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Goaway
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Welcome to the reef!Hi guys. I'm new to the forum and pretty inexperienced reefer. Have a 90 ltr tank with build in sump. Been running it for just over 1 1/2 years now. Not running a skimmer just sponges and cotton wool filters. Have rowaphos and activated carbon which I change every 3 or sow weeks. Probably change the cotton every 2 and rinse the sponges. I have 2 clow fish and a six line wrasse, 5 snails 4 corals( Blasto, torch, hammer and candy canes). All are healthy. The problem I have is this turf algae which just grows like crazy all over the rocks and back wall. I can't get rid off and driving me nuts. Salifert Phosphate test always says 0 phosphate. I use peroxide to batter it back but not really a cure. I've heard that Blue Life Phosphate rx is good. What do you guys think or recommend. You can't actually enjoy you tank for looking at the crappie stuff. Lol. Any advice would be welcome. Thanks!
Do you have a tuxedo urchin? These lil guys are really good at removing turf algae. Also excel at moving corals around.
Geordy
New Member
I haven't but have thought about urchins. Defo going to up the clean up crew though. A lawnmower if I could. Lol. Thanks for everyone's input though. Appreciate it.
There's probly a lot of ways to tackle this as this forum has proven time and time again. For me, Im continually having it proven to me that patience is the key, tackling things too fast doesn't work and throws everything out of balance. If it was my tank, I would immediately boost up the snail count. They are amazing at tackling algae if you give them time, I would continue with the water changes, stop the un-natural treatments and very very slightly boost my feeding. Watch it over the course of a couple weeks with these changes to see if it's having an effect, it will be subtle, but you should be able to see it. Tidal Gardens has a video where he has a horrendous hair algae problem and knocks it back with tons of snails. Just the way I would do it.
Welcome to the crew!
Welcome to the crew!
My tank is only 3 months old so I’m making all the cool mistakes like over feeding, getting phosphates too high etc. I was watching hair algae grow, like literally I believed I could see it growing. Lol. I didn’t want to add chemicals so as I’m working on getting phosphates down by fine tuning feeding and nutrient export, I’m enjoying this little guy just demolishing this stuff. I wake up everyday now to areas that are clean. At first although I knew he was eating it, I thought the job was just too big for him alone. I do have other CUC and they have been batting cleanup and coming in after he has shortened it down. I am not easily impressed but I’m impressed. I got mine from Top Shelf Aquatics. He was a pretty good size so may not have a long life with me as they are fairly short lived but I doubt I’ll ever not have one. I’ll rehome every algae eater in the tank (except Kirby my yellow lipped conch) just so a nudibranch has food. Lol
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