HighlandReefer

Sorry about that I dosed 6 tsp for 3 weeks and am now in maintenance mode 6 tsp once a week. It took a little over a week to start to see a difference but in the end it killed the HA like I wanted.

My phosphates read 0 on my test and my nitrates are a 20ppm. I am more focused on getting my nitrates down then fighting the algae right now. So I will be starting the Algaefix process again once my nitrates are down to bellow 5ppm.

The problem started because I had my tank running in the garage for over a year with no water changes. I had a chiller on it to keep it at 81 and a protein skimmer but that was not enough to keep the nutrients under control. I also had a 6 stage RO/DI unit with bad filters pumping nitrates into the tank from my float switch. But I wasn't willing to get rid 400lbs of live rock to have to buy it again the next year when I moved it to its permanent home. At one point I was about to give up the hobby when I lost 7 years worth of fish and corals (besides a few plys and a galaxea coral) moving to our new home. Mostly my fault in not tanking all the necessary precautions when transporting fish this won't happen again. But since one of the reasons I bought this house was because it had a 14ft wall with the garage on the other side perfect for an in wall unit. It has been running for about a year in its permanent home now with over 40 water changes and controlled feeding schedule my nitrates are down from over 200ppm which I didn't notice until 4 months ago when the algae started to take hold because of a bad test. I also just instatuted a sulfur reactor to get the last of the nitrates because it was cheaper than doing 5 150 gallon water changes. I also have very little room to get to the North East corner of the tank because I had limited space for my fish room on that side.

I will try the turkey baster trick and see if that works.

Once again thanks for the help
Nick

Done that twice.. now my rocks are in there permanent spot and I will live with what I can't get rid of. But I haven't given up yet so that algae still has a long fight ahead if it wants to stay in my tank.

Highlandreefer :


Here's my beautiful rock.

And that purple has encrusted and is starting to "shelf" out. VERY neat. The best rock I have ever seen, from LFS.

BTW, the piece under the left outlet, was bare rock. Lots of coraline growth in about two weeks.



No lights on the tank today (JUST received my new T5's).


http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/7816/dsci0427.jpg

nrannalli,

Thanks for bringing us up to date. Sounds like you have a good plan. ;)


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iFisch,

Tank is looking great. Your starfish looks like a Fromia. Great starfish even if it isn't. ;)

You are correct. I supplement a tiny rockful of seaweed twice a week. I place him ontop of the rock so I know he eats.

Otherwise, he grazes the rocks, glass and sand bed 24/7. :)

I had one for the longest time. Great starfish and neat to watch. They move fast from one end of the tank to the other. I had a nasty fish that for some reason kept picking on him and finally the starfish met his demise before I had time to react. May he rest in peace. ;)

They are. Mine's not that big, about 1.5". My Mom LOVES to watch him for some reason.

I find every animal in my tank fascinating, in one way or the other. :)

I'm joining the AlgaeFix Marine Club! I think we should add that to all of our signatures... Rimless Club, T5 Club, AFM Club :lol:

I'll give you all a rundown and even some photos for comparison in a sec.

I had a serious nitrate and phosphate problem a while back. I battled with some cyano and started seeing traces of HA in spots. I started dosing MicroBacter 7 and Vodka with great results. I currently have no cyano but my HA is out of control.

I've cut back my dosing of vodka and yesterday I picked up a bottle of AlgaeFix at Petsmart... Yup, they had the 'Marine' version there. I was reluctant to go the 'non-marine' route, so I turned the corner and there it was with two, pretty Petsmart Girls, it was a sign from the reef gods.

I added my first dose yesterday and have included some photos for later reference. I purposely didn't clean the glass so you can see what happens to it in a matter of about two days. So far, so good. If you'd like more info click on my red house. I will be updating here and on my blog when I have time.

http://capturesreef.com/wp-content/u...lgaefix_01.jpg

http://capturesreef.com/wp-content/u...lgaefix_02.jpg

Gee, that looks really familiar. :rollface:
So I am making a batch of fresh Saltwater to do a 20% change. My HA is returning slowly. One of my corals is showing signs of RTN. Could this be a sign of overdose, along with a couple faded monti caps and digitatas? No knowing. Thus the waterchange. And I will follow manufacturer recommended doses and time tables.

Looking forward to the results. Some don't see results until the third or fourth dose, so don't loose your patience with it.

Kingsland:
I would also not treat the main tank if it's not showing any signs of the problem hair algae (appears to be a derbesia sp., from what I can see, but it's almost impossible to positively ID). What a great frag tank, btw. I find it interesting that the hair algae appears to be starting at the bottom of the plugs.

