Help With Possible Hair Algea

[Dolelo96]

I asked this in my build thread also, but haven't had a response. Hopefully someone here can help

I'll try to make this short..the full story is on my build thread. Cloudy water and possibly the start of hair algae. September I fought Velvet and lost. Decided to re-build my tank. Three weeks ago, I moved my corals to a future quarantine tank, replaced all my live rock with CaribeSea Life Rock, took 1/2 the water out of the display tank, left about an inch of sand, and a ceramic bio plate that has been in the the sump since setting up the tank. According to CaribeSea, the LifeRock "Requires no curing, and is infused with spored, live bacteria. Once placed in water, the dormant bacteria will come alive and begin to colonize". LFS had me add a dose of Microbe-Lift Nite Out II. Spoke with Dr. Tim at RAP this past weekend. He said it's a combo of the new Life Rock and my salt mix, Red Sea. He said that Red Sea uses natural salt in it's mix, which contains organics and I don't have enough "good bacteria" to combat excess nutrients from both the rock and salt. He suggested I add Waste-Away. Does anyone have any experience using this? Is there something else I should try first? I had started moving my corals back, but not sure if this is a good idea if the tank isn't considered "stable" yet.
Parameters..
Salinity 1.026
Ca 435
Kh 8.15
Mg 1305
Ph 8
Nitrate 0
Phosphate 0
No Ammonia or Nitrates

Would truly appreciate any help/opinions/comments. This tank has been fallow since September and miss having fish, but want to make sure they have a healthy home when I get them. ;Happy Thanks!!!

 

[cancun]

Hi! Sorry you are going through this....but I commend you for not giving up on this hobby! A lot of people would have thrown in the towel. Your parameters look ok to me. Do you recent pics of your tank?

 

[Dolelo96]

Here’s a video..

 

[Dolelo96]

There are pics of the new setup on my build thread.. just skip to the end

 

[cancun]

There are pics of the new setup on my build thread.. just skip to the end

Thanks....I just checked out your video and didn't see much in the way of hair algae in the video....let me take a look at your build thread......

 

[Sallstrom]

I asked this in my build thread also, but haven't had a response. Hopefully someone here can help

I'll try to make this short..the full story is on my build thread. Cloudy water and possibly the start of hair algae. September I fought Velvet and lost. Decided to re-build my tank. Three weeks ago, I moved my corals to a future quarantine tank, replaced all my live rock with CaribeSea Life Rock, took 1/2 the water out of the display tank, left about an inch of sand, and a ceramic bio plate that has been in the the sump since setting up the tank. According to CaribeSea, the LifeRock "Requires no curing, and is infused with spored, live bacteria. Once placed in water, the dormant bacteria will come alive and begin to colonize". LFS had me add a dose of Microbe-Lift Nite Out II. Spoke with Dr. Tim at RAP this past weekend. He said it's a combo of the new Life Rock and my salt mix, Red Sea. He said that Red Sea uses natural salt in it's mix, which contains organics and I don't have enough "good bacteria" to combat excess nutrients from both the rock and salt. He suggested I add Waste-Away. Does anyone have any experience using this? Is there something else I should try first? I had started moving my corals back, but not sure if this is a good idea if the tank isn't considered "stable" yet.
Parameters..
Salinity 1.026
Ca 435
Kh 8.15
Mg 1305
Ph 8
Nitrate 0
Phosphate 0
No Ammonia or Nitrates

Would truly appreciate any help/opinions/comments. This tank has been fallow since September and miss having fish, but want to make sure they have a healthy home when I get them. ;Happy Thanks!!!

Hi!
I did a quick read in your build thread as well, and found the videos.
To me it looks fine, just like a tank without algae eaters. A sea urchin would probably solve the algae issue in a couple of week is my guess.

If you want to starve out algae, by bringing nitrate and phosphate down to close to zero, the corals will starve too. And you might end up with worse problems like dinoflagellates or Cyanobacteria instead.
So what I would have done instead is to look around for fun animals that graze on algae.

 

[Dolelo96]

My nitrates and phosphates are already reading 0 and my corals are not too happy being moved around.

 

[cancun]

There are pics of the new setup on my build thread.. just skip to the end

Ok I can't find your build thread lol..... sorry....do you have a link? I rewatched your video and I see some hair algae but from the video it doesn't look to be too bad. I use Red Sea Coral Pro salt for the last five years with no problems as far as excess nutrients go. Did you say you put the corals in there already? If so are you feeding them?

 

[cancun]

My nitrates and phosphates are already reading 0 and my corals are not too happy being moved around.

That's correct..... LPS especially like nutrients....

