I've had my 38g mini-reef going for almost 9 months now, and i'm running into the typical issues. I'm just finishing off a fight with red-slime(cyano), and now i'm getting overrun with hair algae!!! Is there a marine-safe algaecide??? I have plenty of circulation, and a decent skimmer, but I'm still using tap water for water changes/topoffs. I have well water, much cleaner than city, but still a trace a nitrates and phosphates. Unless someone can recommend a relatively cheap/easy to setup RO unit, i'm gonna need another way to fight this off!!! thanks....
Is there a safe Algaecide???
- Thread starter dcflyers7
- Start date
List all the changes to the tank. Everything--salt used, temperatures, everything you've put in to 'fight' the problems, everything that is in the tank.
In most cases, I've found that what starts out as a single problem and then turns into a number of them is the result of doing too much to the tank, and not letting it get in balance with the nutrient load.
In most cases, I've found that what starts out as a single problem and then turns into a number of them is the result of doing too much to the tank, and not letting it get in balance with the nutrient load.
A few months after setting up a new tank and transferring all the livestock from the old one, I got an increasingly bad algae bloom. I read books, scoured the web, and got very frustrated because I was supposedly doing all the right things and still had a furry tank.
I read a lot of posts by people who came through algae blooms, and the general story went something like this: I tried a lot of stuff, and it eventually went away.
I'm not trying to make it sound impossible, or magic, but that is seems like hair algae blooms are caused by one or a few things being out of whack, and you have to try to figure out what it is.
In my case, I tried the following:
-A variety of grazers (small effect, most prefer anything over hair algae)
-Adding a DI stage to my RO unit (seemed to help a lot, the decline in hair algae started soon afterward)
-Changing from 6500 K to 10000 K lamps (may have helped, decline sped up when they were added)
-Using phosban (may have helped, but algae didn't come back after removing it)
-manual removal (some help, but it will come back fast if conditions are right)
-shortening the MH photoperiod (little effect)
I was running a 10-gallon refugium full of chaetomorpha when the bloom started, so a fuge may help but will probably not cure the problem.
So, like I said, I tried some things and the tank is now Derbesia-free. Because it wasn't horribly scientific, I can't say for sure, but my guess is that the nutrients left by the RO helped feed the algae. It may not have been a problem in the old tank because the light was less intense, then caused a plague when I shifted to very high PAR Iwasaki halides.
So what are your nitrate and phosphate levels right now (and all the other things OG mentioned)?
I read a lot of posts by people who came through algae blooms, and the general story went something like this: I tried a lot of stuff, and it eventually went away.
I'm not trying to make it sound impossible, or magic, but that is seems like hair algae blooms are caused by one or a few things being out of whack, and you have to try to figure out what it is.
In my case, I tried the following:
-A variety of grazers (small effect, most prefer anything over hair algae)
-Adding a DI stage to my RO unit (seemed to help a lot, the decline in hair algae started soon afterward)
-Changing from 6500 K to 10000 K lamps (may have helped, decline sped up when they were added)
-Using phosban (may have helped, but algae didn't come back after removing it)
-manual removal (some help, but it will come back fast if conditions are right)
-shortening the MH photoperiod (little effect)
I was running a 10-gallon refugium full of chaetomorpha when the bloom started, so a fuge may help but will probably not cure the problem.
So, like I said, I tried some things and the tank is now Derbesia-free. Because it wasn't horribly scientific, I can't say for sure, but my guess is that the nutrients left by the RO helped feed the algae. It may not have been a problem in the old tank because the light was less intense, then caused a plague when I shifted to very high PAR Iwasaki halides.
So what are your nitrate and phosphate levels right now (and all the other things OG mentioned)?
I started by just adding some flow w/ an additional powerhead. I haven't changed my water change schedule, or done any extra changes, I just try to keep them consistent. The only other thing I used to help fight off the Red-slime was some stuff called "chemi-clean." This seemed to help, and after that plus water changes, it was gone. This was all for the red-slime, mind you, and the algae bloom followed all this...
My water temp is 78-79, I use Oceanic salt, and have 130watt PC's. I reduced my lighting time by two hours, with the actinics on for 10hrs and the 10k on for 8hrs, as I was doing 12hrs previously... Would using chemical like phosphate and nitrate reducers help, or would this be bad for the tank??? My levels aren't back, only a trace from my well water, but I guess its enough to feed the hair algae...
My water temp is 78-79, I use Oceanic salt, and have 130watt PC's. I reduced my lighting time by two hours, with the actinics on for 10hrs and the 10k on for 8hrs, as I was doing 12hrs previously... Would using chemical like phosphate and nitrate reducers help, or would this be bad for the tank??? My levels aren't back, only a trace from my well water, but I guess its enough to feed the hair algae...
One thing people forget is that cyano and hair algae will both grow on healthy coral reefs, where NO3 and PO4 are undetectable using our kits. If herbivore populations drop, for example, hair algae will start to take over. That suggests that nutrients are only part of the equation.
Phosphate removers may help, although they didn't seem to have a very big impact for me. If you try it, use an iron-based compound like phosban or rowaphos, because alumina-based products can irritate corals, soft corals especially.
For herbivores, I found urchins to be the most effective. They take absolutely everything off the rock, and then (assuming conditions are right) coralline quickly grows in to fill in the gap.
I wish I could say something more definitive, and it's not for lack of trying. The most frustrating thing for me was that all measurable parameters were as good as I've ever seen, and I still had a furry tank.
Phosphate removers may help, although they didn't seem to have a very big impact for me. If you try it, use an iron-based compound like phosban or rowaphos, because alumina-based products can irritate corals, soft corals especially.
For herbivores, I found urchins to be the most effective. They take absolutely everything off the rock, and then (assuming conditions are right) coralline quickly grows in to fill in the gap.
I wish I could say something more definitive, and it's not for lack of trying. The most frustrating thing for me was that all measurable parameters were as good as I've ever seen, and I still had a furry tank.
I have great coraline growth, its really becoming a pain trying to keep it off the glass!!! How sensitive/fragile are urchins? Are they hard to keep?
Once acclimated they are pretty easy. The ones in my tank were live rock hitchhikers, so they must be pretty hardy. Your best bets would probably be short-spined urchins or tuxedos. Pencil urchins are supposedly predatory.
I had been through a lot of algae stages and I thought finally reached the end, then a couple of weeks later started suffering again. So I chatted to my contact at the marine store and decided to try Rowa Phos, I put it in the main filter. I went away for a week and came back to a very clean tank. Was most impressed, as before the week away was getting very despondent.
Mike
Mike