So what is the conclusion of hair algae?

[jdnumis]

I am getting mixed feelings about leaving my light off or on. Should I just keep the Halides off and have the actinics/led moonlights on? The green hair algae is starting to get out of control. I have to brush the glass twice a day. I started my cycle 10 days ago. I am going to do my first test tonight and I will post later.

Thank you in advance~James

 

[ryangrieder]

I went on vacation once and my lights were left on for 4 days strait. When I got home I had hair algae one inch long on all my rocks. I tried every product out there and scrubbed with a brush and it kept coming back. i ended up getting 50 Mexican turbo and two sea hares. Algae gone completely in a week.

 

[jdnumis]

Is it safe?

Is it safe to get that kind of livestock in the beginning of the cycle process?

 

[ming]

You said you're cycling. There is no need for the lights to be on. I would leave the lights off until the algae dies or leave it on for much shorter period of time per day. When the cycle is complete and the algae has died, the nutrients are in the water column so you could do a large water change and run GFO to remove it before you up your lights back on

 

[jdnumis]

Gfo?

I am not familiar with that abbreviation

 

[jdnumis]

Ok All my lights are off!

Just turned off all my lights. I should keep the pumps, skimmer running right? And can I keep cheato in the fuge?

 

[jdnumis]

Hopefully all the algae will die off towards the end

We are still in the beginning stages of the cycle.

 

[Imbarrie]

Is your live rock cycling also or is it just the tank?

Did you buy cured rock from an established tank or from a tank at a LFS?

 

[fcamargo6thave]

When i started cycling my first tank i had hair algae all over the place bought1 sea hare and he ended up taking care of the problem completely. then i had to give up the sea hare because he had no more hair algae see if you can burrow someones sea hare

 

[ming]

Cycling typically mean there is an ammonia spike which leads to a nitrite spike and eventually nitrate. You should not put animals in the tank when there is going to be ammonia or nitrite spike because they are deadly to animals. That includes snails and sea hares. It would be ok to add those animals AFTER there is no more trace of ammonia/nitrite.
GFO
You can run these in a reactor for more efficiency under low flow. Rinse lightly before using. It will remove phosphates which is typically the primary cause of algae. You could run the GFO during the cycle as well if you wish.

 

[jdnumis]

I am cycling rock in there also. I bought it from another reefer. the rock has to cycle in there alsoo cause its not cured. Should I get. Sea hare? Should I test first before I get one?

 

[fcamargo6thave]

IMO i think i sea hare is your last option wait it out another 2 weeks see how it goes with the suggestions that the members gave you, lol i see you are getting impatient i used to be the same way lol but i understand you are worried because hair algae can get out of control i have seen it happen good luck

 

[jdnumis]

i am more worred than impatient

I just want to make it right. I want it to be a healthy environment for livestock in the future.

 

[JimmyR1rider]

Gochi relax- keep your lights off for the cycle- GFO is another name for phosphate control media--- phos-ban, rowa phos etc. Dont add any livestock to the tank if cycling. Once you add your clean up crew- if after a bit they dont take care of it then get a sea hare or whatever else your gonna do to get rid of it.

But diligent water changes and running GFO after the cycle is done youll probably get rid of it.

After the cycles done and no livestock yet you can do pretty much a 90% water change to get rid of the phosphates because theres no livestock in the tank to shock with drastic changes in parameters.
Just test your source water to make sure its not where your phosphates are coming from.

 

[jdnumis]

Re Jimmy

thanks for the advice Jimmy. I currently have a carbon phosban media bag in the fuge right now. Ill keep lights off for a couple of weeks and see if that changed anything. Test the water then do a change.

 

[JimmyR1rider]

No problem- do yourself a favor though- ditch the bag of GFO- get a 2 little fishies reactor and run it in that. It needs a small pump because its what they call fluidized- the water will flow through it. The bag keeps the GFO very densely packed and only so much actually has water flow through it- basically just the outside layer.

You want the phos ban to have as much surface contact with the water as possible- thats how it does its job. In the reactor it bounces around as the water flows through all of the phos ban particles and they make much better contact with the water.

Plus the bags can become nitrate traps due to lack of flow or dead spots you can call it in them.

Good luck stay with it and itll all pan out for you just fine:smile:

Just another note if you get the reactor for phos ban and you run carbon also- you should run them in separate reactors - when I ran the Two Little Fishies I daisy chained them on a single mini jet 404 with the gfo first in line then the carbon, set the flow rate that the GFO needs and let the carbon work off that even though carbon should have 20GPH or so more flow it did fine. The phos ban when given the right flow should look like its boiling- not getting waterborne though- you can go on youtube and look up phos ban reactor and see videos on how it should look when set correctly. Hope this helps.

 

[tomtoothdoc]

+1 on jimmy's advice. here's a link to bulk reef supply....video instructions explaining gfo usage. their products are very good and economical.

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/store/brs-tv/carbon-gfo-videos

 

[jdnumis]

Thanks again Jimmy. You know whats crazy? I have the phosban reactor going right now with nothing in it. The guy at the LFS told me not to run it because I have no livestock in their yet. He told me to put the phos/carbon media bag in there for 2 months, then run the reactor when you get livestock. I totally understand why the nitrates can get stuck in the bag because its so packed.

 

[motortrendz]

thats funny... some LFS guys have nooo clue.... but yea with media there is 2 types of filtration one is the passive.. which basically means thasty you have the media in a bag and the water flows around the bag and has vry limited contact with the flowing water.. and the second is whwere u use a reactor.. the water is forced through the media and has a better/longer contact with it and it has a better chance of scrubbing the water..longer contact better performance..

i def wouldnot add the sea hare until the water pearameters are good.
i know alot of people that add clean up crews reletivly early to maintain the rock work as they cure.. also i do run the lights(on a limited schedule) when cycling bc it gives the rock a chance to let coraline take hold and if there is any 'seedlings" they will start to grow.. 4-5 hrs day moon lights are not nesasary bc they will have no singifigat use at this point in the game for you

on your fuge since you have chaeto 14hrs on 10hrs off.. that doesnt change.

hope this helps

 

[JimmyR1rider]

I hate to do this Mike but Id have to disagree the seedlings (pods and such) arent living off the lights, theyre living off the ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. Coralline will over take the green algaes(other than the hair algae) that grow on the rock in time- remember Mike you had rock from an established tank with healthy coralline already there- It normally takes a while to get coralline---although if you take the additive route which I would never and use purple up youll get coralline in a week lol.... Just be patient and coralline will come as the tank matures--- everyone thinks a month into the tank you should have coralline, thats not usually the case either nor does having coralline or not serve as a basis to show if your systems healthy. Just my 10 cents. I normally agree with everything you post well 99% lol but this time im on a different page.

He has green hair due to the lights so I would normally but ESPECIALLY in his case say no lights during cycle or hell have a waterborne forest by the time his cycles completed.

Gochi if you want you can run the GFO to start taking the phosphates out, theres no harm in it- and just dont listen to the moron at the LFS anymore lol. If anything Id say the closest to his argument being correct is that theres no necessity to run it during the cycle but it can never hurt.

BUT I do agree with Mike wholeheartedly about when to add the sea hare- hes just like any other livestock its sensitive to parameters