I am having the worst possible time with green hair algae. I have been phosphate sponging, polyfiltering and trying hair algae remover. My water parameters are all great. Whatever nitrogen compounds I have are barely showing up when I test. I think they must be locked up by the algae. It seems as if it it just growing from itself. I have a 55 gal reef with 2 - 175 watt 10000 K halides running about ten hours a day. I am about to remove all of the inverts and scrub each rock, then turn the lights off. I change 10-15 gals weekly and feed as little as possible. Someone please help me I can't deal with the aggravation much longer!
impossible algae eradication
- Thread starter qwit10
- Start date
Do you have any little clean up guys? I have an Emerald crab in my tank and he decimates algae. And in a 55 gal you can have at least 2 of them. Also if you have any desire to own a tang, they can take care of a lot of algae too. Other than that make sure you have some hermit crabs and snails, they'll all help. Also, what kind of water do you use when you do the water changes. If it is tap, test it for phosphate. You may be continuously adding more phosphate into the system. Good luck
Do a search this has been posted so many times.
It is a nutrient export issue. Even if the test kits are reading zero the nutrients are being used as soon as they dissolve to feed the hair. If you pull the hair out and keep up with everthing else your doing it will just come back as the free nutrients will biuld up and cuase anouther breakout. You need to change you export methods to take out more. Better water changes, do you use ro/di? Maybe consider a refugium, or remove some of the fish.
What type of fish are in the tank anyway? How oftem do you clean the skimmer and what kind of simmer is it?
It is a nutrient export issue. Even if the test kits are reading zero the nutrients are being used as soon as they dissolve to feed the hair. If you pull the hair out and keep up with everthing else your doing it will just come back as the free nutrients will biuld up and cuase anouther breakout. You need to change you export methods to take out more. Better water changes, do you use ro/di? Maybe consider a refugium, or remove some of the fish.
What type of fish are in the tank anyway? How oftem do you clean the skimmer and what kind of simmer is it?
It may have been posted many times but has it been proven? There are many contradictory “facts?”. Some claim algae is always present in your system. If so, how do you ever get measurable nutrient levels? Why not just increased algae? If you claim it is a cyclical process, and you need time for the algae to grow, then you should be able to plot growth-crash cycles timed to nutrient levels. Has this been done? I suspect algae growth it is quite complicated.
You're trying to make the post into something it isnt. It is a hair algea problem and the solotion to hair algea is simple. Nutrient export must be higher then input. Its that simple.
When the imprt of nutrients exceeds the needs of the current algea in the system and what you are exporting the nutrients become detectable.
Like what, hair algea is hair algea. When it blooms increase your exporting and manually remove as much as possible. It isnt a complexe situation.
Do you like to look at algea in your main system, hair algea to be exact. I dont think the poster of this topic does and niether do I. Ever heard of a refugium?
How so? Each algea has its own reason for being in the tank. Diatoms=silicates, Hair Algea and cyno=P02 ect... It is pretty simple when you are trying to figure out how to keep a certain algea away. What is your point. How to eliminate hair algea has been disscussed many times over here. IMO it is a waste of bandwidth to post something you can do a seach on and find a solution. No offence to qwit10 but new users must be reminded of this service.
When the imprt of nutrients exceeds the needs of the current algea in the system and what you are exporting the nutrients become detectable.
Like what, hair algea is hair algea. When it blooms increase your exporting and manually remove as much as possible. It isnt a complexe situation.
Do you like to look at algea in your main system, hair algea to be exact. I dont think the poster of this topic does and niether do I. Ever heard of a refugium?
How so? Each algea has its own reason for being in the tank. Diatoms=silicates, Hair Algea and cyno=P02 ect... It is pretty simple when you are trying to figure out how to keep a certain algea away. What is your point. How to eliminate hair algea has been disscussed many times over here. IMO it is a waste of bandwidth to post something you can do a seach on and find a solution. No offence to qwit10 but new users must be reminded of this service.
If you reduce your nutrient level so low that algae will not grow, then many corals will have trouble also, as they don't live on light alone. And similarly, if most healthy reef tanks were suddenly deprived of their snails, would probably grow considerable algae. At least, I know mine would because I can see the spots that the snails can't reach and they aren't pretty.
So, I would increase the number of snails, and try to get a good diversity of species.
So, I would increase the number of snails, and try to get a good diversity of species.
There's a reason they're called FAQ's...... :wink:
Follow the link and look under "hair algae".
http://reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=7679
Mitch
Follow the link and look under "hair algae".
http://reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=7679
Mitch
Sorry for laggin' on getting back to you all. The tank has been set up in it's current configuration for about sixteen months. I am running a turboflotor skimmer with a wet-dry and crushed coral as a medium. I have fifty pounds of carribean live sand and about eighty or so pounds of mixed live rock. I have lots of small blue legs, a couple of other misc. hermits, two or three mithrax crabs. two striped cardinals, a royal gramma, a medium kole tang and a newly added small yellow tang. I have two bubble corals, an ivory coral, galaxia, pagoda, tongue, tubastrea, some pulsing xenia, misc. zooanthid polyps and a open brain. I also have quite a few snails, but they have been dying off as well. I recently lost my sand sifting star and one of my banded coral shrimp. With the exception of my snails dying, everything seems to be doing fine. I think the shrimp was killed by the other one. I perform water changes weekly with DI water. I am being diligent about maintenance in hope of getting rid of the algae. Thanks again!
