Algae in the weir

[MoliroMan]

Hi All!

I have an algae in the weir problem. There is unsightly brown algae growing in my weir on the walls and the pvc piping. I have a durso standpipe which is looking brown at the moment. One day my golden sucker catfish swam down into the weir and ate all the algae however it got sucked down into the minireef but luckily was ok.

Any ideas guys? Can i keep a permanent resident algae eater in the weir? Or do i just have to put up with it? How do i stop the fish getting sucking down into the sump? strainer?

Thanks

DAve

[Ducksta]

The algae will help draw excess nutrients from the water. It is actually a very good thing if you can get past the sight of it. Any way you could obstruct the view of the weir? Maybe a rock formation or some tall plants in front of it?

[MoliroMan]

Thanks Mate!

Didn't think of algae that way! I guess your right. I will just put up with it.

[CThompson]

As Ducksta said, algae removes pollutants from the water, such as phosphates, and this is a good thing. For me, I want algae growing in my African tanks, on all surfaces except the ones I view the tank through. If you’re lucky enough to get a really healthy crop growing, which you probably won’t with a golden sucker in there, it is even rather attractive.

If you want to stop your fish going out the drain, you could provide some mesh that prevents access to things as large as your fish. You could get some irrigation strainers to go into the opening of your Durso Standpipe entry, the closest place I know of to you is St George Landscaping (ring some irrigation specialists in your area). Just watch out it doesn’t cause blocking issues with the Standpipe – you’ll just have to try it and evaluate.

Craig

[MoliroMan]

Thanks Craig!

Full of knowledge about anything fish-related as usual! I was looking at the Durso standpipe website and they have some modifications which include a pvc tube with linear perforations enveloped by a prefilter sponge (but this might cause blockage and overflow problems). The other mod was a perforated tube.

I have no idea what an irrigation strainer is. Does it fit into a 1 1/4 inch (32mm) pvc pipe? Do u have an address for St George Landscaping?

Dave

[CThompson]

St George landscapes 9529-6512, 238 Rocky Point Rd, Ramsgate.

Look up ’irrigation’ in a phone book, you may find some sort of place closer than Ramsgate to you. However, if you can make the trip to St George Landscapes, they should have everything you need.

Take the end of your Durso with you, and look for some sort of strainer that will fit. It perhaps may need gluing with silicon to make sure it doesn’t fall out. An irrigation strainer, serves the same purpose as the strainer that go into for example the inlet end of a walking stick that feeds to a canister filter, or a hang on the back style of filter. That is, it allows water to get past, but dependant on the meshing size, will prevent larger things like fish from getting down to your filter.

At irrigation places, these strainer coming in sizes from 25 mm to 40mm and larger. Surly something in there will be a suitable size for the inlet to you Durso. If need be, one of these strainers could be modified (cut) to fit your Durso.

Another thing you can do, and I didn’t mention it in my last post as I can’t remember what it is called, and I still can’t. But Aquasonic produce a strainer in the shape of a cylinder. They produce them with a variety of strainer/hole sizes, are made from a white plastic. They would be cut to the length to fit over the end of your Durso, going to the bottom of your overflow, and up hard against the Durso, so there are no gaps. Maybe some one else can let us know what these cylinder strainers are called.

Craig

[Phenomena]

MoliroMan,

I use metal flyscreen on the stand pipe in my weir. Just enough to cover the pipe diameter, in my case 32mm. Cut a piece larger than the pipe diameter. Place it on one end of the pipe and push down the excess so it forms like a lid. Just becareful it's sharp.

Been using it for 1 year or so, no problem. Just check it every now and then for debri collecting on the strainer and clean it accordingly. Cheaper than chips.

Alternatively, u can use the plastic/nylon/whatever they call flyscreen. Same method, u only need a cable tie to hold it on the pipe. Overtime the screen gets stiff and u can remove and place it back anytime for cleaning. I've used this aswell, works a charm!

I have a small BN camping in the weir for a while. It keeps the weir clean from algae and food spills into the weir. Somehow it managed to get out of the weir. :lol1

HTH,

DD

[CThompson]

The stuff I was talking about that Aquasonic has is called “cylindrical mesh”. It is made to go over a standard stand pipe type installation, which has holes drilled into it. The idea is that you wrap wool around the cylindrical mesh, and fit that over the stand pipe. Buy one spare, and have it ready when you change/clean the stand pipe wool, and you can change your filtration media in seconds, with a lot less hassle...

Craig

I should add, it’s not a good idea to put a screen directly over the inlet like this, as it holds the potential to block. It only has to happen once in ten years, and it is too often. I will be using this cylindrical mesh over the opening of my Durso of my new tank. It’s a little fiddly to set it up, but it really doesn’t seem like it will restrict the movement of water, yet will stop all but the smallest fish from going into the filter. As it is cylindrical, holds little concern with blocking.

[MoliroMan]

Thanks DD & Craig,

I did think of using a mesh but was too lazy to try it and as Craig said was worried it would get blocked. So your bristlenose did ok in the weir?

Craig...i am quite interested in that Aquasonic cylindrical mesh. I have no idea what you r describing though. Where can u buy it?

Dave

[CThompson]

Thanks DD & Craig,

I did think of using a mesh but was too lazy to try it and as Craig said was worried it would get blocked. So your bristlenose did ok in the weir?

Craig...i am quite interested in that Aquasonic cylindrical mesh. I have no idea what you r describing though. Where can u buy it?

Dave

←

It is a white plastic cylindrical mesh, made to go over the entire standpipe, but for us with Durso, can be modified. Don't know where it can be purchased retail, but the wholesaler is Aquasonic. Ring around, ask if they have or can get in Aquasonic's Cylindrical Mesh. Make sure you tell them how much you want, but even if you have to buy a full lenght (about a meter), it's not too expensive.

[BaZ]

I think I have some of that here somewhere, will search for it later tonight and get a pic up so you can all see what Craig means

[MoliroMan]

Thanks Craig and Baz,

This mesh sounds almost magical. Do any of u know if any LFS sell it?

Would luv to see some pics Baz!

Dave

[BaZ]

Is this the stuff you meant Craig?

[BaZ]

Oops sorry it looks like my webspace is having some issues.

The pic will magically appear at some stage in the future

[MoliroMan]

Baz...

Looks great! Is it sealed at the end or do u just place the opening at the base of the weir? Where can i get me some?

Dave

[BaZ]

It's open at both ends. Mine came from StGeorge aquariums, with a tank that they made.

Their design at the time was for one end of this to be slipped over the bulkhead at the bottom of the weir, and obviously the other end was left open at the top of the weir.

The whole tube was wrapped in wool, acting as a pre-filter. It didn't matter if the pre-filter got blocked, as the top of the tube was always open.

I found the whole system to be very noisy and no longer use the tube. I have ditched it in favour of a durso standpipe. I also do not want any media in my weir, that's what my filter is for

I'm having trouble picturing what it is you want to do, so I'm not sure if this next pic will help.

This is the way the water exits the tanks on one of my racks. I've added the mesh (gutter guard) to stop fry from going down the drain, but if the mesh gets blocked with food or other gunk the water will just go over the top.

[MoliroMan]

i am also using a Durso Standpipe. I just want to add something so that the catfish don't end up down the standpipe into the sump.

[BaZ]

If it was me I'd be adding some gutter guard or similar to the top of the weir. That will allow water into the weir but will prevent fish from entering.

Just silicone it on as an extension to the existing wall, and have the new mesh wall stop just short of the top of the tank so that if it all blocks up you'll still get water over into the weir and not onto the floor

Once you get fish in the weir they can be real buggers to get out, depending on your tank setup, and I don't like the idea of any kind of strainer in the sump which may become blocked where I cannot see it.

[CThompson]

I also have a strainer situated at the entry into my weir/overflow box, but what if something gets past this. For me that means preventing it from going into the outlet of the overflow box, which in our case is the Durso. You defiantly don’t want a piece of flyscreen type mesh there acting as a strainer as Bas mentioned, that at best is asking for regular maintenance, and at worst (which is what you have to plan for) is begging from trouble with an overflowed tank, and a burnt out pump.

The next best thing in my book is some sort of strainer like that is used on the end of walking sticks that lead to filters. They will not present one flat surface that would be anywhere near so easy to block, and a sutable size ones could be purchased at an irrigation supply place.

