safest chemical to get rid of algea in tank?

[skyedolphan]

ok title says most of it I NEED someway to remove the brown diatom? algea in the store s 180 reef I can not get there daily to do necesary water changer to remove Is there a chemical additive that can be used to safely remove this stuff? I got iverts and hermits in there along wiith the fish and some LPS corals.. any help appreciated if someone has used a chemical product with results all the beter ..
PS sorry if it has been asked before and answered I cant seem to be able to get a search answer on it . TIA

[jciwlsn]

Dawn, what about Joe's Juice that I've been hearing about, there's some posts on the BRS forum and elsewhere. Haven't read too much about it, but it sounded like the way to go. :)

[wrassefan]

I don't think anything "safe" for diatom algae. I would hook up a couple of huge skimmers and reduce the lighting. A couple of algae blennies might help with some snails (turbos, nassarius, ceriths). Is this a new setup in the store?

[stevescg]

Kole tangs do a good job on diatoms

[Violin]

I'd like to think of an established reef tank as a pseudo balanced eco-system, which takes time to reach so-called equilibrium. The process can be very long, sometimes taking up to years of patience to see it mature. That said, adding chemical can only temperarily remove certain components in the water, but in the grand scheme of the things it only re-start the cycle for the tank to mature.

Diatom is a product of nutrient export. Protein skimmers can only do so much to remove the nutrient. As long as diatom reporduction is faster than the nutrient removal by skimmer, you are going to see certain type of algae. Herbavoires, like snails, tangs, Urchins, and etc. will help. Especially urchins, they are called cows of the ocean for reasons.

The way to reduce nuisance algae is to encourage the beneficial algae, invert like sponges and tunicates, and to introduce herbavoires. By increasing the level of calcium and maintaining the level of trace elements, coralline algae will compete with diatoms and other hair algae, so that you'll have a shot to keep nuisance algae under control.

Good luck and be patient.

[Greg Hiller]

I agree with the above, if you know it's diatoms (and not something else) snails, lots of them, and maybe a Kole tang are your best bets. Be certain you are using RO/DI water as well and keeping the alk up.

[skyedolphan]

Thanks everyone it is a new persay set up it was set up with 60 gallons of the old established tanks water and the rest with new water it is a 180 unfortunely they do not have an ro set up and I am NOt lugging ro water to the store for the tank ..I will see if I can get them to cut down on the lighting period for a while and I think we got a kole tang in last week I will get him into the tnk .

Violin agree with you 100% but unfortunately this not being my tank nor my business there is very little I am able to do or work with I am trying to get them to get a few decent skimmers but right now it is just a very low grade skimmer hopefully the snails and hermits will arrive this week I do have my urchin that I will bring and put in there (Gods know it is time for him to go he has terrorized my tank long enough LOL)
I was just hoping for an easy solution to an uneasy problem LOL

and yes I have 2 algea blennies in there alonng with about 50 snails at this time and a few hermits the params are all within safe range I guess I was just getting to my wits end when I spent a few hours in there this weekend scrubbing the rocks clean to return the following day and you never would have known. :( thanks everyone for your iinput :)

[Greg Hiller]

If you do not have good quality water to add for topoff, you will never get the problem under control.