What to do now with my algae infested tank?

[Jolieve]

The change in the salt. The change in the dosing pattern to raise alkalinity...

Addition of new equipment to increase flow rate..

Absolutely everything that you change has an impact on the system and its stability.

Moral of the story, keep doing the weekly water changes, do not add any new equipment, do not change salt mixes, do not change dosing patterns.

This allows for the system to become more stable and stops you from feeding the hair algae.

J.

 

[Anonymous]

I have hooked up the Kalk reactor again.

I am goign to stay with Tropic Marin salt.

I may add one more powerhead behind the LR for more flow.

The Alk is still at 8 DKH - Shouldn't that be raised still? The Kalk does not raise it.
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Ferrari 365

 

[Jolieve]

Kalk does not raise alkalinity. You will need to use something like Kent superbuffer, or arm and hammer washing soda to raise the alkalinity.

J.

 

[Anonymous]

But adding that changes the stability.

Should I contiue blasting the LR? There is allot of detritus that is blown all over the place afterwards? I do not run any filter socks or anything. SHould I so catch this stuff?
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Singapore Forum

 

[Anonymous]

yeah get the gunk out and make sure that each time you blast the rock that you get it out.
keep the alk and calcium within it's acceptable range and try to minimize any fluctuations.
do not allow calcium or alkalinity deficiencies to arise.
these alk and calcium are not the kinds of additions that will kill life in your rock if they are added continually.

 

[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.

Sounds like you got an arseload of plasticizers in that salt from the batch mixing/mfg.

 

[polcat]

Rob_reef_keeper, sorry you are having such a major problem. I lived through this when I went bare bottom. My LR had been in my two previous systems that had DSB's. Come to find out the rock was loaded with nutrients.

Here is what I did, not trying to confuse the issues but... leave your existing tank as is and take 1/2 of the LR and put it in a covered garbage can with a powerhead and heater. Every week take the rock out of the can and flush it with new SW. Refill the can with new SW and put the rock back in. Do this for 4 weeks. You will not believe how much stuff comes out of the rock. This is not a curing process. What happens is, as the algae dies the bacteria takes over processing all the stored P in the rock and dying algae. Bacterial tugor (pressure) will force all the detritus out of the rock into the can. You then go from a algae driven system to a bacteria system.

Once the first batch is ready take put it in your tank and pull out the other half of the rock and do the same process.

I know this process works, it takes a commitment and a lot of salt water but if you want the HA gone this will do it. As a side note your pod population will actually increase while the rock is "cooking".

The other thing I did was put a long spined urchin in the existing tank while the rock was "cooking". Those thing will eat it right down to bare white rock. Once all my rock was cooked I took him back to the LFS because I didn't need him anymore.

Good luck and I hope it works out for you.

Mike

 

[Jolieve]

Mike, it's not his LR.

Rob, much as I love and adore him, has been continually changing things in the system and has not been patient about beating hair algae. Rob needs to stop messing with his tank, leave things alone and get on a regular maintenance schedule, and then let things stay that way until the hair algae dies off, however long it takes for that to happen.

Otherwise, he's just going to keep feeding it.

J.

 

[Anonymous]

I do notice there is no life on the LR though. I will do the weekly water changes and see what happens.
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grapefruit plant

 

[polcat]

Mike, it's not his LR.

Rob, much as I love and adore him, has been continually changing things in the system and has not been patient about beating hair algae. Rob needs to stop messing with his tank, leave things alone and get on a regular maintenance schedule, and then let things stay that way until the hair algae dies off, however long it takes for that to happen.

Otherwise, he's just going to keep feeding it.

J.

Oh, kinda new here so don't alot of the history. Guess I misunderstood, I thought it was only the rock and he had transported it from an old system :? Still wish him the best of luck because I understand the frustration...

I thought I gave a good description of "cooking" though??

 

[Anonymous]

pocat - yes, your description is good. There is allot of ideas here. The only thing I haven't really done was to leave the tank alone. I will try that for a while. I just hope the coral survives and grows.
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Honda CM400

 

[Anonymous]

This is what you can do with your algae infested tank...Give it to Beaslbob :wink:

 

[Logic_Bomb]

I had a TERRIBLE infestation of hair algea. I got a tip to use a trace-elements and phosphate sponge (It comes in a tub, you need to pour it into a mesh bag and put into a water flow area. The oputput from a protien skimmer or hanging filter would be fine). Change the insides of the bag and rinse the bag very well every 24 hours. This took care of my problem in a little under a week.

 

[Anonymous]

This is what you can do with your algae infested tank...Give it to Beaslbob Wink

Yeah and it will become a plant infested tank.
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recession us

 

[Anonymous]

Besides, Bob doesn't have room for another tank :lol:

 

[DK]

Good things happen slowly in a reef tank. I would give the phosphate remover at least 3 months to be effective. As it slowly removes phosphate, that will allow phosphate to come out of the places in the rock etc. where it may be "stored" (organicly). The lawnmower blenney is a good idea and for me it is a kole tang for that spic-n-span look.

I assume you are using RODI water for all water changes otherwise it is an impossible uphill battle.

 

[Anonymous]

i had a lawnmower blenny once.. he had no desire to eat nuisance algaes.
he kicked the bejeesus out of a huge cap i had growing for years and that was enough for an ejection.

 

[Anonymous]

I love lawnmowers, but mine only eats film algae. And every type of food I throw in the tank!

 

[Anonymous]

I had one about a year ago and it didn't touch the algae.
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Polish Forum

 

[Anonymous]

Mine picks at the HA.