However, what I think is one step better again is the cylindrical mesh, that Baz has correctly identified and photographed. It is open at both ends, as has been mentioned. My idea to use it in conjunction with a Durso, is to slip it over the entry to the Durso (which faces down), and cut it exactly the correct length so that t will reach flush from the bottom of your weir or overflow box, and fit snugly around/past the Durso opening. You might need a bit of silicon to close any gap between the cylindrical mesh and the Durso, but I believe this is the best of both worlds. It will completely close off any access to fish that are too big to go through the holes, but will hold even less chance of being blocked than if there was no cylindrical mesh/strainer there. For example, if you had the open end of the Durso, someone could put a table tennis ball (what ever, say a fish larger than the opening to the Durso) and block the Durso. But with cylindrical mesh, this can’t happen.

I believe, having the cylindrical mesh will in fact make it harder for the Durso’s water flow to EVER become impeded, than if no strainer was used at all.

Craig

[Matthew]

G'day Dave

I also use the Durso pipe system. For me what I do is filter the water before it gets into the weir. See last paragraph.

Then to stop any fish that happen to get past the weir I use an onion bag to prevent the fish getting sucked in. (This maybe an option to get your algae eater from getting sucked in.)

If I expect fry to get through I use a garlic bag. All are held on by rubber bands.

Can the system get blocked? Yes but rarely. When this occurs I notice a slight rise in the weir height and simply clean the mesh, this doesn't occur very often, I would say that I am probably cleaning it once every 6 months.

To be honest I have to clean the weir strainer (fibreglass flyscreen) more often, if this blocks up all you notice is a slightly higher tank water level. This cannot block because as the tank water level lifts new/clean mesh is exposed and the water passes through it unobstructed. IF you were to miss a height rise in your tank of 5cm you are obviously not watching your fish and tanks enough and don't deserve to have fish in the first place. (The gauntlet has been thrown down )

hth Matthew...

[MoliroMan]

Thanks Guys!

U r have presented very good and convincing cases for your arguments but no one has yet told me where to buy this pipe thingy?! Can i actually buy it from St George?

[BaZ]

I'm not sure if StGeorge still use it in their tanks when they make them.

If they do, I'm sure you could buy some there.

My piece here is roughly 55mm internal diametre and 58cm long. Everything in this world is for sale at the right price

[Phenomena]

Hey MoMan,

Here's a pic of my stand pipe:

I should have mentioned that I drilled holes on the pipe as well. Instead of putting an end cap, I use fly screen. You can also see that I placed a gutter guard to prevent fish or anything larger than the squares going into the weir, except my bristlenose. She's been in and out.

I won't say this is a fool proof method. What works for me may or may not work for others. So far so good and I'm happy with it.

DD

[MoliroMan]

Baz....55mm diameter sounds really big. I think my durso standpipe is only 32mm. I actually bought one of the pipes made by the guy himself in the US. I would buy it if it fits mine?

Phenomena...your standpipe/weir setup looks "phenomenal"! I should have asked u to help build mine. I tried so hard to reduce the noise in my weir that i finally bought a standpipe. Putting a mesh sounds like a good idea but i don't want to risk it getting blocked and the tank overfilling. Also i assume u stick it on with silicon. Can u apply it while wet? Will it be toxic to the fish when it is curing?

thx

Dave

[Phenomena]

Dave, u r exaggerating. It's just a normal setup. I always like something simple.

My stand pipe is also 32mm pvc pipe. None of my plumbing is permanent. All is fixed with only orange teflon tape to prevent leaks. This way I can always dismantle and change to my liking. Again I'm running the risk of leak or even burst from dislocating pipes. Well, I know what I'm doing, it works for me and I'm happy.

I reduce the noise by having the pipe all the way up as high as I could and having a ball valve to adjust the water flowing into the sump. I can't eliminate the noise completely as I have an output pipe in the same weir so I can't go higher with the inlet pipe. The noise is acceptable to me, besides I like to hear the water flow. The noise from the pump is more noticable. That's the problem of having an el cheapo pump

I also can't have the durso stand pipe as there's no room in the weir due to having an outlet pipe in there.