AlgaeFix Marine to control Hair Algae
 

I decided to give AlgaeFix Marine a try. I will be starting today (3/10/2009) and post the results. My phosphate reading is zero using Salifert & Hach PO-19 kits. My Nitrate reading is 0.2 and declining using a Salifert Kit. I am currently dosing sugar.

I actually looked at the microalgae under a stereoscope I have (40X). From the pictures and data I have been able to find, it appears to be a type of hair algae, which does not really say a whole lot. The cells appear to be more square with rounded corners and form long non-branching green filaments. :)

These are pictures of what it looks like in my tank today, before any applications of AlgaeFix Marine. I will be following the recommended dosage rates and directions.

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/...atment-med.jpg

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/...-treatment.jpg

My current water parameters are:

Temp: 78
pH: 7.8 (I have a new probe on order. I am not certain on this)
SG: 1.0264 (refractometer)
Calcium: 430 (Salifert)
Mag: 1440 (Salifert)
Nitrate: 0.2 (Salifert)
Phosphate: 0 (Salifert & Hach PO-19)
Amonia: 0 (Salifert)
20,000K Radium bulbs (two 400W metal halides)
Using Rodi water and kalk in my top-off
Water circulation is very good.

Don't forget to shut your skimmer down during treatment. I see you have some halimeda growing, I hope it doesn't kill it. Good luck.

Very curious about this product Cliff. Fortunately , I do not have much microalgae at all anymore but curious nonetheless. Thanks for posting your experience.

Update for my AlgaeFix Marine trial:

I have completed 5 doses at the recommended label directions rate. I stopped dosing sugar. I stopped GFO & carbon reactors per some of Randy's concerns about this product (Randy does have other concerns). I have cut back feeding my fish drastically during this time. I am using the 20,000 K Radium bulbs. I have fish and a mixed assortment of corals. I have a RBTA. I have snails, but no shrimp or crabs. My nitrates and phosphates are unreadable. My other water parameters are all within the recommended guidelines. My lights are on for 10 hrs a day.

At this point (5 doses) the dark green algae or cyano pest that I have is about 90% gone. The purple cyanobacteria that I have is still present, but seems to have been reduced. I can see my rock for the first time in a long time. :)

I plan to continue the dosing of AlgaeFix at the same rate and see if it can eradicate both of my pests.

I forgot to add:

The AlgaeFix has not seemed to effect my halimeda or chaetomorpha macroalgae at this point. :)

I'm glad you are having a positive result. Keep us updated. I wonder, once the algae problem is eliminated, will it return, once dosing stops.

Good question. On the label, they recommend continued weekly dosing to maintain control. This could be to control the germinating spores. AlgaeFix Marine does not kill the spores.

In my field of land pest control, almost all the chemical products used against fungus, bacteria, molds and insects will take at least 60 days to gain complete control and in many cases much longer. How this translates to the marine aquarium, I am not sure. At this point, I have been dosing AlgaeFix Marine a little over two weeks. ;)

How is the use of the algaecide affecting your skimmer?

I have not properly cleaned my aquarium of the dead algae in over 1 1/2 weeks. :D

The dead algae is falling away from the rock and is being skimmed out only at this point. So, yes I have seen an increase.

I'm sure the AlgaeFix would be more effective if I was doing my job correctly. :lol:

What is that blue colored stuff at the top left corner of your pictures?

looks like the back of the tank to me.

The blue is the background color for the back glass of my tank.

Did you say that the AlgaeFix Marine is working for your cyano? I tried this stuff and it didn't seem to work. Of coarse, it sounds like my patience didn't last as long as yours. I think I'm going to buy another bottle of that AlgaeFix Marine and do what you are doing.

