Deep sand bed

[tomaquar]

This is the first time Ive ever tried a DSB and its also the first time Ive ever had an intractable problem with hair algae.

I read up on DSB before hand it it all seemed good. I feed twice a week, do a 10% the day after and have had two different LFS sponsors double check my parameters and they are alway good. My lights are LED so there is no yellow shift and Ive cut my photo period back to 5 hours. And Ive upped my Mg.

Skimmer is just an in tank Berlin but I change my stones regularly, it pulls a nice dark scim, and Ive had good luck with it for years.

DSB is the only thing I cant eliminate.

Any input???

 

[rolo65]

time and lotsa water changes....

 

[reeferj]

+ 1 on time. And good clean R/O water

 

[tomaquar]

I get the water from a sponsor with a good reputation. As far as time goes, its getting worse not better.

 

[reeferj]

I dont think it would be the sand, unless it was some old used sand maybe.

 

[tomaquar]

yeah, Im stumped. Normal sugar sand from a sponsor. Was hoping I had missed something with the DSB.

Ill keep dosing with Mg and changing water.

Thanks for the input.

 

[reeferj]

Honestly, when I had issues with hair algae, I didnt change too many things. I bought new R/O inserts, and thats about it. Now, it did get worse for a min and I had to do some hands on pruning but after a few water changes with good premixed water, it just started to fade away. And i was rockin the DSB too.

 

[wolfie]

how long had the sand been in your tank?

 

[tomaquar]

about a year. Ive read that they have trouble after a while. Is a year long enough?

 

[wolfie]

a year are no way long enough. I had mine for 3 years now and still no problem

 

[weaglereefer]

Surprised no one asked, but how deep is your DSB?

 

[schwaggs]

I'm seeing good things from perfroming monthly 20% water chages and running GFO.

 

[tomaquar]

weagler - I would say the ave is about 4 to 5 with a one inch spot where the flow hits

schwaggs - what is GFO ?

 

[weaglereefer]

GFO = Grannular Ferric Oxide. A phosphate removing media often run in an upflow reactor.

I'm not an expert on DSB's, but thought they had to be deep and undisturbed. Has the 1" spot always been there?

 

[tomaquar]

The low spot formed gradually. Its been there for several months.

 

[cr500_af]

Upping the Mg is probably doing nothing... it has proven effective against Bryopsis with Kent Tech M, but not with any other type of Mg supplement and not against GHA.

This shows that it isn't the actual Magnesium that does the job; it is one or more of the trace elements in Tech M (and it has plenty in it, so it's hard to nail down which one). Many suspect the copper as the magic bullet. I have plans in the near future to do a controlled experiment to determine this, but it will be a few months.

My personal opinion is that your sand bed isn't the problem, but at 4-5 inches deep it probably isn't doing you much good anyway. From what I have been able to learn, it takes quite a large amount of sand in relation to tank size to make a real difference.

I would personally begin running GFO and maybe step up the water changes further. As little as you feed, there is something else fueling the algae and all signs point to phosphates IMO. Once phosphates are "bound up" in the rock, it takes quite some time to clean things up.

 

[grouper therapy]

Schwaggs;565258 wrote: I'm seeing good things from perfroming monthly 20% water chages and running GFO.

I agree. It sounds like phosphates are the culprit. Remember as well that the test for nitrates and phosphates may not be giving you the true levels of each since the hair algae is consuming them fuel as they enter the system.

 

[tomaquar]

Thank you very much! I didnt realize live rock could bind phosphate and leach it back out. That makes sense as a possible source. Ill keep a phosphate sponge in the filter.

Thanks again

 

[tomaquar]

Also, someone suggested that I do a "black out" of the tank for three days to kill back the algae.

Is this effective?

Does it harm the coral?

Thanks

 

[huttongd]

I had a similar issue and found that my RO/DI filter was putting out less than desirable water. Had a problem w/ the shutoff valve where it was letting unfiltered water through. Replaced that and the algae cleared up after just a few water changes.