Having a nasty hair algea problem.
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twilliard
Tank pests..
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A much safer way if you want to rid of it on the rock is peroxide but with the setup/maintenance you are running it will come back.
Much larger water changes if you want to rid of it on the rocks, that will be your nutrient export.
Take a rock out and soak the algae spots with peroxide, let sit for 5 minutes and put back into the tank. Gone in 72 hours but water changes will be key to control.
twilliard
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Peroxide is outstandingly safe as we are showing here
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/back-at-it-peroxide-vrs-cyanobacteria.241002/
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Devon93274
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Peroxide? Hmm that sounds a little extreme. If I can't resolve this problem I will look deeper into that. I don't have a skimmer, because I can't afford it at the moment. I will buy one rated at double the gallons one day. I don't use RO water because I don't have the money for the RO unit, and I am not going to buy water because its silly. I honestly just don't want to go through the hassle of transporting water 60 miles. I'm going to continue the phosgaurd treatment. Also I'm shutting my lights off for 48 hours to see if that weakens it, so I can pull it by hand. I will take the advise on 20% water changes. I have been doing 10% because I thought the overload on nutrients would only make my problem worse. I have also purchased 10 Mexican turbo snails and plan to buy more in the future. Will the snails help?
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Devon93274
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I've done some research on peroxide dosing, and I've found pretty much a solid 100% positive feedback. I've decided to do an experiment. I will dose my tank with peroxide and post my feed back with pictures. Wish me luck.
Paddy c
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I hav just battled a bad hair algae war and won. I ran a reactor with rowaphos and limited feeding. As I was doin this I kept pulling out large quantities of the algae during water change. 1 thing I did notice was that I had a heavy amount of live rock in tank which can cause dead spots and build up of detritus. Just an idea but u cud take some of it out to increase the flow around the tank so it limits where detritus settles.
Nevermind w.c. for now. If your using tap your probably adding more nutrients. testing parameters is vital to a healthy system.
Make nitrate and phosphate tests your next purchase.
Chemical warfare is only a temp solution
TheEngineer
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I think peroxide is a useful tool in this battle, but it is a part of a combination approach. Peroxide can kill back the algae that is absorbing your excess nutrients so that you can use an alternate nutrient export mechanism (protein skimmer, GFO, etc) more effectively. I agree that you need to stop using tap if you indeed are.
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that's a fact. part of this decade of people doing peroxide work is seeing that its the total for some tanks, often smaller ones, and can be an increment in other tank cures namely larger ones who need more prevention work. you can use ATS, clean up crews, biopellets, carbon etc on a system that was scrubbed free of algae with peroxide, they aren't contraindicated.
There is no setting in algae wars where literally seeing a forest and leaving it in the tank is beneficial, yet we are all told to do it. Hitting the source and not the symptom literally means leave your algae in the tank until X method both removes it, and prevents it. grazers were supposed to prevent, not remove this.
As long as that advice loop is being repeated then our algae correction threads will stay massive and in demand.
The best current known method in algae control, post invasion (prevention was ideal but not always poss) is to literally make the tank free of algae by hand, by hard work, and clean out the entire sandbed while youre at it. talk about avoiding bandaids. You then reassemble the whole tank without cycling, by following skip cycle threads, and begin to apply X now that the tank is fully free of invader. when you see algae remove it by hand so that it is gone...then apply retro actions. go against the grain, advice not ran through the mill of the live time cure thread abounds
apply your fixes to a clean tank, no algae in sight.
There is no setting in algae wars where literally seeing a forest and leaving it in the tank is beneficial, yet we are all told to do it. Hitting the source and not the symptom literally means leave your algae in the tank until X method both removes it, and prevents it. grazers were supposed to prevent, not remove this.
As long as that advice loop is being repeated then our algae correction threads will stay massive and in demand.
The best current known method in algae control, post invasion (prevention was ideal but not always poss) is to literally make the tank free of algae by hand, by hard work, and clean out the entire sandbed while youre at it. talk about avoiding bandaids. You then reassemble the whole tank without cycling, by following skip cycle threads, and begin to apply X now that the tank is fully free of invader. when you see algae remove it by hand so that it is gone...then apply retro actions. go against the grain, advice not ran through the mill of the live time cure thread abounds
apply your fixes to a clean tank, no algae in sight.
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Bpb
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Forget chemical fixes and media. A couple pincushion urchins, turbo snails and a starry blenny will have that tank picked clean in a couple weeks
TheEngineer
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Yes, but that fails to address the real problem, nutrient export. Putting animals to eat the algae alone is a bandaid just like chemical approaches alone.
Bpb
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I'm willing to bet it's rock leeching which just needs time to happen until the tank matures further. Of course they could shut the tank down and acid dip the rock, but chances are a hair/bubble algae or cyano bloom would come as part of the natural maturation anyway
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I propose a thirty pack and a Saturday as prime export approach
Have a skip cycle plan verified and ready to go and hand clean out that plugged up rock and growth.
Have a skip cycle plan verified and ready to go and hand clean out that plugged up rock and growth.
Kungpaoshizi
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My tank looked like that long ago before I ditched the gfo and siphoning ideals. Get some nopox and reef energy. Otherwise the lanthanum chloride will help too. It's a never ending cycle between the rocks and sand absorbing phosphate and then releasing as well, so it's the best place for the algae to grow, at the food source. Don't sweat it though, it's easy after you implement the right tools, or in some cases, fish. Also just because you have algae doesn't mean your nutrients are high, a common misconception since algae can last quite a long while with no nutrients. It means you had that amount at one point, and the algae thrived. Remove the nutrients and the algae will slow it's metabolism to survive as long as it can. As it starts to die off, those freed nutrients will feed other algae. Most of the time you'll test 0 nitrates and phosphates because that freed stuff, is now being sucked up by the rest of it.
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Devon93274
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Before
After
I cut my lights down to 3 hours a day. I scrubbed as much of the algae with a tooth brush every night, and while all the waste was in the current, I squeeze a bunch of 3% peroxide all over the surface of the water. The algae took 3 days before weakening. My mushrooms shriveled a little when adding the peroxide, but recovered fully everytime. All my fish where healthy as well. I still have a little in there, but I'm making great progression.
After
I cut my lights down to 3 hours a day. I scrubbed as much of the algae with a tooth brush every night, and while all the waste was in the current, I squeeze a bunch of 3% peroxide all over the surface of the water. The algae took 3 days before weakening. My mushrooms shriveled a little when adding the peroxide, but recovered fully everytime. All my fish where healthy as well. I still have a little in there, but I'm making great progression.
