Green hair algea

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Partsman41953

AC Members
Sep 12, 2008
21
0
0
Hi everyone,

I have a 29 gallon bow tank with live rock and fish. I would like to put soft coral in there but since I have had this tank running I have had a problem with green hair algae. I have been doing my water changes as I am suppose to, I have a fairly new T-5 Nova Extreme light which is on a timer and is only on for 6 hours a day, I feed them only granuals once a day, and use only salt water purchased from a local fish store. My water parameters are where they are suppose to be and have no idea what else to do.

I moved the tank last week into my kitchen because I thought that the sunlight might be effecting the tank and I tore the tank down, without cleaning the sand, cleaned the rock, filled the tank with new salt water and the tank was fine for about a week and now not only do I have green hair algae but now I see red slime starting as well.

I am up for any suggestions that you might have. I would love to put some soft coral in there as the clown fish I have are using the algae to hide in instead on coral right now.
 
brackeeper75

brackeeper75

Slave To The Fishes!
Feb 23, 2008
340
0
0
48
Kissimmee, Florida
www.scotts-place.com
Give us more information to go on!
What fish and how many
what clean up crew
salinity
Ammonia
nitrite
nitrate
ph
phosphates
equipment? skimmer, filters, powerheads
what is your total flow
where does your lfs get its water and what brand of salt do they use to mix it
has the store tested its ro/di output lately
what are you feeding
live rock/live sand
how do you top off the tank
by answering these questions for us, we should be able to tell what is happening
do you have pictures of the tank. and or the algea
and btw
i think your photo period is too short 6 hours is probably not good
think about the light the ocean recieves everyday. I run my actinics for 10 hours 12:00pm-10:00pm and my daylights for 8 hours from 1pm- 9pm. Sometimes not enough light actually helps algae to spread.
 
H

hultman

Curmudgeon at large
Sep 19, 2004
85
0
0
Minnesota
Partsman41953 said:
Hi everyone,

I have a 29 gallon bow tank with live rock and fish. .....since I have had this tank running I have had a problem with green hair algae.
Click to expand...
I just set up a new 40, and was seeing significant hair algae within the first three weeks. Bought a cleanup crew of about 15 hermits, 15 snails and three emerald crabs. Now, about two weeks later the only hair algae is where the cleanup crew can't get to it, up on one of the power heads. Otherwise, it's ALL gone. I love those cleaner guys!
 
brackeeper75

brackeeper75

Slave To The Fishes!
Feb 23, 2008
340
0
0
48
Kissimmee, Florida
www.scotts-place.com
hultman said:
I just set up a new 40, and was seeing significant hair algae within the first three weeks. Bought a cleanup crew of about 15 hermits, 15 snails and three emerald crabs. Now, about two weeks later the only hair algae is where the cleanup crew can't get to it, up on one of the power heads. Otherwise, it's ALL gone. I love those cleaner guys!
Click to expand...
The problem here is that you have taken care of the symptoms, however you have not taken care of the problem itself. Phosphates and nitrates are the leading cause of algea outbreaks. You need to get the water parameters better and you wont have the algae problems. Do you use ro/di water or tap water? This could be the source, as well as overfeeding, overstocked tank, low flow, not enough filtration, or not enough water changes.
 
H

hultman

Curmudgeon at large
Sep 19, 2004
85
0
0
Minnesota
brackeeper75 said:
The problem here is that you have taken care of the symptoms, however you have not taken care of the problem itself. Phosphates and nitrates are the leading cause of algea outbreaks. Do you use ro/di water or tap water? This could be the source, as well as overfeeding, overstocked tank, low flow, not enough filtration, or not enough water changes.
Click to expand...
I guess I don't see it as a problem. I use RO water. The cleaning crew is feeding nicely and seems happy. Yes, the tank is starting to have a heavy fish load, and once I've settled on a good fish mix, I'll decide on the corals. So, for now, I expect I'll have higher Nitrate readings. Right now they're still in the single digits, but the tank is still young.

