wasp

There's a few things Tel, but one of the biggies is to skim at max. Whatever crud you can remove = so much less algae. BTW what kind of skimmer do you have? There is a commonly held view that algae growth is just part of the "cycle", however, I do not subscribe to that. While it is the experience of many, and people eventually resolve it, I don't believe it HAS to happen, if rocks are thoroughly "cooked" in low phosphate water. You say your phosphate is testing good. In fact, there will be excess phosphate in the tank, if there is not, the algae simply cannot grow. So for us, algae control is all about phosphate control. There are 2 reasons why it is testing good, one is that the existing algae will take any "free" phosphate out of the water to use for growth, and the other is that many test kits do not test down to the low amounts that can sustain algae growth, they just show zero, giving the reefer a false sense of security. This applies even to the well reputed Salifert kit. There are several things will happen / you can do. Firstly, the situation may well resolve by itself. This is because there may be phosphate stored in your rock and slowly leaching out, which can cause an algae bloom, however, continuous and persistant skimming may gradually get on top of this, provided you do not overfeed, once the spare phosphate reserves are depleted, the algae will die off. However, rather than hope this will happen, a couple of extra things you can do, is use a phosphate removing resin ( expensive though ), or investigate one of the live bacterial dosing systems available, these systems are aimed at dosing bacteria strains designed at reducing algae fuelling nutrient levels in a reef tank. Two systems that are well reputed are Prodibio, and Zeovit, although others may dissagree on that, just my opinion. Perhaps the cheapest first option, is simply to dose a little vodka into the tank every day. This gives existing bacteria the carbon part of their diet that they need, in order to be able to consume the other part of their diets, which is the excess nutrients in your tank. Then, in theory, the bacteria are skimmed out of the tank, and the nutrients they contain removed with them. I have personally seen, a tank which had chronic hair algae all over, given a large dose of vodka. In a few days the water went white due to the bacterial bloom, the skimmer then went nuts & had to be emptied every few hours, then a few days later the hair algae began to turn white & look sick, and within 2 or 3 weeks, all algae was gone & rocks crisp and white! Others will have more to add also, Good Luck!

Ah huh! Now I can see the difference in your first pic, in fact it was hooked around the wrong way & you had heaps of air in it as a result. Interestingly the yellow colour started lower down where the water pooled, showing how the top media was being unused. Also gave, at a cursory glance, the look that it was hooked around the right way as that is where the yellowing first appears in the correctly connected one. Anyhow, a very cool setup Slappers, all the gears! IMO a good water purifying system is one of the most important bits of equipment we need.

How's it going Jeroen?

There are 2 ways to set up these DI chambers, top down, or bottom up. The correct way is bottom up, and looks like that's what you've got. The water exits the internal downpipe a little above the bottom, ( which in my view is a design flaw ), so your resin is changing to yellow around the exit point from the pipe, nearest the bottom. By the time the yellow get's up to nearly the top, the bottom portion of resin will have slowly turned yellow also. On the top chamber housing, the blue bit, where the tubes plug in, can be seen written the words "in', and "out". This is if using a cartridge. If using loose media such as DI resin, the order is reversed, you plug the inlet into where it says "out". This gives you bottom up flow, which eliminates any air in the system and allows 100% efficient use of the media.

Oh, I see, you'd be right!

Got it today? That DI resin looks 1/3rd way stuffed already. You sure it hasn't been used before?

Now you've got plenty of light, you'll be looking at high light type corals, most of them also need a lot of flow, more than you have currently. More flow also helps with cyano, and helps keep the tank clean generally.

Beachy is the pump running the skimmer the only flow in the tank?

Would it be possible to syphon them out now while there are only a few? If you see any egg masses but cannot get the coral out of the tank, perhaps they could be treated with a turkey baster with boiling water.

Who's getting it Duke? Long as they realise you need good clean stuff! But hey, I envy you, be great to have something like that on tap. As you may store it for 2 years, may be a good idea when it arrives to test it for everything you can test, so you can monitor the quality & any changes over time. Reminds me of a thing I read on Reef Central once, about a LFS that adjoined the beach. They laid a permanent hose right through into the seawater, to service their own needs, and also they sold the water. In fact it went out, from memory, half a mile. Now wouldn't that be cool!

Chimera have you got that orp thingy yet?

Don't worry, I'm out, ( in disgust ).

