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gmerek2

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Posts posted by gmerek2

    Collumnbelid snails

    in General Discussion

    · Edited by gmerek2

    I have always liked my asterina starfish as they never bothered anything. But as I’m sitting here having a rum and coke it makes me wonder if they are eating my snail eggs and pods that cover the glass at night

    Green algae bloom

    in General Discussion

    Yea that’s it king. Just re emphasizing this is for green or cloudy water. Won’t do anything for algae on rock. Well worth the money. Should have done this a long time ago but kept thinking it was just new tank syndrome until It hit a year old lol

    Green algae bloom

    in General Discussion

    · Edited by gmerek2

    Just following up. I know I said I wouldn’t do a UV but Found a green eating machine or something corny like that at petco. It was only $45 I couldn’t pass it up. Here are before and after shots. It gets clearer every day. d83325bbb7cb209c2c66cf749109d245.jpg6829a8c114bd3e9daf3cac3076689116.jpg

    Green algae bloom

    in General Discussion

    Looks like you have hit the magic ratio of N, P and trace elements.  My guess is that they are coming from food, even though there's not a lot going in. When I was optimizing conditions for growing macroalgae (I dose N, P, C, and traces), I would end up with phyto blooms when things started to go out of balance and macro growth slowed. 

     

    A few things help:

    -The simplest is to use a skimmer.  IME, a decent skimmer will pull enough out to keep the water clear.

    -Mechanical filtration (HOB or canister), with fine enough media to remove the algae, will do the trick as well.  Occasional use of a diatom filter is also an option.

    Exporting the phyto with skimming or mechanical filtration also helps to remove the nutrients causing the problem.

     

    If you have the time and energy, you can use macroalgae growth to compete with the microalgae.  I would use vinegar or vodka as a carbon source in order to shift the advantage to the macroalgae.  Macros need more C and a lot less P than phyto.  

     

    Stripping the water of a necessary nutrient should also take care of the problem.  For example, phosphate is limiting, so using a phosban reactor to get P down to zero will starve the phyto.

     

    UV will clarify the water, but will not export nutrients, so the problem will still sit in the background. 

     

    Filter feeders would be tricky.  If the population gets high enough to clarify the water, they will probably crash due to starvation.  

     

    There may be even better options, but the above is all based on the literature on algae culture and years of hard experience intentionally farming nuisance algae.

     

    ​I have an oversized HOB skimmer rated for 100g. It is a 65g tank and pulls great skim. I have tried running a TON of GFO with no changes at all. The Vodka Carbon dosing along with macro suggestion really interests me though. That may be the ticket to throw off these favorable phyto conditions. I also have a large photosynthetic blue sponge I can throw in the mix to help uptake nutrients and filter feed. If nutrients get too low for it I can just put it back in my good tank. Ill also look for good media to put in my HOB suggestions welcome. My current filter media I put in there doesn't filter out any phyto at all.

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