Best choice for algae control?

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ArcherintheBimmer

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 6, 2008
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WA
So I am trying to decide what to use for algae control. My parameters seem fine, however, I get this pesky algae growing on my sand and glass as well as on my live rock.

So I tried using algaefix with ZERO sucess. That stuff is pretty weaksauce.

I also did the no light for 2 days thing, which appeared to kill it, but it grew back as you probably figured.

So I am wondering which will be a better option for algae control: A protien skimmer or a UV sterilizer. Can't afford both, so which should I get???

Thanks for the help!
 
what kind of algea is it?
 
do you have coral??? It sounds to me that your water may be high in nitrates and phosphates. getting your phosphate to 0 and nitrate to below 20ppm if its above that will greatly reduce the amount of algae growing. The type of water your use, how often you clean your tank and how often you feed and how much you feed, play huge roles in fast algae growth. id suggest adding a skimmer to your tank because the basic design behind a skimmer is to help remove fatty acids, protein and other bio forms which will reduce your biological load a bit, allowing this to "stable out" as i call it.

What you should do first, is test your water and post your readings. In this situation Nitrate and phosphate being my biggest interest.

What type of water are you using. Generally IMO Tap water is the worst for any fish tank because of whats in it.

What size tank and whats your stock, any live sand or Live rock??

The more information we get, the better were going to be able to help you.
 
sweeTang21;2398161; said:
do you have coral??? It sounds to me that your water may be high in nitrates and phosphates. getting your phosphate to 0 and nitrate to below 20ppm if its above that will greatly reduce the amount of algae growing. The type of water your use, how often you clean your tank and how often you feed and how much you feed, play huge roles in fast algae growth. id suggest adding a skimmer to your tank because the basic design behind a skimmer is to help remove fatty acids, protein and other bio forms which will reduce your biological load a bit, allowing this to "stable out" as i call it.

What you should do first, is test your water and post your readings. In this situation Nitrate and phosphate being my biggest interest.

What type of water are you using. Generally IMO Tap water is the worst for any fish tank because of whats in it.

What size tank and whats your stock, any live sand or Live rock??

The more information we get, the better were going to be able to help you.
Click to expand...

Yea, I suppose it is more then likely my Nitrate and Phosphate levels (as I currently have no way of testing those). The specs of the tank are:

55 gal

3 GSP's
2 Archers
1 Niger Trigger
(they are all fed 1 to 2 times a day, usually just once)

It has about 60 lbs (2 bags) of live sand in the bottom with some liverock (probably only about 20 lbs tops).

The algae is green and redish and seems to grow fastest on my sand and rock. It spreads out in small spots. I do about a 10-20% water change about every 5-7 days and the algae seems to be getting bad by then. I use tap water treated with stress coat and instant ocean salt. I also use a PH buffer. Otherwise I don't have any other chemicals that I add.

I added a second mech filter in hopes of upping the overall filtration a bit, not sure if that is really gonna matter, but I had one sitting around, so no extra cost envolved.

Anyways, shouldn't a UV filter tend to target algae more than a skimmer would? Also, has anyone ever used the canister style with a built in UV filter?
 
First you need to identify the type of algae that is being produced. From that you can; look at how this algae is stimulated to grow and figure out a way to prevent it, choose livestock which will address this specific type of algae, or choose a product that might help. Until you define the algae type most everything you do will be a stab in the dark.
 
all algae is stimulated by nitrate and phosphate. it sounds like a mix of general green sheet algae and cyanobacteria, which does grow when theres bad nitrate and phosphate levels. RO/DI water is one way to really cut down on the algae's food source and keeping up with water changes.

I have a way that i think you can grab this by the horns so to speak. starting tonight do water changes every Saturday and Tuesday for about a month or when you see that algae stops growing. During the water changes its advised to remove the algae with either turkey baster or the siphon itself. This manual removal will take some of the bad nutrients with it and by changing water at that time your keeping that low.

As i said before, tap water, no matter your location will have some nitrate and phosphate already in it. Using the RO/DI water either buying the water your getting a unit for your self will reduce the amount of nitrate, phosphate and other impurities in the water. Thus your adding close to "pure" water.

do you have a heavy bioload?? as in are some of these fish on the larger size??

Skimmers that work pretty well for hang ons are the AquaC remoa series. I have heard little negative comments about them and tells me they must work well. This will help remove a lot of fish waste, preventing that build up, which in time will turn into nitrate and phosphate as an end result. Adding more sand, either live or dry will build up depth, which helps break down nitrate, turning it into nitrogen gas, which is released when fish stir up the sand a little bit. The amount of release provided the "DSB" (deep sand bed) is looked after and cleaned properly is minimal which will cause little too no stress on your fish.
 
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