Horrible Algae Issues

Okay so dose 100mL of carbon (vodka) or ethanol?


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Noooooooooooo, that advice is mega wrong.

I use 4ml in a 110g water volume. Please read the link I sent
 
Yeah those instructions said nothing near a mL per gallon lol


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One issue with dosing vodka is I'm not 21... Somebody wanna buy it for me lol


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I believe sugar and vinegar can actually be used as well, although I personally know nothing about those methods. Same principles I believe.
 
Also more snails, not turbos but big narssaris. I've got 8 1+" in my 75, got them from Premier Aquatics. They kick butt on the sand stirring!
 
tcampbell23;1069247 wrote: Yeah those instructions said nothing near a mL per gallon lol


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I dosed 20mL of peroxide twice a day for 2 weeks in a 120g. It pissed my Zoas off, and barely touched the dinos I was after. Not a single loss in the tank, so unless you've tried it, don't say it's bad advice.

I read dozens of articles before I tried it
 
1ml/gallon of vodka will nuke a tank. I would say that's pretty bad advice haha
 
I think I'm going to do the carbon. I'm going to manually get most of it off and then begin to dose the carbon as per the instructions posted. I'll keep you guys updated. Thanks to everyone who responded!


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tcampbell23;1069264 wrote: I think I'm going to do the carbon. I'm going to manually get most of it off and then begin to dose the carbon as per the instructions posted. I'll keep you guys updated. Thanks to everyone who responded!


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Why are you carbon dosing a 6 week old tank?
You more-than-likely have 0 nitrates. i dose potassium nitrate in my system and will always hit 0 no matter how much i dosed when i had cyano.

Cyano binds nitrate like none-other.

It appears you are breaking your tank in. By that. It doesnt matter how many nitrasomas or nitrabacters are in your system... you have thousands of different bacteria roaming that tank. Bacteria covering the glass with slime, that bacteria breaking down and consumed by other bacteria, silicates from new equipment, bacteria consuming DOC, etc.

From my perspective, i would not put the cart before the horse.
 
Russ-IV;1069268 wrote: Why are you carbon dosing a 6 week old tank?

You more-than-likely have 0 nitrates. i dose potassium nitrate in my system and will always hit 0 no matter how much i dosed when i had cyano.



Cyano binds nitrate like none-other.



It appears you are breaking your tank in. By that. It doesnt matter how many nitrasomas or nitrabacters are in your system... you have thousands of different bacteria roaming that tank. Bacteria covering the glass with slime, that bacteria breaking down and consumed by other bacteria, silicates from new equipment, bacteria consuming DOC, etc.



From my perspective, i would not put the cart before the horse.
Click to expand...


Are you suggesting that I just increase my husbandry?


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tcampbell23;1069269 wrote: Are you suggesting that I just increase my husbandry?


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me personally.... i let my tank go on auto-pilot for 6 months. I placed a few corals just to "look at" and let the thing do it's own dastardly thing. Even got slammed with dinos. (ew)

I'll say this. You gotta grin and bare it. If it bugs you.... stir the sand. I would let cyano run it's course and remove every weekend. Let it build a nice heavy maroon carpet on the sand and then pull that whole thing up as large as you can.

The diatoms will go away on it's own... but those diatoms will be consumed by other algae, and that algae consume or covered by coralline or other fun critters. You are on the first rung of the ladder, and no rock/sand will look the day you put it in the tank after a year.

Skriz suggested possibly the best thing possible. However, you should be in the mindset that the tank just started it's journey. And that pristine tank needs to build some character.
 
Okay. It's a lot to think about. I'm definitely hesitant about dosing H2O2 or scrubbing with it as I've NEVER heard of that before.

On the flip side I have heard that tanks take a year to mature into some of the beautiful specimens that I've seen around the hobby and that it may be a while before everything stabilizes and I see the growth and stuff that I want. I believe that the impatience is killing me lol.

Every article and forum that I've read regarding carbon dosing the last 45 minutes was on tanks that have matured and my tank is no where near that. I guess the best advice is be patient eh?


