Nuisance Hair Algae Overtaking!

[Crakeur lost his password]

while I wouldn't suggest adding anything to the tank until you resolve the issues that killed the fish, I can say that the very best algae remover available can be found at blowfishaquatics.com. dolabella sea hares. Get two big ones or a mix of large and small. they are strong enough to slide right over intake covers without incident and they eat nothing but algae. They will mow the algae down as they pass over it and they will work the glass as well.

I have heard they reproduce rather frequently (ipsf sells them under the name sea bunnies) and the result is free fish food.

they eat all types of algae, including bryopsis.

 

[cali_reef]

Sorry about your loss.

Can you take a picture of the algae?

I do see your skimmer is a bit small for your water volume. What other suff do you have left in the tank? Do you have a sand bed?

 

[NYCJodi]

About 90 lbs of fiji rock. Yes, a 1" sand bed in the main tank and about 4-5" in the refuge.

The skimmer is so tall that it barely fits underneath our canopy. I can't imagine a *bigger* one down there.

In the tank are 2 anemones, star polyp, mushrooms, frogspawn, torch, feather duster, pulsing xenia. Also the three fish left, one of whom is now covered in ich.

The algae looks like big clumps of moss growing, and it gets pretty long. I'll try and take a pix tonight.

 

[NYCJodi]

Anyone know how to raise Calcium without raising Alk/kH?

 

[Deanos]

Originally posted by NYCJodi:
The skimmer is so tall that it barely fits underneath our canopy. I can't imagine a *bigger* one down there.

From Aqua-C's website, the Remora skimmer is only rated for 20-75 gallons. The Remora Pro is rated for 40-120 gallons; hopefully, this is the one you have. Otherwise, you are severely underskimming.

About raising calcium, this is from an Advanced Aquarist article: "Almost any brand of calcium chloride will do (Kent Turbo Calcium, Kent Liquid Calcium, ESV, etc.). Certain other calcium supplements may also be OK (such as just the calcium component of the two-part calcium and alkalinity additive systems), but you do not want to add any alkalinity. You CANNOT use limewater or a calcium carbonate/carbon dioxide reactor to correct this problem."

Here is the entire article:
Solving Calcium and Alkalinity Problems

Hope this helps.

Dean

[ May 20, 2005, 11:02 AM: Message edited by: Deanos ]

 

[thepudge]

Hey, I have some mexican turbos and they don't touch hair algae.. they get everything else though.

 

[cali_reef]

Algae are growing because you have enough nutrients for them to feed from and not enough natural predators to remove them.

Few things you can do to help:

1. Get a bigger and better skimmer.
2. Large water changes (20% weekly?) with good clean RO/DI water and good salt (I like IO).
3. Add Kalk in your top off water, it helps to participate the phosphate out of the water.
4. Use some iron based phosphate remover and carbon.
5. Continual with the removing and scrubbing the algae at each water change, use the old tank water to rinse clean the area before putting the rocks back.
6. Cut back on your photo period, this is kind of tuff because your anemones.
7. Add some more algae eating critters, Turbos works and I know a few people that had used seahare with pretty good success. I personally like lots of tangs in my tanks.
8. Cut back on your feeding, I can?t imagine snails or fish dying from starvation if you have live rocks they can graze on.
9. Look around the tank and make sure you don?t have any rusty nails or screws that maybe falling in, adding iron to the water.

The most important part of all the items you can do is to have patience. Algae will take its time to die off; you need to beat it by not letting it grow more.

you can buy Mexican turbo snails at Fish town for $3, take the 7 train to Flushing and than a bus, maybe a 1.5 hour trip oneway from midtown. Slow drip them, I usually take about 4-6 hours to acclimate snails and shrimps.

 

[mgchan]

I'd received a frag that I'd placed near the top of the tank. Before you know it, the entire frag and area around it, LR and other corals, were covered with hair algae.

The solution that fortunately worked for me... I'd placed that frag and the other affected corals along the bottom of the tank and in short order, my Yellow Tang had a feast! Once she was done with the corals, she'd cleaned off the hair algae on the LR at the top of the tank.

 

[NYCJodi]

Wow, my tang NEVER wanted the algae on the rocks. Neither did the snails.

Thanks for the Calcium link, Dean. I'll have to check my skimmer. It might be the Urchin Pro.

Good tip on the kalk-treated top-off water. I don't do that now, and that might help. I drip Kalk at night, but not a lot.

Thanks for the tips and advice and commiseration!