My tank is a 75 gallon and my ammonia is 0 PPM nitrite is 0PPM and nitrate is 10PPM I do 25-30% water changes like every week give or take a few days.
Help with algae.
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My tank is a 75 gallon and my ammonia is 0 PPM nitrite is 0PPM and nitrate is 10PPM I do 25-30% water changes like every week give or take a few days.
Do you have a cleanup crew? How much are you feeding? How old is the system?
I have two Mexican turbo snails and a coral banded shrimp. I had 4 turbos but sadly lost two of them. And the tank is like two months old. And I feed my snowflake moray ever two - three days and I feed the scopas tang three times a day normally sometimes two times. I've lessened the feeding to some mysas shrimp in the Morning and then some seaweed on a veggie clip.
fab
Active Member
Remove the bio balls, definitely.
Add a refugium for growing chaetomorpha alaga. Add an algae scrubber.
Run their lights on a reverse daylight photosynthesis schedule relative to the lights on your display tank; i.e., display tank lights on in daytime, refugium and algae scrunber lights are on at night when display tank lights are off.
Cut your display tank lights off altogether for a few days to help starve out the algae. It won't hurt the fish. Fish do not need lighting. Cut back on your feeding while the lights are off for a few days, maybe by 1/3, except for your moray. Again to help starve out the algae.
Try to find where your phosphates are coming from and eliminate them, if you can.
Get a pygmy filefish, Rudarius ercodes.
Read @twillards thread on defeating cyanobacteria with H2O2.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/back-at-it-peroxide-vrs-cyanobacteria.241002/
These steps will work and give you a long term solution fairly quickly, not just a spot fix. Be patient.
Add a refugium for growing chaetomorpha alaga. Add an algae scrubber.
Run their lights on a reverse daylight photosynthesis schedule relative to the lights on your display tank; i.e., display tank lights on in daytime, refugium and algae scrunber lights are on at night when display tank lights are off.
Cut your display tank lights off altogether for a few days to help starve out the algae. It won't hurt the fish. Fish do not need lighting. Cut back on your feeding while the lights are off for a few days, maybe by 1/3, except for your moray. Again to help starve out the algae.
Try to find where your phosphates are coming from and eliminate them, if you can.
Get a pygmy filefish, Rudarius ercodes.
Read @twillards thread on defeating cyanobacteria with H2O2.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/back-at-it-peroxide-vrs-cyanobacteria.241002/
These steps will work and give you a long term solution fairly quickly, not just a spot fix. Be patient.
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So are the bio balls an issue? And is the wet/dry filter not sufficient? It's got a protein skimmer idk if that matters lol. And without sounding dumb what do you mean scrubber? Like the magnetic scrubber? I have thought about buying a HOB refugium would that work?
Bio balls are not bad, they're just better alternatives. You do NOT need a refugium, or an algae scrubber. There are a plethora of successful systems out there without either. What is your current light schedule? I personally think you need to beef up your clean up crew, its way to small for a 75G. There are plenty of reefs with sand as well so that clearly isn't the issue. One way or another you have excessive nutrients. Exactly how much are you feeding?
Bio balls are not bad, they're just better alternatives. You do NOT need a refugium, or an algae scrubber. There are a plethora of successful systems out there without either. What is your current light schedule? I personally think you need to beef up your clean up crew, its way to small for a 75G. There are plenty of reefs with sand as well so that clearly isn't the issue. One way or another you have excessive nutrients. Exactly how much are you feeding?
fab
Active Member
Bio balls and wet/dry filters are both wrong for use with saltwater aquaria.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/introducing-the-new-turbo-algae-scrubber-rev-4.212728/
Never feel dumb about asking questions. Dumb is not asking when you know you should. We all have holes in our knowledge. They just seem to get bigger and bigger the more we learn.