I also had a bloom of brown hair algae (kind of looked like small tufts of brown cotton candy) on my frag tank's eggcrate. Algaefix took care of that quite easily. In fact in my case it was much more effective on that than on the longer green hair algae.

In any case, here is a suggestion: Place a saturated solution of kalkwasser in a shallow pan or dish. Then, one at a time, place the frag plugs upright into the pan, making sure that the coral itself is not allowed to contact the solution. Ideally, all your frag plugs will be identical, and the depth of the kalkwasser can be such that only the stem of the plug and the underside of the plug face can be in contact with the solution. Keep the frag there for 1 to 2 minutes (as long as you think the frag can stand to be out of the water). Then place the frag back in the tank. The high pH and caustic nature of the kalk will cause the algal cells to burst and die almost immediately.

I have used this method many times on both frags and items like return pipes and powerheads. It adds nothing harmful or undesirable to the water and is very effective wherever it comes into contact. It may give you the upper hand against the pest and allow the Algaefix to attack what's left. You could also remove the frags from the racks and treat the bare racks outside the tank the same way. With kalkwasser about as cheap as dirt and basically harmless once diluted in the tank water, I find this a means of attack impossible to accomplish by scraping or other means.

Update for me the 4th dose went in yesterday and it does appear to be starting to make a difference in even some of the worst areas, last week i removed a bunch of the ha that i could get to, i hope to do some more removal over this weekend. so far so good, nothing out of the ordinary to report as far as the tank goes.

interesting i am going to have to give your suggestion a try, thanks for sharing.

I had previously discussed with Randy in another thread about the possibility of increasing the dose of AlgaeFix and/or the frequency of the dosing. Randy set me straight in a polite way, that I should not do that without possible bad effects. IMHO, the manufacturer has worked with their product for quite a long period of time, which included quite a bit of testing to acquire the EPA label for marine tanks. The active ingredient is a broad spectrum biocide and at higher doses (not that much higher) it is labeled as a sterilant. One should remember that coral have a symbiotic relationship with different types of algae & bacteria which is in their mucal layer. We don't want to kill these good guys. ;)

capture,

Thanks for sharing your experience with AlgaeFix. Great pictures too, this helps us see whats going on in your aquarium and the type of algae you are fighting. ;)

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Thanks for the updates guys. :)

I'm curious if any hobbyists have used AlgaeFix to fight some of the tougher pests, like cyano (not necessarily the red cyano, but perhaps some of the green cyano), bryopsis or dinoflagellates? :)

Excellent info, and a point I hadn't considered before. I was using it a while back to treat a weird algae prob.... have a 65 and a 75 piggybacked off of one big system, and from a nitrate issue (I think), I got a really back algae sit in the 65--to the point where you couldn't see any rock. I was totally jammed with school at the time and didn't have a weekend to devote to taking it all out and scrubbing (full of marshall and tonga rock), but I didn't have any issues in the 75. Never figured that one out.

I used the MAr Alg Fix as per instructions re frequency, but I did ramp up the amount a bit. My acros in the 75 browned out really quickly. I discontinued use immediately--and got my skimmer back online (had air intake issues). The acros colored back up, and even though I stopped before the algae (a "soft" kind of HA looking strain that peeled off pretty easily) was gone, the Alg Fix definitely impacted it, as it continued to die off as me acros colored back up.

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/...-Golden--2.jpg my 65 and 75 now (sorry, don't have a good cam)

You can see a little of what's left on the back/right glass and at the top of the arch in the middle of the tank.

The weird part is--I never had any of it in the 75. :rollface:

Sorry the image came out so small... First time posting an image. Can't figure out how to maintain image size and quality and still fit in the 50k requirement for uploading.

32flavors,

If you upload your picture to your Photo Album, the size restriction is larger and then you can post the link to your photo album picture surrounded by brakets on both sides [img ..your link.. /img] without any spaces. You can do the same if you upload a picture to one of the online sites like PhotoBucket. ;)

Yes, I would say that either increasing the dosage rate and/or frequency would only be appropriate if you were to remove anything you did not want it to kill and then overdose it. This might be a tool to try if you are ready to brake down your system anyway and start over. It may save some time and headache. Other than that I would not recommend it. ;)

I am very pleased that the Algaefix seems to be working. I have completed three treatments and will add the forth tonight. I decided not to use GAC and I am not running the GFO reactor, nor the skimmer during the treatments. I did do a water change today as the coral are aclimated to weekly water changes and the frag tank has not had the benefit of the cal reactor for the last week. I plan to complete a total of 5 treatments before putting the frag tank back in line with the display and refugium. There is still some remenants on some of the frag plugs but it is quite clear in color.