Identifying these algae type pests if difficult, IMHO. I have two different pests. The first one is pictured in the thread and is a dark green in color. I believe it may be a cyanobacteria, rather than a true green algae. There are numerous bubbles which appear in its mass. The AlageFix is working great on this pest. :)

The second pest I have is what I believe is the normal purple cyanobacteria that many hobbyists have problems with. This one seems to be reclining since dosing AlgaeFix, but there does not seem to be the control level that I am getting with the first pest. :(

I will keep this thread posted with my continued results with AlgaeFix Marine. I reserve judgment for a longer period of time. :D

i have used algaefix marine and it has work for me at one point i could not see my rocks at all. now the tank is clear. i will keep up on the weeky doses. this is one of the best products i have used in a long time...

lbj

Good to hear that it worked for you. I trust that you did not see any negative effects on corals, clams, fish and other invertebrates in your tank? Possibly a general list of tank inhabitants may help for our future mental data banks. Also a time frame of how long it took to achieve control? ;)

No ill effects on any of the corals, hard or soft. I have a blue hepa tang, a yellow tang, two firefish, a mandarin, two damsels, two anthius, a false percula clown, a wrasse, two cleaner shrimp, four peppermint shrimp, a diamond goby, several snails and hermit crabs and a brittle starfish. The only thing that was slightly affected was the cheto in my refugium. It took a total of 5 doses to get rid of the green hair algae. Now we're battling the red slime algae. The algae fix bottle stated that it controls red slime algae, but mine seemed to get worse after the treatment.

just wanted you all to know it worked wonders for me with no ill effects and i am dosing once a week but my tank is 100% free of algea. amazing product so far absolutly no paramiter swings or any detectable bad side effects so its thumbs up for the algea-fix marine !

mine took eight doses before it really fell apart and stopped growing .i have fifteen wrasses ,many snails ans crabs in my system and tons of pods ,they are all not affected in any way .and i did notice something negative now that i really think of it i got a patch of red slimey algea on the back of one of the tanks and it produced many bubbles of something on its surfsce . i siphoned it off and it has been three weeks with no sigh of returning as of yet .

Thanks lbj & iamwrasseman for your reports about AlageFix Marine. I hope that any hobbyists who have had problems with it, will inform us of their experiences. It is wonderful to hear positive responses also. This information can prove valuable to other hobbyists who decide to risk using AlgaeFix Marine. ;)

I have dosed twice with Alagefix Marine, with my algae at about the stage of your pics, I have been battling this pest for 4 months and finally realized that it could be the storage of my R/O water. I have a 80 gallon storage tank which has an automatic refill from the R/O unit. With using only about 6 gallons a week, so contamination is a problem. I have now discarded all the stored water and only making enough R/O water to last the week. I will continue the Alagefix Marine dosage to clear the problem hoping it works.

how can your storage water be contaminated if it is fresh.

2nd that

If I am thinking what he is thinking, he may be holding the water in a garbage barrel with lid. This is how I have mine. And, if you leave the water stored in there for long periods of time without using it will start to grow algae. I do keep the lid on and the R/O system is mounted to come into the top side. I did as he did though and only make the water that I am going to use so that it doesn't sit and stagnate.

We are having a GHA problem too :( after reading many threads on about Alagefix Marine, I will purchase this product too. I have also read there is a Alagefix Freshwater. My LFS said there is no difference in the product...... I ask him if there is no difference then why do they make this product for both marine and fresh water?
I will purchase the Alagefix Marine product.

Do you circulate your water?

We have (2) 65 gallon water storage tanks we normally keep full. I like the to keep the tops off, I think they need air, my husband likes to keep the tops on, he says they don't need air :mad2:
We do circulate the tank water 3 x's a day for 15 minutes.
I wonder if storing this much water is causing my GHA now???????

Both AlgaeFix for freshwater and AlgaeFix Marine have the identical concentration of the active ingredient.

They may be the same, but from my experience in using other products in my field of expertise, there may be some contaminates removed from the AlgaeFix Marine.

The main reason for the price difference, would be to help pay for the additional costs that the manufacturer paid to get the new EPA label for reef aquariums. IMHO, it is worth paying the extra cost to this manufacturer so that there may be more incentive to produce future products which will aid our hobby. ;)

I would keep tops on your storage container to help keep contaminates from the air.......etc from entering the clean water.

