Kents phosphate sponge

[tava716]

Hello all!
My 90 gallon is 10 weeks old. Have a rediculous amount of green hair algae! Put Kents phosphate sponge in power filter and sump under heavy water flow for 24 hours, removed it, "recharged" it by baking it in oven (like directions say) and put back in tank last night after I gently removed all the hair algae from live rock with a soft toothbrush. How long should I leave it in now? Says on directions that it can eventually re-release phosphate and silicate into water! Did I waste my $$$ on this stuff, or will I see results.

PH 8.2
ammonia 0
nitrate 0
nitrite 0
sg 1.023
not using RO/DI water. Can not afford it.
These peramiters have not changed in the last 4 weeks.

James

 

[mojoreef]

James couple of things. One is you would far better served getting a ro/di using P removers is alot more expensive. The second thing is that this particular P remover is made from alluminium oxide and it has been reported that it has negative effects on soft corals and leathers.

What is you phosphate level??


Mike

 

[tava716]

Don't know what P level is. I do not have a test kit for tht. Will buy one tomorow and see. I just figured that that would be the cause of the hair algae. Right now I only have some mushrooms in the tank along with 55 lb of live rock, brisstle atar, royal gramma and 3 yellow tailed blue damsils. No corals.

 

[steve-s]

Don't bother with the "baking" thing either, doesn't work. At best it burns off the organics, it does nothing to recharge it.

Cheers
Steve

 

[mojoreef]

P = phosphate test kit. If you have hair algae that means that you have an excess of nutrients, either phosphates or Nitrogen. The P remover only removes what is Inorganic in the water, so it is a tough way to battle the problem. The main thing you need to do is to find the source of the Phosphates or Nitrogen. Get the phosphate test kit and test your tap water and then the tank water. If you can get the salifert test it is an easy one to use and pretty accurate.

Mike

 

[bc_slc]

Do you really think the phosphate test kit is helpful Mike? I have never had one as my understanding is that the offending phos is not measured by the kits. This is also complicated by the fact that phos levels right around the rock and wherever else the algae is growing will be different than if you just pull some water out of the water column. Personally, I test for Nitrogen, and if my nitrogen is low, and I am growing algae, then it must be the phos. Enter rowaphos or phosban - or other iron binding phos compounds.

 

[alizar185]

Have you tried a "tank cleaner pakage" Turbo Snails, Hermit Crabs,various shrimp and the like? Go check out this link, it might "help" alleviate your alge problem.

http://www.marinedepotlive.com/tank-cleaners.html

Steve

 

[tava716]

Thanks Alizar. I have been slowly purchasing shrimp, and other cleaners. It is just hard to come up with a couple 100 dollars at once. I may look at getting one of the smaller packages (one a month for the next couple of months).

thanks again!

Tava