Rate My Fish Tank

Sun Jul 12, 2009 12:48 pm GMT   Reply      

yep still fighting with this crap.............

i got 4 turbo snails and they went crazy for a day and died, scrubbed every rock in the tank and got 4 more and they were ok for a few days and i only see one moveing around on occasion . im doing 25% water changes weekly instead of my regular 20% bi-weekly. I bought a PO4 test kit and i have 0 phosphates, 0 amonia, 0 nitites, 8.0 ph, 78 degrees and 20-40 nitrate, yes i know there is probably my problem, question is..........just regular water changes enough to dilute this out? ive cut my feeding back to 1 frozen cube every three days and i just changed out the PC bulbs. My water is RO/DI and my TDS meter reads less than 9ppm from 217ppm which is straight tap water.


without dumping chems..............any other ideas are welcome

i only have 2 small clowns and few tiny hermits in there so 3 days between feedings should be fine


Boss

Sun Jul 12, 2009 2:21 pm GMT   Reply      

have you tested for copper? I know it sounds stupid.......but why else would your turbo snails be dying left and right.......I would test that out....and then test out a sea hare. :) Those are AWESOME at eating HA. :) if that doesnt work........Two Little Fishies Phosban Reactor.........run it for three months along with small feedings. It will be gone. :)

Sun Jul 12, 2009 7:42 pm GMT   Reply      

0 phosphates

no i havent checked for copper, but where would it be comming from ive never dosed it - -i was how ever doseing magnesium to kill this shit, according to RC forums

Sun Jul 12, 2009 8:02 pm GMT   Reply      

hmmmmmmmm. that could be the reasoning for the die off of the snails. My lfs has a 125 predator tank.......with MAJOR hair algae....threw a phosban reactor on it.....low feedings.....as low as you can get with a predator tank.......and it took three months, but its gone.

Sun Jul 12, 2009 10:35 pm GMT   Reply      

Do you use an algae scrubber? If not look them up. I had GHA problems then I added a ATS (algae turf scrubber) and my GHA is mostly gone. I have 0 nitrates as well. You would not believe the stuff I clean from my scrubber every week. Its amazing.

Sun Jul 12, 2009 10:44 pm GMT   Reply      

boss my nitrates have never been below 20 ppm and im sure have reached 45 somewhere since i started the tank and ive never had a major algae problem, actually ive never had an algae problem at all, knock on wood, unless you have a weird strand of algae i would rule out the nitrates, however idk if this helps any but what does algae need to survive? water and light? What if you had someone baby sit your fish and since you dont have corals, to my knowledge, black out the outside of your tank and leave your clean up crew in it.

Mon Jul 13, 2009 5:06 am GMT   Reply      

Hi,

Zero phosphates does not mean no phosphate problem as i am sure you can see.
Hair algae and indeed any other undesirable algae will feed of nutrients in the water namely phosphate.
You can achieve zero phosphate readings with a standard phos kit and have masses of hair algae mainly due to the fact that the mass of algae is using the phosphate available as it is introduced.
Use Rowaphos or Phosban in a reactor or an external filter if you have no sump,i use about 50% more than the stated dose and have had no problems in over 4 years.

Personally i dont rate sea hares,their lifespan isnt great and once the algae is gone they need feeding,plus dead seahares are a very large pollutant if you dont notice them.
My experience with turbos is they need serious acclimatising if you want success with them,i will drip line turbos for 2 hours before they goin the the tank.
I have found that Astria Turbos seem to do better,but that may just be coincidence.
I not sure of your tank size but my 120g has 60 turbos and 30 hermits which i constantly try to maintain at those numbers.

I worry less these days about nitrates,my tank has run at 25-40 ppm for over 4 years.

