So I have a 45 gal JBJ AIO. It's been setup for about 2.5 yrs. I also have had an ongoing algae issue for the majority of the time that I have owned the tank. However, I'm not throwing in the towel like my wife wants because the tank isn't visually pleasing. Right now my nitrates are between 5-10 ppm and phosphates are at .10 ppm. The algae isn't growing as thick and rapid as it used to. I went to my lfs today and the owner told me that I should use chemi- pure elite. In an effort to save some $$$ I informed him that I already had rowaphos on hand and a phosphates reducing filter pad. He told me to use both. Good advice?
How do I lower PO4 without a reactor?
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LxHowler
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Out of curiosity what cuc do you have in the tank? Also I've never used vibrant but have had good success with Dr Tim's waste away.
Your levels don't seem that bad, phosphate may be a little bit high but your rowaphos should be able to deal with that, and I have had phosphate higher than that before without many issues.
Your levels don't seem that bad, phosphate may be a little bit high but your rowaphos should be able to deal with that, and I have had phosphate higher than that before without many issues.
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saullman
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My CUC is non existent. Everything died on me, but 2 nassarius snails. I went to my lfs yesterday to get some more snails and the owner of the lfs recommended I bring down the PO4 before I buy anything. I thought that was nice. He could have easily sold me a new CUC.
SALTYMOPAR
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Do you run carbon in the AIO? If you do might look at running switching to "boyd chemi-pure elite" it has GFO in it.
sarcophytonIndy
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I have been really successful since I began growing and harvesting chaeto in my sump, as the chaeto out competes the algae in the display. But I know this is not easy to accomplish in an AIO
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Why wouldn’t you just buy enough snails to eat the algae?
I am a proud owner of 15 Mexican turbos that scoured my hair algae infested 75 gallon fish only tank In a week and then continued to eat every other algae in the tank. I have to alert you though. Now that every square inch of the aquarium is polished clean and I am feeding dried algae sheets to keep the snails alive. Also I have read these snails can do a bit of bulldozing and they have a preferred temperature of 72-78 F. If Mexican turbos are this effective in every aquarium, there might not be a need for a pest algae forum. I am that impressed with them, though I don’t necessarily tell everyone that I spend money feeding snails.
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saullman
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I do want to buy snails, but I also want to get to the root of the problem. Plus Everytime I buy snails they always die pretty quick. I'm not sure why. Maybe I'm starving them to death. I've never fed my snails before.
LxHowler
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Having some algae is part of having an aquarium, a healthy tank needs some nitrate and phosphate else you open yourself up to other issues. How long have you been without a cuc? Is it possible that the algae is building at a normal rate but you don't have anything to keep it back.
What snails do you normally buy? In my opinion turbo snails will eat everything super quick but have a reputation for pushing stuff over and being super sensitive. I always use trochus snails, I swear they are indistructable I once found one on the outside of my tank near my floor. Must have been out for hours but it's still going well in my tank.
My small tank currently has a phosphate level of .1 and it's not affecting any of the livestock and the snails are happily eating away. Also I've never fed snails in any of my tank s
SCReef'n
Valuable Member
Your snails are dying for a reason so part of fixing your problem is going to be figuring out why. You need a clean up crew. Products like rowa and GFO can rapidly drop your phos. I use rowa in my 60 cube and use 2 tsp. Keeps mine at .03. Don’t just throw in a bunch and bottom out your phos. You’ll cause worse problems. Go slow. My advice is get your nutrients in check to slow/stop algae growth. Get your water parameters double checked and a cleanup crew to mow down what left or what comes back down the line.
NS Mike D
In the arena.
This. Lowering you numbers is a risk and doesn't explain why your CUC died.
My first thought with dead snail is dinos. This would also explain the ongoing algae battle. Dropping NO3 and PO4 if those are dinos would make things worse.
1. Urgent- rule out dinos (get a cheap microscope if you dont have on a post a pic of that stuff on you sand bed in the dino thread. They also have a coffee filter method to confirm if it is dinos - but not species specific.
2. Look up the rip clean/sand bed rinse thread. You pull the rocks out, scrub them, spray them with hydrogen peroixde rinse and return. You remove the sand bed rinse until clean and return. But don't do these until you first rule out dinos
3. Whether or not it's dinos, focus on your microfauana, phyto& zoo plankton, bacteria, pods, worms, coraline. these are IMO are part of the CUC. Often, trying to rid a tank of algae can throw these out of balance and make the algae problem worse and even terrible by opening the door for dinos to take over
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