Is my hair aglae plan of action ok

[rhenie]

Ok, so I have this out of control hair algea problem that has occurred and been uncontrollable for 3 months.


I've cut down feeding, and been skimming like a crazy woman , but still it's beyond the point of control.

So, my weekend plan is to take out all of my live rock (100lbs) and scrub it like crazy. Scrub inside of overflows and sides of tank and then take out 50% water and replace. Vacuum sand and then put everything back in.

Will this resolve my hair algae and allow me to get back on track if I have lower nutrients added and high skimming, or will it just spead the stuff around further and perpetuate the problem.

Should I start over with new Live Rock and if I do will I have to recycle my tank?

I'm so over this algae. My tank is not relaxing to look at...it is SRESSFUL. I want to find a solution. I'm willing to work hard for it, I just hope it is not all a temporary solution and I will have to do it all again in 6 months.

Any advice is appreciated.


Thank you
Rhenie

[piranhaking]

i just tried more or less that same thing with out the 50 percent change. I didnt have a skimmer for a long time, so i finally built one. (its hard to find equipment for a 10 gallon that doesnt cost more than the entire set up) Honestly scrubbing isn't all that great an idea, because is spreads the algae all over the rocks, and even really really really small pieces can grow back. If you took care of the problem that caused it and scrubbing is just removal of what was already there it would probably work out ok, but if the cause is still there it will come back, and probably worse than before. I know how frustrating it is though. One option would be to "cook" your rock. Download the google tool bar so you can search this site and you should find info on it. One quick question though..........what kind of lights do you have (kelvin rating specifically)?

[rhenie]

That's what I'm thinking, that scrubbing is going to spread the problem. But I'm worried that cooking the rocks will start a whole cycle that I'm not prepared for.

I have the 4 ft aqualight Pro which includes the compact flurescent lamps and the HQI metal halides and the LED moon-glow lamps. I have had this set up for almost a year. It maybe timet o replace lights, but lights can not be the main source of this. As they are barely a year old and problem has been going on for over 2 months.

What do you think?

R

[Litespeeds]

From my understanding, MH lights need to be replaced every 8-12 months so it is time to replace it even though it still comes on. That could be one of your causes.
I am kind of in a similar situation where my T5 lights got dim and I didn't really even notice it and with the fine construction dust that got into my tank, I started to get hair algae and brown algae all over my live rocks and it started to cover my coraline algae. Definitely not a good site but I am still battling it right now as we speak. I even purchased a phosban reactor to reduce the phosphates and also installed a Poly Filter as another means of absorbing bad stuff. Hopefully I will get this under control in the next month or so. I am trying to do a 15 gallon water change ever week or so.

[reefD]

you have to scrub the rock and rinse it in old saltwater ( do this during a water change and save the old water) this will help the only way that this will spread the issue is if you scrub it in the display. by scrubbing it and rinsing it off and never adding the rinse water will lower the spores threat to spread! this will help but will not work. honestly first add lots of flow to your tank. make every area turbulent ( this will eliminate any detris settling for algea to grow on.) next dont just skim like heck but consider your skimmer is not effiecent for your load thus get something better! consider upgrading! next establish coraline a purple / pink tank has little algea as the coraline is established...feed by nutrients and established(spawned) by calcium levels. this will help compete. if the tank is fairly new(under a year) then this is normal ...dont get discoraged...stopped adding any stock and put all efforts to this issue...research....test water....and then youll succeed. i had a hair algea out break in the past ...i learned from it....studied it....and have never seen it agian in 3 years. started many tanks since and still avoid its presence. this ellimination of it took 6 months! yes that long of battling and finally using all tactics it began to burn out. basically it disappeared in my tank to never show its ugly head again! apply ever thing you can and then keep on researching and applying. dont use chemical gimmics as the natural way will elliminate for ever. research sumps and if you have add macr...keep adding different species until you find one that takes off. this will be a part of your savior. also for algea in a sump lower flow! thi creates a scrubber and youll elliminate display algea of any kind with that method. low flow ...baffles...and 24 hour lighting...and a good vigouris growqing algea. i kept trying all macros till one stopped die off and grew fast. this was my sump macro now as it like the conditions outcompetes others and grows fast! key!

[reefD]

by the way water changes are good but if your fresh water source for salt mix has phos your adding to the problem. test water source for all use before mixing with salt. test for phos. if there are levels STOP using it. get a di/ro unit ...too expensive? this hooby is expensive if you want to succeed. or try distilled water.

[reefD]

a growth of algea on coraline is a sure sign of calcium level drop and ph/dkh unstability! the coraline is dieing and was dieing(level spike) so it is adding to algea growth. it is not dieing due to algea bloom but the dieing is feeding the algea bloom. coraline will in the correct water paremeters outcompete with every thing. nusience algea is not competion for coraline unless it is already on its way out to to bad water parameters. in other words if your experiencing an algea bloom your colraline should keep growing strong unless water parameters are off. mainly ph/ hardness/ and calcium. all very important to keep maintained and happy.
just another thing to consider all.