Surely you are joking? Either that or you suffer from serious memory loss. You have been insulting me for years. Remember this? If that is not a direct insult, what is? I could add many more of your insults so don't tempt me. But I'm leaving it at that I'm mindful of what Pegasus said I'm out of your new arguing thread. I'd love to see some new beginnings and more sensible behaviour here. I'd suggest you do the same, or if you cannot, at least tone down the inflammatory language.

All I can see is pages of argument. I don't really care about durso's I know nothing about plumbing, but as a victim of your arguing on many occasions it bugs me to see you still at it. Just pointing out a few home truths you badly need to learn. FUD? Myths? your opinion, but inflamatory language to the person on the other side. Listen to yourself. FUD, myths, misinformation, ignorance. That type of language is insulting and derogatory, and does not belong in the sensible discussion you claim you want. I have been on the recieving end of all those kind of insults from you myself, when what I have said has been perfectly fine. It is this type of desire to put others down and "attack the messenger" that causes so many threads you are in to become unseemly arguments.

Layton what are you doing? I never said the above. That quote is not mine. I agree that as described the durso is cheaper, but for whatever reason you have tried to drag my name into this argument attributing stuff to me I never even said. Please withdraw it. Also, why so doggedly defend every position you ever take? Most people use Durso's they can't be that terrible. Life does not have to be one long argument does it? If you continue this thread will end up yet another thread you crashed with your arguing & end up getting moderated. ( Again ). If you could resist the urge to attack every little thing your various opponents say, perhaps you might leave the way open to find agreement with people on things.

Oh, I've just noticed you are on the North Shore. I'll be able to give you some of this acid. Give me a call 479-5446, Alastair.

My company use a very strong acid for getting rust marks out of carpet, just squirt it on & the rust dissapears even before we suck it out. You won't be able to get the stuff we use, but maybe some vinegar would work? I'm not sure but may be worth a try.

What Rossco said. Also, white one? I don't think there is such a thing among healthy torch corals, these torches may have been on the way out when you got them. However, nothing to lose, try - medium/lowish light, very little flow, light feeding as per Rossco, and if you can get it, dose Reef Solution into the water.

I'm with Pomereef on that, it took around 2 years before mine figured out how to eat fish food, and during that time I had to collect rocks for him from the beach that had algae. He used to get super skinny it was terrible, but when I put the rocks in he would chow down & get really fat. Pretty certain if I had not done that he would have died, came pretty close a few times. These days he is like your one Fay just settles for the fish food - easier :lol: , given up eating cruddy old algae now! :lol: , and he's always looking pretty fat also.

Yes I was interested in that also. Not only that, but he also uses kalkawasser, another thing not recommended with Zeovit. I read his thread discussing his tank, and he was asked why he does not use zeovit bacteria, bear in mind English is not his first language, here is his reply- Quote "I don't use it because I don't have it. :lol: The tank is ok, and the Po4-No3 ara very low, so at the moment I don't need it.. When I started the zeo system I used it, then when they finish I've never buy more and I don't see differences in the coral.. Proabally my tank keep his equilibrium ( in vs out) and It oesn't need the bak.. In the future, if anythings change I'll buy (and try) it.."

Yes the red bulb is an interesting idea. That has come up occasionally in some other quality tanks I have seen, be interesting to try this at some point.

Oops sorry Ghostface you had not posted by the time I started typing mine, you'll probably be more accessable to Beachy than me. Also Beachy you do not have to get a huge amount of them they breed quickly.

Hi Beachy some people will not have snails but I like them, there is 2 main kinds people here have, so called "Turbo Snails" which are maybe 2 cm across, and a smaller type that mostly only come out at night. I've got some spare of the small ones if you would like some, I'm on the North Shore though, just see if anyone closer to you volunteers first. One thing to consider if getting snails, the intake of pumps, overflows, etc needs to be proofed against them getting in & clogging things up.

True! Part of my job is to solve these kinds of problems for other people. But I've done the normal stuff on this glass, doesn't work. I think Ira may be right & it's etched into the glass. But I've now filled the tank with water for a test, and this film or whatever it is becomes invisible, so I'm not going to worry about it. The advice to get a new tank is probably best, I won't do it this time though cos this tank will be good enough for the next year or so. Then I'll be upgrading again & that time I'll be getting some of that super clear glass for the front panel. Cheers all for the advice / comments.

The tank I'm about to set up, is a 2nd hand ex fresh water tank, it housed goldfish for 3 years. I've thoroughly cleaned it with vinegar which removed most of the buildup, but still on the glass is a thin deposit with an oily type of look, and I just cannot get it off. I could live with it it is barely discernable, but all the same would prefer to get rid of it. I've tried several different chemicals but nothing seems to work. Anybody know?