Well @Smite gave me the idea for this thread. He said that I run a clean tank. So my thought was man if he knew how much maintenance I did would he say my system is clean 
So my question is do you run a clean or dirty system? Clarification do you have slightly nuisance aglse issues or heavy algae issues or no algae issues.
Second part to the question what equipment do you run and maintenance do you do to stop/ help eliminate nuisance algae?
Thirdly what parameters do you strive for in your system?
I’ll start by saying I don’t do a lot to eliminate algae. I think my tangs do all the heavy lifting in that department. The only algae issue I have in both my tanks is bubble algae and a shhhh load of it. I even purchased 20 emeralds at the beginning of the year to fight the BA. But other then BA I’ve got no signs of hair algae or even detritus buildup. I do run heavy flow in the tank to try to eliminate any detritus from settling. But I do run slow flow through my sump. In hopes that all that detritus will settle in the refugium. So the pods and algae will break it down and consume those nutrients. Well for equipment I don’t run much. Two 4K gyres, three Nero5s, a calcium reactor, vectra M1 as return, large refugium(in triton44 sump), and iTech200 skimmer. For most part the skimmer is off tho. I run it mostly off pH. So when pH in tank goes below 8.0 the skimmer turns on and a air pump in storage shed outside behind tank wall pumps outside air into skimmer. The refugium runs 6 hours a night with a maxspect Ethereal at 100%. This usually keep my no3 @ 0.75ppm on a Red Sea pro test and po4 @0.04ppm also on Red Sea pro test. If my skimmer runs 24/7 my no3 goes to undetectable and po4 around 0.02ppm. I only do water changes every 3 or 4 months and all I really do is gravel vac the sand bed to pull out excess detritus.
And this is all I really do other then clean the glass every 4-5days. I usually feed pellets 3 times a day. Two with auto feeder and once by hand.
So my question is do you run a clean or dirty system? Clarification do you have slightly nuisance aglse issues or heavy algae issues or no algae issues.
Second part to the question what equipment do you run and maintenance do you do to stop/ help eliminate nuisance algae?
Thirdly what parameters do you strive for in your system?
I’ll start by saying I don’t do a lot to eliminate algae. I think my tangs do all the heavy lifting in that department. The only algae issue I have in both my tanks is bubble algae and a shhhh load of it. I even purchased 20 emeralds at the beginning of the year to fight the BA. But other then BA I’ve got no signs of hair algae or even detritus buildup. I do run heavy flow in the tank to try to eliminate any detritus from settling. But I do run slow flow through my sump. In hopes that all that detritus will settle in the refugium. So the pods and algae will break it down and consume those nutrients. Well for equipment I don’t run much. Two 4K gyres, three Nero5s, a calcium reactor, vectra M1 as return, large refugium(in triton44 sump), and iTech200 skimmer. For most part the skimmer is off tho. I run it mostly off pH. So when pH in tank goes below 8.0 the skimmer turns on and a air pump in storage shed outside behind tank wall pumps outside air into skimmer. The refugium runs 6 hours a night with a maxspect Ethereal at 100%. This usually keep my no3 @ 0.75ppm on a Red Sea pro test and po4 @0.04ppm also on Red Sea pro test. If my skimmer runs 24/7 my no3 goes to undetectable and po4 around 0.02ppm. I only do water changes every 3 or 4 months and all I really do is gravel vac the sand bed to pull out excess detritus.
And this is all I really do other then clean the glass every 4-5days. I usually feed pellets 3 times a day. Two with auto feeder and once by hand.
Last edited:
