Hair Algae Control other unwanted crap
- Thread starter ralph atl
- Start date
- Messages
- 1,545
- Reaction score
- 135
Hehehe, I knew you wouldn't be taking the easy way instead of the right way...
Do you know how this algae fix stuff works? Does it impact maro algae as well?
Dave, You are correct, my TLF reactor is sitting in the sump, a total of 6-8 inches of head... I see why the MJ would never work for your situation.
Do you know how this algae fix stuff works? Does it impact maro algae as well?
Dave, You are correct, my TLF reactor is sitting in the sump, a total of 6-8 inches of head... I see why the MJ would never work for your situation.
From what I've read at RC, macro algae is only affected if go into around the 4th week of dosing. If you stop a bit short of that, then your macro should be fine.
I've used Algae Fix too with success. It didn't totally get rid of all of my HA but now it's all but gone from the display tank.
- Messages
- 6,671
- Reaction score
- 15
update:
my fish are all but healed, so 2 days ago I started rinsing my frozen food with RO and adding a few drops of Selcon.
I just dosed number 8 with Algaefix Marine, and I am continuing with weekly water changes, gfo, rox carbon, daily dosing of vodka......
My algae (some very feathery) is getting very thinned out, some dying, and some have cyno on it's tips....
Phates are <0.024
trates 0.2
Mag 1400
Alk 9
Calcium >550
it's on the way out!
my fish are all but healed, so 2 days ago I started rinsing my frozen food with RO and adding a few drops of Selcon.
I just dosed number 8 with Algaefix Marine, and I am continuing with weekly water changes, gfo, rox carbon, daily dosing of vodka......
My algae (some very feathery) is getting very thinned out, some dying, and some have cyno on it's tips....
Phates are <0.024
trates 0.2
Mag 1400
Alk 9
Calcium >550
it's on the way out!
- Messages
- 937
- Reaction score
- 32
I have been trying to find ways to help reduce my phosphates and nitrates, so I am glad I found this thread.
I had never thought about thawing my frozen food and then rinsing it in RO water, but after reading this I did it this morning. I can't believe how cloudy the water was after rinsing my PE Mysis in it.
I had never thought about thawing my frozen food and then rinsing it in RO water, but after reading this I did it this morning. I can't believe how cloudy the water was after rinsing my PE Mysis in it.
- Messages
- 6,671
- Reaction score
- 15
UPDATE:
All hair algae derbesia is long gone. However, I also had Briopsis.
I have bought Tech m, as I feel I might have bryopsis that was controlled by my ULNS, but it has sprouted...not bad....though....
I started 1400 mag and went to 1800 after raising it 100 per day...for two weeks it was almost gone!
Then, I did something stupid! I did a water change (I raised mag with tech m to 1800), and changed my ROX Carbon.
That carbon works so great that it removed whatever was in Tech-M that kills this algae.
No worries, Last week I started it again, and it's mostly gone after day 7......
All hair algae derbesia is long gone. However, I also had Briopsis.
I have bought Tech m, as I feel I might have bryopsis that was controlled by my ULNS, but it has sprouted...not bad....though....
I started 1400 mag and went to 1800 after raising it 100 per day...for two weeks it was almost gone!
Then, I did something stupid! I did a water change (I raised mag with tech m to 1800), and changed my ROX Carbon.
That carbon works so great that it removed whatever was in Tech-M that kills this algae.
No worries, Last week I started it again, and it's mostly gone after day 7......
- Messages
- 6,671
- Reaction score
- 15
FAIL! FAIL! FAIL!
I have been dealing with so many multiple species of Bryopsis, Hair Algae, Udotea, etc....and using TECH M in an ULNS I have failed, until now....
So for 5-6 months I have lost a few colonies, snails, growth, stress, money, hair...lol...
YET, I have found (NOT INVENTED) a quick solution!!!!
It took me 12 hours to get rid of almost all algae...I might have some crop up now again, I don't know...but I haven't seen anything since my final treatment!
