Reef Central Online Community - AlgaeFix Marine to control Hair Algae

Reef Central Online Community (http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/index.php)

- The Reef Chemistry Forum (http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=112)

- - AlgaeFix Marine to control Hair Algae (http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1595003)

Ok....

It may have already been said in this thread but the only way to get rid of GHA is to jack up ur Mag to 1600+ & let the lights burn it up! Wont hurt your corals/fish. I have heard that the Tech/kent product is best but I have done with this with Aquavitro as I had it on hand. Took about 2 full weeks but it was covering egg crate! May sound crazy until you see it for your self!

I had my Mg up over 2400 for 5 months with Tech M and I'm here to tell you that it did NOT work. :) It DID kill most of my zoas and snails.

Are you guys using carbon while dosing this stuff? I wanted to ask because it doesn't say to stop using it.

There are many different species of algae in the ocean and therefore possible in our tanks. Not all algae react to treatment methods the same including AF and elevating the mag level. If one don't work, try another. If neither work, you are left with mechanically removing the algae while maintaining proper water parameters. ;)

IME TechM works on Bryopsis and not GHA. Also, dumping a bunch of chemicals into your tank isn't going to help you in the long run. The ONLY way to get a handle on an algae problem long term is to fix the SOURCE of the problem: excessive nutrients. These can come from many places, too much food, bound up in rock/substrate, source water, etc. You need to figure out where you're nutrients are coming from and eliminate/minimize them at the source.

Secondly, you need to EXPORT nutrients from the system. Skimmers, chemical media, macro algae, manual removeal, water changes, etc. If you are dosing something to kill the algea it is only a temporary fix. Once the algae dies, all of the nutrients that were bound up within the algae are simple released back into the system, leading to another algae bloom down the road. Dieoff's associated with chemical dosing (i.e. cleanup crews) only compounds the problem, with the dieoff adding more nutrients and further fueling more algae.

Algae battles can be a long arduous process, but patients and diligence win out in the end. A formula that works for many people I have found:

1) Verify youre souce water. Replace your RO/DI cartridges if you use one. If purchasing water, test it, and start saving for an RO/DI so you KNOW it's clean.
2) However much you're feeding, cut it WAAAYYY back. I recomend at least by 50%. It doesn't how much you are feeding. If it's only 1 cube, cut it in half. If it's 10, cubes cut it in half. Rinse frozen food before feeding and shoot for foods low in phosphates.
3) Cut your light cycle back. I would cut back to something like 6 hours. Maybe less, depending on what corals you have in the tank. If you don't have any photosynthetic organisms, kill the lights completely, fish will be fine with ambient light.
4)Manually remove as much of the algae as humanly possibly. Scrubbing, siphoning, however you need to. I know it sucks, but it's a necessary step
5)Black out the tank. Completely. Cover the tank and shut the lights off for 2 or 3 days. There are many posts in RC detailing this step. Make sure to immediately follow this with a LARGE water change. The bigger the better, 50% or larger.
6) Get some macro going. Be it in a fuge, a ball of chaeto in your sump, some chaeto in an HOB filter, overflow, etc.
7) WATER CHANGES!!! Do lots of them. Declare all out war on detritus. Get as much of it out of your system as possible, siphon your sand bed religiously, eliminate dead spots behind the rocks, blow it all out of nooks and cranies in the rock. The solution to polution is dilution.
8) Check the age of your bulbs. While rarely responsible for an algae bloom, aging bulbs can fuel one, an exacerbate an existing problem.
9) Skimmer: If you don't have one, get one. If you have a crappy one, upgrade. If you have a good one, keep it clean!
10)Do another water change.

Is this a lot of hard work? YES! Is it work it in the end? ABSOLUTELY!

Fancy seeing you here Toadally ;)

Jon,

Well stated.

:thumbsup:

I agree Jon,

However the situation is always different. In mine it was a new frag tank about 1 month old when it took over. After treatment which worked a miracle old fashioned water change came into play, GFO & serious skimming. Now I remember why I haven't posted in so long!

