+Jakedoza Posted January 2, 2011 Author Share Posted January 2, 2011 well... 3 days of no lights did nothing.... except save electricity.. haha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mooric Posted January 2, 2011 Share Posted January 2, 2011 The only thing I have found the 3 days of darkness help with is Cyano outbreaks. I have never seen it affect GHA. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Jakedoza Posted January 2, 2011 Author Share Posted January 2, 2011 I got a new/used ro/di unit today. It came with new filters... Seems ths TDS is higher with this unit than my other just RO unit. Where can I get DI resin? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mooric Posted January 2, 2011 Share Posted January 2, 2011 I like to purchase DI Resin and/or replacement filters online from Bulk Reef Supply or from The Filter Guys Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wizardx322 Posted January 2, 2011 Share Posted January 2, 2011 (edited) what is your phosphate at? this is what i did to get rid of my gha and it worked great. got a phosban reacter ran phosgaurd for 4 days and removed it check levels if phosphate is not at 0 then did 4 more days of phosgaurd and then it was 0. up the clean up crew. got 20 blue legged hermit crabs( they cleaned it up really well), 10 mexican turbo snails, and like 40 other snails. The hermits did the best out of all to clean up the hair algea in my mind, turbo snails are sometimes hit or miss but the hermit always at it. during this time i did not do 3 days of darkness i kept my regular schedule lighting times. Edited January 2, 2011 by wizardx322 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
offroadodge Posted January 2, 2011 Share Posted January 2, 2011 TDS,TDS,TDS...thats all folks. theres half the food for it, get some (alot) of ZERO TDS water and do a BIG water change an pull out as much as u can. Then add 2 BIG bottles of TLC with NO flow going in the tank, let it settle for 5 min or so, then turn tank back on. try it, may have to do it TWICE but its NUTRIENT EXPORT that is killing you. JAKE i got some DI resin to get u startd till u order some, just pay me back. U know where i live. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caferacermike Posted January 2, 2011 Share Posted January 2, 2011 I've said it a hundred times that the 3 days of darkness is bogus. And how many times must it be pointed out that YOU MUST DO A HUGE WATER CHANGE IMMEDIATELY AFTER the 3 days of darkness. Nobody ever mentions that. If you ever saw any sort of die off because you left the lights off for 3 days or 3 weeks, that decaying algae is still in the water. As soon as you turn your lights on it will become an algae feeding frenzy. Once when I had a tank meltdown and algae grew in because of all the death, I shut the lights off for like 6 months while the tank stabilized. Sure enough it was still covered in algae. Jeremy is right that something is feeding your algae bloom. Not sure what. My TDS comes out of my RO/DI at around 20 and I don't care a bit. It works just fine and I don't have algae problems. I also disagree with the comments about getting more clean up crews. I went through that game when I first started in the hobby. What I found was that the more snails, hermits, crabs etc that I had the more algae I had. They consume left over food and crap perfectly condensed algae food. The more snails you have, the less fish you can have. It's a simple matter of ratios. Basically I am going to call it "The Butthole Theory". The more buttholes you have, the more waste is being produced. You only want a certain number of buttholes in your tank. Feed less than you are now, in fact the less buttholes you have, the less you need to feed. In my 75g the hermits fought and killed all of my cleanups until I have a nice little mix of 10 nassarius, 3 hermits, and about 9 cucumbers. Not exactly a huge cleanup crew in a 75g tank. I only feed my tank about once a week and only about an 1/8th of a teaspoon at that. My fish are healthy, my pod population is very large, my corals are fine. If there is any 1 thing I have noticed, it's that the more corals I have the more stable the tank. Corals really help purify the water, same with clams. I'd say it's time for new bulbs, a couple of weekly back to back large volume water changes so you can "reset" your parameters, stop feeding altogether, add more corals, and make sure your skimmer is working properly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted January 2, 2011 Share Posted January 2, 2011 Mike...the "butthole theory"...lmao, love it My RO/DI water with nearly new filters produces water with about 7-10 TDS, and I have no algae except in my refugium. I agree with Mike about the refugium, if that nutrient wasn't consumed in your refugium then it would be consumed by something in your display tank. The nutrient is there either way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted January 2, 2011 Share Posted January 2, 2011 . . . If there is any 1 thing I have noticed, it's that the more corals I have the more stable the tank. Corals really help purify the water . . . Caferacermike I couldn't agree with you more! In nature as much as 85% of the biomass of a reef system is algae and in our tanks it's probably much the same. The question is is it in the form of undesirable algae or is it zooxanthellae & coraline. Corals will pull nitrogenous waste out of the water to feed their zooxanthellae competing with the less desirable/undesirable algae. As far as cleanup crews go I think it's mostly marketing ploys on the part of suppliers. In my tanks ocassionally I have just a handfull of hermits, always 1 or 2 cucumbers, usually 1 or 2 Sally Light Foots and a few brittle stars and this is in systems of several hundred gallons. Only rarely do I have snails. I do like urchins but usually have 1 per 100 gal but research