Mermaid wrote:
Just need a heads up on Algae Control. Since that was one of the main
culprits of me ditching a sal****er reef system.
Can you send me to some good articles on preventing it before it happens or
recommend some good books for me to read?
I was thinking my RO/DI unit might give me an advantage on the algae dept.
Hope so.
Also, can algae problems start with old tank syndrome? The last freshwater
planted tank I had was up for 5 years and I knew I needed to start over
because of all the accumulating crud in the undergravel filter ( for which I
am not going to do this time). That is when I decided to try a reef tank.
Bad decision on my part. I struggled for 3 years off and on. Not fun for me.
Don't want to scrub rocks every weekend. Guess I learned the hard way and
also I could not get any very good local support so maybe freshwater is my
domain.
Can's start yet on the tank because I am still trying to sell all of my
rock, corals, equipment, etc. But chomping at the bit to give it a go.
Patience, Grasshoppa. That coralline is going to be fun scrubbing off. My
living room will smell like vinegar.
A freshwater wantabe.
Paulette
Algae control is pretty easy. OTS can cause algae. The crud in the UGF
breaks down and releases phosphate. So start with a good substrate -
either a plant tank one like Flourite (rinse WELL), Onyx, or Eco
Complete, or fine gravel or coarse sand with laterite clay in the bottom
half (messy). My ideal setup would be Flourite over heating cables, but
they don't make heating cables for small tanks.
Second, pack the tank with healthy plants and provide them with good
lighting (put daylight bulbs in your reef lights), CO2 or Flourish
Excel, and fertilizer.
www.gregwatson.com has great bulk stuff. Look
for Tom Barr's old posts here to find out how to balance fertilizers.
You can search on Google Groups. If you get NPK at 8-1-16, with
adequate light, carbon, and trace elements, conditions are optimal for
plants and they will mostly outcompete the algae.
Third, populate the tank with algae eating fish, shrimp, and snails as
you start to see some algae. You'll add Otocinclus first for diatoms
and soft green algae, an Ancistrus spp. once you get enough fuzzy green
algae for a pleco (be sure he has some wood too), a mystery snail (go to
applesnail.net to learn the right kind) to eat dead plant leaves, and
possibly siamese algae eaters if you get black brush algae showing up.
Some folks are lucky enough to find the FW/brackish Nerites snails,
which eat algae but not plants.
Japanese (Amano) shrimp are cool too, but require a stable, well-cycled
tank like all inverts. They will eat green algae off of your plants.
Farlowella spp. (twig catfish) are good algae eaters for broadleaved
plants like swords and also require a well-cycled tank and good water.
Overall fish stocking should be light so phosphates aren't in excess,
and yes your DI/RO unit will come in handy although you'll have to add
buffer back. Seachem makes one that Tom Barr recommends, but I forget
which. I'm sure you'll find it on Google because he's said it a million
times.
--
Elaine T __
http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__
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