The Great Algae Genocide War of 2010….

I'm just hoping this isn't a temporary fix. I would hate to be back at square one 2 months from now. I think the really important lesson I've learned here is to do everything in your power and your budget to start your tank off the right way. It's a helluva lot easier to keep something clean and healthy, then to bring it back from the brink of hell.


Not using tap water anymore and the new bulbs should help allot. I am getting algae on one side of my tank cause I had a bulb burn out and put in an old one till I can get some fish funds.
 
Yeah, I can't wait to see what my new lights look like. I took some shots of my tank under the old lighting, with 10k bulbs. But I've upgraded to 14k bulbs and have a serious itch to see them in action. However, I am erring on the side of caution and allowing my lighting fixture an extra long time to cure from its fresh coat of paint.

I am ALSO waiting to hear back from IceCap customer service to see if my ballast will be covered under warranty or not. Repairs cost $95, plus $10 to ship it back to me. Total cost of repair would be $40 less than the original purchase price.
 
Finally there! I reinstalled my lighting fixture today. Here is it with it's fresh coat of paint and bulb fixtures:


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And here it is remounted on my canopy, just look at that sheen!

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And, as promised, here is the video. Take it easy on me guys, my video camera is getting older. The tank looks quite bleached out according to these images. I also only have my MH lights on, as the actinics are still outta commission. I will be slowly increasing my photo period over the next week to avoid shocking the system and allow a little more time to get my ballast back from the IceCap repair center. The only fish in the tank at the moment is the little diamond goby you see in the beginning. The other three are chilling out in the QT at the moment.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jP8vyDc9mOE"]YouTube - Aquarium Video.mpg[/ame]​
 
AG, I have been through all of this before and was ready to put the whole thing up for sale till I figured one of the keys to this out. Algae can't grow where there is flow. I tore out my rocks and all but 1/2" of sand and redid my aquascaping with nothing but large pieces. I also doubled my in tank flow going from 2 koralia 2's to adding 2 3's and a 4. My tank is a 110. 4' wide. I have crazy flow, my fish and coral love it. I have huge wholes in my scaping and verylittle sand in the bottom so I have no dead spots. I sill get a little hair algae on my powerheads and some on the glass but it feeds my snails crabs and urchin. It really has been working well with no filtration other than a skimmer and monthly water changes.

I was there and beat it and you can too!
 
BP...increasing my flow AND reaquascaping were BOTH on my to-do list. My flow is SO much better now, and I also have much larger rocks with a lot of space around them. I hope its enough to keep it all at bay.
 
BP...increasing my flow AND reaquascaping were BOTH on my to-do list. My flow is SO much better now, and I also have much larger rocks with a lot of space around them. I hope its enough to keep it all at bay.

If you start to see a comeback in spots, go get another power head. Seeing the die off tho, I wouldn't expect it.
 
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