Best way to remove nutrients.

[tarunteam]

So backround story. Last week I replaced a large live rock with a few small rocks in my aquarium for aesthetic reasons. My plan was to do 5% daily changes for a week or two to deal with the nutrient spike. Unfortunately, my parents asked me to come home this past weekend because they hadn't seen me. So I had to rely on my roommate to top off the tank daily and feed the fish. The former he did not do, the latter he did too much off. So now I have a ton of algae growth all over my tank. Besides just regular water changes what can i do to combat this nutrient spike. Would a DIY skimmer be worth it? Chateo? I'm open to all suggestions.

[brandon429]

Why not just blast clean the whole tank, rocks and sand completely clean and new all at once

 

We have threads documenting this with giant reefs, nanos are easier

 

Anything shy of that much cleaning is second rate. During cleaning hit the rocks with peroxide you could hit reset button for your tank with 3 hours work

 

The art of rip cleaning a full reef without recycling it is a beneficial art

[jimmyree]

You just finished your cycle, an algae outbreak is almost mandatory at this point. How bad is it, post some pics. A couple of large water changes and a bag of GFO might clear it up quickly without having to resort to extreme measures.

[tarunteam]

Its not horrible. Just one rock particularly has it bad but the rest are ok. Some of the Xenia melted, but oddly no one else died. I'll spend some time cleaning that rock with brush. No corals attached, so not too bad. Just annoying.

[jimmyree]

Its not horrible. Just one rock particularly has it bad but the rest are ok. Some of the Xenia melted, but oddly no one else died. I'll spend some time cleaning that rock with brush. No corals attached, so not too bad. Just annoying.

Take that one rock out and clean the snot out of it, maybe keep it in a bucket with fresh saltwater in the dark for a week. Or peroxide that one rock out of the tank. If you get your parameters good and keep your nutrient export good you might get out of this one easy. I currently have one rock that has some GHA on it but its not growing because of frequent water changes and GFO, I have a new clean up crew arriving tomorrow and if they don't get it cleaned up within days I will take that one out and deal with it but im not gonna panic yet , my tank is new like yours and I expected at least one outbreak.

[SantaMonica]

A skimmer does not remove nutrients, so that does not help. And if you just finished cycling, then there really is no problem. Just leave the rock in, and the phosphate in it will slowly come out, and then the algae on it will go away.

[rjl45]

Agree with Santa Monica, but in additon, I have found algae scrubbers to be a fantastic method of removing nutirents. Everyone should consider them.

[brandon429]

A skimmer removes nutrients for sure, hence their staple in the hobby. Removing proteins before they denature is full nutrient removal and export, without leaking tons of doc's into the tank like algae scrubbers do. That being said, some docs are usually not impactful hence the widespread use of scrubbers. Anything shy of full tank cleaning is second rate, so if this algae is localized only on one rock there isn't a tank wide nutrient issue anyway.

 

Redissolve some skimmate into test cup water and let it sit three days then test for common nutrients, see if higher than NSW

 

 

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-08/rhf/index.php

 

neither a skimmer nor a scrubber removes organic waste stores from a pent up sandbed they just intercept nutrients on the way to being utilized by display tank algae.

[John L]

Hi, what cuc do you have? A couple of Mexican turbos/ Cerriths etc will Hoover up the algae, and help combat the outbreak. Mine do a great job tirelessly working all over the rock work in search of delicious algae.

[Gooburz]

What is the status of your CUC? If you have a beefy CUC then you shouldn't have an issue.

 

For example: On my 80 Breeder with 40 breeder sump I have 2 Sand sifting starfish, bristle starfish, 2 dozen certh snails, 2 skunk shrimp, couple large hermits. In my sump I have 3 turbo snails, 2 emerald crabs, 1 gorilla crab, several msc snails.

 

My tank for the most part stays spotless despite heavy feeding for the past few months.

[tarunteam]

Decided #### it. Got a protein skimmer. Fired it up yesturday, it's already pulling out a ton of gunk. I also did a large water change last week and that really helped get rid of the initial algae. Thanks for the advice guys!

[IronChefItaly]

Filter socks, filter floss or a medium sponge can do wonders in reducing nutrients introduced via feeding (biggest source in most cases). The key however is to be rigorous with rinsing or replacing it. I'm a heavy feeder but I manage to keep my sps thriving and I would suggest my filter system is a big part of it. Otherwise I also rely on gfo and light vinegar dosing.

[tarunteam]

I tried using a filter. But the whole changing it out every three day is too much for me. Fortunately the skimmer is pulling out lots of gunk, so that's nice. I just need to get a few more cuc to clean up my glass. Trying to set up a reef tank in a way where maintenance is reduced to small weekly water changes and some occasional cleaning of rocks and glass.