AF Marine worked wonders for me, used it for about 3 weeks and got rid of all my HA! Only downside was it also took its toll on my cheato! but thanks to local reefers all I had to do was stop by at harvest time!

AF Marine is good stuff!

rezaktp,

Good to hear AF worked for you. I lost my chaeto after about 10 doses. I believe it may be better to remove the chaeto if one wants to use AF.

Cliff, once all of the algae is gone, do you suggest maintenance dosing? And if so, how often?

Once your algae is gone, perhaps dosing weekly for a couple of weeks may be advisable. After that I would stop. If your algae returns, then go back to every three day dosing.

THis stuff is unreal. Im kicking myself for not taking before and after pics. It almost softens the algae so it is really easy to pull off the rocks, and it slides right off the glass. I had @ 90% of my rocks covered with HA. I tried a bunch of things, but what makes me uneasy is that i still dont know what the source is. I even tested my makeup water and its tds is 0, no phosphates. I even strain my frozen food with RO water. So i need to figure out what steps to take next.

JonnyD91,

Good hear AF worked for you. :)

The basics for algae control include reducing phosphate, nitrate and dissolved organics in your tank water. Running GAC, with proper skimming can help reduce the organics. Running a filter bag can help remove suspended organics. Overfeeding is a common way hobbyists get themselves in trouble.

what about a RDSB? im at my wits end. I have a brs dual reacttor with carbon in one and phosphate remover in the other. At first i though this may have been dinos but i dont think the algaefix would work on them. I lost a ton of coral to this, and i dont want to put another one in there till i fix this problem. You can see my setup on my home page.

Some algae species are very difficult to control even with low levels of phosphate, nitrate and dissolved organic matter. Constantly scrubbing rock as quick as the algae grows may be the most effect way in conjunction with maintaining proper water parameters. Trying to scrub rock completely can be difficult to achieve in an established tank making control very difficult.

I would continue to watch for a return of your algae. If it does not return and you continue to keep good water parameters then you should be good to go. You have to be careful with whatever you put in your tank. You can bring other algae in along with coral and fish water. Quarantining everything going into your tank with good algae lighting is the best way to prevent this.

FWIW, Algae do not just pop up as a problem unless they have been introduced into your tank. If there are no pest species of algae in your tank, then you should not have problems. ;)

Today will be my 6th dose of AF.

I lost my electric blue damsel last night which was in my tank from last 8 months. I dont know the reason behind but it was behaving somewhat strange after 1st AF dose like always on the floor and hidden, i might be wrong.

Though the body was not found somewhat mucus jelly type was lying on the sand and the bone was near the anemone, i also have a green carpet anemone s.haddoni, that might be the culprit but my damsel has also become very slow these days.

Now my tank is stinking bad, kindly help to get rid of the stink.:(

OK, did my first dose of Algaefix on Sunday, lets see how many doses this takes, I have been fighting this battle close to a 1 1/2 yearsand finally feel i have a bit of an upperhand in it, but STILL keeps tryin to grow back.

I went the GFO route, and it seemed to help a little, then i went the TECH-M route and it knocked it out, bad! but seemed after a while the stuff just became immune to it...so for the past couple months i have been using biopellets, seems to help, and maybe even slowed the growth, but it is still there, trying and taunting me! So now i am trying this Algaefix...lets see how this goes.

phosphates show 0.00-0.02 on random hanna meter tests and nitrates always showing zero on an API test kit at random times..i am beginning to think i have some 'bad' live rock as it seems to be more confined to certain pieces of live rock and not all of it in the tank, sure there is some here and there, but some rocks are like bearded and others are bald. my sump has none...go figure.
doesnt look nearly as bad as it has in months past, but it is still there!


http://i739.photobucket.com/albums/x...s/DSC_0206.jpg

Not a good sign to have a fowl odor to tank water. Most likely due to algae braking down. Check your ammonia level and if there is any there take action by treating tank with appropriate product. Ammonia is extremely toxic to fish. This is why it is important to remove algae especially as it brakes down. Running GAC, Increased water circulation of surface, running filter bags, changing 30% of the water will all help. ;)

Thrashie,

Thanks for sharing your experience with AF. Hopefully it will work on your specie of algae. Keep us posted. :)

I just finished my 5th dose of AF last Sunday. Unfortunately AF did not kill or retard the growth of this HA. In fact this past 3-4 days they seem to get greener and grow thicker:( My PO4 is zero per Hanna Checker and NO3 is 0.2 per Salifert test. I have been keeping my magnesium at about 1500ppm. Oh well, back to square one. Here is a picture of the GHA laughing at me! This is an area of the tank that I cannot reach so it is a good indicator to show if AF can have an impact. I will have my 6th and last dose of AF tomorrow as I am getting ready for my vacation in about 10 days. I want my tank stabilized before I leave.

