Phosphase Reactor !

[philip huynh]

PhosGuard doesn't help to much for my tank.I'm trying to decide if I need a phosphate reactor !? I've had my 60 reef for several months . In the last couple weeks, i've been really struggling with brown algae and hair algea on my sand. i have a great skimmer(SWC skimmer) and use carbon and phosguard in media bags!
My tests: Nitrates=0.0mg/l. Phosphates=.05, Calcuim=450, Alk=9.3, Mg=1350, sg=1.024, temp=77.5, RODI! So phosphase Reactors are much more efficient?

[Parrothead]

you have a thread regarding water for top off and water changes, what have you been using since you set the tank up????????????

[Ninong]

PhosGuard doesn't help to much for my tank.

I wouldn't use that if I were you. It's alumina pellets (Al2O3). It does leach very low, but potentially harmful, amounts of aluminum into the water. As far as I know, that's the only manufacturer still selling alumina pellets. Everyone else switched to ferric oxide hydroxide years ago. I suggest you try ROWAphos.

In the last couple weeks, i've been really struggling with brown algae and hair algea on my sand.

What do you mean by "brown algae?" Are you talking about diatoms? If so, they're silicate limited. They require silica to build their cell walls. If you're having a problem with diatoms, then it means you have excess silicate in your water. The next question, of course, is what water are you using for evaporation replacement and to prepare saltwater? When there is a problem with diatoms, it can often be traced to the source water.

Phosphates=.05

While it is true that phosphate should be below .03 ppm, many hobbyists would love to have .05 phosphate. Your phosphate is not really a big problem if it's only .05 ppm.

How about raising your salinity to something more natural, like 1.025-1.026 SG insteal of 1.024 SG? Natural seawater in the area of tropical coral reefs is 35 ppt (1.0264 SG). Your other parameters are fine, with the exception of your phosphate being just slightly elevated.

Can you describe your lighting?

[philip huynh]

I'm using T5 Lighting fixture 48" 4x54W With
Actinic (purple color)x1
Aquablue+ (white color)x1
Actinic+ (blue color) x2
8-9 hours / day!

[Ninong]

You should run your lights 12 hrs/day to duplicate natural conditions. You might want to try running two of the "white color" tubes. If you have separate on/off controls, have two of your T5 tubes (actinic) come on half an hour before the others and go off half an hour after the others. The two actinics would be on for 12 hrs/day and the daylight ones would be on for 11 hrs/day. Either that or run the actinics 12-1/2 hrs/day and the daylights 11-1/2 hrs/day. That's what you need for a reef aquarium if you want to match natural conditions. At the equator, days and nights are equal (12 hrs each) year-round.

Changing the lighting like that isn't going to affect the nuisance algae but it will improve coral growth. And it's worthwhile trying just to see what effect it has, if any, on the nuisance algae. If you're getting extremely low readings on nitrates, it just means that the available nitrates are being consumed by the algae as soon as they are produced. If you have a sump with available space for some chaeto (Chaetomorpha algae), that would help because the chaeto would compete with the nuisance algae for available nutrients. It's best if the chaeto is on a reverse photo period from the display aquarium. The lights over the chaeto are on at night when the lights over the main display tank are off. This helps mitigate the natural lowering of pH that occurs in the main display tank at night due to respiration.

What about your source water???

Good luck!

[philip huynh]

I'm using D-D H2Ocean Magnesium Pro PLUS with RO\ID water!

[Ninong]

If you're using R.O./D.I. water, then your source water shouldn't be a problem. I would just change the phosphate sponge media from Seachem's alumina pellets to ROWAphos ferric oxide hydroxide and see if that helps.

Sometimes it's hard to figure out why nuisance hair algae decides to pop up, it just does. Diatoms on the other hand can always be controlled by eliminating excess silicates. They are always present in a reef aquarium but they won't be noticeable unless there is extra silica available for them to proliferate.