Randy help on hair algae

Midrats · Aug 4, 2015

I started replacing all my evaporation with limewater about two weeks ago in one of my little tanks and the small algae event I was having in there is dying back.

Marquiseo · Aug 4, 2015

Get a sea hare. It eats hair algae and bryopsis. I just added one about 24 hours ago and it has removed over 50% of the nuisance algae.

His work area at the time:

About 45 mins later

Arnie · Aug 8, 2015

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Sounds like a good plan.

Look at all those algae growing i think its only been 5 or 6 days.....

Arnie · Aug 8, 2015

My chemipure elite 11oz is only 3 weeks old and i just added new carbon bag 2 weeks ago.... should i still buy the blue vet phosphate rx and change my algae scrubber with a bubble air stone diy setup? Please advise... thanks for all your help guys....

Randy Holmes-Farley · Aug 9, 2015

I'm personally not a fan of the lanthanum products, although many people use them.

Bugger · Aug 9, 2015

Randy you use so much cheato how can your system still be running at higher nutreint levels. I know you've tested and know your tank but don't you run a couple of trash cans of cheato.

I have a hair algae problem so I got rid of some fish and am waiting for my sea hair and emrald crab.

Should I ditch zeovit and just run a binder my phoshpate is not detectable on a test kit.

What in your opinion is better zeolites or macro algae in the sump?

brandon429 · Aug 10, 2015

how was the hair algae growing in po4 ideal waters?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Aug 11, 2015

Bugger said:
Randy you use so much cheato how can your system still be running at higher nutreint levels. I know you've tested and know your tank but don't you run a couple of trash cans of cheato.

I have a hair algae problem so I got rid of some fish and am waiting for my sea hair and emrald crab.

Should I ditch zeovit and just run a binder my phoshpate is not detectable on a test kit.

What in your opinion is better zeolites or macro algae in the sump?

I don't think zeolites do anything useful for a reef tank except provide a place for bacteria to grow. It is the organic carbon dosing of zeovit and similar systems that keeps nutrients down.

I do have three 44 gallon Brute cans filled with live rock and grow macroalgae (Caulerpa racemosa) on top of them.

I also use GFO.

But I almost never remove detritus and have a thick detritus mud layer on the bottom of my sump. Probably in the refugia too, but I can't see the bottom.

That is likely why the nutrients are now low.

Arnie · Aug 11, 2015

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
I'm personally not a fan of the lanthanum products, although many people use them.

Another member mentioned dosing nitrate... how do i dose nitrate? (See below)

Russ265 said:
doesnt matter

you are in the land of po4>no3

i swear im gonna do a writeup on this and have someone make a sticky.

dose nitrate now. you are in a $$$$ battle if you gfo it out waiting on no3 to climb.

po4 should NEVER be above nitrogen.

i only say this with the loving kindness of fairies blessing a princess with a good life.

How to you dose nitrate? What other methods do you use to increase nitrates?

When i was going through a bunch of write ups regarding both nitrate and phosphate, it mentioned that you cannot get rid of one without the other.. my nitrates shows almost 0 and my phosphate is around 20-25ppm.

ca2or · Aug 12, 2015

Sea hare for the win

Arnie · Aug 12, 2015

ca2or said:
Sea hare for the win

Sorry but a CUC is not always a solution to the problem....

Randy Holmes-Farley · Aug 12, 2015

Dosing nitrate only helps reduce phosphate if you are using some sort of combined export system that is currently being limited by the availability of nitrogen, such as growing macroalgae.

ca2or · Aug 12, 2015

Arnie said:
Sorry but a CUC is not always a solution to the problem....

It won't resolve phosphate issues, but it will resolve the hair algae part

Arnie · Aug 12, 2015

ca2or said:
It won't resolve phosphate issues, but it will resolve the hair algae part

Actually the phosphate issues will resolve the algae part....

Bugger · Aug 14, 2015

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Dosing nitrate only helps reduce phosphate if you are using some sort of combined export system that is currently being limited by the availability of nitrogen, such as growing macroalgae.

Hi Randy So your saying that bacteria don't take up nitrogen. I thought they needed it to take up the phosphate. Sorry people im just in a bad mood cause my reef is covered in GHA. WHY HAVE YOU FAILED ME ZEOVIT. I think I just made a bad decsion adding nitrogen to the tank. Im going back to GFO next week and buying a sea hare.
Can anybody chime in here's my question have you ever beat green hair algae and how did you beat it?

twilliard · Aug 14, 2015

Bugger said:
Hi Randy So your saying that bacteria don't take up nitrogen. I thought they needed it to take up the phosphate. Sorry people im just in a bad mood cause my reef is covered in GHA. WHY HAVE YOU FAILED ME ZEOVIT. I think I just made a bad decsion adding nitrogen to the tank. Im going back to GFO next week and buying a sea hare.
Can anybody chime in here's my question have you ever beat green hair algae and how did you beat it?

Not a bad decision but adding nitrogen won't stop your algae issue. The balance between no3 and po4 is what makes photosynthesis happen even in coral.
You want an answer to solve your gha safely ...
Peroxide

Bugger · Aug 14, 2015

twilliard said:
Not a bad decision but adding nitrogen won't stop your algae issue. The balance between no3 and po4 is what makes photosynthesis happen even in coral.
You want an answer to solve your gha safely ...
Peroxide

"Safely" it dosen't sound safe at all. Do you mean add it to the tank or tank the rocks out and apply it

twilliard · Aug 14, 2015

Contact Brandon here
Safe yes
You can do in tank treatment or pull a particular rock out
Read up on it just search peroxide

Randy Holmes-Farley · Aug 16, 2015

Bugger said:
Hi Randy So your saying that bacteria don't take up nitrogen. I thought they needed it to take up the phosphate. Sorry people im just in a bad mood cause my reef is covered in GHA. WHY HAVE YOU FAILED ME ZEOVIT. I think I just made a bad decsion adding nitrogen to the tank. Im going back to GFO next week and buying a sea hare.
Can anybody chime in here's my question have you ever beat green hair algae and how did you beat it?

No, that's not what I meant. What I'm saying is that unless you use a method of phosphate utilization that co-utilizes N and P (like algae or bacteria), adding nitrate will not help phosphate levels. For example, using GFO for phosphate will not be helped by adding a source of nitrogen.

If you use organic carbon dosing to drive bacteria, that is a bit of a mixed bag with respect to N and P because it can use a LOT more N than P (unlike macroalgae or an ATS, which use it in a more typical organism ratio).

Arnie · Aug 16, 2015

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
No, that's not what I meant. What I'm saying is that unless you use a method of phosphate utilization that co-utilizes N and P (like algae or bacteria), adding nitrate will not help phosphate levels. For example, using GFO for phosphate will not be helped by adding a source of nitrogen.

If you use organic carbon dosing to drive bacteria, that is a bit of a mixed bag with respect to N and P because it can use a LOT more N than P (unlike macroalgae or an ATS, which use it in a more typical organism ratio).

twilliard said:
Contact Brandon here
Safe yes
You can do in tank treatment or pull a particular rock out
Read up on it just search peroxide

twilliard said:
Not a bad decision but adding nitrogen won't stop your algae issue. The balance between no3 and po4 is what makes photosynthesis happen even in coral.
You want an answer to solve your gha safely ...
Peroxide

Im still dosing 10ml/day of flourish nitrogen to raise my nitrate level to help lower down my phosphate level and running an dyi algae scrubber... hoping to get the hair algae growth to a halt. Hoping to get a 5ppm nitrate and less than .05ppm on phosphate... is there anything else im missing to get rid of the hair algae and red cyano on my sand?