Lastly you may want to try increasing your circulation substantially you will probably notice that hair algae grows well in areas where detritus has collected,

Mon Jul 13, 2009 1:35 pm GMT   Reply      

thanks Barnsey,

i have a 20 long for now and am setting up a 120 in the wall................i have 700gph in the wetdry tom aquatics filter and a sieo 320gph power head in there, the tom aquatics skimmer is junk and i dont even use it and the prizm HOB i have is dieing as we speak so im sure i need a new skimmer for it, ive tried chemipure and other drop in filter type phos media all to no avail, is a reaqctor going to be that much better? i completely understand the algae consumeing the phosphates and giving me a 0 reading. also im sure i didnt aclimate the turbos correctly, as i have nasarious snails in there that aren't affected at all by any changes ive meade thus far, could also be my only LFS with stock right now is a piece of crap and they have pretty poor looking tanks to begin with, the snails prolly died in a happier place than there...........unfortunately

ill start looking for a phosban reactor

Boss

Mon Jul 13, 2009 4:27 pm GMT   Reply      

The problem with turbos.....they CRAP. its just like adding a tang to your tank......60 turbos is like adding 3 tangs to your tank. sure they eat the algae....but the crap they expel just grows it right back for them to eat. I dont really believe in a huge cleanup crew.....sure they eat it....then what. The nutrients are still there. Two Little Fishies makes a great reactor for the money. It will pass your water through the media...not around it. Its a lot better than just ploping it in your tank. I agree with the Sea hare....they make a big difference fast and they are cool to look at. BUT, if they die..... well damn big water change in store. Have you considered Vodka. :)

Mon Jul 13, 2009 5:42 pm GMT   Reply      

humm.... i just dropped all 12 of my turbos in, have every single one of them too, that was about 5 months ago.... took them strait from the fish shop, no floating, drip method or anything, jus tossed um in and theyre bad ass to say the least

Mon Jul 13, 2009 10:22 pm GMT   Reply      

ok your turbos dieing is no big deal. turbos are awsome alge eaters but are struped sencitiv to heat spikes and die i put about 3 new ones in every month or to from heat jumps in my house. copper isent your problum ether if that was the case every invert coral and rock would have died. do you dose strotum and do you dose iodine. to much iodine alge with grow retarded. keep your mag... at about 1500ppm that will kill off the toxic alge that nothing eats. as for the no3 that adds to alge as well but with lots of skimming will git rid of that. keep picking it out and it will start to slow the groth you will never git rid of it completly but you can control it. im finaly gitng my problum undr control after a year. and im talking 3 to 4 pounds of alge every few weeks being removed. lol that is what i have been dealing with. just keep pulling it out of your tank and git one of the cheep plastic brissel brushes. you should be abel to control it after a few weeks and git some small hermits in there thay help alot as well.

Mon Jul 13, 2009 10:23 pm GMT   Reply      

lol p.s. ask pimp about my alge if you dont beleve me lol he has seen it at its fun times lol.

Mon Jul 13, 2009 11:03 pm GMT   Reply      

This is what I do to combat algae. I run chaeto and caulerpa in my sump along with nitrate and phosphate absorbing balls in a sack. I only use RO water and now I have NO algae problems other than hair algae on one rock which is staying in the one spot so I leave it as a snack for my snails, hermits, shrimp, and the newest edition my one spot foxface! I have high lighting in my sump and it occasionally gets some algae growth, but I would rather have it in the sump than in the display. Not sure if you have a sump, but anyways you could even get a HOB filter and put some chaeto or caulerpa rolled into some mesh in there. Just a thought.

Tue Jul 14, 2009 8:22 am GMT   Reply      

Lion -i dont dose strodium or iodine, i know this is stupid but i dont have a mag test and dose it 3 times a week, hope im not making the tank go nuclear, lol

fishboy - im looking inot a phosban reactor

as for now, im doing weekly water changes 25% and scrubbing when ever i see it with a bristle brush

Jweb - i have a sump of sorts...........its a tom aquatics wet/dry system, so theres really nowhere to put anything like chaeto or mangroves or an algae scrubber, [which im not sold on yet anyway, seems a little "fad-ish" to me right now] - i did take all the media out and i run tray 1 with filter floss, tray 2 with a carbon bag and the bottom tray [basket] with a rock rubble in it

another big problem i know i have is my prism skimmer is dieing and basically worthless - so thats inline to be replaced by some sort of HOB skimmer too

thanks for everyones input - -i hate haveing problems but its nice to get advise sometimes rather than always giving it - i dont feel like a "know-it-all" any more, lol

Boss

Tue Jul 14, 2009 2:50 pm GMT   Reply      

boss id adyest into a mag test kit if you over dose mag it will drop the hardness in your tank and kill eveything. and i dont think that is in your agenda lol