What to do now with my algae infested tank?

[Anonymous]

As some of you know I have been battling hair algae for a long time. It has gotten me so upset I dont know what else to do.

the tank is a 58 (36x18x21)

I have been through

Frequent WC's
Large WC;s
Scrubbing the LR
new lights
increased flow
added allot of snails to see them die off in 6 months
running Rowaphos through a phosban reactor
switched skimemrs from a MyReef MR-1 to a Euroreef ES5-3
Switched salts from IO to Oceanic and now switchin gto Trpoic Marin
Run a Kalk reactor 24/7

I am not adding a refugium. I have no room and no more electricity available and IMO only adds as a bandaid of a bigger problem. Please DO NOT recommend I add any sort of plantlife to control the algae.

Parameters
CA-440
Alk 8.2DKH
MAg 1600
Nitrate - 0
PH 8.1-8.4
Temp 79-80
Sal 1.025
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[Anonymous]

Rob

I think you have tried everything. At this time if I was you I would add a few snails and wait it out. I am in a similar situation I have a good amount of hair alga and no room to upgrade or add anything. IMO in time the HA will burn itself out if you and I do the proper maintenance, harvest when necessary and keep up on the water changes.

Good luck

 

[Anonymous]

the algae is just all over everything. Snails just end up dieing.
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[Anonymous]

I have no other advice to give, sorry.

 

[Anonymous]

i would run that skimmer really wet, clean it often. also i would run lots of carbon, and rowaphos as you are (hopefully it is not exhausted). i would feed nothing to the tank.. if i could get away with no feedings.

i think that you have been trying so hard to attack this problem that you have ended up fueling the algae.
snails dying fed it, scrubbing rock created more die off and fueled it, etc.

i say skim the crap out of it and strip the water until it starves.

you might remember that i dislike that oceanic salt and i do recommend changing enough water to remove it but after an initial swapping i would cut down on water changes as well.

 

[wyw]

I am sure you have been through this all but just in case. Where is the algae getting its energy to grow?. Do you have fish or anything in there that you are feeding? I would look more closely at what the algae is feeding on and try to control that (remove fish or corals that are fed often etc.) then, as wazzel said, harvest and wait. If the clean up crew you keep adding die then I wouldn't add more as the decomposition just adds to the food source for the algae. If you can figure out how to controll the algae's food you will be able to controll the algae's growth.


I don't mess with additives so maybe this simple solution won't help. I use sandbed, live rock, protean skimmer and water changes., For my simple LPS and softies tanks this has worked best. After 15 years of reefs, when ever I start adding chemicals my tanks go out of whack.

Good Luck
Wendy

 

[Unarce]

How come you don't like Oceanic, Podman?

 

[Anonymous]

If it make you feel any better I just posted some pics of my HA tank.

 

[Anonymous]

How come you don't like Oceanic, Podman?

my tank reacted very poorly.

call it coincidence or what you like, but i had the same 'classic' symptoms as everyone else that dislikes the stuff had.
a red turf like cyano and funky algae all over the place.
i switched to kent and it disappeared.
at first i though i was getting lazy, but i couldn't get the tank straightened out regardless of performance in my duties.


i don't know if some of us got some bad stuff or what.. i am not going that route again though.

 

[Anonymous]

The problem is I dont know what is fueling the Algae. There is no sand in the tank. I feed 1/2 cube of Formula One mysis shrip cubes every 2-3 days. I stopped dosing Kalk now as well.

My RO/DI/DI says 0 TDS.

So the only other source is the LR that is possibly saturated with junk.
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[Anonymous]

i forget Rob, what is the fish load?

could you stop feeding? maybe you could remove the fish?

don't tear this thing apart again... i don't think it will solve your problem.

you just pulled the sand bed and essentially you have started a new tank... it will be awhile until things mellow out.

 

[Anonymous]

I yanked the DSB over 6 months ago.

2 false percs
1 flame haekfish
1 6-line wrasse
1 back cap basslet

No where to put the fish.

I cant see how a 1/2 cube every 2-3 days creates this much algae.

ANother note. The algae is now growing on the starboard bottom.
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[melas]

Test for phosphates. Check your nitrate test kit or just buy a new one. Surely you have elevated phosphates or nitrates or both (otherwise algae couldn't thrive). When was the last time you changed the membrane and prefilters in your RO? Also, make sure you keep up on skimmer maintenance for optimum performance. I agree with what was stated above about shooting for a "wetter" skimmer effluent. Try reducing your photoperiod to 8 hours/day for a while. Good luck! I know this has to be frustrating.

