A few thoughts on filtration

H2OCulture · 03/19/2011, 01:36 PM

Hello All!

I've been having fairly constant green water issues with light feeding, a refugium with cheato, a powerful protein skimmer (Tunze 9002 skimming wet), and aggressive mechanical filtration (a filter sock with filter fiber placed in front of it, changed daily), carbon, and a 1 gallon a day water change every other day with distilled water (30 gal setup). The sand bed is light (for aesthetic reasons only) and is vacuumed during the water changes. My stock load is fairly light with two firefish, a royal gramma, and the various snails and hermits. I understand that most biological filtration comes from the rockwork, and that may be the issue, since my setup has a relatively small amount of rockwork (I wanted the patchreef look) I know the hobby disregarded trickle filters a long time ago in favor of the berlin method, but maybe a small trickle filter area at the beginning of the sump may be the way to provide the necessary biological filtration. The cheato in the refugium would scrub the nitrate produced by this process and the skimmer would likewise remove large dissolved organic waste. Does this sound like a viable solution, or am I just insane for even suggesting a trickle biological area in my aquarium?

King_Richard · 03/19/2011, 05:25 PM

I feel like a sales person as of late, but honestly I struggled with green water as well for about a month to two. We went on vacation in december, came back just before the 1st of January and found a seahorse dead, green water, dead corals, and a dying koko worm. A day later, we lost the other seahorse that we had and were left with pretty much nothing but a scooter blenny. I struggled for about 3 weeks trying mechanical filters, carbon, 1 micron filtering, socks and lots of water changes. None of these were working for us.

Our tank was intended to be a natural filtration system only, our main filtration is the deep sand bed which has constantly kept our nitrates around 5ppm. I added an algae scrubber back in Jan-Feb time frame and recently just improved it a few weeks ago as well. It took about a week with the algae scrubber online to make our water less green, able to see in the tank again, then it took maybe a month or so to completely clear it up to where it's at now which is crystal clear. I also use a small amount of carbon too. So, we use a dsb, algae scrubber for our main filtration now. Carbon for keeping our corals happy, and it also helps out a bit with clearing up the water I suppose, but I know first hand that carbon can't clear up green water.

Either way, I definitely say it's worth a shot. Here's the link to give ya some more info Algae Scrubber Basics

Another note: I ditched the chaeto the same day I setup the scrubber, we also keep a handful of caulerpa in the sump but it's not growing to much down there with the scrubber online. We keep the caulerpa only becuase we like the looks of it.

Old thread with my testimony and greenwater pic
Take it look at this one and you'll see a picture of how green our water was, the picture is at the bottom of the page.

On this page of the Algae Scrubber Basics thread is the most recent pictures I have of the tank, no green water anymore! Most recent pics

gotoneon · 03/19/2011, 06:49 PM

I think you are cleaning to much, not actually giving the system a chance to complete cycling. My advice is to stop vacuuming the sand, clean the filter sock weekly or less, and reduce water changes and do them on different days then you clean the filter sock. Really think about what you are removing cleaning that much? Let your skimmer and carbon do their jobs.

03/19/2011, 01:36 PM	#1
H2OCulture Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Bethesda, Maryland Posts: 85	A few thoughts on filtration Hello All! I've been having fairly constant green water issues with light feeding, a refugium with cheato, a powerful protein skimmer (Tunze 9002 skimming wet), and aggressive mechanical filtration (a filter sock with filter fiber placed in front of it, changed daily), carbon, and a 1 gallon a day water change every other day with distilled water (30 gal setup). The sand bed is light (for aesthetic reasons only) and is vacuumed during the water changes. My stock load is fairly light with two firefish, a royal gramma, and the various snails and hermits. I understand that most biological filtration comes from the rockwork, and that may be the issue, since my setup has a relatively small amount of rockwork (I wanted the patchreef look) I know the hobby disregarded trickle filters a long time ago in favor of the berlin method, but maybe a small trickle filter area at the beginning of the sump may be the way to provide the necessary biological filtration. The cheato in the refugium would scrub the nitrate produced by this process and the skimmer would likewise remove large dissolved organic waste. Does this sound like a viable solution, or am I just insane for even suggesting a trickle biological area in my aquarium? __________________ "Just add water" "Just say NO to detritus" February TOTM 2011 Le Châtelier is my clean-up crew. Current Tank Info: 29 Gallon Mixed Reef

03/19/2011, 05:25 PM	#2
King_Richard Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Pensacola FL Posts: 235	I feel like a sales person as of late, but honestly I struggled with green water as well for about a month to two. We went on vacation in december, came back just before the 1st of January and found a seahorse dead, green water, dead corals, and a dying koko worm. A day later, we lost the other seahorse that we had and were left with pretty much nothing but a scooter blenny. I struggled for about 3 weeks trying mechanical filters, carbon, 1 micron filtering, socks and lots of water changes. None of these were working for us. Our tank was intended to be a natural filtration system only, our main filtration is the deep sand bed which has constantly kept our nitrates around 5ppm. I added an algae scrubber back in Jan-Feb time frame and recently just improved it a few weeks ago as well. It took about a week with the algae scrubber online to make our water less green, able to see in the tank again, then it took maybe a month or so to completely clear it up to where it's at now which is crystal clear. I also use a small amount of carbon too. So, we use a dsb, algae scrubber for our main filtration now. Carbon for keeping our corals happy, and it also helps out a bit with clearing up the water I suppose, but I know first hand that carbon can't clear up green water. Either way, I definitely say it's worth a shot. Here's the link to give ya some more info Algae Scrubber Basics Another note: I ditched the chaeto the same day I setup the scrubber, we also keep a handful of caulerpa in the sump but it's not growing to much down there with the scrubber online. We keep the caulerpa only becuase we like the looks of it. Old thread with my testimony and greenwater pic Take it look at this one and you'll see a picture of how green our water was, the picture is at the bottom of the page. On this page of the Algae Scrubber Basics thread is the most recent pictures I have of the tank, no green water anymore! Most recent pics __________________ "I know where I'm going, just don't know how I'm getting there" 60g Cube>50g Sump\Cube Algae Scrubber:) 6" DSB:) Live Rock:) Caulerpa :) and nothing else!

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03/19/2011, 06:49 PM	#3
gotoneon Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Oregon Posts: 182	I think you are cleaning to much, not actually giving the system a chance to complete cycling. My advice is to stop vacuuming the sand, clean the filter sock weekly or less, and reduce water changes and do them on different days then you clean the filter sock. Really think about what you are removing cleaning that much? Let your skimmer and carbon do their jobs.