Keep reservoir from algie

[kollos]

Hello! i wonder if someone can help me with a resevoir question i cant find any answer to, on my tank resevoir before i had it closed so no light could hit the water,

But now i have a new tank and its not possible because i have cords and hoses need to go down in top and i wonder if someone know a smart easy way to that is enought to cover it with to keep the water fresh?

I mean is a towel enough or i guess the light penetrate it, What can i cover the top with to keep it clean? that is easy to just take off and put on fast

Thanks alot

 

[hush]

Does your reservoir already have a lid that fits it? If so, just cut a hole you could route the cords and hoses through. I don't use a lid for my reservoirs, and I never get algae growth to any noticeable degree, so I'm not sure why you have that issue. You can also try adding a little h2o2 to your reservoir, that might help out.

 

[Lester Beans]

Use panda plastic to make a cover and use Hygrozyme to keep the res nice nice. Easy peasy

 

[kollos]

Does your reservoir already have a lid that fits it? If so, just cut a hole you could route the cords and hoses through. I don't use a lid for my reservoirs, and I never get algae growth to any noticeable degree, so I'm not sure why you have that issue. You can also try adding a little h2o2 to your reservoir, that might help out.

well what is noticeble degree? when grow was done it smelld insanly bad, and it was small small green on the sides.

is that standard? maybe im caring for no reason?

 

[hush]

I guess noticeable degree would mean being able to smell it. So if you smell it, it's probably bad enough to deal with it. Algae doesn't hurt anything, for the record. It doesn't compete with the plants for nutrients or anything like that. It's just unsightly and slimy, and can also gunk up flood and drain lines. But it doesn't ruin anything, for what it's worth.

I like the idea of using hygrozyme like Lester said. That's safer than using h2o2 like I mentioned above... But it's much more expensive, so factor that in.

 

[kollos]

I guess noticeable degree would mean being able to smell it. So if you smell it, it's probably bad enough to deal with it. Algae doesn't hurt anything, for the record. It doesn't complete with the plants for nutrients or anything like that. It's just unsightly and slimy, and can also gunk up flood and drain lines. But it doesn't ruin anything, for what it's worth.

I like the idea of using hygrozyme like Lester said. That's safer than using h2o2 like I mentioned above... But it's much more expensive, so factor that in.

Okey! well it dident smell that i noticed during, but when i empty the resevoir after i was done, it smelld insanly bad like a old dead fish.

And i have blumat and im afraid that it clog up the lines, it dident do it last run, but this run i dont want any algea at all if i can, so thats why im thinking i can cover it with something so the light dosent hit the water, my last run i had a lid, but the lid was far from sealed.

 

[queequeg152]

I guess noticeable degree would mean being able to smell it. So if you smell it, it's probably bad enough to deal with it. Algae doesn't hurt anything, for the record. It doesn't complete with the plants for nutrients or anything like that. It's just unsightly and slimy, and can also gunk up flood and drain lines. But it doesn't ruin anything, for what it's worth.

I like the idea of using hygrozyme like Lester said. That's safer than using h2o2 like I mentioned above... But it's much more expensive, so factor that in.

yes algae absolutly does consume nutrients. what do you think its thriving on? just light?

does it remove enough to make any difference? probably not, and that's probably what you meant... but still.

living algae rarely produces odors... odorous junk tends to come from bacterial respiration... both aerobic and anaerobic processes can produce bad odors... so you need to be specific here.

are you talking about musty hamper type vague smells, or stinky burnt egg shitty smells?

the latter is a sulfurous odor probably from hydrogen sulfide which is from sulfur reducing bacteria.

im not a biologist, but i work on waste water treatment plants, so while i cant delve into the details of what and why... i can probably tell you how to prevent that stink in the future.

is there any organic material in your fertilizer?

 

[queequeg152]

Okey! well it dident smell that i noticed during, but when i empty the resevoir after i was done, it smelld insanly bad like a old dead fish.

And i have blumat and im afraid that it clog up the lines, it dident do it last run, but this run i dont want any algea at all if i can, so thats why im thinking i can cover it with something so the light dosent hit the water, my last run i had a lid, but the lid was far from sealed.

i missed this post...

dead fish stink is just trimethylamine or a similar molecule usually.

its a natural metabolite of the microbes that digest old dead shit...its completely normal to smell this whenever junk dies off.

you probably had some residue of dead algea or other cellular material left over inside your res. \

you will never get rid of all microbes buy just depriving them of light. especially if there are organic sources inside your res... protiens, sugars, lipids etc.

the only way to keep a sterile res is to use chemical disinfection. UV , ozone and peroxides work, but not very well. they are either contact kill or very low residual. regular old bleach works great for this.

your grow system is probably hopelessly colonized by microbes however... you should really scrub everything down including all of the tubing to break up any biofilmes or surface colonies of algae/bacteria. then run like 10-20ppm bleach solution through everything for a few hours.