Hey Jon, you're close enough to me.....come clean my tank! Lol

Michael, well, I do like frags and beer. :)

Just to hammer this point home, NONE of this will work by itself. You can do manual removal and water changes if you won't cut back on feeding. Long term you're back at square 1. You have to be willing to fightthis battle on multiple fronts..

I cut WAY back on feeding, but then I added an engineer goby and I feel bad not feeding at least once per day. He's tough to target feed, so I feed the tank.

I did add GAC and I started skimming wet, though, and I added about 33% more live rock to my system. I hope all that is enough to absorb the feedings...

Here is my experience.
I got the hair algae from a frag's plug which spread all over one side of my tank. I checked my parameters and everything was in normal ranges. I tried 5 day blackouts, increasing my CUC, changing my phosphate media, manual removal (ended up spreading the hair algae more) and big water changes. Following SunnyX advise, I added a pump to my sump and my skimmer efficiency was doubled, now I have to clean it every 3 days :thumbsup:. but this didn't help getting rid of the HA.

I was about to tear apart the tank and start all over again until I found this thread and decided to give it a shot.
I dose every 3 days as directed by the manufacturer, didn't turn off anything (skimmer, phosphaste media, bio-pellets, lighting period) and I didn't do any manual removal while dosing.

After 7 doses I have to say this really works and I believe I have it under control now. Today I added more turbos and I will keep and eye on my parameters, which I also tested today and are normal. The only side effect so far is part of my chaeto died. I will stop dosing every 3 days, and start dosing once a week sine I don't want to kill my macro-algae.
Dose 1
http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m...o/IMG_0819.jpg
http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m...o/IMG_0820.jpg
Dose 2
Forgot to take pics.
Dose 3
http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m...o/IMG_0822.jpg
http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m...o/IMG_0821.jpg
Dose 4
http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m...o/IMG_0836.jpg
http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m...o/IMG_0835.jpg
http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m...o/IMG_0834.jpg

Thanks for the post with great pictures. ;)

:thumbsup:

Yes, thanks for posting!

Quote:

Originally Posted by ganjero (Post 19434232)

I just wanted to verify that you dosed AlgaeFix Marine.

Yes,
AlgaeFix Marine.

I think that it's a good idea that when using algaefix, and the GHA is dying, it will be expelling phosphates back into the water and to use, or possibly over-use, GFO to be pulling all that phosphate back out of your system before some other algae can grab it up and become your new problem. JMTC & GL!

Just started my first dose, I will let you know my results in a few days. DP, I will check on the resin for your tomorrow.

Ok, so I only had to dose 3 times and the hairy mat of algae on my sand is gone. The little bit of slimy dino I had was unaffected, so I did the hydrogen peroxide soak and scrub and it is gone. I am however, left with a rust colored algae everywhere. I treated with chemiclean, and it never touched the stuff. It blows of the rocks like dust. Could this be a form of dino? It is bright orange to rust colored and is on the rocks and sand. Before I take all the rock out and scrub it, I would like to identify it. Any ideas?

Perhaps diatoms which are known as the golden algae?

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...8bVP6KDoi221Tu

Thanks, I was thinking dino or diatoms. I forgot that I added new sand lol. Well, I guess I will have to wait and see if they go away. Although, I have never seen diatoms this orange.

So am I right in saying general consesus is this stuff will harm cheato?!?!

IME, it did not harm chaeto until after around 11-12 doses.

will algae fix kill cyanobacteria??

been fighting this stuff for a month or so, and cant seem to get it to stop, im using RO/DI water, and see signature for tank specs, also do 20% water changes every other week, this stuff is making me want to just break the tank down and start all over with a tank that has a sump, where i can more control it with a gfo reactor or something, i know i can run reactors without a sump but i already have so much stuff hanging on and in my tank, no room to put another pump in there for a reactor, any advice anyone??

There are many species of cyanobacteria found in the ocean. The AF label claims it will control Oscillatoria & Spirulina major cyanobacteria. Without a microscope you will not be able to ID cyanobacteria. ;)