It's all documented on my build!
here:
I have been dealing with so many multiple species of Bryopsis, Hair Algae, Udotea, etc....and using TECH M in an ULNS I have failed, until now....
So for 5-6 months I have lost a few colonies, snails, growth, stress, money, hair...lol...
YET, I have found (NOT INVENTED) a quick solution!!!!
It took me 12 hours to get rid of almost all algae...I might have some crop up now again, I don't know...but I haven't seen anything since my final treatment!
It's all documented on my build!
here:
- Messages
- 6,671
- Reaction score
- 15
copied from my build:
hopefully, my last phase of this Bryopsis or Algae from HELL, I have
finished my last part of the 4 part series today................7 hours later I have scraped all the back glass & overflow (I found a few patches of the death algae! OMG! (killed it!), captured as much as I can, and completely treated my overflow with H2O2............wetvac sump, cleaned returns, cleaned nozzles...argggggg.........I am beat....40 gallon H2O change, GFO & Rox Carbon Change, treatment in a few spots with Kalk/RO/H2O2......added biogest & vodka....skimmer skimming....
hopefully, my last phase of this Bryopsis or Algae from HELL, I have
finished my last part of the 4 part series today................7 hours later I have scraped all the back glass & overflow (I found a few patches of the death algae! OMG! (killed it!), captured as much as I can, and completely treated my overflow with H2O2............wetvac sump, cleaned returns, cleaned nozzles...argggggg.........I am beat....40 gallon H2O change, GFO & Rox Carbon Change, treatment in a few spots with Kalk/RO/H2O2......added biogest & vodka....skimmer skimming....
I hear that I've been battling algae for months and months. It's green some days, red some days, and brown on other days, and it covers the lower half of my rocks. I am currently changing gfo every two days, cooking rocks with lanthanum chloride, and scrubbing rocks daily with a toothbrush. I'm considering hydrogen peroxide spot treatments and dripping lc into a sock. I'm also getting majorly burned out from it. I constantly run out of phosphate test reagents from testing all the time, and pretty soon Lowes is going to wonder why I buy so much drain cleaner. (lye for regenerating gfo). I'm sick of it! I hate this algae! There had to be an end to it at some point!
I agree I have a variety of issues but I don't think its cyno or diatoms. It has a stalk and roots to the rock. Here are crappy iphone pics from this morning it's more red then brown today.
<img src="
<img src="
<img src="
<img src="
<img src="
<img src="
You have red Derbesia Algae. How much do you feed? What is your water change schedule? Do you use GFO? Do you have a protein skimmer and is it working correctly?
Controlling hair algae is a combination of limiting nutrient inputs like not overfeeding, and facilitating nutrient export, like water changes, protein skimming, use of filter socks, granular ferric oxide use, carbon use, and macroalgae growth/harvesting.
There are also some animals you can use to fight hair algae, such as Mexican Turbo snails, sea hares, and tangs.
There is the rare case where you can do all of the above for a long period and even then not be able to control hair algae, because you probably have phosphates coming from your rock. I have only seen one case that this is probably the cause of in the whole time I have been an ARC Member, and that looked to be the case with Hanin's tank, as he could not get rid of his algae for the life of him, and he knows what he is doing and is a very experienced Reefer.
Controlling hair algae is a combination of limiting nutrient inputs like not overfeeding, and facilitating nutrient export, like water changes, protein skimming, use of filter socks, granular ferric oxide use, carbon use, and macroalgae growth/harvesting.
There are also some animals you can use to fight hair algae, such as Mexican Turbo snails, sea hares, and tangs.
There is the rare case where you can do all of the above for a long period and even then not be able to control hair algae, because you probably have phosphates coming from your rock. I have only seen one case that this is probably the cause of in the whole time I have been an ARC Member, and that looked to be the case with Hanin's tank, as he could not get rid of his algae for the life of him, and he knows what he is doing and is a very experienced Reefer.
