Chem-Marin Stop Hair Algae...effective?
- Thread starter Sapp
- Start date
Generally those types of additives aren't that effective, but I have no personal experience with it. How old is your tank? Are you using RO/DI or tap water?
My tank is about 3 months old and I am using DI water since day 1. PO4 is less than 0.01ppm (almost non detectable). NO2 is about 0.01ppm and NO3 is 0.02ppm. Rocks has been with me for about 2 years so I am quite sceptical that PO4 is still leaching from the rocks.
Most of those treatments are not 100% reef safe, even the ones that claim to be so.
If you have a nuissance algae problem, there is more NO3 and PO4 in your tank than what is being measured in the water (what are you using to measure NO3 down to that level, btw?). Testing the water only measures the nutrient concentrations available in the water, not what any algae has taken up. It's just as easy to have a tank with nuissance algae and have elevated NO3 / PO4 as it is to have a tank with barely measureable NO3 / PO4. To ultimately reduce the total amount of nutrients in the tank, removal of the nuissance algae is required. Otherwise, as any of it dies, is killed by a treatment, or is eaten, the nutrients are just recycled within the tank and made available again for more algae to grow.
If you have a nuissance algae problem, there is more NO3 and PO4 in your tank than what is being measured in the water (what are you using to measure NO3 down to that level, btw?). Testing the water only measures the nutrient concentrations available in the water, not what any algae has taken up. It's just as easy to have a tank with nuissance algae and have elevated NO3 / PO4 as it is to have a tank with barely measureable NO3 / PO4. To ultimately reduce the total amount of nutrients in the tank, removal of the nuissance algae is required. Otherwise, as any of it dies, is killed by a treatment, or is eaten, the nutrients are just recycled within the tank and made available again for more algae to grow.
I added a lawnmower blenny to my tank a couple of days ago and he hasn't stopped eating my hair algae since I put him in there. lol...he has a bottomless pit for a stomach and it's hilarious watching him tear off pieces to eat. I should have added him weeks ago. 
I think the only thing to add here is that you need to find the root cause of the algae issue before you treat it or go to great lengths to remove it...
Niko
Niko
Do you have a red hair algae problem? We successfully removed a really really thick bad case which had engulfed his whole tank with a much smaller bottle of powdered stuff. It was in a thumb sized bottle with a small scoop inside I will try to get the name of it for you.
If you mean cynobacteria, then yes but only a very small portion where there is very low current flow. I have that powdered stuff you are talking about. Think its the red slime remover from UltraLife. However, I am trying to remove all these nuisance algae without dosing any chemicals. Don't want to affect the water conditions.
I added a lawnmower blenny to my tank a couple of days ago and he hasn't stopped eating my hair algae since I put him in there. lol...he has a bottomless pit for a stomach and it's hilarious watching him tear off pieces to eat. I should have added him weeks ago.
Thanks. Will try to scout for 1 at the LFS.