[jimw369]

Originally Posted by 73stang

yes for th emost part. Let me explain actions/thoughts to date. I am aware that I need to reduce the nitrate/phosphates in the tank.

When I test for these I essentially get 0 readings. The thought is that the algae is at a point wher it is using up the available nitrates. inotherwords, it is a nice green carpet, but it is not growing more as it has reached the point of using up the avaialble nutrients. Hope this makes sense...

the skimmer I have is an older C-6 that was running fine on my old tank, a 480 gallon (my first saltwater tank, lol). I moved last eyar and in the process upgraded to a 840 gal tank. Same skimmer. I dont think the skimmer was adequate. After unsecessfully fighting the algae for about 6 months with smails and the like, I finally broke down and spent the money to retrofitted/ipgraded the skimmer two weeks ago. Seems to be much improved now.

I ahve seens some loss of algae since upgrading the skimmer. My thoughts are that I am not fuly utilizing the skimmer's capabilites yet as the nutrients I want to get out are tied up in the algae. By physical removal of the algea, I reduce the overall algae in the tank. In theory the balance of nutrients will be shifted to allow more algae to grow, but since I now ahve the larger skimmer going it should be able to remove the "free" nutrients better now to help prevent more algae growth. Slowly tippiing the balance back to a near algae free system.

That is the hope at least. I have tested my make up water and get 0 nitrates/phosphates also, use DI/RO. Also do a 75-100 gal water change weekly right now also.

Heard that the older lights may ahve a shift in spectrum whcih can benefit algae growth, so chanign those out now.

All in the battle of the hair algae.

ack, too much typing...

Yup. Usually takes some break in time for skimmer to really work well.