 

[Dolelo96]

Ok I can't find your build thread lol..... sorry....do you have a link? I rewatched your video and I see some hair algae but from the video it doesn't look to be too bad. I use Red Sea Coral Pro salt for the last five years with no problems as far as excess nutrients go. Did you say you put the corals in there already? If so are you feeding them?

link is at the bottom of my posts, "My Red Sea Reefer 425xl" and I just started moving them yesterday and fed the Reef Roids

 

[cancun]

Ok....lol....I read through your build thread.....love the pics if your dog! Mine doesn't like me doing stuff the "box of water" eaither. LOL! Your set up looks nice, but the hair algae too me doesn't look too bad. I would run something like Chemipure Blue or Elite unless you already are. Continue with water changes once a week, and manual removal. Once you add fish consider another Tang. Also there is a thread on here about a product called Vibrant that people have had good results using it. I just upgraded to a Red Sea Reefer 750 XXL at the end of January. Here is a picture of my jealous baby....lol...[emoji16]

 

[Dolelo96]

Did a water change on Wednesday and the water is already cloudy. I have only fed the corals once since the water change. Do you think putting the rest of the corals back will make it worse?

Before the Velvet, having fish seemed much easier than just corals

 

[Dolelo96]

Ok....lol....I read through your build thread.....love the pics if your dog! Mine doesn't like me doing stuff the "box of water" eaither. LOL! Your set up looks nice, but the hair algae too me doesn't look too bad. I would run something like Chemipure Blue or Elite unless you already are. Continue with water changes once a week, and manual removal. Once you add fish consider another Tang. Also there is a thread on here about a product called Vibrant that people have had good results using it. I just upgraded to a Red Sea Reefer 750 XXL at the end of January. Here is a picture of my jealous baby....lol...[emoji16]

He's BEAUTIFUL!! Love the toy..think I need to find one for my "babies"

 

[cancun]

He's BEAUTIFUL!! Love the toy..think I need to find one for my "babies"

LOL! Go to Amazon and type in Kong Binkie......

 

[cancun]

Did a water change on Wednesday and the water is already cloudy. I have only fed the corals once since the water change. Do you think putting the rest of the corals back will make it worse?

Before the Velvet, having fish seemed much easier than just corals

The cloudy part is strange. Could be a bacteria bloom..... IMO I would hold off on anymore corals until your water clears up. Grab some Chemipure Blue and drop that in a high flow area in the sump....I replaced three Red Sea filter socks with three Red Sea media cups and put a bag of Chemipure Blue in each of them. You will need one or two bags probably for your size tank and see if that helps.

Oh another thought.....did you get the valve set correctly on your sump, so no water is going down your emergency overflow? It took me a while to figure it out on my Red Sea. It is a fine line between really noisy and quiet, without water running down the emergency overflow. I know my water was a bit cloudy until I had that set right.

 

[Spare time]

I'm not sure how the red sea salt would have organics. They quite literally get pure salt Crystal's out of the sea and then add the rest of the elements. I always like to have phosphate media in the tank to take out what the hair algae is using ( it isnt detectable if theres a lot of algae taking it up), and then scrub the rocks or get a lawnmower blenny or emerald crab crew.

 

[Dolelo96]

LOL! Go to Amazon and type in Kong Binkie......

The cloudy part is strange. Could be a bacteria bloom..... IMO I would hold off on anymore corals until your water clears up. Grab some Chemipure Blue and drop that in a high flow area in the sump....I replaced three Red Sea filter socks with three Red Sea media cups and put a bag of Chemipure Blue in each of them. You will need one or two bags probably for your size tank and see if that helps.

Oh another thought.....did you get the valve set correctly on your sump, so no water is going down your emergency overflow? It took me a while to figure it out on my Red Sea. It is a fine line between really noisy and quiet, without water running down the emergency overflow. I know my water was a bit cloudy until I had that set right.

It's a constant battle. I get it just right, lasts a few days, then I have to adjust it again. It's been that way since the beginning. Planning a manifold and getting a new pump. I have the Sicce 4 now and think its part of the problem

 

[Dolelo96]

The cloudy part is strange. Could be a bacteria bloom..... IMO I would hold off on anymore corals until your water clears up. Grab some Chemipure Blue and drop that in a high flow area in the sump....I replaced three Red Sea filter socks with three Red Sea media cups and put a bag of Chemipure Blue in each of them. You will need one or two bags probably for your size tank and see if that helps.

Oh another thought.....did you get the valve set correctly on your sump, so no water is going down your emergency overflow? It took me a while to figure it out on my Red Sea. It is a fine line between really noisy and quiet, without water running down the emergency overflow. I know my water was a bit cloudy until I had that set right.

One thing I'm concerned with is wether the CaribeSea Life Rock was enough, since I took all my live rock out. When I first set up a tank, the LFS had me adding Microbacter7 everyday for 4 weeks. The only thing the had me add this time was MicrobeLift Nite Out II.

 

[ZoWhat]

One of these per 50gal is my #1 choice by a lightyear

 

[cancun]

One of these per 50gal is my #1 choice by a lightyear

I agree! I love my urchin.....not a tuxedo urchin... tuxedos look cool, but don't seem to go after problem algae....like the short spine or pin cushion urchin can!