Tank Gadget » chemistry

More on algae removal

Marc — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 15:31:41 +0000

My quest to erradicate hair algae isn’t going well.
After testing out Hair and Sludge, which seemed to help a bit by slowing the growth, it did not get rid of it entirely as I had prayed it would. I guess my genie in the bottle didn’t appear.
I have decided to do something drastic. If you read anything wrong with this plan please post a comment.
A trip to the fish store to top up my cleaning crew to start my day.
1 a water change. I plan to remove aproxomately 15 gallons of water to be used later.
2 one rock at a time I will transfer to a bucket and manually scrub, with new brushes, off as much algae as I can. This may require a seperate tank where I will need to transplant corals that I remove before I scrub.
3 shake off any detritus. A really good shake. I don’t want any dead matter back in the tank.
4 place rock in a bucket of SW
5 repeat with half the tank.
6 replace rocks to tank
7 repeat steps with other half.

The reason i am going to split this is I see this as being a big job in a 75 gallon tank. Part is to give me a break and also to allow me to rebuild after removing half the rocks.

After I will replace any phosban and start my skimmer from fresh. I will also need to scrape off the glass and syphon out any crud left on the substrate. I am hoping that the drastic removal will remove any sources of phosphate that may be feeding it.

That’s all for now. I’ll reort back, possibly with some progress pics.

Hair and Sludge algae removal.

Marc — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:13:43 +0000

I finally got my free sample of Hair and Sludge from Ultralife. Following you will see my progression of using the product. As of me writing this I don’t know what to expect! Exciting!

January 28th
Following the instructions I plucked out as much algae as I could by hand and did a 20% water change.

I used half of the contents of the 3 packets that come in the bag. 2 packages look like standard media you would put in your Phosphate reactor. the 3rd bag looks like little Styrofoam balls the size of a small ball-bearing. After rinsing out all the bags they were placed into filter bags. and the bags were placed in the sump at the first stage (where water flow is the fastest). thsi was allwoed to sit for about 24 hours. After 24 hoursI put the rest of the media in the sump along with a little pouch labeled ’A’. That went directly into the tank. Now I wait.

Feb 5th
Slow going after first week. The algae seems to be growing normally, if maybe a little slower. So I emailed Ultralife -
” It varies. The product removes the nutrients feeding the hair, so it will possibly take a little while. You should start to see it slow then actually recede. From testing it takes anywhere from a few days to several weeks.”

So there you have it. I’ll pump up the skimmer and the Phosphate reactor. The skimmer seems to be producing more skimmate. I assume its due to the process.

This is where we sit at this point. I just replaced the media in my Phosban reactor and bought a new pump for it.

BE GONE FOUL ALGAE!

Stay tuned for an update around the 11th.

Fauna Marin Develops New Balling System

Marc — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 23:01:40 +0000

Fauna Marin has come out with a new method called the Balling light method.

This just in!…

Water treatment using the Balling light method

The well-known and popular Balling method is an extremely simple method for providing your aquarium with calcium, magnesium, carbonate hardness and trace elements.

In Germany this method has practically replaced the previously popular calcium reactor. An increasing number of marine aquarists also use our Balling salts with a calcium reactor in order to be able to manually adjust chemical imbalances, such as those that can occur when operating such a reactor.

To provide an optimal supply for a marine aquarium these substances are added daily by hand or by a dosing pump.

Strong lighting, stony coral husbandry and special bacterial systems have changed the water chemistry requirements, which made it necessary for the methods used to be adapted.

For this purpose we have developed a new Balling method approach and adapted it to the present conditions of modern reef aquaristics.

However, we can also provide you with instructions for the traditional method – the corresponding calculators and manuals can be found on our website.

Our salts comply with pharmaceutical purity levels and are packaged accordingly in a protected manner.

In our salts we use additional bioactive stabilisers, pH buffers and special minerals which significantly increase the stability of the chemical parameters in the aquarium. The added trace elements are more stable in the solution and are thereby more accessible to the coral.

The supply of bioactive components prevents the coral from darkening and enhances its growth and colouration.

Fauna Marin Balling salts are simply beyond comparison!

The following water values should be produced during continuous operation.

Calcium 380 – 420 mg/litre

Magnesium 1200 – 1350 mg/litre

Alkalinity 6.5 – 8 dkH

Salinity 33 – 35 per mil

Instructions for the Balling light method

1. Our Balling light method

Three 5-litre canisters are to be prepared separately

1st canister:

Dissolve 2 kg of calcium chloride dihydrate in 4 litres of osmosis water and then fill the canister with osmosis water.

