50% Water change? Yes or No?

[Sweet7]

So I have been having some issues with green hair algae and I'm pretty sure it's due to my Nitrates. I have not been able to keep them below 10ppm even with weekly 20% water changes. My Phosphates are 0 but Nitrates remain. I have a 29g Biocube that am currently running a Aquaticlife 115 skimmer, Purigen and Matrix Carbon (no bio balls) to aid in waste removal, a bag of Matrix Media and two large sponges. Water Parameters are all stable, minus the Nitrates of course. My idea to try and get my Nitrates down to nothing was to remove the sponges, since I have heard they could be the culprit and put in a media basket. I also was going to do a 50% water change but wasn't sure if that was a good idea. The actual water volume in my tank is between 16 and 17 gallons so I would change 2 jugs of nutri-seawater (which i use for all my water changes), so almost 9 gallons.

So with all that said, anyone have any objections? or should I give it a go? I'm definitely getting rid of the sponges for the basket today, should I just do my normal water change when I make that change? Any advise would be helpful. Thanks Guys.

 

[Scubafrog]

Tagging along as I also have a 29G Biocube and my hair algae is starting to increase.I also have the two large sponges however I don't have a protein skimmer yet.
I am thinking about going the intank media basket route at Christmas.


How many fish do you have in your tank?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Water changes are not usually the best way to deal with algae problems because you need to get nutrients quite low to restrict algae growth. I'd look to other methods, such as organic carbon dosing, growing macroalgae, ATS, GFO, and others. Don't assume that phosphate is not also in abundance since it must be for algae to thrive.

 

[Sweet7]

Tagging along as I also have a 29G Biocube and my hair algae is starting to increase.I also have the two large sponges however I don't have a protein skimmer yet.
I am thinking about going the intank media basket route at Christmas.


How many fish do you have in your tank?

I just bought the intank basket, I'll be putting it in tonight so I'll let you know how it is. I have 3 fish, clown, damsel, and 6 line wrasse.

 

[Sweet7]

Water changes are not usually the best way to deal with algae problems because you need to get nutrients quite low to restrict algae growth. I'd look to other methods, such as organic carbon dosing, growing macroalgae, ATS, GFO, and others. Don't assume that phosphate is not also in abundance since it must be for algae to thrive.

True, the algae does need some phosphate to grow. I thought about using GFO, maybe I'll give it a try.

 

[zemuss]

GFO will work but if I recall if po4 is in abundance the GFO will not last long. A chaeto might be better and you can add a small ball in the basket with a submersible light.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

GFO will work but if I recall if po4 is in abundance the GFO will not last long. A chaeto might be better and you can add a small ball in the basket with a submersible light.

Yes, if there is a lot of phosphate you need a lot of binder, or a lot of macroalgae.

 

[Sweet7]

Ya, I'm hoping the GFO will do the trick, not really interested in getting into growing macro algae. If it comes to it I will, but I'll give this a go first.

 

[billwill]

Once you get a feel for how much GFO costs, you might rethink that refugium idea. On my 16G nano, I do 50% water changes every time I do a water change. I also have small refugium, skimmer, and run GFO occasionally. My refugium on my larger tank has made a huge difference in nitrate reduction, which you're likely battling as well.

 

[saltyphish]

I installed a hog .5 ATS SantaMonica in my 3rd chamber with the return pump in my 29 biocube works well for me. My nitrates stay between 5 ppm or lower. Phosphates are usually .04 or lower.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Once you get a feel for how much GFO costs, you might rethink that refugium idea. On my 16G nano, I do 50% water changes every time I do a water change. I also have small refugium, skimmer, and run GFO occasionally. My refugium on my larger tank has made a huge difference in nitrate reduction, which you're likely battling as well.

FWIW, if GFO cost is a big concern, you can recharge it yourself.

 

[FishGuyTy]

How often and what size are your normal water changes? Algae like hair algae need phosphate to grow. PO4 test kits are notoriously inaccurate. Even with no measurable levels in your tank, phosphate is likely being introduced via excess feeding and subsequently being used up by the hair algae, removing it from the water and giving you close to 0 readings. Macro algae sand hair algae usually remove 10 parts of nitrate for every part of phosphate, so I would suggest getting rid of one sponge and clean the other in dirty tank water. I would avoid removing both sponges at once and doing the 50% WC. Removing that much bacteria from your system (sponges hold a ton) could certainly cause a bacterial bloom. My normal method for hair algae removal is GFO. I like to avoid water changes and be very sparse with feeding for a while to let the hair algae eat itself to death. If you have a really tough problem, I have had incredible results with the Phosban 150 reactor with NPX bio-pellets. You need a skimmer to run this set up, but they work in a matter of a month. I do not like doing 50% water changes ever. This situation is certainly not severe enough for me to do a 50% WC. Good look! Happy Reefing!

 

[zemuss]

How do you recharge GFO? Thats interesting.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Recharging involves a treatment with lye (sodium hydroxide) to remove a substantial amount of the phosphate, often preceded by a vinegar rinse to remove deposited calcium carbonate. If you can't find it in a search I can point out some threads.

 

[zemuss]

No need I can search if I ever use GFO but I doubt I will need it after the ATS seeds.

Thanks.

 

[ReefFreak@]

Like what was already said above I would look at feeding habits. Old lights would aslo add go algae growth. Another looked over thing is when your doing water changes make sure you make them count and really siphon all the detritus and not just water. On my 2.5 I would run chemipure elite and it would last about 3 months all $20.00 to give you a idea of what you will be spending . Or you could go reactor which is more up front but less in the long run especially if you get a high capacity gfo

 

[ReefFreak@]

BTW I'm new here

 

[Sweet7]

So I installed the intank Coralife BC29 media basket last night. Was really easy, no mods needed. Filter floss on top, purigen in the middle and a mix of Matrix Carbon and PhosGuard in the bottom. Seems to be working well. Going to stick with the GFO for a little while and see how that does since I already bought it. The algae problem I'm having isn't anything to severe, just enough for me to be annoyed. Hopefully it will work. I feed my fish twice a day with marine flakes, just enough each time that I can watch them eat it all. Then I feed my entire tank (Fish, inverts and corals) one cube of frozen mysis shrimp on Sundays, so once a week. I've also been using Kent Nano Reef part A+B for supplements, wondering if that may be causing some of the growth, not to sure. Keeps my parameters real steady though.

 

[ReefFreak@]

If the kent marine a and b is a calcium alkalinity supplement thst shouldn't be the problem but feeding a whole cube of mysis in a 29 while. I feed 1/4 a cube and that's in a 65

 

[Sweet7]

If the kent marine a and b is a calcium alkalinity supplement thst shouldn't be the problem but feeding a whole cube of mysis in a 29 while. I feed 1/4 a cube and that's in a 65

Only reason I feed a whole cube is because almost 2/3 of it goes right into my duncan coral and the rest is mopped up my the fish and inverts, there is never anything that's left behind...