Perhaps disinfecting and cleaning the container occasionally may have benefits if you notice any growth occurring in your storage water. I do not see why you should have growth in RODI water if your unit is working properly and you do not allow contaminates to enter the storage containers. :)

Well, now Ed wins that battle with the tops on the storage tanks in the fish room:lol:

You can't win them all. :lol:

My wife has a sign up in my workshop:

============================
House Rules

Rule NO. 1
Mom is always right.

Rule NO. 2
If Mom is wrong, see rule NO. 1
===========================

I think I need a sign like that in my fish room :lol:

The R/O water storage tank does have a cover and has only been used for this purpose since new when it was first sterilized, I since found out that if pure water is left sitting it will absorb air born contaminates. The R/O water had 6 PPM TDS at filtering time and 128 TDS in my storage tank. I emptied the tank and found algae growing on the inside walls. The tank is a dark green color so no light enters it.

We dosed the Algefix today.
Hope this works!

edandsandy,

Keep us posted on your results, good or bad. :)

HighlanderReefer,
How you doing with the algae fix?? Any impact on your chaeto?

zenzence

OK, will do :)

I snapped a few pictures today of the GHA in the tank.
So our next dose will be on saturday.
see ya then!

zenzence,

My Chaeto & Halimeda seem to be doing ok. The manufacturer had told me that AlgaeFix may slow the growth of macroalgae, but should not kill it.

I still have not had time to properly clean my tank, but the pest is still declining. My computer video card fried and had to replace it along with my C drive which was running out of room. That ended up a full days worth of work. :D

highlandReefer thanks for the response thats good to know I added some more flow and cut light down to a few hours a day for the next couple days. We shall see if it doesnt work going to try algae fix

Thanks

zenzence,

Good luck with it. Keep us posted on results. What are your nitrate and phosphate levels at now? Pics of your pest are always helful for future reference. :)

HighlandReefer,
I recently downgraded from my 90 to a 34gallon Red Sea Max so my tank is still very new maybe 2 months. My nitrates and phosphates are both 0, I can only assume the algae is consuming both at the same rate they being produced. I did add a closed loop refugium about 2 weeks ago filled with cheato so hopefully this will help. I also siphoned off the algae with a 4 gallon h20 change which is a little more than 10%. Cant think of anything else to do right now this is day two with reduced lighting schedule. We shall see first time I have had a problem with algae. Maybe its not even a problem just new tank?

Thanks Cliff
Chad

Chad,

Depending on exactly what pest you have, reduced nitrates and phosphates may not work in all cases. For example, If your pest happens to be a cyanobacteria, which resemble many of the algae, then reducing the nitrates & phosphates will help, but not completely eradicate the cyano in most cases.

Added 2nd dose of Alagefix today. I didn't notice the GHA being affected with the first dose. I really didn't think I would.
Hopefully by the 3rd or 4th treatment we will see some die off.
I did notice my diatom on the gravel is starting to die back.

It seems that most of the hobbyists who have used Algaefix Marine are seeing results after about 5 doses. Maybe you will see results sooner. ;)

:thumbsup: ME TOO!

I did notice a lot in my sump today when I was cleaning the socks.
I just pulled it out, it was easily removed, not like in the tank.

it will take a few doses before you see anything ,then you will notice that it will stop growing ,thin out and lose all its strength .at that point you can siphon it off your rockwork .

Thank you iamwrasseman,
correct me if I'm wrong.... didn't I read somewhere that you had great success wit this product?

let me just say it worked miracles for me !150 gal,35 wrasses,70 corals and a heapload of hairalgie six months ago .now i have 150gal,37wrasses 74corals and absolutly no hair algea !i have to add that i did also raise my mag level to 1650 for about three weeks before the algea fix and it was helping but after five or six doses of algea fix it was critically wounded and then i started pulling it off every thing ...........................it took some effort but worked miracles for me and there is no sign of it trying to grow back . i would work for that company,lol

I dosed Algaefix in a 90g and saw results after the first dose. The tips of my hair algae turned a lighter color as if dieing. By the fourth dose my algae was all dead. At that point I decided to stop dosing and start up a refugium to try and keep the algae away. Well, I wish I just continued with algaefix...

i still keep a once a week dose for maintaining the algea free enviroment as the lable states is needed