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tcampbell23;1069272 wrote: Okay. It's a lot to think about. I'm definitely hesitant about dosing H2O2 or scrubbing with it as I've NEVER heard of that before.

On the flip side I have heard that tanks take a year to mature into some of the beautiful specimens that I've seen around the hobby and that it may be a while before everything stabilizes and I see the growth and stuff that I want. I believe that the impatience is killing me lol.

Every article and forum that I've read regarding carbon dosing the last 45 minutes was on tanks that have matured and my tank is no where near that. I guess the best advice is be patient eh?


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you got it... dose of patience does well.
h202 is for heavier green algaes like green hair algae and the like. Those diatoms will happen anyway. You can vacuum if you want, or not. They will continue happening until balance occurs.

find the 6 month mark on your calendar. Consider everything before that as ugly tank time. It will have blooms, ugly stages, invasions, etc. It just has to happen.

I will state this. The heavier you stocked, the stronger those swings generally are when they catch up to the tank to meet equilibrium.

i'd invest in some red sea/pro kits for nitrate and phosphate btw.

good luck
 
jbadd99;1069258 wrote: I dosed 20mL of peroxide twice a day for 2 weeks in a 120g. It pissed my Zoas off, and barely touched the dinos I was after. Not a single loss in the tank, so unless you've tried it, don't say it's bad advice.

I read dozens of articles before I tried it
Click to expand...

Even though I was not talking about peroxide, that still is 1/6th your recommended "1ml per gallon"... Let alone the 3x value you originally mentioned.

I know arsenic would kill me, but I haven't tried that either :thumbs:
 
Personally, I think you're trying to dump too many different things into your tank to fix too many interrelated issues. Reduce your photoperiod a bit (1-2 hours were menitioned) & cut back on feeding by 1/2 of whatever product(s) you currently use. You may however want to dose in some Microbacter7, Dr. Tims or another cycle innoculant to help your biofilter catch up - since you have the aeration from your skimmer (turn it off briefly - for an hour or so after dosing) you should be golden on avoiding possible oxygen depletion (probably only likely if these are way overdosed).

1. That is a very, very young tank for all the critters you've put into it in the last six weeks. You're only going to get it in balance by a combo platter of the advice you've been given.

2. Peroxide treat the specific rocks with the worst hair algae. I'd take the rock out, use a toothbrush/tweezers to pull off the bulk of the stuff, then drip straight peroxide onto the holdfast & let that sit for 5 minutes. Flush with post-change tankwater and put back in - should have little to no effect on any corals you have. Avoid dosing peroxide into your whole system unless you absolutely have to, and I mean as a last resort should you get to the point of not being able to see your fish through the forest. ;)

3. I suspect vodka/carbon dosing will likely fuel your cyano even more at this point. Just use some rigid airline tube or a gravel vac at water change time and suck out all you can. Export is export at this stage of the game.

4. You've got a sump - use it! A couple specimens of chaetomorpha and/or the less voracious caluerpa macroalgaes coupled with lighting it opposite your main tank's photoperiod (with some overlap of an hour or two each way) will bring some much needed nutrient export as well as give copepods a haven to breed in. Which will help in a few ways - as food for your mandarin and a surprisingly effective addition to your tank's clean-up crew as well as a sink for ammonia & a natural way to keep your phosphates & nitrate balanced & in check.

It will take a while for the macro's growth to do anything, it will make a huge difference.

EDIT: macro-wise you're not going to see an impact until the sandwich bag-sized clump a lot of members will practically give away grows to the size of a couple basketballs. But at that point your sump will be a pod-churning powerhouse and you'll start having to tear off hunks of the stuff weekly to keep growth going.
 
I'm going to get a siphon tube today and attack the cyano on the sand bed. And increase my water changes to 15 gallons twice weekly until I can see a reduction in the amount of
Algae present in my system. Until then I won't be adding any more live stock


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As well as build an Algae scrubber and get it on line


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