My flow is good, about 1500gph, and filtration is an AquaC on the sump with a simple prefilter on the drip plate. I admit that, along with some extra live rock, I still have some bio media in the sump, but I think I will be removing that soon.

Who knows, maybe this will be a fish tank, not a reef. Time will tell.
 
brackeeper75

brackeeper75

Slave To The Fishes!
Feb 23, 2008
340
0
0
48
Kissimmee, Florida
www.scotts-place.com
Check your phosphates... Just out of curiosity.
Single digit nitrate readings are no reason not to do a reef tank.
I am just trying to help out with the algae problem.
With single digit nitrate, your phosphates might be outta whack.

hultman said:
I guess I don't see it as a problem. I use RO water. The cleaning crew is feeding nicely and seems happy. Yes, the tank is starting to have a heavy fish load, and once I've settled on a good fish mix, I'll decide on the corals. So, for now, I expect I'll have higher Nitrate readings. Right now they're still in the single digits, but the tank is still young.

My flow is good, about 1500gph, and filtration is an AquaC on the sump with a simple prefilter on the drip plate. I admit that, along with some extra live rock, I still have some bio media in the sump, but I think I will be removing that soon.

Who knows, maybe this will be a fish tank, not a reef. Time will tell.
Click to expand...
 
H

hultman

Curmudgeon at large
Sep 19, 2004
85
0
0
Minnesota
brackeeper75 said:
Check your phosphates... Just out of curiosity.
Click to expand...
:eek:Wow, phosphates are at .6. I put in a Poly Pad. We'll see what that does. I was assuming that I didn't need to worry about phosphate because for the first time I'm actually using RO water. Thanks for pointing this out!
 
brackeeper75

brackeeper75

Slave To The Fishes!
Feb 23, 2008
340
0
0
48
Kissimmee, Florida
www.scotts-place.com
hultman said:
:eek:Wow, phosphates are at .6. I put in a Poly Pad. We'll see what that does. I was assuming that I didn't need to worry about phosphate because for the first time I'm actually using RO water. Thanks for pointing this out!
Click to expand...
Phosphate are definately the source of your algae problems!

What we need to understand here, and what is a very important lesson, that i learned the same way, is that we should have started using ro/di water from the beginning, BUT I didnt either, a couple of weeks ago I went out and bought a ro/di unit.

As far as the phosphates go The rock and sand will absorb phosphate over time, and then the phosphate will continue to leach out back into the water column. So this is where our problem was.

Regular and larger water changes will help to bring this down, however it will take time and diligence. I did 2 large 40% water changes (100 gallons in my system) one on one friday and the other on the next friday. This brought my nitrates and phosphates down to more managable levels, and now I will continue to do weekly 10%. I also set up a fuge, got some chaeto. So you see I had the same thing happen to me!
 
M

masterkaw

AC Members
Apr 12, 2007
127
0
0
brackeeper75 said:
Phosphate are definately the source of your algae problems!

What we need to understand here, and what is a very important lesson, that i learned the same way, is that we should have started using ro/di water from the beginning, BUT I didnt either, a couple of weeks ago I went out and bought a ro/di unit.

As far as the phosphates go The rock and sand will absorb phosphate over time, and then the phosphate will continue to leach out back into the water column. So this is where our problem was.

Regular and larger water changes will help to bring this down, however it will take time and diligence. I did 2 large 40% water changes (100 gallons in my system) one on one friday and the other on the next friday. This brought my nitrates and phosphates down to more managable levels, and now I will continue to do weekly 10%. I also set up a fuge, got some chaeto. So you see I had the same thing happen to me!
Click to expand...
Could nitrates be at 0 and phospate be high? Could there be an algae breakout with nitrates being at 0 and phospates being high? If RO/DI water is being used with 0ppm, how does the phospate show up?
 
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