sera guide - Marine aquariums

The fluorescent tubes should be replaced with new ones after a year at the latest. The human eye does not detect the gradual reduction of light emittance. 9.10 Testing the lighting Mechanical filter media are washed out once weekly. As coarse parti- cles are collected by the mechanical filter media (sponges), it is sufficient to wash out the biological filter medi- um sera siporax only every 3 to 6 months. Be sure to use marine water from a water change for this pur- pose. The filter media are washed out in the removed marine water until no cloudiness is released any more. The water missing now is replenished with freshly prepared and matured marine water. Adding sera marin bio reef- clear compensates the loss of nitrify- ing bacteria during the water change. 9.7 Cleaning the filter media 54 If macro algae, such as Caulerpa, grow in your aquarium, you should carefully control their growth. The rapidly growing Caulerpa algae can actually overgrow inverte- brates. Be careful when removing such algae, and do not remove too much algae at one time. The algae “leaves” are so-called “thalli”. They consist of a single cell that will release its nitrate- containing cell liquid into the aquarium if it is not removed properly. We recommend to proceed as follows: The rhizome (this is the cord from which the single thalli grow) has frag- ile spots beside the thalli where you can carefully break the algae apart. Immediately remove the unwanted part of the Caulerpa algae from the aquarium. Be careful not to damage the algae, as this will lead to cell liq- uid running into the aquarium uncon- trollably. 9.8 Removing excess algae Waste (e.g. dead algae parts) accumulating between wa- ter changes must be re- moved instantly, e.g. by means of the sera gravel cleaner. Waste that is not removed will cause severe water pollution. 9.9 Removing deposits