bige Posted January 9, 2013 Share Posted January 9, 2013 So I had I nitrates and phoshates. Got a biopellet reactor and nitrates fell to 0 and phoshates are at 0.01 per Hanna. But I still have tons of pink cotton candy algae. So I remove the algae every chance I get but it returns. I feed once a week a few pellets that are all consumed. So if algae is consuming the nutrients and that is why I test zero, how do I free up those nutrients so I can remove them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juiceman Posted January 9, 2013 Share Posted January 9, 2013 when you say pink cotton candy, is it Cyano? If it is, It definitly feeds on phosphates and light. It will take some manual removal (Siphoning) or chemical removal (Chemclean, CyanoRX, etc) to get it out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted January 9, 2013 Share Posted January 9, 2013 Your phosphates may actually be above what you are testing and the algae is consuming them down to the detectable level. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jestep Posted January 9, 2013 Share Posted January 9, 2013 I think he's referring to pink cotton candy algae. I think turbo snails will eat it. I'm not sure how one would get 100% of it out of a tank. It may be one of those algaes that can grow in a low or no nutrient environment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bige Posted January 9, 2013 Author Share Posted January 9, 2013 Victoly that is a good point. Jestep I can't find info on it being a low nutrient algae although hunter suggested it may be. He said they had it in a tank but it just went away. I will try turbo snails, I read they eat it. You guys make good points but now I'm curious about my original question, what if you test zero or low nitrates/ phoshates, how would you free the nutrients up? Have algae be consumed then do frequent water changes? Or would the snail eating it free the nutrients up? The biopellets are extremely efficient at least on test kits. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jestep Posted January 9, 2013 Share Posted January 9, 2013 Do you run GFO? I couldn't get PO4 out using pellets alone. GFO did the trick on the remaining PO4. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted January 9, 2013 Share Posted January 9, 2013 Yeah, the outcome doesn't matter as much as fixing the underlying issue. If your feeding is sparse, go GFO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bige Posted January 9, 2013 Author Share Posted January 9, 2013 I use gfo but in a bag. I might try it more actively. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+etannert Posted January 9, 2013 Share Posted January 9, 2013 Keep in mind that "nutrients" are largely fish waste, or uneaten food (unlikely in your case). That means the nutrients are occuring first and foremost in the tank proper... where the fish are... where the algae is... before they are making their way down to your filtration system. The way to "free up," so to speak, the nutrients is to get rid of the algae. And yes, biopellets don't really consume all the phosphate, so adding GFO is pretty standard on a bacterially driven reef system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckyuv Posted January 9, 2013 Share Posted January 9, 2013 I had the same algae and it was all over one of the tanks at aquadome for a while. It grows like mad!! I just kept pulling the stuff out everytime I saw it and it eventually went away. I dont mess with gfo or any of those reactors and I feed very heavy so it may not have much to do with nutrients but I could be mistaken. I read somewhere that if you squirt peroxide on it thru a syringe it will kill it but i never got that far with it so I cant say if it works or not. Maby the guys at the dome could tell you since theirs is gone now too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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