For comparison, this is a picture before starting treatments:

http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/a...s/DSC01887.jpg

The same two frags after the third treatment:

http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/a...dtreatment.jpg

And another frag plug with some transparent algae remaining.

http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/a...s/DSC01896.jpg

kingsland,

Thanks for sharing. Great photos. I am happy that it has worked for you.
:)

The remaining algae does not look to good at all. It appears to have lost all of its chlorophyll.

I take it that none of your corals in the frag tank have suffered any damage?

They all seem to be doing fine.

You have a not selection of coral frags. ;)

:thumbsup:

Thanks! :D

I just forgot to finish my post. ;)

You have a not so common collection of corals that are sweet. :lol:

I tried this today with great success. The algae on the bottom of some of the plugs is not hair algae. It is best described as some type of turf algae. Thanks for the suggestion.

Hello guys I finished dosing about 3 weeks ago, hair algae has not returned and coral color is slowly coming back, I am still happy with results, ohh and since my last dose, I haven't added anymore, i just changed carbon and rowaphos which is keeping po4 at bay, its really nice to hear other success stories......

Sana

Glad to see another successful use.

Any pictures of the tank?

This is the picture that Sana posted when first starting. Sana's statement with this picture was that it was a lot worse than depicted here when first starting to dose algaefix:

http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z...t/DSC01070.jpg


Glad to see it worked for your. :thumbsup:

Update for me; my 6th dose went into the tank today and there are just a couple of small areas that i need to manually remove i had a piece of live rock that was covered so bad you could hardly see any of the rock itself, the problem i was having with trying to remove it manually was i could not get all of it off of the rock as the fibers were down into the rock itself, since dosing that area has been much easier to remove a day or two after treatment. I don't know if i mentioned it earlier or not but i also have a breeding pair of true perc's in my tank and they have not seemed affected by the treatment at all. I did not remove my gac,gfo continued with my carbon dosing and wc schedule as well during treatment.

I read most of this thread but not all so sorry if this has been asked/answered already: Has anyone used this product with clams in their system, and if so what were the results? I just got a new Squamosa, and have one of each, Crocea, Maxima, and Derasa in my mainly SPS system.

jtumbleweed,

My clams showed no signs of problems while dosing algaefix for an extended period of time.

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dazed,

Great to hear your results. ;)

update -

For me the algaefix has not worked. After 6 months of trying all the conventional methods plus algaefix, I am getting out of the hobby. I did have some very temporary results with the algaefix but everytime I went to weekly dosing the HA came back. I am back to a raging investation. For me the algaefix will work but only if I keep dosing every three days non-stop - this will eventually kill all my corals based on how it affects them.

I hope others have better results.

That's what I'm afraid of. Maybe the HA develops some kind of immunity?

How were you dosing? How much were you dosing? What else were you dosing? How often were you dosing? Were you dosing "Marine" or "FW/normal"?

wow -

Ok, I was dosing algaefix marine the recommend amount per my volume fish tank every third day - did that for 8 doses saw results then went to the "recommend on the bottle" weekly dose and then algae started to come back. So I did yet another 8 doses - again every third day and again saw results and tried the weekly dosing and again the HA came back. Only other thing I did was cut my photoperiod from 10 hours a day to 5 hours a day.

Obviously algaefix is only a band-aide its not some new wonder fix. My underlying problem - what ever that is - is what causes the HA to grow back after i stop dosing. I can not continue to dose every third day indefinently because that will kill my corals and be WAY to much trouble.

Is this your Nanocube? If so do you have some kind of protein skimmer or did you do a weekly water change? The reason I ask is because with out removing as much HA as possible first when that algae starts to die the nutrients goes right back into the tank. Since algae fix does not kill spores the environment would be perfect for it to take hold again without nutrient export. Maybe you could try trowing a bag of Carbon and Phosban to help get rid of the nutrients.

I appreaciate all the help here but I just don't want to rehash that whole long drawn out process. I do have a protein skimmer, do weekly water changes, run carbon and for a while ran phosban. Please know that I tried all the conventional method for ridding and preventing any bad algae.

I just wanted to jump on this thread to tell my experience with algaefix. Not all tanks are the same...

