually go away in my 90 gal for the most part.

I tried an algae scrubber and i did not build it exactly correct b/c i do not really get all of the specs of it, it worked for awhile but it was a total pain b/c it didn't function quite as it should. PLus the tank is in my bedroom and i couldnt sleep at night with the lights on at night and the all the noise.

So now I am looking for other options. Can anyone reccomend other ideas, b/c im ready to go and buy anything to make it better. Do I need a phosphate reactor? HOw about some kind of sump with refugium? I dont know --theres so much out there, what works? PLease help me fix this problem.
 
How much are you feeding, when you feed? How old are the bulbs in your light? I would up the frequency of your water changes to at least once a week until you get it under control. You can try adding a GFO or phosban reactor but, there's no guarantee that it would get rid of your problems.
 
mmfrock said:
I said previous that i feed every other day, frozen food. I feed once in the evening. My bulbs are only 6 months old.
Click to expand...

Are you feeding a fully cube, half a cube, quarter cube.... BL1 asked how much

You could look into some sort of reactor, but if you are going that route, I would look into Bio Pellets versus GFO. While Bio Pellets are not as good at removing phospate, they will remove nitrates as well
 
What do you have for a cuc? If you don't have any turbo snails I'd recommend getting about 3 of those guys for your 29g - they should really help take care of the hair algae! That said, still important to find the root cause :)
 
Where did the rocks you are using come from? Rocks will leach back nitrates and phosphates if they have been in a dirty tank for a long time.
 
I don't know if this will help, I had cyno until I checked the lighting and found I had some lighting that was too red. Took it away and cyno settled back down.
The green hair algae that was harrassing my tank got this treatment:
1) picked off and suctioned out as much as I could. 2) Any rocks that retained GHA, I took out of the tank andput itina QT tank with big anenome hermit crabs who cleaned it up pretty quickly. I now kee a tank with peppermint shrimp to clean up rocks that get aptasia and a tank with crabs for cleaning GHA.
 
A cube of frozen food lasts me about a month. I only have two fish...the cube melts in my little cup so i dont exactly know how much i use each time i feed, but i just dip the tip of the spoon in about 3 times, i bet my fish barely get 20 mysis shrimp during each feeding, thats all i feed.

I have no sea cucumbers and i do not know much about them...does anyone have a link to a thread i could read to edcuate myself on them before getting one.

All of the rocks except two came from my old 90 gal. When i tore my 90 gallong down, i washed and dryed the rocks. When i reset up the 29 gal i washed the rocks again to get anything that was left behind. Now the 29 has all the old rocks and 2 new rocks i bought at the lfs to reseed the old rocks. The new rocks came from a clean looking display tank.

HOw will i know if my lighting is too red? I have 2 actinic bulbs and 2 10,000K bulbs. 65 watts each.

THank you all.
 
You said your tank is about 6 months old and I assume the light bulbs havent been changed? If so, they need replaced now because their spectrum has shifted to a more red colour, but not enough that we can tell. I suggest going out and buying all new bulbs, but only put one of each in (1x10,000K, 1xActinic) and wait a week or two to put the other two in. That should instantly help, maybe not FIX, but HELP.
 
little_fish said:
That is a lot of food for your fish, i would cut that in half.
Click to expand...

You think so, though? Cuz if 1 cube lasts him a month, and he's only feeding every other day, doesn't sound like a lot unless I'm misunderstanding something.

Hrm...have you had your lfs test your water? test your change-out water, too before you put it in. It is possible to have purchased an old test kit (I did...brand new, but my nitrates were way off; replaced it, got more accurate readings). Do you have a TDS meter on your RODI?

Definitely use process of elimination -- start with the lights.
 
Don't get a sea cucumber - they can easily be sucked up into your powerheads/overflow/etc and will nuke your tank when they die. They are also not the best answer to dealing with an algae problem. Get yourself a few turbo snails instead and that should help!
 
Do you have sand and do you stir it often? If you don't have a deep sand bed, you could stir your sand. Your tank is 6 months old, so I would stir small sections at a time and get that waste into your water column where your skimmers can pull it out. I have been fighting a small algae bloom as well and stirring up my sand has really made a big difference in a week. I would stir a small section every afternoon then before bed, clean up the foam prefilter on my overflow. This really helped to free up any cyno or algae tanking hold as well as pull waste out of my tank, especially seeing how dirty my prefilter was after I stirred things up. I was surprised how much gunk was built up in my sand bed and my tank is only 4 months old. Daily or every other day stirrings could help a lot, along with the other recommendations already suggested.

Good luck.
 
So...i am hearing about getting new bulbs...that's fine, but can someone eexplain more to me why? I thought bulbs were supposed to last 9-12 months. Mine are only 6 months old, why do i need new ones already.

I have new test kits so that shouldnt be a problem. I buy RO water from walmart b/c i dont have an RO unit, currently. I used to have one, and I will have one again when i reset up my 90 gal. But that has to wait a year b/c i will be building me dream home in about a year, then i'll throw the money into it to get a go RO unit.

Theres no way i am feeding to much! Really?! My fish act like theyre dying when i feed them. 10-20 mysis shrimp isn't really that much. Am I completely wrong here? A cube easily lasts a month, i dont see that being too much...

Anyways, so i guess at the fish store this weekend i'll buy new bulbs and lots of snails!! I can start stirring up my sand bed, it's not that deep maybe 2inches.

Anything else i missed?
 

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