Sorry for laggin' on getting back to you all. The tank has been set up in it's current configuration for about sixteen months. I am running a turboflotor skimmer with a wet-dry and crushed coral as a medium. I have fifty pounds of carribean live sand and about eighty or so pounds of mixed live rock. I have lots of small blue legs, a couple of other misc. hermits, two or three mithrax crabs. two striped cardinals, a royal gramma, a medium kole tang and a newly added small yellow tang. I have two bubble corals, an ivory coral, galaxia, pagoda, tongue, tubastrea, some pulsing xenia, misc. zooanthid polyps and a open brain. I also have quite a few snails, but they have been dying off as well. I recently lost my sand sifting star and one of my banded coral shrimp. With the exception of my snails dying, everything seems to be doing fine. I think the shrimp was killed by the other one. I perform water changes weekly with DI water. I am being diligent about maintenance in hope of getting rid of the algae. Thanks again!
You have to thing that pop out to me that may be the cause of the problem, the wet/dry if it has the bioballs and the cc substrate. Both can cause excess nitrate. The cc really traps lots of detritus and is a big probelm unless it is vacuumed often. 5 fish is ok in a 55 but not two tangs. That will also add lots of problems in the future. I would remove the yellow tang and leave the fish pop alone after that. I would also switch the cc for a sp. sea floor grade/oolite mix.
HTH
HTH
yellow tangs and crabs arn't good control, IME. I would be using nutrient control to reduce the algea. If you keep you nutrients low enough and clean up most of the hiar algea by hand then the better algeas (coraline and macros if you have any) will beat out the hair.
I put the yellow tang in in hopes he would help reduce algae. The Kole and him seem to have different enough shapes that they are not being aggressive. I have a 100 gal fish only tank if they begin fighting. I have been trying to mechanically filter out as much detritus prior to it hitting the cc medium. I am also using purigen and carbon in hopes of removing any unwanted elements. I know there isn't a miracle cure but I am ready to turn the lights off on the algaes parade (literally). I have been really diligent about water changes. My RO/DI filter is new so I wouldn't think I am adding any impurities that way. I think I could be getting more efficiency out of my skimmer as it does't produce much waste right now. I clean it every other month or so, but it still doesn't seem to produce as much foam as I would like to see. Thanks again.
If your skimmer isn't pulling out much gunk and you're finding that detritus is accumulating, maybe your tank water turnover isn't high enough. (did you read the FAQ'S? :? )
Fix the source,of the problem, not the result. Turning off the lights is only a temporary fix.
Mitch
Fix the source,of the problem, not the result. Turning off the lights is only a temporary fix.
Mitch
No matter how much you clean the CC your going to have detirius, It is better to have a bare bottom tank than a CC. I prefer a deep sand bed. Which helps with the nitrates.
ALso those bioball trap detrus as well and if you have a sponge in your wet dry that adds to your problems. My suggestion for a sump is a Rubbermade sump ($8) and put your berlin and return sump in that and do away with the wetdry. If you must keep it SLOWLY remove bioballs (1/4 at a time) and you could replace with live or dead rock. but a rubbermade sump is the way to go. Dont do this immediately, slowly remove the bioballs first.
ALso those bioball trap detrus as well and if you have a sponge in your wet dry that adds to your problems. My suggestion for a sump is a Rubbermade sump ($8) and put your berlin and return sump in that and do away with the wetdry. If you must keep it SLOWLY remove bioballs (1/4 at a time) and you could replace with live or dead rock. but a rubbermade sump is the way to go. Dont do this immediately, slowly remove the bioballs first.
Cheap way to replace you sand bed is SOUTHDOWN sand. It cost $4 for $50 lbs, you might need 2 bags. If you do this, do it slowly as well. For $16 I think your problem will be helped ($8 for rubbermade container and $8 for southdown sand) You could probably sell your wetdry for much more than that. WET/Dry works great on FO (fish only ) tanks but not good in a reef tank
Simplest solution is to yank the bioballs and the crushed coral. Adding a sandbed to an existing tank is not easy- why don't you run bare bottom for a while? And clean the skimmer weekly, not every month or so. I think that will work for you.
Not sure how many snails you have, but it should be at least 20 or 30.
Not sure how many snails you have, but it should be at least 20 or 30.
Just for clarification, I have about fifty pounds of Gulf-View live sand in the display tank. The sand is great! I have some olive snails as well that live in it and stir it around. My sump has one layer of bioballs covered with about five inches of crushed coral. Do you think nitrates are accumulating there? I think I am going to add the refugium and cut the halide photoperiod at least an hour. I may also order a few pincushion urchins and more mithrax as well. I have tried lettuce nudibranchs on a few occasions but they disappeared within a month each time.
All in all it seems healthy, it is just unsightly to have the hair algae problem. There are a bunch of micro organisms that seem to thrive in the algae though. Thanks again!
All in all it seems healthy, it is just unsightly to have the hair algae problem. There are a bunch of micro organisms that seem to thrive in the algae though. Thanks again!
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