UV sterilizers????

[imdaring]

I'm having problems with green alge on my glass and it's making my water look not clear? I have a UVS to add to my tank but have not hooked it up do you recomend using it?

 

[Bifferwine]

A UV sterilizer will help, but they also have their downsides. They will kill bad things in your water column, but they will also kill good things like bacteria, planton, pods, etc.

If you have green algae on your glass, the underlying cause is water quality, namely high nitrates and phosphates. If you eliminate the algae's food source (N and P), it will decrease and eventually go away. You need to find out why you are having water quality issues.

Do you use a good protein skimmer? Do you use RODI water or tap water? Do you feed flakes or pellets instead of frozen (flake and pellet foods contain ash, which leads to increases in phosphates in your tank). Do you overfeed? Do you do water changes often enough? Are you using nitrate prone equipment like a wet-dry or canister filter?

 

[imdaring]

I use frozen foods for the most part, I feed them about EOD, I do have a new tang so I clip the dry'd seaweed on the tank off and on. I think I have a good protien skimmer just got that about the same time as the sump I have to empty it at least EOD, I have e new wet and dry sump tank with the bio balls installed it about a month and a half ago so my nitrates are up. I use tap water I'd like to get RO filter but we are rebuilding so we are not in our house yet, just did a temp move for about 4 month and then we might be able to move into the new house..

 

[Bifferwine]

The bioballs and tap water are probably contributing to your problem, if not causing. Bioballs commonly lead to high nitrates (which equals algae) and are fine for fish only tanks (fish can tolerate high nitrates), but bioballs are not recommended for use in tanks that contain inverts. You can buy RODI water at the grocery store or Walmart, I would especially advise against using tap water in a tank with inverts (especially anemones) as tap water contains all sorts of crap that is bad for your tank -- nitrates, phosphates, heavy metals, etc.

 

[yote]

Biffs right on the money.
When you use the bio-balls,you need to give a good rinsing in fresh water at least every couple of weeks.Once every week is even better.

 

[imdaring]

do you mean rinse the boi balls, we don't have city water it's well

 

[yote]

Yep,You'll need to rinse the bio-balls along with the mechanical filter media.Well water will work just fine for that.
But for top-off and water changes,you'd be better off using either distelled water,or wal-mart has ro water for 33 cents a gallon.

 

[Doc]

really try to avoid using well water at all. RO water only. it seems like your tank is still new and getting a fine algae dust is normal at the start of the tank, you will also have a diatom bloom (brown algae) and probably a touch of cyano as well within the first 4 months. Keep up with water changes, using RO water, keep nutrients at a minimum and you will weather the storm

-Doc

 

[cumminz]

I dont use ro and i dont get any algea at all. Lucky i guess

 

[fatman]

UV lighting will kill algae that is water borne, it will not help control algae growing on the glass, rocks, substrate etc.. Cleaning your bioballs will prevent large sudden spikes in your nitrate levels, but it will do nothing to stop the large nitrate levels from accumalating. It is generally best to clean about a third to a half of your bio balls every week at least, but wash them with the salt water that you removed from your tank while doing a water change. You just want to clean off the accumalations of grunge not all the bacteria that are growing on the surface. The nitrates will accumalate faster with a bioball wet/dry filter than with live rock or a deep sand bed. Wet/dry filters are great at taking fish wastes (ammonia) and turning it into nitrite and then nitrate, however it is incapable of turning the nitrate into a nitrogenous gas as can live rock or a deepsand bed, so the nitrate accumalates faster tahn if the filtration was done by just live rov=ck or a deep sand bed. Plus a wet dry filter can turn the ammonia into nitrite and then nitrate so well it does so with a huge amount of the fish waste before the skimmer can remove it from the water, so the wet dry prevents a skimmer from doing its job by being to good of a biological medium. Live rock and deep sand beds work slower so a skimmer has time to actually remove the fish more of the fish wastes before it is converted to nitrites and nitrates. Wet dry filters are good for fish only tanks, especially with a heavy fish load or with large fish, or predator fish, but it is a bad filtration system to use with anemones , corals and most other invertebrates as they acn not tolearte and some mnot live with high nitrate levels.

 

[imdaring]

so should I just keep cleaning the Bio balls or shoud I replace it with some sort of media, or diff. type of balls?

 

[fatman]

If you want to continue to keep anemones and other invertebtrates you should consider using a protein skimmer, live rock and/or a deep sand bed. Most typically used is live rock, then the addition of a skimmer in a sump as funds allow. There is no media when used in a trickle filter that does not have the before mentioned problems. For denitrification the media must be able to support the housing of denitrifying bacteria that require an oxygen free environment that is in contact with nitrate laden water. Wet/dry filters provide a very high oxygen environment, that is favored my nitrifying bacteria, but not denitrifying bacteria. I personally would not recommend the continued use of any media in the wet/dry compartment, if you plan on keeping corals or other invertebrates. You can continue using it as a sump, but eventually you would probably want to modify it so it will allow for a higher water capacity than what typical wet/dry filter baffles are set up to allow. That typically just means adding a couple pieces of plastic to raise one or two of the baffle heights, and how many and how high depends on the model/brand.

 

[reeffreak]

If you can raise the water level in the wet/dry sump then live rock rubble,even larger pieces,makes a better alternative than bioballs.The rock rubble needs to be fully submerged to be more effective than bioballs.

If your main display has over 1lb of live rock per gallon then you really don't need any media,including bioballs in the sump.

 

[Ironman]

just something that could also be a cause even though the previous ideas are right on the money, does the tank sit infront of a window? And how long do you leave the lights on in the tank?

 

[Bifferwine]

Good point, Ironman. Natural sunlight will fuel algae, as will long photoperiods and old bulbs.

 

[RyanG]

I learned about sunlight and algae the hard way with the tank in the greenhouse idea. I had a monsterous hair algae outbreak but after a week of using Fatmans suggestion of draping a sheet over the tank and keeping part of it wet to encourage evaporation for cooling, I also noticed that the hair algae is disappearing quickly. Now I have coralline growing all over the place(Including my Skimmer...not cool there) I also have some Doo-doo brown zoas popping up.