90% water change

smiley28 · Mar 17, 2016

Brandon429 you're crazy! In a good way haha I was up late reading threads because of you.

As for your tank Brandon42
Is it in a room with a lot of natural sunlight?

TaylorPilot · Mar 17, 2016

You need a UV sterilizer or a diatom filter. Nothing else will get rid of it. I've seen people do 99% water changed and it comes right back in days.

smiley28 · Mar 17, 2016

Never mind I can see the window maybe cover it?

smiley28 · Mar 17, 2016

I once had this issue so I removed all light natural and tank light and put in a uv sterilizer and in 3 days the algae was under control but that was a much smaller tank

Oh and I even wrapped the tank in black garbage bags I was taking no chances

Salt It Away · Mar 17, 2016

Wilsoni said:
Wow HAPPY ST PATRICKS DAY!!! It's a sign (;

That reply gave me a much needed chuckle. Lol

Brandon42 · Mar 17, 2016

ammonia - 0
nitrite - 0
ph - 8.0 - 8.1
nitrate - 0
alk - 2.9 meg/l

i dont have a po4 test so i cant do that one until i go to the lfs. But the last time it was 0.04.

And I think I know what got me in this mess. When I set this tank up I was told curing dry rock was not necessary if cleaned really well. So I'm pretty confident that's where my po4 came from but iv ran a phosgard 3 times now so it has taken care of a good amount of the po4. Could it still be leaching from the rocks after 2 months running?

Brandon42 · Mar 17, 2016

smiley28 said:
Never mind I can see the window maybe cover it?

yeah there are 2 windows that allow light but only for small amounts of time and not direct sunlight. and the one closest i already have covered

AlexStinson · Mar 17, 2016

you could have a few big happy clams till it clears up!

ermartin · Mar 17, 2016

UV sterilizer

brandon429 · Mar 17, 2016

does anyone know how a 29 day trial rental of UV from amazon works? cuz I do. UV is quite handy as a non committal you save all packaging down to the T type run. keep it if it works, go oversized, buy big. For this instance I would clean the whole tank but a UV is a fine cheat preventative in general, I like them greatly if I had a larger tank one would be there.

I just got a neotherm 25w heater from amazon last mo, the box had a small tear in the top fold=I just bought someones rental. still works, so I pass the buck on. I myself have rented car amps, all fair trades. after verifying unique shipper return policies, you indeed can rent uv to try.

Lenny_S · Mar 17, 2016

Brandon42 said:
ammonia - 0
nitrite - 0
ph - 8.0 - 8.1
nitrate - 0
alk - 2.9 meg/l

i dont have a po4 test so i cant do that one until i go to the lfs. But the last time it was 0.04.

And I think I know what got me in this mess. When I set this tank up I was told curing dry rock was not necessary if cleaned really well. So I'm pretty confident that's where my po4 came from but iv ran a phosgard 3 times now so it has taken care of a good amount of the po4. Could it still be leaching from the rocks after 2 months running?

I think you're right as to the cause. It is true that the reef saver type of dry rock doesn't need to be cured because that comes from mined ancient reefs and is totally void of any organics. But Pukani dry rock is just dried live rock. It has so many deep crevices that get packed with dead sea life that even getting that type dry requires curing. After 2 months it might be cured by now, but it could still have a ways to go.
Keep using a phosphate binder to maintain an edge on that. But the phytoplankton in the water will stay there a long time if you don't get it out. The best way to do that is a UV sterilizer and some kind of ultra fine mechanical filter. Keeping all lights off and covering the tank will help too.

Brandon42 · Mar 17, 2016

Lenny_S said:
I think you're right as to the cause. It is true that the reef saver type of dry rock doesn't need to be cured because that comes from mined ancient reefs and is totally void of any organics. But Pukani dry rock is just dried live rock. It has so many deep crevices that get packed with dead sea life that even getting that type dry requires curing. After 2 months it might be cured by now, but it could still have a ways to go.
Keep using a phosphate binder to maintain an edge on that. But the phytoplankton in the water will stay there a long time if you don't get it out. The best way to do that is a UV sterilizer and some kind of ultra fine mechanical filter. Keeping all lights off and covering the tank will help too.

Yeah I'm looking into uv sterilzers now. I found one by AA at a decent price for my size tank. Doesn't appear to be the best ever but it's about all my budget will fit at the moment. Gonna get that this week and if I don't see a difference next Monday I will do a major water change. That seems to be the best answer for now because if I do the water change first and then get the uv it could come back.

MT. Reefer · Mar 17, 2016

You can always check with your local LFS and see if they have a UV that you could rent for a week if it's an emergency.

