Algae and new tanks

My LFS told me to just go ahead and use tap water for my start up, so
I did. Said that RO gave too many headaches in terms of balancing.
Now, algae is rampant. I guess that's a good thing from the
standpoint that my tank supports life. :-)

Just two and a half weeks into cycle, I have stopped using the Purple
Up that was recommended to me by my LFS and LS/LR dealer (I got it
mail order). It seemed to be driving my pH way down... I dunno.

So, right now,
ph is 8.2
NH3 - 0
NO2 - 0
NO3 - 100
sp gr - 1.023
water temp between 81-88! Yikes! Ambient air at 77 day, 74 night.

I am hoping that the algae will eat up all of the free nitrogen like
it does in my garden. The LFS guy also swears that the algal bloom is
also an inevitability.

Thoughts? opinions?
Thanks,
Dave in Simi Valley

On Sep 4, 11:12 am, dclaghorn wrote:
My LFS told me to just go ahead and use tap water for my start up, so
I did. Said that RO gave too many headaches in terms of balancing.
Now, algae is rampant. I guess that's a good thing from the
standpoint that my tank supports life. :-)

Just two and a half weeks into cycle, I have stopped using the Purple
Up that was recommended to me by my LFS and LS/LR dealer (I got it
mail order). It seemed to be driving my pH way down... I dunno.

So, right now,
ph is 8.2
NH3 - 0
NO2 - 0
NO3 - 100
sp gr - 1.023
water temp between 81-88! Yikes! Ambient air at 77 day, 74 night.

I am hoping that the algae will eat up all of the free nitrogen like
it does in my garden. The LFS guy also swears that the algal bloom is
also an inevitability.

Thoughts? opinions?
Thanks,
Dave in Simi Valley

WOW, you certainly are a sucker for buying crap and taking worthless
info from a LFS associate. You ought to fit in this group just perfect
with y9ur being so freaking guliable dude. I am sure a few so called
wanna be guru's wll be along in due time and give yuou some more
contradicting and erroneous info.mainly Wayne Sallee, Kurt and
Pszemol....the three biggest ****heads that don't have a clue, but
sure likes to give info out and set back and watch the distasters it
usually causes for folks. Your best bet is go to a web based forum
such as Reefcentral.com or creativereefing.com and talk to some real
foks where all this bull**** inthe gorups from wanna be's does not
exist..........PH on a new and still cycling tank..my god what a
****ing sucker.TAP water to start.yet more crap, hell why not then
they can sellyou crap to magicallhy kake algae dissapear.......Hey I
have ocean front property for sale in Arizona dirt
cheap!.......Interested?..Ahhhhhhhhhhhnow I see the main cause.SIMI
valley, lots of money, short on common sense, big on crooks and wanna
be's.

OPINIO! Yea, you got ****ed dude by an unscrupulous LFS and LR/LS
dealer.and did not even have a chance to buy KY
jelly................and thats whats gonna happen in this usenet fourm
so go to a web based forum where foks thatb care and know hang out.

IMO. You got some bad advice. I am a firm believer in using RODI, some in
here will tell you that if you have good quality tap water then there is no
need for RODI.
First things first. Dont put anything in your tank while its cycling, leave
it alone until Its finished. Once the tank has finsihed it's cycle, a good
clean up crew will get rid of the algae

"dclaghorn" wrote in message
ps.com...
My LFS told me to just go ahead and use tap water for my start up, so
I did. Said that RO gave too many headaches in terms of balancing.
Now, algae is rampant. I guess that's a good thing from the
standpoint that my tank supports life. :-)

Just two and a half weeks into cycle, I have stopped using the Purple
Up that was recommended to me by my LFS and LS/LR dealer (I got it
mail order). It seemed to be driving my pH way down... I dunno.

So, right now,
ph is 8.2
NH3 - 0
NO2 - 0
NO3 - 100
sp gr - 1.023
water temp between 81-88! Yikes! Ambient air at 77 day, 74 night.