! Caution ! Always add the salt to the water – never vice versa!

Then add

 50 ml Trace B heavy metal complex

 50 ml Trace B strontium / barium complex

to the canister.

2nd canister:

2.5 kg of magnesium chloride hexahydrate.

The new method does not require magnesium sulphate as it precipitates extremely quickly and thus does not make sense.

Then add

 50 ml Trace B iodine flour complex

to the canister.

3rd canister:

Dissolve 500 g of sodium bicarbonate in 4 litres of osmosis water and then fill the canister with osmosis water.

Nothing else is added to this canister!

Larger canisters can also be used; you will simply need to extrapolate the quantities added for each canister

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TIP:

Use lukewarm water to dissolve the carbonate.

A small residue will always be left over in this canister. However, this has no effect on the stability of the solution.

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A slight discolouration of the solutions is normal and is due to the addition of bioactive substances and trace elements. This has no impact on the quality or stability of the solutions.

After dissolution the solutions can be stored indefinitely.

The three canisters are now connected to an appropriate dosing computer via 4/6 mm PVC tubes.

We recommend using the GHL SA 3 series dosing computer or the corresponding model for the Profilux aquarium computer.

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Tip:

Drill a small hole into the lid of the canister and insert a 4 mm PVC rod all the way down into the canister. Then connect the rod to the 4/6 mm tube.

You can then use the entire contents of the canister.

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Depending on the content of the aquarium the individual solutions are now metered manually in order to determine the actual requirements.

Before doing this determine the current water values and make a note of the results.

Example:

50 ml of canister 1 into a 500 litre aquarium.

Value before dosing = 380 mg of calcium. After 2 hours repeat the test  the calcium value after the 2nd test is then 400 mg of calcium.

In this example 50 ml of the solution from canister 1 increases the calcium value by 20 mg/litre for a 500 litre aquarium.

Now programme the dosing computer to add 7 ml of the solution once a day, i.e. 50 ml of the solution spread over a week.

After a week measure the calcium value again and note it has only risen to 390 mg/litre, although in a pure arithmetic sense this should have risen to 400 mg/litre.

This method determines the actual loss of calcium in the system that is to be compensated. In some cases this actual loss may differ significantly from the calculated loss as a result of growth or chemical precipitation!

You can now easily adapt the dosage level by increasing the

value by 3 ml per day as already calculated. 50 ml  = + 20 mg / 7 days = 7 ml

In order to obtain + 30 mg therefore 75 ml / 7 days = 10 ml must be added.

Using this simple 3-part calculation you can easily adjust each of your desired values and set an automatic dosing schedule in just a few days.

A daily inspection of the calcium (Ca TEST), magnesium (Mg test) and dKH values (KH test) is to be conducted at the start and the dosing quantity adapted on the device if necessary.

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TIP:

We recommend you verify your water tests with the reference solution from Fauna Marin.

We can also provide you with an exceptionally accurate KH test for marine aquariums.

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The GHL dosing computer is extremely suitable for this application, as each channel can be individually adjusted and the substances can be dosed at 5 minute intervals twice per day.

After no more than 2 weeks you will have determined the specific requirements for your aquarium and set the dosing unit accordingly.

Mineral salts can be added by hand, however this is not essential with regular water changes of 10% per week, as a good branded mineral salt will adequately cover the mineral salt requirements.

Relinquishment of the mineral salt in the Balling light method can be explained not only as a result of the regular water exchange, but also as a result of the generally too-high quantity of dissolved trace elements in our aquariums.

Therefore, the often mentioned ‘ion displacement’ factor is only applicable based on theoretical consideration of the Balling method.

The regular exchange of water helps your system to dilute unwanted substances and it makes it very easy to adjust and control salinity levels.

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TIP:

Please measure the salinity of your aquarium on a regular basis and adjust the level if necessary. To do this use a refractometer (regularly calibrated) or a high quality aerometer, e.g. from Tropic Marin.

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Naturally, the system is also suitable for manual dosing.

To do this add the solutions to a well-circulated area of the tank.

There should be an interval of approx. 10 minutes between the individual doses.

Start by adding magnesium, then calcium and carbonate.

We hope you have a lot of success using this new method.

We would be pleased to answer any queries you may have.

You can contact us at

info@faunamarin.de

or find us in the major forums at

www.meerwasserforum.info or

www.ultimatereef.net or

www.reefcentral.com