Well thank you for being nice and helping me lol. So with the bio balls you said there are better alternatives what might those be? And I will get this out asap. My light scheduled is 7 hours on white and roughly 3 blue and the rest is no light. And I will work on my CUC I didn't buy a bunch as I thought my snowflake moray might eat them lol. And I'm feeding 1/4 sheet of seaweed a day and not sure the exact amount of the mysas shrimp I have the frozen cubes and I thaw two cubes and they last like 4-5 days feeding once a day. And the eel I feed two thawed krill every two to three days. Ok so wet/dry filter needs to go so do I replace with refugium? If so I assume I can use the pumps from my filter for my refugium lol. And I like the idea of the scrubber but I can't afford that lol. And what size refugium do I need for my 75? I was thinking like an old 15 gallon tank and add the chambers.
You can replace bio balls with a sintered glass media. Many folks use marine pure, although there is debate amongst this stuff leaching aluminum. I've never owned an eel so I can speak to your clean up crew in that regard. Your feeding seems to be ok. I've never used a wet/dry filter myself, but i have used canister filters before and dont let anyone tell you they don't work for salt tanks because they absolutely do. Anyone who says that clearly doesn't know how to operate them. Is your tank tempered? If you can't drill it, i wouldn't worry with a refugium unless you go with a HOB siphon. I think you need to start small, try beefing up your clean up crew, make sure all the food gets eaten, and go from there. Refugiums, algae scrubbers, etc are all great, but they're just not necessary for every system. Do you have a skimmer?
Ok thank you. And you mean a protein skimmer? If so then yes I do. And with the CUC do you guys mean like snails or more shrimp. And I'm not sure about the glass I bought the tank second hand. And my filter has a HOB syphon could I use that and the pumps for a refugium if I decide to go that route?
Yes a protein skimmer, how much gunk does it pull out? For your CUC i would definitely get snails first, not sure how the eel would handle hermits, probably not well, but maybe get a few and try? I'm a fan of trochus snails, they're beasts, much faster than turbo snails. Nassarius snails are good for stirring your sand. Look on youtube, there are easy instructions on how to check for tempered glass, but keep in mind if you drill it you'd likely have to drain it. Yea you could use the HOB syphon and pumps if you decided to go with a refugium.
Any idea what the red algae is ? Is it cyno? Or just red hair? I looked into the peroxide dosing I might try that. I will also get a better CUC so I can try not to just bandaged the problem. I will remove the bioballs asap and are the ceramic rings ok to stay?
+1, the red stuff may be cyano, i'm no expert. Get your nutrients under control and go from there. I am personally not a fan of the ceramic rings, i think they're garbage. Check this stuff out: sintered glass media. Don't remove the bio balls until you can replace them with something better, they're not hurting anything, you're just not getting much mileage from them. I would hold off on dosing peroxide, see what your snails do first, take baby steps; there's no point in going all out when something as small as a dozen snails might fix...
fab
Active Member
Once again. a pygmy filefish.
Yes, I agree, refugia and algae scrubbers are not required. But them nothing is really required, witness Berlin System tanks that are crystal clear and overall successful. There are many aquarium systems that do not use them just as there are many tanks that do. I happen to believe in refugia and in algae scrubbers to help keep tanks crystal clear and clear of algae. It is always your call.
But, do look into a filefish. They are good as reef fish and are a huge success with clearing out algae.
Yes, I agree, refugia and algae scrubbers are not required. But them nothing is really required, witness Berlin System tanks that are crystal clear and overall successful. There are many aquarium systems that do not use them just as there are many tanks that do. I happen to believe in refugia and in algae scrubbers to help keep tanks crystal clear and clear of algae. It is always your call.
But, do look into a filefish. They are good as reef fish and are a huge success with clearing out algae.
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Rickyrooz
Acropora Nut
The Whitespotted Pygmy Filefish are omnivores as well as the wild variety being not reef safe but the ORA variety are stated not to nip at coral. Also, where is your documentation that bio balls are bad? Many sucessful European reefers on R2R are using ceramic bio rings which is a similar concept as bio balls, more surface area to grow denitrating bacteria but just like CodyRVA stated there are better alternatives. I believe mimicking nature is best and agree a refugium that is 15 to 20% of the tanks volume with various macro algae to outcompete the "bad" algae will take care of your algae issue.
Thank you guys so much for all the replies I really appreciate it. I will work on reducing my feeding and upgrading my CUC. Eventually I will probably add a refugium to this system when money allows. I will also look into the filefish Again thank you for you advice.