I am hoping that the algae will eat up all of the free nitrogen like
it does in my garden. The LFS guy also swears that the algal bloom is
also an inevitability.

Thoughts? opinions?
Thanks,
Dave in Simi Valley

Dave, you are correct assuming the algae will eat free nitrogen.
But when algae die it will release this nitrogen back to the water
in the decomposing process. You need to remove excess algae
manually to help with exporting nutrients from your closed system.
Otherwise you will have to wait much longer for the tank to mature.

You migh want to slowly add some herbivores to your tank to get
the algae under control (with your manual removal helping them).
What kind of herbivores to get depends of the type of the tank
we are talking about (reef? FO?) and the kind of algae you have
problems with.

Your tap water might have high content of nitrates and phosphates
which fuels algae growth. That is why we do not use tap water.
Not sure what guys in LFS had in mind when talking about RO
balancing - it seems like some kind of misunderstanding.

Two and half weeks since the tank startup is way too soon for
dosing chemicals of any kind - wait for the nature do its thing.
Algae blooms are normal in fresh-setup tanks and they go away
while tank matures and biological processes start to balance
each other.

Check out this article written by our group member Marc:
http://www.melevsreef.com/gha.html

In all your efforts think of stable, long-term biological solutions
rather than quick-fix chemistry solutions in the bottle.
All chemical ways to kill agae will result in a release of the
nutrients collected back to the water and start of new cycle
of algae growth.

BTW - feel free to post some pictures of your tank and
more detailed description of your particular system...
This would help to identify the type of algae and judge the
level of "infestation" you are dealing with :-)

Good luck,
Pszemol.

Pszemol wrote on 9/4/2007 3:32 PM:

BTW - feel free to post some pictures of your tank and
more detailed description of your particular system...
This would help to identify the type of algae and judge the
level of "infestation" you are dealing with :-)

Good luck,
Pszemol.

Just don't post it to the newsgroup. Instead post it
to a website, and post here the link to the web site.

Wayne Sallee

"Wayne Sallee" wrote in message ...
Pszemol wrote on 9/4/2007 3:32 PM:

BTW - feel free to post some pictures of your tank and
more detailed description of your particular system...
This would help to identify the type of algae and judge the
level of "infestation" you are dealing with :-)

Just don't post it to the newsgroup. Instead post it
to a website, and post here the link to the web site.

Of course - I ment links to the pictures from photobucket.com or something like this.

dclaghorn wrote on 9/4/2007 12:12 PM:
My LFS told me to just go ahead and use tap water for my start up, so
I did. Said that RO gave too many headaches in terms of balancing.
Now, algae is rampant. I guess that's a good thing from the
standpoint that my tank supports life. :-)

That's bad advice, but not the end of the world.
Getting algae in a new tank, especially diatoms, is
normal.

Like Pszemol said, put some cleaners in there to
keep in under control. Hermit crabs, and turbo
snails will help with this.


Just two and a half weeks into cycle, I have stopped using the Purple
Up that was recommended to me by my LFS and LS/LR dealer (I got it
mail order).

I'm sure your LFS really appreciates that :-)


It seemed to be driving my pH way down... I dunno.

So, right now,
ph is 8.2
NH3 - 0
NO2 - 0
NO3 - 100

What kind of lighting do you have? Do you have
actinic lights that can be turned on without turning
on the other lights?

What kind of substrate do you have?


sp gr - 1.023
water temp between 81-88! Yikes! Ambient air at 77 day, 74 night.

yep, 81 is fine, but 88 is not.


I am hoping that the algae will eat up all of the free nitrogen like
it does in my garden. The LFS guy also swears that the algal bloom is
also an inevitability.

Yes, an algae bloom is normal, especially diatoms.
What kind of lighting do you have?



Thoughts? opinions?
Thanks,
Dave in Simi Valley