for NOAA by Martin Moe mentions Caribean reefs had urchin populations as high as 20 per square meter prior to the '83 die off so do more if you want. In principle I don't have a problem with replacing lights but I usually replace T5s on a 14 - 18 month cycle so I wouldn't at this point if it was my tank. I would point out with the lighting you have on a 135 a lot of the corals you might get are probably going to turn brown so I'd advise to pay more attention to getting animals grown under similar lighting to maintain color. This is a lot of work but If this was one of my tanks at this point I would take about 8 gallons out and put it in two buckets, one to scrub rock in and one to rinse the rock. I would pull the rock out a piece at a time scrub off the algae in one bucket (I like using a toothbrush but any small brush works, I don't reuse it but to each his own ) rinse it off and put it back. After scrubbing off all the affected rock I would siphon off an additional amount of water to do a 20% water change total. This is real messy so use lots of towels. In some of my tanks it would not be practical to remove all the rock but I'd do as much as possiple. Following some of the above suggestions I would be doing 10 - 20% water changes the next few weeks trying to siphon off as much additional algae as possible. As long as the ammonia tests 0 and the pH and alkalinity is good I wouldn't hesitate to add more animals. This is not going to cure the problem overnight but it basically does a lot of nutrient export quickly letting you get "one up" on the problem and like Caferacermike said "reset your parameters". I would not take any other action outside of weekly water changes, cutting back on feeding and adding soft, leather & stoney corals but some of the other suggestions people have given are certainly worthwhile to do and can only help. I am curious if you evaluate the magnesium on your tank. This is something that did not come to my attention until I saw it on this site. I keep intending to get a kit to check my systems but don't have a hair algae problem to see if it helps. I have noted in Michael Palleta's book "30 Ultimate Reef Aquariums" he makes a point that none of them monitor it but the book was published a few years ago so it may be something that's gained more promenance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Jakedoza Posted January 2, 2011 Author Share Posted January 2, 2011 I appreciate all the input.. here are the FACTS on my tank.. I feed only ONCE A WEEK (for the butt hole effect theory)... scratch it.. this isn't the problem. Phosphates are NIL.. I have the water tested and tested and tested.... with the good kit at RCA... scratch this.. this isn't the problem... Lights... eh.. ok so they are coming upon a year old, but I've been having this problem since day one when they were new... Scratch this... not the problem.. besides.. my Coraline algae is growing great in the places that there isn't any GHA, and the coral I do have is growing.. The only factor left is my water.. The water out of the tap (behind a softener) here is right about 300ppm.. after my old RO unit it was 7-10.. now I have a 5 stage RO with DI chamber (All new filters) and the water comes out at around 15-18... The only thing that I think needs replacing is the DI resin.. Ive done some reading and from what I have read... depleted DI resin will actually put crap back in the water... Maybe this is why my water is better when not run through the chamber. As far as water changes.. I can only do a 35 gal water change at a time... It all the storage I have for new water and it takes a good 8 hours to fill. Lets see if the water is the problem.. after that I may be looking at new rock... which I really do not want to do. after reading timfish's post... My magnesium is very good in the tank.. as are all the other water parameters except TDS going IN to the tank. I have also not added much life to the tank.. I will give scrubbing the rock a try.. but I need to get my TDS down before doing that or it just defeats the purpose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted January 2, 2011 Share Posted January 2, 2011 . . . I feed only ONCE A WEEK . . . Ooops! Sorry! Scratch what I said about cutting back on feeding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Jakedoza Posted January 2, 2011 Author Share Posted January 2, 2011 The RO/DI unit I have.. :/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caferacermike Posted January 2, 2011 Share Posted January 2, 2011 7-10TDS IS NOT ENOUGH TO RUIN A TANK. Seriously we all use RO/DI because we know it makes our hobby easier. I've met several people with nice tanks that use only tap water at 400-600ppm. So scratch your other idea to. It's not what you are putting in your tank, it's what is already there. But hey you've shot down everything that has been suggested so it sounds like you've got purely mean Gremlins. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caferacermike Posted January 2, 2011 Share Posted January 2, 2011 That RO unit you have a new pic of is not a quality unit. The water is not, and never will be forced through the DI resin such as that in a good updraft canister. Those are purely cosmetic. That last thing on the unit is some sort of "taste effector" meant to replace the "taste" of RO/DI water. Usually it's ground up coconut charcoal and actually adds TDS to the outgoing water. The idea is that people don't like the taste of RO/DI water so they add a little something back to it. Those units are the $100 specials that go under your sink for drinking water. Now I'm not saying that the units we buy for the hobby are much different, or necessarily better, but there are faults in it's design. Swap out the DI thingy for a real DI canister set up, ditch that last thing that they put inline and make sure you are using a Dow Filmtech membrane. That will