You do not want to bump to 1600 all in one day. Follow the instructions on what ever additive you are using and raise slowly over period of time. I am in the process of doing it myself.

my point is the same with algae fix slow and steady

Just an update, my tank is looking great. 9 days after the last algaefix treatment, and so far no GHA or other pests. I've added no "maintenance" doses... I wanted to get my tank off AF marine entirely, and see if my corals respond positively.

My frogspawn is looking better. The green stripe mushrooms are still hurting and are the size of nickels, and I'm not sure if they'll ever go back to their former 4 inch diameters. All other LPS, zoas, GSP, are looking great. :)

Will this work for turf algae as well? I might actually feel kind of bad for my inverts if it actually works and they run out of food. :lmao:

I think it would, if your turf algae is all micro algae. If it's macro, it may die as well if you dose heavily. All my chaeto (not a lot) eventually died and was eaten by emerald crabs

cut your rates back my mushrooms have never been better no damage at all

There have been several hobbyists in this thread who have tried AF on bryopsis without success.

Many hobbyists have reported success killing bryopsis using Tech M to elevate their tank magnesium level to around 1600. I suspect that the contaminates (heavy metals such as copper and lead) are responsible for actually killing the algae. I have read several studies which indicated that the combination of some heavy metals, particularly copper and lead act synergistically together to kill algae. Tech M lists these heavy metals on the label.

Well isn't hair algae considered to be macro?

The definition of macroalgae is rather vague. Personally, I would not consider hair algae in the same category as Halimeda or other macroalgae grown in refugiums and planted aquariums. Hair algae is a chain of microscopic algae. Many macroalgae consist of just a few giant cells. An example would be kelp which is a true macroalgae.

This article makes an attempt to define the difference between micro and macro algae but is somewhat vague also:

http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/alg...microalgae.htm

I tried this stuff for 3 weeks and even increased the recommended dosage. After the first few days the hair algae went for green to a grayish color but never died off. After the initial progress the product stopped working for me.

Rickyrooz1,

Were you able to remove the algae once it turned colors?

gday cliff it looks like hard work trying to convince some of these guys hehe

I didn't scrub the algae, I was expecting it to die off.

It is important to remove as much algae as possible before you dose AF. This includes removing the algae (dead or alive) just before each dose.

If your algae turned a lighter color, then most likely it was dieing, which would indicate the AF was working.

Also, dieing, dead or decaying algae will absorb some of the AF, taking away from its total potential. ;)

Cliff, I have two patches, about 1"x.5", and a little HA, tiny - tiny pieces on the substrate. The two patches are just "green" in color. I'm thinking it's just common algae from upgrading lights, went to 2x as strong lighting. But I now have multiple layers of screen material to prevent it from being blasted full onto the tank.

Anyways, those two tiny patches I can't get to, unless I rework my rock work. Is it worth it, or will the doses of AF kill it off without me reworking my whole tank for those two little spots. And they haven't seem to grow over the past 3-4 days. (2 doses so far).

And would vacuuming up my sand bed disturb it, releasing nitrates, etc.?

The HA seems to be in little tiny balls, but they're hairy, so I'm going to assume it's HA. It' like HA, just not growing on rocks/glass.

And thankfully, I only have a little bit of it. It's nothing to be "concerned" with, but I've seen what HA can do to tanks, so I want to beat it before it really gets out of control.



Any insight?

iFisch,

I have a 31" tall aquarium with rock stacked close to the top. I can't get to some areas of the glass and rock where the Derbesia algae is growing mixed with Cyano.

Since my back operation, bending over in this tank has been periodically difficult and extended periods of time would elapse before I could clean the dead or dieing algae away. Needless to say, the control I have gained using AF on Derbesia took much longer than it should have. After a many month battle, I now have control of both the Derbesia and green cyano mixed in with it, but it did take 1 1/2 large bottles of the AF total. Not really good.

The areas of the glass and rock which can't be easily cleaned appear to be partially dead (discolored to a large degree). I believe the green specie of cyanobacteria still survives in these areas feeding on the dead algae and thus gives a mottled green color to the masses in these areas. I am still dosing the AF at about once or twice a week to keep the cyano and algae under control until the algae completely brakes down. At least that's my theory. :D

The bottom-line, is removing all the dead or dieing algae is the best way to go, if at all possible. ;)

Many hobbyists do not realize that the dead or dieing algae is a food source for many types of algae as well as cyanobacteria. Kind of like letting a dead fish remain in your tank. :eek1:

As far as cleaning your sand, it will release nitrates and phosphates into your tank water. I would only lightly clean the very top layer. This has repeated happened when I decided to clean my substrate.

Would you recommend vacuuming the sand? The particles of HA, kind of float around on the substrate. The only algae in the tank are those two tiny patches, that I am pretty sure came from too much light - they're not growing, and then the tiny HA particles on the sand.

I'm just afraid of vacuuming too much of the sand bed, and causing further problems.


What do you think I should do? Neither is very bad, extremely manageable, but the two patches I can get to, if I remove some of my rock. What about the HA particles on the sand?



Thanks for your help Cliff. :beer:

I have been lightly siphoning the top layer of my substrate, to collect any debris, algae or whatever.

I am convinced that maintaining the cleanest possible aquarium, including decaying matter, live algae, dead algae & any other unwanted floating debris in one's aquarium is very important when fighting any type of algae, cyano, dino or diatoms.

Plus keeping the water column free of as much dissolved organic matter is also very important. This includes proper skimming, running GAC, water changes and perhaps running ozone. Ozone is next on my list. ;)

I will be picking up a Tunze nano skimmer for X-Mas. It's not too far away. I feel it's one of the best for nano's, and instead of buying a cheap one now, and delaying the time until I get one of the better one's, I'm just going to wait for the Tunze.

Sounds like a good plan to me. ;)

Hi all,

I just dosed my first dose of Algaefix today. I've been battling this HA and reddish-brownish cyano/algae hybrid since Feb. My tank had been pristine until I introduced a harem of anthias in the winter. The anthias wrecked havoc in my system because they introduced an internal parasite that pretty much killed off half the livestock in my tank :( And in trying to get them to eat, I added waayy to much food to the system in desperation. Well, the anthias all died and I'm still left with this horrible case of HA and cyano.

I have tried the black out method (5 days), tried chemi clean red slime remover and Ultralife red slime remover. It didn't make a dent in this red/brown hair algae. So this is the last resort.

I'll let everyone know how it goes. :)

Well I took a chance and bump my Magnesium from 1280 to 1600 in one day and my PPE closed up, pink elephant closed up and my mohawks closed up too. So within 2 days I changed water twice and mohawks and pink elephants are slowing coming back but looks like my PPE is dead not sure.

I was going to use algaefix to take care of GHA but I stressed my whole tank by bumping up magnesium to 1600 from 1280 hoping to kill byropsis. So I think I will wait till the corals get settled.

jamirlima,

Sorry to hear about your losses. :(

As stated above, increasing magnesium quicker than 100 ppm per day can lead to problems, due to the contaminates in the mag. mix. I am curious as to whether this increase in mag. has had any effects on your algae problem. It may take some time for the effects to appear on your algae, possibly a week or so. Which mag. supplement did you use?

Day 2-tank doesn't look any different except maybe a tad worst. Looking forward to dosing again on Day 3.