HOG 2 - Cannot get anything but slime

[President89]

I use a HOG 2 on my clownfish growout system that has lots of nitrates. I can't get past the green slime stage. I run 16 hours on with the tank lights. I've tried different air flow with an adjustable pump that goes up to 7 PSI.

Here is the pump I'm using.

https://www.amazon.com/Coralife-Energy-Savers-ACL01655-Luft/dp/B000BJM95Y/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1478738831&sr=8-3&keywords=Coralife+air+pump

[SantaMonica]

A system with lots of nutrients will need strong lights, otherwise it will just grow dark slime. A HOG2 is ok, but not the brightest. So do what you can to help it out:

Run the lights 24 hours.
Toothbrush the slime off every few days so you see the white rocks again; this will reflect more light.
Keep the glass clean; just sliding the scrubber sideways to a new clean spot will help too.
Do other filtering, including water changes, to help bring down nutrients too.
And if possible, reduce feeding.

[President89]

I thought the point of these filters were to eliminate other filtering and water changes. So basically this thing is useless in a high nutrient scenario? This unit was $200, and it doesn't have strong lights?

I can't feed less, the system is growout for fish.

So frustrated.

[SantaMonica]

How much are you feeding, and how much rock do you have?

[SantaMonica]

Also of course, even slime is doing filtering. Matter of fact there is more nutrients in slime than green hair.

Another trick is to keep the top 1" out of the water so that water re-circulates inside the case; this will reduce nutrients more inside the case than outside in the water.