<span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: Arial">
<span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: Arial">Thank you for the id, as I’ve never been 100% sure what it was. Sorry in advance if I am hijacking this thread. Here’s my story. I don’t know for sure that I know what I’m doing but I have put a heck of lot of time into trying to figure this out.</span></span>
<span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: Arial">Background</span></span>
<span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: Arial">The tank was started in March 2010 and ran pretty good for about a year until roughly February 2011 which is when I had my first child. I performed good maintenance until this time pretty close to what I am doing now (see below). After February 2011 my priorities changed to my new child and I did not keep up with maintenance and pretty much just did top-offs and cleaned the skimmer until roughly August of 2011. By this time I had severe green hair algae everywhere and I made a commitment to change. I have since followed the regiment below very strictly. I have also seen improvement, it’s just painfully slow.</span></span>
<span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: Arial">Water Changes -- My RO system is in the basement and I do not like carrying 5 gallons of water upstairs. Due to this I change 2 gallons per day, roughly 2% total volume. I have done this strictly since August 2011 meaning 9 out of 10 days no exceptions. Recently, in the last 3 weeks I have cut this back to 2% every other day as I’m wondering if I’m changing it too much.</span></span>
<span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: Arial">Feeding -- I absolutely have not overfed since August 2011. I admit I used to, but since August, I feed frozen once per week and dry once per day, about 8 very small pellets per day. My fish eat it in less then 10 seconds. </span></span>
<span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: Arial">Skimmer -- My skimmer sucks, is a super skimmer and I have to tinker with it constantly. I probably average 1 cup of dark skimmate every 3 or 4 days. </span></span>
<span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: Arial">GFO -- I have run GFO since August. I have increased the frequency of how often I change it from starting at 1 month, then 2 Weeks, then 1 Week, and for the last 2 weeks every other day. I also have been regenerating GFO for the last 2 weeks, still evaluating if regenerating is working.</span></span>
<span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: Arial">Lights -- I have an Aquatic Life 4 Bulb 48” T5 Light. I’m currently running 3 ATI Blue + and 1 ATI Purple +. All bulbs are about 2 months old.</span></span>
<span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: Arial">Here is a link to my parameters for anyone that’s interested. Basically, Nitrates have always been extremely low, and Phosphates always creep up on me after within a week of changing GFO. </span></span>https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AoVt_KiBbaUXdDA3bVNNRW80VXctTkFmdzRyMGNHaXc"><span style="color: #1155cc"><span style="font-family: Arial"><u>https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AoVt_KiBbaUXdDA3bVNNRW80VXctTkFmdzRyMGNHaXc</u></span></span></a>
<span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: Arial">For a while I thought it was my RO system and I have added a second DI chamber and tested the RO phosphates consistently at .06 or so. I tested a bucket of new salt water and came up with .15, which I gathered from reef central was not that high. I am noticing small improvements, but it’s been a very slow process. I currently believe that I may have saturated my rock with phosphates and I’m going to have to continue with GFO until they are depleted. I cooked one of my rocks for about 1 month and a half then tested phosphates at .2. I then started dosing phosfree to that and got the phosphates down in 2 weeks. That rock is currently in my QT since it still had some aiptaisia left on it and I have some Pep. shrimp in my QT. I’m cooking another rock, but this is also a very slow process. </span></span>
<span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: Arial">One other note, I’ve tried several batches of snails and they never seem to do well in my system. Not sure but they usually only last a couple weeks. I recently added a lawnmower blenny and he is helping. I also have a yellow tang that pics at it quite a bit and helps too.</span></span>
<span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: Arial">Sorry again for the long post.</span></span>
</span></span>
<span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: Arial">Thank you for the id, as I’ve never been 100% sure what it was. Sorry in advance if I am hijacking this thread. Here’s my story. I don’t know for sure that I know what I’m doing but I have put a heck of lot of time into trying to figure this out.</span></span>