 

[kollos]

yes algae absolutly does consume nutrients. what do you think its thriving on? just light?

does it remove enough to make any difference? probably not, and that's probably what you meant... but still.

living algae rarely produces odors... odorous junk tends to come from bacterial respiration... both aerobic and anaerobic processes can produce bad odors... so you need to be specific here.

are you talking about musty hamper type vague smells, or stinky burnt egg shitty smells?

the latter is a sulfurous odor probably from hydrogen sulfide which is from sulfur reducing bacteria.

im not a biologist, but i work on waste water treatment plants, so while i cant delve into the details of what and why... i can probably tell you how to prevent that stink in the future.

is there any organic material in your fertilizer?

Okey! well its hard to recall the smell, its like a dead fish, like sour fish mixed with a plant, haha, its hard to describe, it smelld bad bad not bad, it was like people asking what tha hell i had in my garage because it was so horrible bad smell couldent miss it.

and it was just when i empty the water out and i was done, dident notice the smell before

 

[hush]

yes algae absolutly does consume nutrients. what do you think its thriving on? just light?

does it remove enough to make any difference? probably not, and that's probably what you meant... but still.

Other than the fact that auto correct turned my compete into complete, I meant exactly what I said. I never said that algae doesn't consume nutrients. I said (or at least tried to say) that algae is no competition for plants in the realm of nutrient uptake.

That said, OP, algae doesn't smell like dead fish. You have anaerobic conditions in there somehow. Try aerating your water. If that's not an option, then I go back to recommending h2o2, which would in fact add oxygen to the water. Mechanical aeration is a much better option, though.

 

[queequeg152]

Okey! well its hard to recall the smell, its like a dead fish, like sour fish mixed with a plant, haha, its hard to describe, it smelld bad bad not bad, it was like people asking what tha hell i had in my garage because it was so horrible bad smell couldent miss it.

and it was just when i empty the water out and i was done, dident notice the smell before

ammonium an ammonium like molecules, trimethylamine included tend to be HIGHLY water soluble... its possible that you only started noticing it once the solution began to evaporate out all the water.

tertiary nitrogen has this lone pair of electrons that hang out and shoot out from the top of the atom making it rather polar... so it loves to dissolve into water and set up strong attractions to the positive tails of the water molecule. that makes it stupid soluble, and harder to get out of solution via boiling and aeration when compared to regular gasses like c02.

its also possible that the bacteria could not get to work eating up what ever organic material was left over inside your system untill it was drained.

i dont know to be honest. not familliar with that chemical personally, but my ochem teacher used to always tell us the story of his first job wherein he was doing bench work at DOW or some such laboratory that involved synthesis of trimethylamine... apparently seagulls would always circle the building above the fume hood stack when he was working with the stuff. the joke being the seagulls thought they were smelling fish.

 

[queequeg152]

Other than the fact that auto correct turned my compete into complete, I meant exactly what I said. I never said that algae doesn't consume nutrients. I said (or at least tried to say) that algae is no competition for plants in the realm of nutrient uptake.

That said, OP, algae doesn't smell like dead fish. You have anaerobic conditions in there somehow. Try aerating your water. If that's not an option, then I go back to recommending h2o2, which would in fact add oxygen to the water. Mechanical aeration is a much better option, though.

if its just semantics then fair enough, but i would not rush to claim that algae cannot consume significant amounts of nutrient.

i doubt that it can personally, but ive never seen anything supporting that doubt.
i know that algea will eat shit loads of phosphate... but not without a commensurate shit load of sunlight and oxygen. there is algea that thrives in the dark, but i dont think its metabolism allows it to eat phosphate. could be wrong though.

 

[hush]

I don't have any scientific sources to cite here, but yes it is true that the rate at which algae consume nutrients as a part of photosynthesis is infinitesimal compared to plants. I don't think it would be noticeable until the water is sludgy and viscous. In the world of planted aquariums, it is common knowledge that algae blooms, while unsightly, don't noticeably affect the nutrient parameters of the water column. I've personally experienced this with a bloom so bad that my aquarium looked like it was filled with split pea soup.

The point remains though that algae is slimy and messy, so I would still take steps to eliminate it.

 

[DoubleTripleOG]

If you have a flood table, will it fit under it? That's how I used to have my open res's, and they never got any algae.

 

[queequeg152]

I don't have any scientific sources to cite here, but yes it is true that the rate at which algae consume nutrients as a part of photosynthesis is infinitesimal compared to plants. I don't think it would be noticeable until the water is sludgy and viscous. In the world of planted aquariums, it is common knowledge that algae blooms, while unsightly, don't noticeably affect the nutrient parameters of the water column. I've personally experienced this with a bloom so bad that my aquarium looked like it was filled with split pea soup.

The point remains though that algae is slimy and messy, so I would still take steps to eliminate it.

haha i know someone with a similar tank... it got overrun with snails and he gave up on it... stopped pulling out this grassy stuff, and eventually it reached the top of the water and this cool floating turf stuff started accumulating. this was grass though not algae.

 

[hush]

If you have a flood table, will it fit under it? That's how I used to have my open res's, and they never got any algae.

I actually think that's the reason why I don't get algae, because that's what I do.