help lower the TDS in the new unit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mcallahan Posted January 2, 2011 Share Posted January 2, 2011 Swap out the DI thingy for a real DI canister set up, ditch that last thing that they put inline and make sure you are using a Dow Filmtech membrane. That will help lower the TDS in the new unit. This is very true. A DI bed should always vertical. Ditto with the Filmtech membrane. Funny timing that I just released a show on RO/DI units this week: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Jakedoza Posted January 3, 2011 Author Share Posted January 3, 2011 ..... And now I have 0 TDS water... I took off the extra carbon filter as suggested and also removed the small DI canister.. I remembered I had another RO system so I used one of the canisters and purchased a DI canister from Aquatek and installed it... This will work for now, but I am wanting to get the canister type that I can refill with DI resin instead of having to purchase the disposable canisters. Now on the hunt for a phosphate reactor, but in the meantime I added what little phosban I have to the sump along with some activated carbon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
don duncan Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 where did you get the rock from. Sounds like something is leaching from the rock. I have a friend who use to do commercial water purification and he was wondering why we want water that is 0 tdh. He says that once water that is 0 tds hits the air the tds will rise from the contact with the air. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Jakedoza Posted January 3, 2011 Author Share Posted January 3, 2011 bought the Rock off CL.. it was still wet when I purchased it.. I cured it anyways, but that is what Jeremy and I have both come to the conclusion of as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mcallahan Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 I have a friend who use to do commercial water purification and he was wondering why we want water that is 0 tdh. He says that once water that is 0 tds hits the air the tds will rise from the contact with the air. I'd rather have the stuff the water grabs from the air vs. the stuff it picks up from being in the city system (rust, hormones, everything everyone else throws down the drain, etc) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caferacermike Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 Rust? Come on Callahan you should know better. GFO-Granular Ferric Oxide=Rust. Purely rust. AKA Phosphate remover. Your BFF@BRS sells it to us by the ton, http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/store/products/carbon-and-gfo/bulk-gfo-granular-ferric-oxide-phosphate-remover Webster says: ferric oxide noun Definition: of FERRIC OXIDE The red or black oxide of iron Fe2O3 found in nature as hematite and as rustand also obtained synthetically and used especially in magnetic materials, as a pigment, and for polishing Webster says: rust noun \ˈrəst\ Definition of RUST 1a : the reddish brittle coating formed on iron especially when chemically attacked by moist air and composed essentially of hydrated ferric oxide b : a comparable coating produced on a metal other than iron by corrosion Phooey. I expect better from Mr. Saltwater. Yeah I'm calling ya out in Spades on that one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mcallahan Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 Rust? Come on Callahan you should know better. GFO-Granular Ferric Oxide=Rust. Purely rust. AKA Phosphate remover. Your BFF@BRS sells it to us by the ton, http://www.bulkreefs...osphate-remover Webster says: ferric oxide noun Definition: of FERRIC OXIDE The red or black oxide of iron Fe2O3 found in nature as hematite and as rustand also obtained synthetically and used especially in magnetic materials, as a pigment, and for polishing Webster says: rust noun \ˈrəst\ Definition of RUST 1a : the reddish brittle coating formed on iron especially when chemically attacked by moist air and composed essentially of hydrated ferric oxide b : a comparable coating produced on a metal other than iron by corrosion Phooey. I expect better from Mr. Saltwater. Yeah I'm calling ya out in Spades on that one. awww Mikey...surely you understood that I meant "rust" to be any debris from all the pipes that the water has to flow through to get to our houses. I'd expect better from a "pro" pipe guy like yourself... (I get your point and just b/c GFO is a form of rust doesn't mean I want the stuff from the pipes coming in my tank) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+cyrus Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 Try a Kole Tang or anything from the bristle tang family. I can drop a rock from your tank in mine and it will be clean by morning. I do it all the time when buying corals from yuck tanks (no offence). I also have a Molly Miller Blenny which I got from the coast who doesn't care if it's bryopsis or hair it's just lunch. My 240g is picked clean constantly and I never have a problem with anything. One other thing to try but woun't make a huge dent, mollies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Jakedoza Posted January 4, 2011 Author Share Posted January 4, 2011 LOL.. none taken.. I'd rather take care of the problem with natural sources like fish.. I may have to look for one of those. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+cyrus Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 When I began my tank I made sure I had one fish with a purpose per one pretty fish. It has worked out well Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Jakedoza Posted January 4, 2011 Author Share Posted January 4, 2011 that is kinda what I have done.. or am trying to do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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