Help: Hair Algae and NoPox

FFFishy · Jun 28, 2016

I had my first major battle with Hair Algae back in December / January. On January 3, I removed all of the rocks and scrubbed them. Not a trace of Hair Algae remained.

After quite a bit of research, I choose the NoPox path and began dosing on February 16. Another major rock cleaning happened on March 12. From that major cleaning up until two weeks ago, there was no Hair Algae. Now it's back . . . . I'm looking for suggestions as to what to do next.

Tank Info:

120 Gal (4ft by 2ft by 2ft)
155 Gal total water volume
Tank is two years old
Running 1.5 cups of GAC (ROX 0.8) in an upflow reactor
Not running GFO
RO/DI (SpectraPure) TDS=Zero,
Dosing 10ml NoPox Daily
Dosing 12ml Red Sea Reef Foundation A - Calcium Daily
Dosing 10ml Red Sea Reef Foundation B - Alk Daily
SG 1.025 / 34ppt (Milwaukee Digital)
Alk 3.74 meq/l --- 10.5 dkh (Hanna)
Calc 425 (Red Sea)
Nitrite 0 (Salifert)
Ammonia 0 (Salifert)
Mag 1350 (Red Sea)
Phosphate 37ppb (Hanna) .04ppm (Red Sea)
Nitrate 3 (Nyos) 3 (Red Sea)
Temp 78F

Thanks for reading !

---Frank

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jun 28, 2016

The nutrients are not low enough to starve hair algae. I'd either look for other methods (like algae eating organisms) or drive the nutrients lower.

That said, I don't really see a hair algae problem in the tank.

FFFishy · Jun 28, 2016

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
The nutrients are not low enough to starve hair algae. I'd either look for other methods (like algae eating organisms) or drive the nutrients lower.

That said, I don't really see a hair algae problem in the tank.

Thanks Randy !
Do you have any favorite 'Algae Eaters' that you'd suggest ? I've got a collection of snails, scarlet hermits, emerald crabs, fire shrimp. There's also a Yellow Eye Kole Tang and a One Spot Foxface that pick Algae off of the glass, but won't pick it off the rocks.

AdamNC · Jun 28, 2016

Banded Trocus and Mexican Turbo Snails will barrel through all types of algae.

fab · Jun 29, 2016

Where is the hair algae problem? Your tank looks pretty good as it is.
Maybe a bit on the left in the last photo?

Bpc9876 · Jun 29, 2016

I'm running into the same issues to a degree by trying to maintain (successfully I might add) an almost sterile system. Remember. what happens with carbon dosing....if there is not enough good bacteria the NoPoX feeds both good and bad. Truthfully I think your tank looks great. Maybe try a lawnmower blenny or stop cd and run some GFO for a period. Good luck and good looking system!

Kungpaoshizi · Jun 29, 2016

You're not dosing enough nopox..
Are you dosing it manually or with a dosing pump? If a dosing pump, bump it up a couple seconds every other day until you start to see it whiten a bit on the ends. Otherwise if you're dosing manually I would split up your total dose of the day into morning and evening, or even morning, afternoon, night.

Just be sure to watch your phosphate and nitrate. If your nitrate becomes undetectable, reduce the dosage by a little bit, feed a little more, and get yourself some Lanthanum chloride. If you continue to have pretty much nothing for nitrates but phosphates climb, figure out which food is higher in nitrates and feed more of that, or get some calcium nitrate. (or sodium/potassium nitrate) Reef Energy should really be used in conjunction with nopox imo. It's the main nitrate source for nopox from what I've seen, but they market it just like any other food.

You'll be alright.

FFFishy · Jun 29, 2016

Thank you all for your thoughtful replies !

Fab:
In the third picture, right in the center, there's dark green (almost brown) hair algae. Drives me nuts. I'll try to take a better photo tonight.

Bpc9876:
I like your 'lawnmower blenny' idea. On the GFO, when I ran GFO with NoPox, I got to zero phosphates. However, my soft corals looked wilted, not fully open, etc. I could try the GFO again but at a lower flow rate and less GFO in the reactor.

