They are killing me, what to do?

[Stenopus]

Please help, they are all over my stones. I am trying to put down MH light from 10-8 hours, manually removing, but they are going back and back. What type of this algae are and what is the best way to vanish it?



Tank temp: 26.5c

Nitrates 10ppm
Phosp. 0.03
Calcium 410
Magnesium 1300
kH 8
pH 8

tank is old 8 months




[URL=http://g.imageshack.us/g.php?h=159&i=mekanikoralisk3.jpg][IMG

[StupidsReef]

If your talking about the green stuff that's hair algae. If this tanks only been up for 6 months your still most likely going through your cycle. Just give it time, but you need to work on bring down the Nitrates. Keep up on doing your water changes and things will work out.

[Stenopus]

yeah green algae , thank you for response.

[Sk8r]

Get some turbo snails, some astraeas. They'll go after it. You might also run some Phosban in a reactor, or set up a refugium to uptake the phosphate.

[snorvich]

what is your nitrate reading? Phosphate reading?

[Stenopus]

ROWAPHOS is Working hard i put 250ml for 400 litres - 100 galons tank

Phosphates are 0.03

Nitrates 10ppm - 20ppm they are not stable , i have cut down a feeding to once in 2 days.

I have 1 turbo snail it doesnt want to touch it !

I will get more CUC soon.

I have heard that some urchins can help ,but i don't know which one.

Can someone tell me a latin name of this algae ?

[BeesGoneWild]

If you get a closer pic of it maybe someone can see exactly what type of algae it is. My guess would be bryopsis.

[mckostya]

definitely get some snails. they will help a lot! manual removing it will do good as well

[Stenopus]

One more info, I have a blenny, but he doesn't want to eat this type of algae.

[SaltSolutions1]

what kind of water test kit do you have? I am looking to get one and from those readings you probably have a good one. Mine does not give me a good calcium reading....just a change of color

[Rustylugnuts]

This looks almost exactly like the algae I have. Its MUCH tougher than GHA which can be pulled off easily. I think its maidens hair algae which oddly enough is sold as macro algae. The link says it contains a toxic substance the deters herbivores so good luck finding anything to eat it.
I've had a really tough time getting rid of this stuff. Right now I'm cooking all of the rocks that has any of this growing on it. The problem was that the room I was cooking the rocks in got a pretty good amount of sunlight. . Apparently the light that made it through the trash can was enough to keep the algae alive and tough. The trashcan has since been moved to a room that is midnight mineshaft dark with the hopes of facillitating a better cooking environment
What I'm going to do is get a refugium running chaeto and a phosphate reactor to make sure that it stays gone after I finally get rid of it.
When harvesting it I seem to have the best luck letting it grow big enough to really be able to get ahold of and pluck marble sized chunks by pinching it with my forefinger and thumbnail.
Keep us posted as this has been a tenacious pest that makes me miss green hair algae.

[Stenopus]

I am so nervous and this problem with very very hard algae are killing me. They are not just GHA which can be removed easilly.
I have tried to remove them manually, but they are so hard attached to stone, even with knife it is so hard to do that. What will happened with corals on that stone if I am going to coock them ?
This is so frustrating ......

[Stenopus]

Originally posted by SaltSolutions1
what kind of water test kit do you have? I am looking to get one and from those readings you probably have a good one. Mine does not give me a good calcium reading....just a change of color

I am using SALIFERT test kits they are reliable and cheap.

[ricks]

Looks like Bryopsis, eradicating it from your system is difficult. As you have found out pulling it doesn't work, and I feel just helps spread the spores. When you try and remove it seems to just grow shorter and the roots dive deeper into the rocks. That being said here we go....

One way to help is raise the magnesium levels to around 1500.

Make sure your have an over powered skimmer.

Add a refugium, with proper lighting.

Make sure you have plenty of flow to suspend detritus.

Install a reactor with rowapos, or a quality GFO.

RO/DI with TDS testing

Rinse all frozen food before feeding, please do not starve your fish.

Add a proper amount of turbo snails, they will not eat the grown algae but will help keep it from spreading.

Change your halide bulbs at 8-10 months, they will shift color spectrum more to red with age and this promotes algae growth.

Finally time, like anything else in this hobby good things take time....

Happy Reefing

[Stenopus]

Originally posted by ricks
Looks like Bryopsis, eradicating it from your system is difficult. As you have found out pulling it doesn't work, and I feel just helps spread the spores. When you try and remove it seems to just grow shorter and the roots dive deeper into the rocks. That being said here we go....

One way to help is raise the magnesium levels to around 1500.

Make sure your have an over powered skimmer.

Add a refugium, with proper lighting.

Make sure you have plenty of flow to suspend detritus.

Install a reactor with rowapos, or a quality GFO.

RO/DI with TDS testing

Rinse all frozen food before feeding, please do not starve your fish.

Add a proper amount of turbo snails, they will not eat the grown algae but will help keep it from spreading.

Change your halide bulbs at 8-10 months, they will shift color spectrum more to red with age and this promotes algae growth.

Finally time, like anything else in this hobby good things take time....

Happy Reefing

Thank you for a such a kind reply, what can I say is that OMG !
I will do my best, I hope so that monster will die soon.....

[Rustylugnuts]

I have tried to remove them manually, but they are so hard attached to stone, even with knife it is so hard to do that.