[jer77]

What are you using as your water? What are its parameters? Have you ever tried to add kalkwasser? It binds to phosphates, raises pH, and raises calcium and balances alk.

[jer77]

What are the parameters in your tank first of all?

[reefD]

Originally posted by jer77
What are you using as your water? What are its parameters? Have you ever tried to add kalkwasser? It binds to phosphates, raises pH, and raises calcium and balances alk.

great advice

[jer77]

raising the pH is also known to decrease nuisance algae growth.

[jer77]

Installing a refugium would be the best option in my opinion though.

[reefD]

as i stated a good plan of action is to address the hardness of the tank. the ph must be correctr and remain correct. check for midnight changes in ph. almost always occurs at about 8 hours into lights out if hardness is off. this is why people leave sump lights on 24 / 7 to avoid this chemical reaction of saltwater tanks and night period having stability issues with ph. good plan of action is to test ph at the middle of the night. any off readings means address!

[rhenie]

Thanks so much for your feedack!

I have a refugium with calerpa and cheato. it's lit 24/7.

phosphates test 0
ph always test fine as do my other water parameters

ph 8.2
nitrate 0
nitrite 0
ca over 400
Po4 0
ammonia 0
Kh/Alk 8.0/2.86


I buy RODI saltwater from LFS.

I'm sure I have a dinoflagalatte(spelling?) problem because I can't keep a Turbo snail alive for more that 2 days. I think that has been the beginning of the problem. The dinos killed the Turbos and the Harlequin Tuskfish ate my hermits, so now there is basically no creanup crew and I don't think adding any more would resolve the problem as the Turbos will still die with the dinos and the hemits will still be eaten by the tusk.

The algae is taking over and doing a really quick job of it.

Sunday I'm going to try scrubbing and rinsing the rocks, scrubbing walls and overflows and 50% water replacement along with new light bulbs and we'll see what happens.

Hopefully I can slowly add a few snails and restock the cleanup crew and enjoy my tank again soon!

I'm interested in creating more flow and will research online to see what I can find. Any sugestions for power heads to increase flow in a 140G tall tank?

Thanks,

R

[Dubbin1]

Originally posted by rhenie

phosphates test 0

FYI your phosphates are probably zero because all of there hair algae is using it up. Scrub the rock in one container and rinse it in another. This may help enough to let you get it under control.

[piranhaking]

hes right nitrate may be a problem to even if its testin 0 it may just be being used up.

[rhenie]

Today I scrubbed all off the live rocks out of the tank and rinsed with fresh water before putting them back in the tank.

I replaced all of the bulbs...actinics, MH and refugium and installed power head to increase flow.

Also did a 25% water change before replacing live rock.

By the way, Aquascaping looks really good. I'm much happier than before.

Tank looks ok now. I think I still need to vacuum sand again and do another 20% water change to finsh off.

Taking the rock out of the tank made a sandstorm for about 3 hours and when were we vacuuming we didn't have the best view. There is some stuff left on the bottom of the tank, algea or other stuff scraped off the side of tank, so we still need to remove that now, but I can see major improvement in flow.

It's at least fun to look at the tank again.

Side bonus is that with all of the rock out of the tank it was really easy to catch the cleaner shrimp that keep stealing food from the anemone so I could move them to other tank.

I'm glad I did it and I hope it's a long term fix.

Thanks for the advise.

Rhenie

[HowardW]

Why did you rinse the rocks in freshwater?

Also, I would turn off any pumps and skimmers before doing major maintenence to avoid sandstorms. I would also go easy on vacuuming the sand bed all at once and disturbing all the bacteria as well as scrubbing and cleaning walls and filters, etc.

Better and turbulent water flow should help also at least 12-15X per hr. or more.

[jer77]

If you have problems keeping snails alive, you should think at once you have a nitrate problem. Dino's don't kill turbos, its the other way around. Rinsing the rocks with freshwater is ok to do because it will clean off the surface of the rocks which is what you want, but you have to make sure the water has no nitrates in it. Use RO/DI water for everything. Never use tapwater. If you have a problem with your flow something could be hidden or stuck in one of the hoses or pvc piping. This happens very often especially when your snails and hermits are dying. A dead sanil in the overflow means less flow and lots of algae.

[XeniaMania]

Before

2 months later


Check out this thread http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...hreadid=785453

BTW: I'm one of the few guys out there who don't use RO/DI water.

[Kimmy]

I put a sea hare in my tank and he just mowed the stuff down It was so cool to watch. He would grab mouthfuls of it.

[XeniaMania]

Problem is, what do you do with it once the algae's gone?

[jer77]

So what water do you use, and why not just use crushed up live rock instead of de-nitrate?

[jer77]

I like to not put bad stuff into my tank in the first place, and I like my tanks as natural as possible. On two of my tanks I don't even run a protein skimmer. Just a refugium and lots of flow.

[Kimmy]

When my algaes gone I will have to keep algae sheets on a clip for them. I suppose I could loan him to local reefers if they needed him too!!