How I won the battle with nuisance algae

[Chihuahua6]

Every few days we have a post here (or several) asking how to deal with various forms of nuisance algae. Hair algae is a big one as well as diatoms, bubble algae and others. I put this post together in chapter form. Hopefully it doesn't get too boring because it's going to be long.

Cause:
I think we're all in agreement that excess nutrients fuel the nuisance algae.

Elimination tools:
We all know the typical ways that help eliminate the nutrients that fuel the algae from phosphate reactors to large water changes, to shortening the lighting period, to adding herbiverous fish. Some of us have learned of other ways to help such as raising magnesium levels or adding remote deep sand beds in buckets.

Good efforts:
We want to do everything to get rid of this unsightly growth. We will cut the feedings down, add the reactors, do water changes etc. and still the problem continues. We question ourselves "If I am not adding excess nutrients then what is feeding the algae?"

My green hair algae outbreak:
I had a 47 gallon extra tall tank housing only three small fish. I believe the problem started when my RO filter was spent and I hadn't replaced any of the cartridges in a long time. There was also a time period in which the waste water was entering the line. Not good. There was also a period of neglecting water changes. The skimmer didn't work all that efficiently either.
Let the hair algae begin.

My effort:
It grew in lush mats across the rock, the sand even on the glass. I pruned it away, even removed the rocks and scrubbed it off. I siphoned it off the top layer of sand and did a huge water change. I cut the lighting period. The tank looked great. Then it came back. I repeated the above to no avail.

Amanda's theory:
Here is my theory. I hypothesized that I had excess nutrients trapped in my tank. If I could remove the nutrients I could eliminate the fast growth of GHA. Where were they trapped and how could I remove them?

My experience:
I had a shallow sand bed of about 1" and a decent amount of live rock. I had read before, from Anthony Calfo's articles, that if you have a shallow sand bed that does not function as a denitrator (as a DSB does) then it should be less than 1" deep. What I had also discovered is not only should it be less than 1" but it should be manually cleaned. It's a detritus trap. Stir a bit up and you'll see. What else traps detritus? Live rock does. Blow your rock with a powerhead and see what comes out.

Life of live rock:
Live rock and sand are supposed to break down waste right? It does but I feel there is a point where there is more waste going in than can be processed. Think of it as an air filter. There comes a point where it just can't hold any more dust. Even with the continual process of the bacteria and other organisms that are working very hard in our rock to process the waste, there's a point where there is just too much waste to be processed. Is the rock then useless? I don't believe so. I believe it needs to be cleaned out. Even a good swishing in a bucket of tank water will release alot of the trapped detritus.

Herbivores:
The addition of herbivores can be very beneficial to the cleaning up process as long as you do your part too. Many fish will eat it once you prune most of it off. They may not eat it if it's very long so start pruning or scrubbing first.

What I did:
I manually removed much of the algae (once again.) I blew the detritus out of the rocks and siphoned out the filthy water with a large water change. I siphoned out all of the sand. It was absolutely filthy. I added a small Purple Tang that I had in quarantine since he was a proven algae eater. He was able to clean up the remnants that were left on the rocks after I cleaned them.

It worked!

Preventative measures:
I now have a 29 gallon tank with no sump, no skimmer and a high bioload. It gets a slight film and the glass only needs cleaning once per week. It has a 1/2" bed of coarse coral gravel. I blow the rocks and vacuum the gravel with every water change which I do weekly. Alot of gunk comes out of that tank. If I let it sit and fester I am sure I would have algae outbreaks. In fact when the tank goes for two weeks without a water change I can see the difference. The glass needs to be cleaned a bit more often. It's not bad but I can clearly see the difference. I am very intuned to that little tank.

The old rock:
The 47 gallon tank did well for several months, GHA algae free. I since upgraded that tank to a 75 gallon. I transferred the same rock and added some new live rock. It has a 1/2" coarse coral gravel bed like the 29 gallon. I maintain the gravel and blow the rocks with water changes. I never remove clean water. When I do a water change I remove dirty water, sometimes dark brown. You would never know by looking at the tank what lurkes beneath the sand and rock. It's crystal clear with no signs of green hair algae what so ever.

[gookster]

nice!

[erbio]

Absolutely

[deansreef]

THESE THREAD IS WORTHLESS WITHOUT PICTURES!!!