Evap and Over filtering?

[0rbis25]

I have a 70 gal tank with about 40lbs of live rock and another 20 lbs of llive sand...atm I have skimmer (with a little container that contains some ac and some phosphate remover) as well as a power head with a little ac and some pura complete...Also have a canister fluval with some ac and some foam and some poly (mostly just to polish the water) I have this on a 1 hour timer each morning, although this was not always the case.

All my readings are exellent...From day 1 it seems I have been battling green hair algae...I use ro and a spring feed water supply which both have no phosphates, it seems when I went away a few weeks ago I left the canister and the skimmer on 24/7, when I came back the gha was everywhere!! it had in my opinion exploded!!


as stated above I now cycle the canister an hour every morning, I have scrubbed alot of the gha off the rocks, but still seem to be battling it...I have reduced my lighting to 4 hours a day, my tank is not covered so my evap is very high about 4 gallons as top off per week (would that be considered a partial water change? or shoud I remove water)

So is it possiable to over filter, to the point it would feed my gha?...would getting more live rock help? or cut down on the skmming? remove my powerhead?....any way thanks for any input soooo fed up with this algae!!:mad2:

[MTB]

The evap amount is about right. My 55 goes through around 1-1.5 gallons a day. Top off water should be pure water with no salt added. It is not considered a water change. You need to take the old water out and replace with fresh saltwater. When I was having algae problems I changed 20% of the system volume every four days.

How often do you clean and replace the media in the canister filter? It could have built up detritus that is fueling the algae growth. I would clean it out thoroughly and replace and floss or sponges or media weekly.

Also how much flow is in the tank? Should be 20x per hour or greater. And more live rock would not hurt at all. I aim for 1-1.5 pounds per gallon.

HTH

[0rbis25]

I clean my canister once every 2 weeks or seeing how it only runs for an hour a day...but I will go weekly...(I hate those dumb canisters...boohoo) and as far as circulation, I have my power head (302 I think) and I have one of those new fangled water mover...Koralia? (something like that...it was the biggest one of the three) and the water movement from my return on my protein skimmer and then the extra water movement from the canister for an hour so each morning...

oh and when you mean replace floss or sponge...do mean put new ones in...or just clean em real good?

Thx again for the reply!!

[kau_cinta_ku]

replacing evap. is not a water change. you will still need to do your weekly waterchanges.

i would bump up your lighting to at least 8 hours a day., run the protien skimmer and canister filter 24/7 just make sure to clean them when needed.

but IMO i would just up your LR to 75lbs

[0rbis25]

Wow...ok thats seems like alot of water changing/adding...what would be better...to have my tank covered or open as it is now?

the reason why it is open is because at this moment with my over the rail skimmer and my light stand it would be a pita to cover, the guy at the store said to leave it open...so I did. Is there benifits to open vs closed?

thx again

[dwd5813]

evaporation has a cooling effect, so that is a reason to stay open topped. heat that enters the tank from lights gets trapped in a covered tank, resulting in a rise in tank temp. if you have a fish that is prone to jumping, a good compromise is eggcrate. still allows for evaporative cooling but blocks any fish who dream of carpet surfing from realizing those dreams. i believe most people do not use those glass covers, for the heat issue. gl!

[kau_cinta_ku]

evap is great for air exchange also