Anybody run floss or chemipure or chaeto in HOB skimmer?

[zamboni200000]

Hey all,

New to reefing.... got a 50g breeder tank been up and running for ~4 months now. Love the hobby so far!! It's minimally stocked.... 1 small clownfish, 1 royal gramma, and 3 small firefish. couple peppermint shrimp and about 10 small frags of coral.

Unfortunately due to space constraints, i don't have a sump. Got about 60 ibs of live rock and 2-3inch bed of live sand. 2 big powerheads. And a reef octopus HOB skimmer.

The last few days been noticing a little bubble algae and some cyano sprouting up near the light.

Finally to my question lol..... Can I put a layer of filter floss somewhere in the skimmer? Or a bag of chemi-pure-elite or chaeto or whatever. It's a reef octopus HOB BH 100. Anybody do that??

Thanks in advance, and cheers!

[bertoni]

I ran a bag of carbon for a very short period in a CPR BakPak HOB. It didn't work well. The media tended to clog up and reduce the flow to the skimmer. I didn't think it was worth the risk of overflow or the possible reduction in skimmer efficiency.

[agranoff]

I've never heard of someone running chaeto in a skimmer. Is that something people do? I am not sure the algae would like that too much plus how are you getting it the light for it to feed and grow?

[Fish_King_25]

I ran a CPR aquafuge and a HOB skimmer when I first started my 29g reef..I'd strongly suggest you look into that as an option, which will allow you to have the fuge HOB with plenty of room for macro algae to grow and help reduce those nitrates and phosphates that are causing that cyano to grow

In the mean time, cut back on feeding and cut your light time down a bit and that may help you out

[zamboni200000]

Hmm thanks, i'll check the CPR aquafuge out. Is it only for chaeto? Or is there compartments where you can run carbon or GFO? Or is it just for chaeto?

[Fish_King_25]

Its a refugium.. you could do any type of macro algae you wish.. Its on the back so I wouldn't get too fancy.. Chaeto is going to be the most effective for you anyway.

I did hang a bag of GFO and GAC at one time and let the water flow roll through it..it seemed to help my tank at the time..about 5 months ago I decided to plumb a 10g sump/fuge and sold the hob skimmer and fuge I had and covered my cost for a new skimmer honestly sump was the best move I've ever made

[zamboni200000]

Thanks..... or I was reading about vodka dosing.... that should bring down my no3, po4.... any thoughts or experience?

[MrMatt83]

I had a cpr bak pak with a clip light and some chaeto in the return side, and it worked ok. Don't know about the reef octopus though. You could also get an aquaclear filter and run it with chaeto instead of media. Look up aquaclear hob refugium. Im planning on making one out of a aquaclear 110 I picked up for cheep on ebay.

[zamboni200000]

I've been reading a lot about that this evening.... But do you think modifying an ac110 into a fuge will be an ample sized fuge for a 50g tank? I'm thinking it might be too small.

I'm still eager to try vodka dosing only because it doesn't involve equipment. I understand I'd have to go nice and slow and titrate up slowly.....

[Reefvet]

Originally Posted by zamboni200000

I've been reading a lot about that this evening.... But do you think modifying an ac110 into a fuge will be an ample sized fuge for a 50g tank? I'm thinking it might be too small.

I'm still eager to try vodka dosing only because it doesn't involve equipment. I understand I'd have to go nice and slow and titrate up slowly.....

Hold off on the vodka dosing until you've got a more stable tank.

You could put a small bag with carbon or a small Chemipure in the skimmer but it's not going to get much water flow. If that's what you can afford right now go for it. Siphon off the algae and cyano with a small water change. Reduce your lighting for a couple of days and cut back on feeding.


Using the Aquaclear for carbon or Chemipure Elite would be most effective use for it. You'll reduce organics, nitrates and phosphates more effectively than using it as a fuge right now.

[MrMatt83]

Plenty of room in the ac 110 for chemipure and chaeto. Also will add a lot of flow I think they move 500 gph

[postshawn]

I used to run a AC70 on my 29g with Chemipure. It seemed to work with my system pretty well. Never had bad algae. Before that on a small system when I wasn't running Chemipure I had tons of algae but could have been due to different lights, smaller tank, not enough flow, who knows.

[Redman88]

no room under the tank for a 20L?

[zamboni200000]

Unfortunately, really no room. My place is pretty small. Will be moving to a house in a year, but for now, looking to clean the water a bit with something other than a sump. The bio load is small, the lights only run for 8 hrs a day. Lots of live rock and live sand. I'm not really sure why nitrates are 5-10ppm. Phosphates at .36. Not terrible, but def room for improvement.....

[R20]

Bubble algae is usually not related to phosphate or nitrate it can grow in the cleanest of tanks. Cyano however is usually phosphate related you could run a phosphate reactor you can hang it on the back of the tank and it wont take up any room in the tank besides the the small pump needed to run it. No need to put it under the tank kent or two little fish make decent one for a reasonable price. Never try to add media of any kind to a skimmer it will clog it up and it wont be able to function properly. If you want to add macro a hang on back fuge would work I would use miracle mud in a hob fuge though a sand bed is a bad idea usually a bad idea with so little surface area or leave it bare bottom.

[R20]

For bubble algae your best bet is to take it out during a water change turn the pumps off and use a tube to siphon the bubble algae out. leaving the pumps off will insure that if you do pop it the spores will be sucked out by the siphon and not blown around the tank. after the majority is out emerald crabs can help control bubble. my sailfin eats bubble but not all will and sometimes rabbit fish will eat bubble but take care of it not because bubble is a pain to deal with being you can get the water as clean as you want and turn out the lights and it still doesn't die. Get rid of it before it gets all over your tank.

[R20]

If you ever plan on putting coral in the tank .36 is terrible for sps just something to keep in mind.

[ponda]

i only run my lights for 6 hours a day