Kungpaoshizi:
I dose NoPox through a Neptune Apex DOS system. My current 10ml dose is spread out from 9:30am until 6:30pm every day. Do you think increasing to 12ml would make a difference ? Should I go higher ? Should I change the dosing schedule ? Also, I've wanted to try Reef Energy. I'll get some today.

Thanks Again!
---Frank

Kungpaoshizi · Jun 29, 2016

12ml wouldn't be bad I bet, but it might be best to increase it in 1ml increments. I find their dosages more of good starting points than absolute.
Also if you have a doser, change it to dose a tiny bit every hour. That will promote better stability in the bacterial cultures.
I would probably dose 11 for a week then and see if you notice any reductions in algae health and/or negatives in the tank. If not, do the same after a week bumping up by 1.

Also it doesn't hurt to do daily testing of phosphate and nitrate while adjusting doses. It will give you a good handle on the direction the parameters are going.

Just be sure your feeding schedule, and amount, are like clockwork. This helps all the numbers to be continuous to allow finer adjusting.

domination2580 · Jun 29, 2016

FFFishy · Jul 9, 2016

UPDATE:
It's been 10 days, and here's what is happening . . .

I've changed my NoPox dose to 11ml per day (previously 10ml). Also changed the dosing schedule to spread that 11ml over the entire day, rather then confine it to 9 hours as I was previously doing.

Parameter Changes:
Nitrates (Nyos) was 3, now 1
Nitrates (RedSea) was 3, now 1
Phosphates (Hanna) was .37ppb, now 21ppb
Phosphates (RedSea) was .04ppm, now.02ppm

Looks like I'm making good progress towards a lower nutrient level. Kept the same feeding schedule (same food, quantity, time of day), so that leads me to believe that the changes in NoPox dosing are making the difference. I've still got some GHA, but it does not seem to be spreading. I will be looking for an Algae Blenny in the near future.

Thank you to all who have helped !
---Frank

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jul 9, 2016

Sounds good.

Happy Reefing.

Jim C · Jul 9, 2016

Slightly off topic, but I love that red wrasse in the first picture. What is it?

FFFishy · Jul 9, 2016

Jim C said:
Slightly off topic, but I love that red wrasse in the first picture. What is it?

I know he's red, but that's a Blue Flasher Wrasse. He has an awesome blue 'top fin' that we see when excited. Added on 4/1/15 after 4 weeks of QT. Acquired from Tropiquarium in NJ.

jje2016 · Jul 14, 2016

Kungpaoshizi said:
You're not dosing enough nopox..
Are you dosing it manually or with a dosing pump? If a dosing pump, bump it up a couple seconds every other day until you start to see it whiten a bit on the ends. Otherwise if you're dosing manually I would split up your total dose of the day into morning and evening, or even morning, afternoon, night.

Just be sure to watch your phosphate and nitrate. If your nitrate becomes undetectable, reduce the dosage by a little bit, feed a little more, and get yourself some Lanthanum chloride. If you continue to have pretty much nothing for nitrates but phosphates climb, figure out which food is higher in nitrates and feed more of that, or get some calcium nitrate. (or sodium/potassium nitrate) Reef Energy should really be used in conjunction with nopox imo. It's the main nitrate source for nopox from what I've seen, but they market it just like any other food.

You'll be alright.

Curious, why is it important to have a little nitrate in a system?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jul 15, 2016

jje2016 said:
Curious, why is it important to have a little nitrate in a system?

Many corals in a reef tank do not get the natural organic foods that are present in the ocean, so they may get a lot of their N from nitrate instead, and folks with very low nitrate often have pale corals.

jje2016 · Jul 15, 2016

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Many corals in a reef tank do not get the natural organic foods that are present in the ocean, so they may get a lot of their N from nitrate instead, and folks with very low nitrate often have pale corals.

Wow, very interesting. Good to know. Guess Nitrates aren't such a bad thing after all.