 

[Oceans Ferevh]

I don't know what your LFS owner is like, but mine would be willing to house my fish for a while till things cleared up. Maybe you could offer to compinsate them for babysitting. That amount of fish in a 58G would be a problem with feedings. I agree with Podman, starving is your best option at this point. Do you scrub your rocks woth a toothbrush every day? That was a very sucessful meathod for me. Do it every day and starve the s%$t to death. You could try using a canister filter to "vacume" the crap out of the rocks also. Use a powerhead to blow it out and then suck it up.

 

[Anonymous]

Rob, I had quite a bit of hair algae about 2 months ago--alright I had a ton of it. I had to get rid of my metal halide 175 watt light because it was just making the algae grow like crazy.

I took the light off and left no light on the tank for 3 days

Then I put my old lights on and kept the photoperiod down to 6 hours for a month, now I am back up to 8

That my work for you, I would also check your phosphates

 

[Anonymous]

If feeding the fish is the problem and If I were to remove the fish for a few weeks/months then out them back in then fed them again the algae would return.

I am not testing for phosphates becuse there has to be phosphates in the tank for the algae to grow (Nitrates are 0). All test kits I have used for PO4 read 0 no matter what due to the fact that the PO4 is locked up in the algae.

Even if the test kit showed PO4 what difference does it make. I know its in there and I dont know the source. The only source I see is the LR or something in my RO/DI/DI that I am reading.
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[Anonymous]

If feeding the fish is the problem and If I were to remove the fish for a few weeks/months then out them back in then fed them again the algae would return.

that is not necessarily true.

you have a surplus of phosphate now that has resulted in hair algae.. we don't know what exactly sparked it but i can tell you that since then you have increased the amount released into the water column... that is certain.

if you maintain a strict reefkeeping schedule.. the one that you already know, and your system is not overloaded with nutrients in some way (overpopulation of fish, overfeeding, etc.) the algae will go away.
it can take time but if you remain patient and diligent it will starve eventually.
if you want to speed this process to it's maximum you need to minimize all nutrient additions.
once the hair is gone and coralline has gotten a firm foothold the excess nutrients will be skimmed out or consumed by more desirable life.

these blooms like yours are often the result of a lot of nutrient available in a short period of time.
you seem to be under the impression that a six months is enough time for everything to be peachy but it isn't.. especially when you restarted this tank with a full house... at least that is how i recall.
isn't it conceivable that maybe a great deal of life in your rock was alive and well, buried in your DSB tank, and then after six months of rough living in a BB it finally started to die off causing nutrients to be released?
seems very possible to me and that is just one way that you have stirred things up in an attempt to right this.
understand that i think you have done nothing wrong, IMO.. i just think you may have done too much.

hair algae is hell, i have a friend that had a bloom for almost a year.
he was about to throw in the towel and then it went away.. his tank is awesome now.
on the other hand, i had a tank for five years that never had any... i believe that was a fluke... my new tank took months to settle down and is still a volatile thing a year later and i have very little livestock.

 

[Bojangles]

Forgive me for being naive, but why not try an lawnmower blenny? I mean isn't their main foodsource hair algae?

http://www.saltwaterfish.com/site_11_03 ... 7f59748947

Personally I would blame the salt mix you use. I know that when I switched I noticed visibly within a few days. My water seems more "clear" and I stopped getting all the junk on my rocks. Um if you dont use salt mix then I really dont know WTH is going on

 

[Anonymous]

I dont think its the salt. I am now on the 3 rd brand and its the same thing.

Podman - If hte LR is loaded up with nutrients and when i feed it makes more. How did the LR get loaded in the first place? Loking at the tank right now and its gotten worse.

I am really leaning towards removing everything in the tank. Getting new LR and put the corals and fish back in. At the same time I will get a new skimmer and add 5 more maxijets. If the LR got loaded it has to be becuase of improper nutrient removal - Hence the skimmer and flow. I have been going weekly or bi-weekly WC's for over 6 months now. Maybe I need ot do a 100% WC.

The other option like some have said is to let the swamp grow and not touch it. I can do this but I will have to remove the corlas so they dont get smothered.
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[Anonymous]

Where did you get the LR?

Is it from Florida? I here that Florida's aquacultured rock can be full of junk that leeches into the water.

Why don't you take the rock out and cook it for a while and see how the tank does while the rock is out. You could put some fake stuff in the tank temporarily so that you fish have hiding place.

Louey