Algae help?!

nerses818 · Nov 29, 2011

Ok guys so I have been trying to fight a huge battle against hair algae in my 150gal tank.. The algae has come to the point that I dnt even wanna look at my tank anymore.. Ive been trying to get rid of the algae for quite a while now but nothing seems to have helped.. I even put in a biopellet reactor to try to lower nitrates but it doesn't seem to have helped.
Water quality:
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate

I use a salifert test kit an the color is in between the 25-50 ppm mark)
Ph: 8.3
Phosphate: 0

SmokeyCFH · Nov 29, 2011

Try this out... REEF JANITORS -REEF AQUARIUM HAIR ALGAE CONTROL

spscrazy · Nov 29, 2011

not enough info to really help give us some info on whats in your tank what kind of filters how long have the biopellets been running what kind of food you use & how much & often etc. this way we can help track down the problem

nerses818 · Nov 29, 2011

I have a sump with some cheato in it.. The tank has been up for just over a year. I feed my fish one cube of mysis per day and occasionally I'll put some seaweed in for my tangs. I've been using the biopellets for just over 3 weeks now.. Also the algae is mainly hair algae

Tabasco1 · Nov 29, 2011

I have a fairly new, much smaller tank. Same basic params 0 amonia, 0 Nitrite, 25-50 Nitrate... which I can't seem to get down. I also have been dealing with a hair algae issue. I got a bunch of snails, 8 astrea, 5 star astrea, 5 nerite, 5 cerith, 1 emerald crab and 4 blue leg hermits. They are going to town. In 7 days 1/3+ of the rock is completely clean of algae. This doesn't exactly solve my nitrate issue, which I am continuing to work on, but does look much nicer. I have to siphon out snail poop nightly as that will just keep the nutrients in the system. I have to say the astrea snails are definately the work horses. Supposedly they don't live as long, but they are hands down the quickest at consuming the hair algae. The hermits and emerald crab do a good job of cropping the algae, but do not clean the surface like the snails do.

Don't know if that helps, but that has worked for me for my quick fix.

Dowtish · Nov 29, 2011

you are going to have to give the bio-pellets more time. usually 6-8 weeks to be fully functional.

what size skimmer are you running? if at all?

what kind of lights are you running? how old are the bulbs? how long are they on in a day?

allowing frozen mysis to completely thaw out in some sort of strainer will help as well.

nerses818 · Nov 29, 2011

I'm running an asm g2 skimmer
My lights are 3x250 watt metal halides and 2x110 watt actinics.
My lighting schedule is actinics from 7:00am to 11am and then from 6:00 pm to 10:00pm
Halides turn on from 10:00 am to 8:00 pm

james983 · Nov 29, 2011

If you have HA you have PO4. You need to buy/borrow a low range PO4 meter and see what your PO4 actually is. Just because a test kit reads 0 does not mean you have 0, just less than 1 PPM.

How old is your tank? Did you use dead rock? If so the rock may be leaching PO4. You need to find the PO4 source to eliminate the HA. All the snails and crabs will not be able to keep up with it otherwise. Consider the container that holds your top off water as well.

nerses818 · Nov 29, 2011

i did use dry rock to start my tank. but could phosphate less than 1ppm relly cause all this algae?

james983 · Nov 29, 2011

Absolutely, I went through the same thing with my present tank. It was the first time I used dry rock. Hair Algea cannot live without PO4. Consider running GFO. I used a product called PO4x4 with good success. Try to get your PO4 down around .04 or lower. Just do it over a few weeks, you don't want to shock your system. You should also siphon as much as possible out with each water change because as you lower the PO4 the HA will start to die. You can also try increasing you MG with Kent Mg. All my reading indicated that Kent Mg may have a contaminate that helps kill HA.

I know it's depressing looking in your tank watching the HA grow and take over corals, because I have been there. It definitly kills the asthetics of a reef tank. You have to be very pro-active and you can will the battle.

I assume your using RO/DI water also?
Good luck.

nerses818 · Nov 30, 2011

Yes I am using ro water. Not rodi. It's a 5 stage ro system and the end result water has 11 tds

Devonjevon · Nov 30, 2011

Hmmm time to add a bulk reef supply DI system. Get you tds down to zero. Do everything you can to win this war.

dallas reefer · Nov 30, 2011

Yeah. Get the BRS reusable DI canister insert and put it in the last(right) canister on the RO unit.

spanko · Nov 30, 2011

I would be interested to see where you have read that the Kent TechM magnesium supplement worked for HA james983. In my reading this is a useful product for battling Byropsis when raising the magnesium level to 1400 and above for a period of time but I have not seen any positive results talked about with HA.
Also you are correct and the OP needs to remove the HA as it starts to die off. If it is not removed it just release the pent up nutrients back into the water column for use again.

james983 · Nov 30, 2011

spanko said:
I would be interested to see where you have read that the Kent TechM magnesium supplement worked for HA james983. In my reading this is a useful product for battling Byropsis when raising the magnesium level to 1400 and above for a period of time but I have not seen any positive results talked about with HA.
Also you are correct and the OP needs to remove the HA as it starts to die off. If it is not removed it just release the pent up nutrients back into the water column for use again.

I read it on other Reefing Sites. Don't think I can paste them here. When I had HA I did several things, so it's hard to tell which help most or least.

1. I flushed my RO membrane
2. Replaced all RO filters including DI, and added a second DI chamber
3. I did water changes at least once a week sometimes more just so I could siphon off the HA.
4. I chucked my top off water container and changed it for a food quality container.
5. Raised Mg up to 1500 with Kent Tech Mg
6. Increased my CUC and added Lawnmower Blenny (who diappeared after the HA died)
7. I switched from Oceanic salt to ESV salt. I noticed a lot of residue in container with Oceanic and really like the way ESV mixes clear with no residue.

That's what I did for about 3 months and now have virtually no HA. Like I said, I jave no way of knowing what was most effective.