Hello, I have been battling green hair algae for two months now. I am using AF, I'm on my third dose and I have not been as lucky as HighlandReefer and many others, it looks like some of my corals are slowly dying. I have (or had) 2 montiporas and 1 is already gone, and the other is half dead. My zoos have not opened, and they appear to be dying as well. And a few other things.

I have been testing my water all the parameters are where they should be (Ca, Mg, Ph/Alk).

I can only point to AF since I have not added anything else. And I'm still battling with Green hair algae.

afew months ago, I started purchasing natural sea water from Catalina Island, instead of the regular mixed saltwater. I was told that perhaps the natural sea water might of caused the breakout of green hair algae. The place where I bought the water claims that they always checked the water before selling it, and that there was nothing wrong with it. Any thoughts about this anyone? two different chemistries, one big problem? has anyone experience negative effects when switching from synthetic to Natural water?

i doesed alagefi for two weeks and my two sps that i have bleached but since i quit using it and have done some big water changes they are starting to come around but that crap almost killed them. i am still hopeing that they come around completly

Yeah? I tried NSW from 3 different companies. Multiple times, so many I lost count how many times I purchased it, tested it and returned it.

1 brand had salinity around 1.022. 1 brand had Alk consistently test @ 15+. Finally, 1 brand I found, that had reasonable Alk and close to NSW salinity, costs $6.50 a gallon. :lol:

It may, just be your water. What test kits are you using?

For coral the salinity in your tank should be at least 1.024. I keep mine around natural seawater @ 1.0260 - 1.0270. We had one other hobbyist who lost coral when dosing AlgaeFix & he had a very low salinity around 1.022. IMHO, the low salinity may have played a big factor in the death of the coral.

I agree. 35ppt here. At $6.50/g no one can afford that. I mix my own with TMP/RS and will be trying Tunze and ESV in the upcoming months.

My Ca is at 450; Mg is at 1400, Alk/Ph has been stable at 8.3; Salinity is at 1.021. I use Salifert test kits.

Unfortunately I will not be around to do a water change in order to be able to increase the salinity until this coming weekend. I just hope the rest, whatever little stuff I have left, can make it until then.

well, since I have lost about 75% of my sps, I guess there is no turning back. I am on my third dose.

Man that really sucks. I also lost my sps (birdnest) while dosing AF. As for my other corals (zoos, lps and other softies) they all looked stressed and didnt open much or at all during treatment, but ended up fine a few days after the final dose.

Good luck.

I dosed Af for 6 weeks and had no visible effect on any of my corals. I have lps, sps and clams. Strange.....

Just curious as to how you get those numbers @ 1.021.

Those are typical 1.025/6 numbers.

I used a Coralife Six Deep Hydrometer - When I tested the water, the pointer was right on the 1.021

Hydrometer are useless unless you have a refractometer to measure the water, and adjust the hygrometer accordingly.

You may be at 1.018 or 1.032. Who knows.

rollster,

I have a Deep Six I use all the time. It is off by quite a bit, but I calibrated it by using my Refractometer and placed a mark where I want the salinity level. You have to be careful about bubbles when using it. You may be able to go to a LFS and calibrate yours. I would invest in a $50.00 refractometer though. ;)

I do the same thing and mine is off quite a bit.

A friend just set up a new tank and so I gave him some supplies, one of which was a hydrometer, not the deep six, but I think an IO brand or something. The fatter one.

That thing measured my 1.026 water at 1.034. Plus you can never seem to get all the dam little bubbles off. I marked it for him as well, but those things are terribly inconsistent.

LOL! $50.00 not bad. My biggest challange if getting money from my wife to buy it! hehehe! right now she is not happy since she is seeing the corals (my point of view)/the money (her point of view) down the drain! wish me luck! thank you guys.

I'm out of town, but my wife will dose the tank tonight, which will be the fourth dose. I will keep you guys updated - I hope I dont lose anymore corals!

I would get the refractometer ASAP, and see if you can transfer your corals to another tank. Because if you're WAY off, it will take some time for the salinity to either drop or rise. And you may loose more in this process.


I'd stop dosing if it were me, until you get a calibrated refractometer. And no, using RODI to calibrate is not an accurate way to do it. Get calibration fluid.

use of algaecides
 

I've tried them. They work. I believe they also caused my soft corals to dwindle. I therefore no longer use them. Most of the corals bounced back after discontinuing these products. The products I used were Algaefix and Algae Magic.

jpedersenjim,

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Algae Magic
--------------
INGREDIENTS:
Vitamins: B-complex, Beta-Carotene, C, Cyanobalamine, D, Folic Acid, Iodine, K, Niacin, Pyridoxin, Retinol, Riboflavin, Thiamin, Tocopherol
Minerals: Ca, Cl, Cr, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Na, P, S, Se, Si, Zn
Derived from ferment of: Acacia Gum, Aloe Barbadensis (Aloe Vera), Asparagus Officinalus (Asparagus), Camellia Sinesis (Green Tea), Citic Acid, Citrus Molasses, Cucumis Sativus (Cucumber), Curcurbita (Squash), Daucus Carota (Carrot), Ipmoea Batatas (Sweet Potato), Lycoperscion (Tomato), Sea-Vegetables, Triticum (wheat) plus added to the ferment are the micro aggregates of Oolite, Volcanic, and Hematite



They've seemed to have forgotten the kitchen sink in their mixture. At least they list their active ingredients. ;)

The heavy metals listed in the Algae Magic will kill algae at high enough levels. What kind of algae did this kill in your tank? Do you have any shrimp, snails or crabs in your tank?

