Brittle Star

[lizzie]

I got one today. My tank has finished cycling, everything is down to zero. I want to head off the bad algae before it hits. I am also running a phosban bag in my tank. Its hanging half in the water, and half above the waterline. Its in the flow of the protein skimmer. How long do I keep it in? 70 gallon tank.
Thanks!

[SPANKYSREEF]

Sorry but---How long do u keep what in?

[pnkpanther]

the brittle star why get rid of it

[Loverotties]

No thay stay in your tank.He'll probley hide and think he's gone.

[lizzie]

Woops, bad communication there, sorry. The phosban bag. How long do I keep it in the tank, and is it OK half in and half out of the water? lol, sorry.

[tims]

Liz, i think your tank is still too new for a star.. even though the the parameters are down and at zero?! the cycle is not all the way over.. you have the alga to come. it is part of the overall cycle of the tank. you still need to keep an eye on the parameters.. Stars are hard in newer tanks, they can die easily from a sudden swing in the parameters..
SOrry but i forget do you have a sump? if so place the bag in there. or lay it in the tank, if you have an old HOB filter you can use that and place the bag in there so the water covers all of it. but if you are running a Skimmer there is not real need to run phosban.

[lizzie]

Tim, thanks, I didn't know that! So the algae is inevitable? I was running the phosban to avoid that. Am I supposed to get good or bad algae? Are all algae's bad? Also, what is a system crash? What causes it, and how can it be avoided? No sump. I disconnected the Fluval when I got the skimmer in. By the way, the skimmer is taking in foam but also its filling about half way with yellow water. I thought it wasn't supposed to collect water.

I know this is alot of questions, sorry.

[tims]

questions are good.

1. yes your skimmer will do that. you have two ways of skimming. wet = taking water and gunk out of the tank. this will fill your trap very fast. by turning up your skimmer you can acheive this. Dry = just gettng a Foam that can be pretty yucky, some like wet some like dry. if you decide you want to go "wet" it is best to have a drain from the trap to a gallon jug so you dont have to empty it every hour!

Alga is good and bad, you will always have alga no matter what, even cyano is good. but it can run crazy in a tank and that is when we call it bad. the Cycle in the tank runs until all levels are zero and the alga has basically "died" off.. we can only keep an eye on it and try to contain it.
the phosban can go into your fluval, it can be used as a back up and used once in a while to help polish the water.. think about a clean up crew soon, these will help with the alga.

A system crash is when the tank and its subsrtate can not long process anything and basically poison the tank. since you are just starting out , you have many years before this will happen.

look for a cyano alga( this can actually be many differant colors..red, blueish, brown) and green alga ( mostly like Hair)and possible diatoms ( will look like a dust is on the bottom of the tank).

[tdwyatt]

Algae are a part of the normal progression of food chains in closed (and open) systems, and although they also ultimately lead to eutrophication in the tank (after quite a LONG time in well-managed tanks), their appearance is part of the normal succession of organisms necessary to have a broad diversity of organisms living in the system. Many of these populations can only develop after the appearance of sufficient quantities of algae as blooms, making available the amount of food these grazers need to feed their population dynamics (to become self-sustaining).

Think of it as having grass grow in a pasture to feed the insects and other grass grazers that feed smaller predators that feed the larger predators that feed the top carnivores of your local prairie or woodland transition biotope (and the many intermediate steps in between). Although in our closed systems, we have many photoautotrophic organisms, cyanobacteria are one of the first organisms capable of growing in low nutrient situations once phosphate (most often the growth limiting factor in both closed and open systems) becomes available. Remember that many species of cyanobacteria are capable of capturing and making nitrate from the nitrogen in the atmosphere. The death of these algae/bacteria, either at the end of the photoperiod or due to grazing or a daily life/death cycle, makes these nutrients available to the next step in the succession of photoautotrophs (green micro- and macroalgae) in the marine ecosystems we are concerned with, and are providing nutrients and carbon energy sources for the next level of many of the organisms we desire in our reef biotopes.


Just something to think about when you are trying to control the cyanobacteria bloom (and it will happen... ). We have many threads on methods of bringing unwanted blooms under control, but the common thought you will see throughout them is that we do not want to chemically eradicate cyano or green algae, rather we want to find means of bringing what most call "nuisance algal blooms" under control when our balance in nutrients gets a little out of hand in mature systems. Encouraging grazing, maximizing exports, and limiting imports of nutrients is what controlling algal blooms is all about. In new tanks, expect, even welcome these blooms as a necessary part of the maturity of a captive reef, just look for ways to minimize its impact on the healthy parts of your system as the system attains levels of maturity of the food webs your systems contain.


HTH

[lizzie]

Thanks Tom! Quite informative. I will be awaiting my algae bloom. Should I take out the phosban then?

[tdwyatt]

Originally Posted by lizzie

Thanks Tom! Quite informative. I will be awaiting my algae bloom. Should I take out the phosban then?

No, so long as you're running appropriate amounts of phosban, it will not be a problem, in particular with DSB systems. Most of the issues seen with SPS blanching and tip degradation have been in BB systems where there is no pool of phosphate for a reserve slow depletion of Phosphorus compds. Renfield ratios in most closed systems cannot be depleted to levels where there will be inadequate phosphate unless there isn't a reserve sink of phosphates (in our situations, DSB fulfill this role). I would run the phosban to prevent early saturation of the sink (the DSB), and change it on a regular basis, just stay below the recommended dosing rate for the phosban. To extend the useful lifespan of a DSB, it is necessary to limit imports and maximize exports of phosphate however and whenever possible.

HTH