FL_Reefer · Mar 17, 2016

Ok wow, I just saw the photos. Maybe I misread I thought it was on your rocks but it's literally everything is green. Uv and carbon maybe. I have only seen fresh water tanks get like this. Does it effect your fish at all?

Brandon42 · Mar 17, 2016

good news i got a bigger return pump and a aqua 25w uv sterilizer. so hopefully this does the trick with all my other levels reading good i would hate to have to drain it. so i figure hook all this up and then do a pretty large water change next week and hope for the best. are you supposed to run the uv all the time? or should i get a timer for it?

brandon429 · Mar 17, 2016

All UV is preference there is no way. If it was mine it's all the time.

In my opinion the quickest way to have growback is to change water but leave particles of this still within the sandbed. Source water seems strongly at play here, non zero tds source water even though it's unreported. Undoubtedly nutrients above normal are getting in the water column somehow, under full production light mode.

The lighting component of this outbreak is huge, lighting needs to be blued and or downplayed altogether, following a good tank cleaning, then with UV what else can we throw at it except things out of the medicine cabinet. Regarding the uv, to any degree it was not oversized to your gallonage is the same degree it may not help. Oversizing is a nice way to compensate for flow rates etc if those are not accurately being factored in uv sizing.

In a lab setting, flow, maintenance and sourcing of the bulbs is superb and doesn't have to be oversized. Lab quality uv was source feeding our whole lab at a large beef processing plant I used to work at, we did lots of pre and post wastewater uv measure they 100% work on some targets and your suspended algae sure is a potential one. Not hard to overdrive photosynthetic machinery and get radical meltdown off a pass through of blasting light.

Brandon42 · Mar 18, 2016

brandon429 said:
All UV is preference there is no way. If it was mine it's all the time.

In my opinion the quickest way to have growback is to change water but leave particles of this still within the sandbed. Source water seems strongly at play here, non zero tds source water even though it's unreported. Undoubtedly nutrients above normal are getting in the water column somehow, under full production light mode.

The lighting component of this outbreak is huge, lighting needs to be blued and or downplayed altogether, following a good tank cleaning, then with UV what else can we throw at it except things out of the medicine cabinet. Regarding the uv, to any degree it was not oversized to your gallonage is the same degree it may not help. Oversizing is a nice way to compensate for flow rates etc if those are not accurately being factored in uv sizing.

In a lab setting, flow, maintenance and sourcing of the bulbs is superb and doesn't have to be oversized. Lab quality uv was source feeding our whole lab at a large beef processing plant I used to work at, we did lots of pre and post wastewater uv measure they 100% work on some targets and your suspended algae sure is a potential one. Not hard to overdrive photosynthetic machinery and get radical meltdown off a pass through of blasting light.

i got it all hooked up and got a faster return pump with it. as much as i wanted to get a bigger one i got this at a steal with a faster pump and i definitely didn't have a brand new one in my budget. the faster pump is nice but after passing through the uv it seems about the same if not slightly slower than the other one without the uv. as for the water im running RO/DI and my tds has only just started reading 1ppm iv barely ran the lights the last couple days only for about a hour in the morning and then a hour at night. the uv has been hooked up for about 2 hours now and i have noticed it is not quite as green now more of a yellow. so hopefully its helping. i still think a large water change will help vastly but with all other parameters in check and having gotten 60 new gallons this week id like to see if this does the trick before doing a major water change.

Lenny_S · Mar 18, 2016

Brandon42 said:
i got it all hooked up and got a faster return pump with it. as much as i wanted to get a bigger one i got this at a steal with a faster pump and i definitely didn't have a brand new one in my budget. the faster pump is nice but after passing through the uv it seems about the same if not slightly slower than the other one without the uv. as for the water im running RO/DI and my tds has only just started reading 1ppm iv barely ran the lights the last couple days only for about a hour in the morning and then a hour at night. the uv has been hooked up for about 2 hours now and i have noticed it is not quite as green now more of a yellow. so hopefully its helping. i still think a large water change will help vastly but with all other parameters in check and having gotten 60 new gallons this week id like to see if this does the trick before doing a major water change.

Make sure you read the flow rates for your sterilizer. The flow rates are usually pretty slow to increase contact time. Too fast a flow and it won't work.

Brandon42 · Mar 18, 2016

My flow rate going through it is actually right on the money for what i need. It is definitely working. Hasn't even been 24 hours yet and there is a huge difference in clarity.

First time in a week iv been able to see my rocks. Thanks for the help everyone!

brandon429 · Mar 18, 2016

I fully believe UV w do that, I really like them. why don't they make two inch tall ones and a micro pump for use in picos= $ someone design.

(answer-because 100% water change is a gallon or two lol) but if we wanted the mini modeling fun, we'd need a two inch UV that would be awesome.