I've been following this thread for a few months while I tried other methods of
fighing Green Hair Algae. My nitrates are 0. I don't bother testing for phosphates as I know that you can test really low but it's a false reading because it's tied up in the algae. I do run phosban in a TLF reactor. I try
not to overfeed. Rinse food. RO/DI water with 0 TDS, T5's and MH are 6 months old. Actually, this GHA problem didn't start until I put in new bulbs. Same brand as I used before the outbreak. Tried a Tuxedo Urchin. Blah Blah Blah.
I don't have a massive outbreak of GHA, but enough that it makes me nervous that it could become a major problem if I don't take care of it now. You can see patches of the GHA on my rock in the pics below, but take a look at my overflow on the right side of the tank, and a great close up shot of the GHA on the overflow in the 2nd picture. It's COVERED in GHA !! I did my first dose last night and all LPS corals, my Crocea clam, my huge Sabae Anemone and all fish look good. One silly question.... I know I'm supposed to dose every 3 days, but is that every 72 hours, or every 3rd day? I assumed since I dosed last night on Wednesday, that I'd dose again after 72 hours on Saturday, but now I'm wondering if it's on the 3rd day which would be Friday??? I did clean off 95% of the GHA on the overflow tonight with a metal brush, 24 hours after my first dose of AlgaeFix and siphoned off as much as I could into a filter sock in the sump. The GHA came off the overflow really easy, but not so easy yet off the rock. I'll update the thread with photos as I progress through the doses of Algaefix. Pam

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/a...Fix11-5-20.jpg

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/a...eFix11-5-1.jpg

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/a...eFix11-5-2.jpg

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/a...eFix11-5-3.jpg

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/a...eFix11-5-4.jpg

If you dosed Wednesday, then you will dose next on Saturday. ;)

Most hobbyists seem to see good results around the 5th dose.

Keep us posted on your results and good luck. :)

Pam,

Forgot to add: nice pictures you have provided. Very nice tank and inhabitants. :)

Thanks Cliff. :) I included some pictures of the rock that doesn't have much GHA on it, so everyone could get an idea of the level of GHA outbreak I have. All of the pictures were taken at the same time, but you can see in some pictures, it looks like I don't have much GHA at all, but when you see the overflow...YIKES!!! What I don't want, is for my rocks to get to that level of infestation that you see on the overflow. Looks MUCH better since I just got all of that GHA off of the overflow last night. I was really afraid to try the AlgaeFix because of my Anemone, Clam, and Pistol Shrimp but it seems people haven't had problems with them and AlgaeFix. Nothing seemed phased at all after the first dose of Algaefix. Before I had the GHA, I battled Lobophora for quite a long time...at least 6 months, maybe a year.
A Sally Lightfoot crab eradicated the Lobo very quickly once I added it to the tank, then I had a heck of time catching it to get the crab OUT of my tank!! Gave it away to another reefer. The Lobo never came back. Not even a speck of it, and I was completely algae free for at least 6 months, and then GHA started creeping up and getting worse and worse. I was overdue on changing out my bulbs and RO/DI filters (even though I still had 0 TDS showing on my Spectrapure RO/DI). It wasn't until AFTER (very soon after) I changed the bulbs and RO/DI filters that the GHA started popping up. I don't know if the GHA was already starting to germinate in my tank and the extra light from the new bulbs made it take off or what, but I didn't have it with the old bulbs. I was trying to change everything BEFORE I got into trouble with an Algae outbreak, and instead, it seemed to fuel it. Just FYI....I have a 150watt Reflux 12k MH bulb, and 4 24w T5s - (UVL and ATI)

Pam

I had a thought.... I read where someone was squirting the AlgaeFix directly into the Algae. I'm not going to try that yet, unless I get a stubborn area of algae, but it got me thinking.. I decided for my dose #2 tomorrow, I'm going to turn off my return pump right before I dose, and then turn it back on after an hour. Figured, that would give the AlgaeFix an hour in the display where the Algae is, and it won't go through the sump and skimmer etc. Don't know if it will make a difference or not, but it kind of makes sense to me. Keep the AlgaeFix isolated to the Display for the first hour. I turned off my TLF reactor with Phosban and Seachem DeNitrate (which works GREAT by the way) for 24 hours after dosing, and then turned it back on. Since AlgaeFix supposedly is in your system for only 24 hours, I thought, why keep the Reactor with GFO turned off the whoe time? Why not just turn it off for 24 hours, every time I dose. So, that's my plan. Turn return pump off right before I dose and turn it back on an hour later, Turn my TLF with GFO off right before I dose and turn it back on 24 hours later, keep skimmer running as usual the entire time (which didn't react any differently than it usually does after I dosed AlgaeFix).

Pam

The only concern I would have is if you turn your return off and the chemical does not disperse properly. Perhaps certain areas in your tank may get to high a dose without proper circulation to distribute it. Even when hobbyists use a turkey baster to add it directly to algal areas, the product will still disperse fairly quickly as long as there is adequate flow. :)

Turning off GFO and GAC can possibly benefit the dosing of AF.

Removing as much algae as you can before dosing is a big plus IMHO. ;)