<span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: Arial">Background</span></span>
<span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: Arial">The tank was started in March 2010 and ran pretty good for about a year until roughly February 2011 which is when I had my first child. I performed good maintenance until this time pretty close to what I am doing now (see below). After February 2011 my priorities changed to my new child and I did not keep up with maintenance and pretty much just did top-offs and cleaned the skimmer until roughly August of 2011. By this time I had severe green hair algae everywhere and I made a commitment to change. I have since followed the regiment below very strictly. I have also seen improvement, it’s just painfully slow.</span></span>
<span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: Arial">Water Changes -- My RO system is in the basement and I do not like carrying 5 gallons of water upstairs. Due to this I change 2 gallons per day, roughly 2% total volume. I have done this strictly since August 2011 meaning 9 out of 10 days no exceptions. Recently, in the last 3 weeks I have cut this back to 2% every other day as I’m wondering if I’m changing it too much.</span></span>
<span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: Arial">Feeding -- I absolutely have not overfed since August 2011. I admit I used to, but since August, I feed frozen once per week and dry once per day, about 8 very small pellets per day. My fish eat it in less then 10 seconds. </span></span>
<span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: Arial">Skimmer -- My skimmer sucks, is a super skimmer and I have to tinker with it constantly. I probably average 1 cup of dark skimmate every 3 or 4 days. </span></span>
<span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: Arial">GFO -- I have run GFO since August. I have increased the frequency of how often I change it from starting at 1 month, then 2 Weeks, then 1 Week, and for the last 2 weeks every other day. I also have been regenerating GFO for the last 2 weeks, still evaluating if regenerating is working.</span></span>
<span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: Arial">Lights -- I have an Aquatic Life 4 Bulb 48” T5 Light. I’m currently running 3 ATI Blue + and 1 ATI Purple +. All bulbs are about 2 months old.</span></span>
<span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: Arial">Here is a link to my parameters for anyone that’s interested. Basically, Nitrates have always been extremely low, and Phosphates always creep up on me after within a week of changing GFO. </span></span>https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AoVt_KiBbaUXdDA3bVNNRW80VXctTkFmdzRyMGNHaXc"><span style="color: #1155cc"><span style="font-family: Arial"><u>https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AoVt_KiBbaUXdDA3bVNNRW80VXctTkFmdzRyMGNHaXc</u></span></span></a>
<span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: Arial">For a while I thought it was my RO system and I have added a second DI chamber and tested the RO phosphates consistently at .06 or so. I tested a bucket of new salt water and came up with .15, which I gathered from reef central was not that high. I am noticing small improvements, but it’s been a very slow process. I currently believe that I may have saturated my rock with phosphates and I’m going to have to continue with GFO until they are depleted. I cooked one of my rocks for about 1 month and a half then tested phosphates at .2. I then started dosing phosfree to that and got the phosphates down in 2 weeks. That rock is currently in my QT since it still had some aiptaisia left on it and I have some Pep. shrimp in my QT. I’m cooking another rock, but this is also a very slow process. </span></span>
<span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: Arial">One other note, I’ve tried several batches of snails and they never seem to do well in my system. Not sure but they usually only last a couple weeks. I recently added a lawnmower blenny and he is helping. I also have a yellow tang that pics at it quite a bit and helps too.</span></span>
<span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: Arial">Sorry again for the long post.</span></span>
- Messages
- 937
- Reaction score
- 32
slowjazz;750557 wrote: Have you guys tried Red Sea's NO3O4-X ?
I picked it up based on other people having very good results. so far it has worked great.
I am about to finish up my fist bottle of NOPOX this week. It worked well at reducing nitrates and keeping them down, but was just ok at removing phosphates. I still have to run Phosguard to reduce Phosphates to my desired levels.
I am debating between buying another bottle or switching to vodka dosing at the moment. I only use 4ml per day in my 90g, so a bottle lasts me a long time which helps with the higher cost over vodka.