8/10/10
http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/v...SKL/003-13.jpg


8/17/10
http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/v...monSKL/051.jpg

8/24/10
http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/v...SKL/001-15.jpg

Decided to give AlgaeFix a try and post some pictures along the way. A brief background. I recently downsized from a 180 to my 90. Most of the rock in the aquarium is Live rock from the 180. Only about 6 pieces or so are newly added dry Marco shelf rock and Marco Key Largo. These are currently the only pieces with hair Algae. I'm running GFO and carbon in a reactor. Brand new T5 6 bulb Tek light with bulbs. Bulbs are ATI Blue Plus, UVL Actinic White and GE Midday bulb. I was running the lights about 6 hours a day. No frozen food feeding only Spectrum pellets once every other day. Doing a weekly water change of 30 gallons.

Now for the pictures. Sorry about the quality they were taken with my phone. First dose going in the tank tonight.


http://i661.photobucket.com/albums/u...821_182658.jpg

http://i661.photobucket.com/albums/u...821_182919.jpg

http://i661.photobucket.com/albums/u...823_171837.jpg

http://i661.photobucket.com/albums/u...823_171859.jpg

SimonSKL,

Sorry to hear the AF did not work for you nor the mag increase. :(

At this point you are going to have to remove the rock and scrub it hard. It may be better to keep it in a seperate tank if possible or tub with appropriate lighting. The scrubbing will have to be repeated until the algae is gone. YOu will need to keep your water collumn clean of all debris using filter bags and running GAC. Cleaning the sand bed is important as well, unless it is a deep bed.

Unfortunately some algae like derbesia, which is a siphoning alge are very tuff to control. When parts brake off of the siphoning algae they will easily survive and multiply. The AF causes holes in their exterior cell membrane which is quickly healed by these algae. I have derbesia in my tank. I'm not sure what algae specie you have, but likely a siphoning algea specie.



Derbesia sp:

http://www.marlin.ac.uk/imgs/o_Derspp.jpg

Derbesia marina:

http://www.saltcorner.com/AquariumLi...sia_marina.jpg

Neoz,

Thanks for sharing your experience with AF. I would clean as much of the alge from your tank as possible before each dose. AF breaks down in 24 hrs. AT first it may be difficult, but if AF kills your algae, it should get easier with each dose. It may take 6 doses to see results. ;)

HighlandReefer how would I go about that? Just rip it out by hand? Should I turn off all flow while doing it? I can't remove the pieces with the algae on it as the rock structure is all pinned and epoxied ;)

Also the directions say to dose every 3 days. Did you dose daily?

Follow the directions, every three days. If it is too hard to remove, I would wait until the AF starts to kill it and it should pull easily within 6 doses. Once it pulls easily, get the algae out before it brakes down and adds unwanted nitrate, phosphate and dissolved organic matter into the water.

Thanks for the tips. One more question. Would you recommend running a filter sock? I have one but its currently not on the tank. I had it on the tank when I first set it up but the sock plugged and spilled over the top almost everyday. Got sick of changing it out daily.

I would use it for now to collect the algae debris both dead and live. Perhaps using a larger 100 micron sock would help. Decreasing flow through them can help.

Is there a negative effect from running carbon + phosban + dosing algae fix?

I'm suffering from a large portion of short hair algae on my rocks, that even though I pick and pick it at it seems to come back.

Okay i will do as u said but the smell is like a dead fish i mean i have the same smell when an earlier fish died in my tank. I mean u know the smell when a fish dies last night in ur tank and u remove it next morning. Hair algaes are growing like usual as they grow after 2 weeks of cleaning rocks. I dont see any change on my algae.

I will post ammonia result tonight.

None that we have seen so far. Hobbyists have continued to run carbon, GFO & dose carbon sources with no noticable effects as long as the AF will kill your algae specie. :)

I would stop dosing AF for now until you get the water in proper condition. Water changes will help.