I'm not tryin to step on any toes here but I've had bryopsis and I still have this stuff (maidens hair algae ). Bryopsis has a feathery appearance and is, while still tougher than GHA, not monofilament fishing line stuck in cement tough like this stuff is. These guys must have some titanium rhizoids gorilla glued on cause even a good quality German hemostat barely makes a dent.

While it wouldn't hurt to get your Mg lvl's high to keep bryopsis from starting I don't believe it will even touch this stuff and neither will any grazers you could add to the CUC.

Here is my recommendation.

First
Attack the supply lines
Take all of the steps brought forth by ricks, its good reefing practice and it will keep algae at bay (I like chaeto in the fuge but I don't know first hand how it does with GFO).

Second
Frag whatever corals you have on infested rocks onto algae free rocks or frag plugs. (I've never fragged what you have so I'm not sure exactly how to go about moving them hopefully someone can chime in here).

Third
Cook any rocks with even a hint of this stuff. Some time in a dark container (NO light this pest is very hardy) with heat and circulation ought to soften em up enough to be easy enough to harvest but, you'll need to be patient as this may take weeks. After you return the formerly infested rocks back to the DT the actions taken in step 1 will prevent re-infestation.

My run in with maidens hair has convinced me that I need an extra 20 Lbs of LR (or 15% extra) and some fragging supplies handy just in case. Good luck and please don't let a little algae push you outta the hobby.

Regards
Ryan

[ser_renely]

I don't think that is maidens's hair, hard to tell with that pic. Maiden's hair is thicker and coarser... I think?

[Stenopus]

Originally posted by Rustylugnuts
I'm not tryin to step on any toes here but I've had bryopsis and I still have this stuff (maidens hair algae ). Bryopsis has a feathery appearance and is, while still tougher than GHA, not monofilament fishing line stuck in cement tough like this stuff is. These guys must have some titanium rhizoids gorilla glued on cause even a good quality German hemostat barely makes a dent.

While it wouldn't hurt to get your Mg lvl's high to keep bryopsis from starting I don't believe it will even touch this stuff and neither will any grazers you could add to the CUC.

Here is my recommendation.

First
Attack the supply lines
Take all of the steps brought forth by ricks, its good reefing practice and it will keep algae at bay (I like chaeto in the fuge but I don't know first hand how it does with GFO).

Second
Frag whatever corals you have on infested rocks onto algae free rocks or frag plugs. (I've never fragged what you have so I'm not sure exactly how to go about moving them hopefully someone can chime in here).

Third
Cook any rocks with even a hint of this stuff. Some time in a dark container (NO light this pest is very hardy) with heat and circulation ought to soften em up enough to be easy enough to harvest but, you'll need to be patient as this may take weeks. After you return the formerly infested rocks back to the DT the actions taken in step 1 will prevent re-infestation.

My run in with maidens hair has convinced me that I need an extra 20 Lbs of LR (or 15% extra) and some fragging supplies handy just in case. Good luck and please don't let a little algae push you outta the hobby.

Regards
Ryan

They are on every rock in my system , but they are not on places where coralines grown. Maybe i had to remove them and than on that place pray that coraline algae will take a place. On every rock i have corals and algaes.

[Rustylugnuts]

I don't think that is maidens's hair, hard to tell with that pic. Maiden's hair is thicker and coarser... I think?

I could be wrong but I'm reasonably sure it is maidens hair. My stuff started out just like the pic he posted. A month or two later, once it had time to grow out and thicken up, it looked exactly like the pic in the link I posted earlier. I still have my rocks cooking maybe I can try to get a pic of what it looks like once its really bad up.

[Stenopus]

Originally posted by Rustylugnuts
I could be wrong but I'm reasonably sure it is maidens hair. My stuff started out just like the pic he posted. A month or two later, once it had time to grow out and thicken up, it looked exactly like the pic in the link I posted earlier. I still have my rocks cooking maybe I can try to get a pic of what it looks like once its really bad up.

Please, try to find that picture just to compare it !

[ser_renely]

yeah, in its early period it may look like that. Isn't the stuff a fairly decent algae?

[cindyreef]

I think there may be both maidens hair and a little of the softer hair algae in this pict. When it grows out its easier to remove. I had maidens and its very hard to pulloff whereas the softer hair will come off with a scrub brush. How I removed my maidens was (and this may seem drastic but I was very frustrated). I removed the rock scrubbed it first and then I used pliers with a twisting action. This also removed quite a bit of rock with it. It was the only way to remove it. Couldnt get it all and it would grow back then I'd do it again. It took 3 times.
To keep the pores from spreading I would constantly swish in one bucket of salt water. Before I put it back in the tank I would swish real good in a second bucket. It did make a dent and now I only have one rock with it. It is VERY short and my foxface rabbitfish and yellow tang are constantly picking at it. I also noticed my blue leg hermits will go at it when its short also. Now if I could only convince them to eat the softer stuff.

Important to keep up your water changes and get your nitrates down. Cheato dropped my nitrates to zero.

[Rustylugnuts]

Please, try to find that picture just to compare it !

It's @ home mid cook right now I'll try to get it in the quarantine tank and snap a couple shots. Hopefully I'll be back on the internet tomorrow to post it.

[Stenopus]

Hi m8,
did u get pictures ?

[agreeive?fish]

everybody who can grow it wants to get rid of it then you have people like me who want the back wall covered in it for pod populaqtion for a pair of mandrins and i cant get it to grow...darn it