I recently had a free floating single celled algae problem, and put in a floss pad. DETAILS~~~?

Question

It says I am supposed to take the floss pad out after a month...

couldn't I just leave it in?

Answer 1

Have to agree with the first guy - floss won't remove the algae. If it's plain floss, you can rinse it in tank water and reuse it until it falls apart. If it's a resin pad made to remove certain compounds like one of these: http://www.thehiddenreef.com/saltwater_aquarium_supplies/aquarium_supplies_reef_products/hbh_filter_pad.htm , you could take it out. The resin is meant to remove the nutrients the algae needs to feed, and once the pad is saturated with what it's made to remove, it only acts as a regular floss filter. If that's all you want or need at this point, you could continue to use it, but it won't remove any more of whatever was intended.

Answer 2

Depends on what kind of pad it was. I don't know of any pad that will "strain" algae out of the water, algae is smaller than all un-pressurized pads. You could use a diatom filter, (a sealed canister filter that uses diatamacious earth for filtering) for a couple of days. That is guaranteed to remove algae as it removes particles down to 1 micron, which of course is microscopic.

My guess is that the pad you are using is imbedded which a Phosphate absorbing resin to remove Phospates from your water. Phospates are a major nutrient that algae feeds on. Often, if you lower the phoshates, the algae starves and dies. If this pad is a phosphate pad, then YES you do need to remove it. Once the resins reach saturation, they tend to release all of the phosphates back into the aquarium effectively returning you to square one.

Hope this helps.