Algea et al

[wolfinlv]

Have had my tank for a few years and have had just about every problem I can think of. My skimmer despite mods etc decides once a month to do a forced 25% water change by throwing it on the floor. My rocks are covered with algae, despite once a week 10% changes plus the monthly 25-33% mess. The fire shrimp that I was given for my birthday killed my two peppermints and my emerald crab. So anyway here's what I have
2 gold stripe clowns
1 green chromis (had 2 one committed suicide)
1 flame angel
1 lawn mower blennie
2 big tubo snails
bunch of little snails
bunch of hermits
1 money Cowrie

Am trying to decide if I want to go back to what I know African Ciclids or try and figure all this out. I'm really tired of cleaning the carpet. Nice thing about fresh water is you get a Plecostomus and NO algae.

[vegastyle]

Nice thing about fresh water is you get a Plecostomus and NO algae
Wonder if they can be salt acclimated like Mollies can ?

[wolfinlv]

I don't know....

[TheGreatAukSociety]

Nope.

[Narazbad]

The freshwater fish I really want to try and acclimate is otocinculus. That is a freakin algae muncher!

[Troylee]

Shouldn't have a algae problem to begin with.... Critters will clean it but never cure it!!!!! You have to high nutrients...get a better skimmer....

[mesafire]

+1^^^^^^

[wolfinlv]

Unfortunately spending 2-300 bucks on it isn't going to be an option unless someone wants to donate a few hundred bucks to me... but that would probably be put toward fixing my transportation as opposed to going toward aquarium stuff.

have tested my water, it always has tested perfectly, even took it in to the LFS on oakey and rainbow and they said it was fine too and that was before algae majorly took over and it still tests fine.

[Troylee]

Algae is eating up the nutrients and giving false readings.... Try running a reactor with some gfo such as rawaphos all your algae problems should subside

[RickMartin]

Is this a fish or reef tank?

[wolfinlv]

@troy - Have always had a phosphate absorbing stuff working. Even tried the drops. Change the pillow out every other month. Feed less than 1/8th teaspoon of food daily and the fish eat it all up and what they don't the shrimp/hermits/nasarius/etc eat up.

@Rick - I wanted it to be reef, I have one bit of coral left, My Anemone died about a year ago (he wasn't too healthy when I got the tank but I kept him going for 2 years), my pulsing zenia died about the same time. I've tried bags of cheto (but it also died with in a week. even put it in after sucking all the algae out that I could thinking it would grow and not the stuff I don't want)

[Troylee]

okay this pillow thing your talking about is the problem....... your talking about the green po4 pads correct??? they collect so much **** they need to be cleaned weekly or don't bother using them at all... get a 2 little fishies phosban reactor and fill it with rawaphos and the problem should go away...
what size tank is it and whats the bioload look like.... also what skimmer was it again????

[wolfinlv]

@troy - nope not green po4 pads. It is a mesh thing that looks like a pillow filled with little beads. I bought them at the place on Rainbow and oakey at their recommendation.
It's a 135gallong tank, I have 2 gold stripe clowns, 1 green chromis, 1 flame angel, 1 lawnmower blennie, 1 fire shrimp, 2 turbo snails, unknown number of hermits, nasarius and other snails, probably some bristle worms in the sand bed and other little critters down there. 1 dime size acro frag that has attached to a rock. Can't think of any other life forms that are in there at the moment unless the emerald crab is just hiding and not dead.

[TheGreatAukSociety]

Sounds like boyd chemi-pure

[Troylee]

That's just lighty stocked.... I would get away from the pillow beads and run gfo in a reactor "active style" not passive.... It will work alot better... That means you are pushing the water with a pump through the media...

[wolfinlv]

it is in an active mode use at least I would call it that. I have a canister filter that I run carbon and this pillow is in there as well. So it's got water going threw it all the time. Not just sitting in there. Other place I've thought about putting one is in the return from the HOB skimmer.