Protein skimmer

[kdd]

Hi,

I am using phosphate remover, but i have a new protein skimmer on it's way... My question is, will a protein skimmer also rid my tank of phosphates so I don't have to worry about stupid algae....if not what other ways of algae control is there other than R/O? I just see so many tanks that are algae free. I have a 150W pendant metal halide with 4 actinic bulbs, i'd like an 8-10 hour lighting cycle.

Thanks

[nanojake]

How often and what do you feed? That algae has to be getting nutrients from somewhere. We need to know how heavily your tank is stocked, size of tank, frequency of water changes, and how often/how much you feed....

[Urchinhead]

It will help with the dissolved organic compounds in the water that may include phosphates but is not specifically a phosphate remover. You need to be looking at where your phosphates are coming from and fix that problem because all the phosphate removers in the world won't help if you have a contaminant coming in from a source.

 

UH

[kdd]

How often and what do you feed? That algae has to be getting nutrients from somewhere. We need to know how heavily your tank is stocked, size of tank, frequency of water changes, and how often/how much you feed....

I have a 15 gallon with a sebae clown and a small damsel...One serpent star, a few hermits, turbos and nessarius snails. I feed every 3 days, a small piece of brine shrimp, so it doesn't seem like the phosphates come from the food, since i do water changes weekly and don't feed that much.

[FateX9]

do you use ro/di for water changes?

[Urchinhead]

When you say small piece of brine shrimp... Brine shrimp are small to begin with. Do you mean a piece of frozen cube of brine shrimp? If so I had the same problem. The damn food I was using used contaminated water. I dumped it all and went to salifert pellets instead.

[kdd]

When you say small piece of brine shrimp... Brine shrimp are small to begin with. Do you mean a piece of frozen cube of brine shrimp? If so I had the same problem. The damn food I was using used contaminated water. I dumped it all and went to salifert pellets instead.

Wow, yeah it is a small piece from basically a frozen sheet... i hope mine isn't doing that....but on top of all of that, what kind of lighting cycle do you suggest? (ie. how many hours for actinic and halide, should they be on at the same time?)

[nanojake]

Sorry if I missed this somewhere, but how long has the tank been up and running? Also do you know what type of algae you're dealing with?

[kdd]

Sorry if I missed this somewhere, but how long has the tank been up and running? Also do you know what type of algae you're dealing with?

Hi, the tank has been up since mid january, and it's green algae consuming the surface area of the glass and rocks... some bubble and hair aswell.