I don't think there has been "coral killing" using this product, but I have only been through a few pages. Highlandreefer can give you a more definite answer, since it's mainly his thread.

So using this product every 3 days, under normal dosing, shouldn't stress out/kill anything in your tank.

I don't have much experience with HA, as I only had a 1/4" patch on my rock, which disappeared in two days. Hasn't returned since. However I am on the "weekly" dosing regime now.



I'm sorry it hasn't worked out for you rhunter513. It certainly has for the majority of the people here. Maybe others can chime in and offer some further assistance.

I believe that this product is best for mild algae problems or algae issues that can not be solved by nutrient/phosphate reduction alone. If you start using this product and kill large amount of algae it is going to cause issues. You must be able to export the material that dies off. If you could not control nutrient to begin with and do not change husbandry practices then this is not a good product to jump into.

It is not as simple as algae problem + algaefix = no more problems.

In my situation the algae issue was mild. Before using this product I had cut back on feedings dramatically, larger water changes, etc.

I am having amazing results - this stuff is killing off a nasty macro algae (dictyota) - even my chaeto is turning white. My colors are at 80% but this is expected as I am starving my tank.

Not to harp on you or anything but I noticed that you say that you stopped the 3 day treatment when you first noticed results. I would think that you would have had better results if you continued to do the 3 day treatments until it was gone then switched to 1 a week.

I did it this way and I do not do the weekly dosing and have yet to see my nuisance algaes again after almost 6 months.

May I ask why types you were dealing with? I am curious if more people are having success killing macro algae.

I have noticed from user results, that this item is best used as soon as you notice a problem, or is "mild" or not very old.

For something way out of control, I can only think it will take this product months to get slight control of the problem.


If you don't have the time to watch/view your tank daily or every other day, I am not sure this is the best hobby for someone. Reef tanks, IMO, take users time to check and make sure things aren't out of control. (ie. weekly testing, daily visual inspection, etc.)

I also understand it can take time to find a solution to your problem, but it is easier to control/eliminate a problem if you see it right away. Just post away on the forums with pictures and descriptions of what you're seeing. Sometimes its good, sometimes its bad. If it's bad, and your pictures/description are decent, there is usually someone who will chime in with a solution.

rhunter513,

I am sorry to hear that the AlgaeFix did not work on your algae type pest after a reasonable period of time. It is encouraging that the AlgaeFix did reduce it way back. For a while it seemed like it was going to eradicate it for you. It really bothers me to see someone leave the hobby frustrated with their algae type pest problems. Yes, not all algae type pests are the same and some can be quite challenging to get rid of, particularly the blue green cyanobacteria which closely resemble the true algae. I don't know which type of pest you have, here is a picture of your infestation for other hobbyists interested:




http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/i...pic3031309.jpg



This is quite an obnoxious pest you have. There is so much of it covering your tank. I was worried the AlgaeFix may not get rid of this pest. :(

FWIW, in your situation this is a type of pest that a hobbyist might decide to brake the tank down and bleach/acid treat all their rock and sand or better yet, get rid of everything in it and start over. Even the coral in your tank are infested with this pest and will only serve to re-infest a clean tank. I personally would not give them away to another hobbyist for fear it might infest their tank. If you decide to get rid of your fish, the water they are taken in can contain spores of this pest and infest other tanks also. :(

If I were in your situation, I would continue dosing with the AlgaeFix at the 3 day intervals until the pest was gone and if I lost some coral then, owe well. ;)

FWIW, Boomer thinks that rhunter513's pest may be Cladophora.

Logzor,

Thanks for the update on your macroalgae and AlgaeFix used to try and control it. This is very encouraging for other hobbyists who decide to try the AlgaeFix on macro algae pests. I would love to see an update picture. You are the only hobbyist who has tried this on macroalgae other than my experience with the chaeto, in this thread. ;)

I obtained similar results when using AlgaeFix for a prolonged period of time, where it killed my cheato after quite a while at the 3 day dose rate.

Here is a picture of Logzor's pest:

http://fc03.deviantart.com/fs24/i/20..._by_Logzor.jpg

After re-looking at your picture Logzor, it looks like you may have some Caulerpa mixed in also?

That picture was from my old tank where this algae was out of control. The dictyota is the only best in my tank right now (well and some bubble algae).

Here is a link to my tank thread - the pictures are very recent:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...readid=1644682

You can not see much algae because it is either gone or plastered to the rock.

A couple of weeks ago I took a close up picture of one area where there was a fair amount of algae on the rock. Today there are only a few tiny pieces. I will try and get those uploaded soon.