Algae Problem I have

[JoshLongton]

Here are some pics of the algae problem I have been having in my main tank. Was being discussed in my new fish post.

[ryandlf]

Looks like the dreaded hair algae. The best you can is pull as much as you can out with your fingers (make sure not to let little pieces of it fly off otherwise it will attach elsewhere), and then rubberband a toothbrush to the end of your gravel vacuum so you can brush your rock as well as suck of the pieces the come off as soon as they detach. Its going to take a while to get rid of all of it, but it will happen eventually, just be diligent.

Also, sometimes if your lights are old they can be the cause of starting an algae bloom like this, so if you think they might need replacing go ahead and do it.

[ryandlf]

Looks like the dreaded hair algae. The best you can is pull as much as you can out with your fingers (make sure not to let little pieces of it fly off otherwise it will attach elsewhere), and then rubberband a toothbrush to the end of your gravel vacuum so you can brush your rock as well as suck of the pieces the come off as soon as they detach. Its going to take a while to get rid of all of it, but it will happen eventually, just be diligent.

Also, sometimes if your lights are old they can be the cause of starting an algae bloom like this, so if you think they might need replacing go ahead and do it.

[R. Deschain]

I like the idea of attaching a toothbrush to the end of the water change hose. I'm gonna try that, thanks!

[Amphibious]

Hair algae is a pain! You can remove it, and you must. But to eliminate it you have to find the source of fuel that feeds it. Light is one source of fuel but there has to be a second fuel to feed it's growth. Light alone isn't enough. We look for two things usually, Nitrate and/or phosphates. Testing for those two elements will find the cause. One or both may be present. My guess is high Nitrates.

You can pull it, scrub it or curse it and, if you don't find and reduce the food source it will come back greener than ever. Water changes do little to help because while water changes are important to the overall health of the system, it doesn't eliminate the source of food only reduces it and not by a significant factor. Example; say your Nitrates or phosphates (the fuel) are 100 ppm. You do a 20% water change, the fuel is reduced to 80 ppm. Still to high. By not eliminating the fuel source, it's back to 100 ppm or higher by the next water change. That's why water changes don't eliminate algae problems. So where do you go from here? Find the source and reduce or eliminate it.

The source of Nitrate is easy. Nitrate is built up do to an incomplete Nitrogen cycle usually caused by an incomplete or inadequate filtering system. Most often caused by a trickle filter with bio-balls or canister filter. Both are good for the conversion of Ammonia to Nitrite to Nitrate but lack the Anaerobic area for the conversion of Nitrate to Nitrogen gas, the final stage of the cycle. Hence, the Nitrate builds up and the algae is fueled.

Phosphates can come from your water source, food items, salt mix, and some additives. We use RO/DI units to eliminate phosphates from our water source. The other sources are a bit trickier to track down. Buying water from a LFS, "purified" bottled water, or any other source of pre bottled water is not the answer. To be sure, one needs their own RO/DI unit.

What are you using for a filtration system? What is your source of water?

Dick

[JoshLongton]

Well I have a posphate problem. My phosphates where over 10 ppm. I have down two water changes, and am using Pura Phoslock in my canister filter. And my phosphates are still not at zero. Still at like at 2 to 2.5 ppm. And I have tested my water. No phosphates, and have had no problems in my fresh water tanks.

On my protien skimmer, they had me set it up with a sponge filter on the intake. And everything seemed to be collecting on the sponge, and not being drawn through the skimmer. I took off the sponge, and hopfully that will draw more stuff through the skimmer.

[ryandlf]

That canister filter could possibly be the source of your problems. Alot of people now a days say that this piece of equipment will actually cause nitrate problems unless it cleaned and maintained regularly. Any be regular, it means like at least once per week, not once every couple months. As strange as it is, you can probably get away without using the canister. It sucks to take away equipment but I would try it, your skimmer and LR should be able to handle everything.

[Iron E]

It is my understanding that you do not have to have phosphates in your source water to develop phosphates in your tank water. What you have got is probably an excess of nutrients (Too much fish food/poop ie: too many fish) and possibly a little nitrate factory. (The canister filter)

I would do the following.

Temporarily move some of your fish ( half of them. especially the Tangs! ) to another tank. (Friends, LFS) to reduce the nutrients/bio load.

Manually remove all visible algae with the vac/brush method above.

Remove and clean any filter socks, filter media, sponge filters, etc that you may have in your system. Don't replace any that you can live without.

Remove the canister filter. Save it for water polishing every 3-6 months. (better yet, use a DE filter.)

Skim heavy!

Get an RO/DI unit. wether or not you have phosphates/etc. in your water, unidentified dissolved solids in your water can contribute to nitrate/phosphate problems.

Do daily 20% + water changes to help remove algae particulates from your tank.

Give it a good week and back off on the water changes if you don't have any signs of algae returning.

Replace your fish gradually ( I wouldn't replace the Tangs. They were only in there as a "cure" for the algae prob. Right?)

Address the cause, not she symptoms.

I'm sure I've missed a few details but thats my take for the moment.

Tom

[JoshLongton]

Got a question on the hair algae I am pulling out. Could that be used as a macro algae in a refurgium??

[Amphibious]

No! That is not a macro algae. You need to do some research. Here is a link to an article on plants for refugiums by Anthony Calfo - Best Plants and algae for Refugia (part 1)

And Best Plants and algae for Refugia (part 2)

Time to do some home work.

Dick

[JoshLongton]

OK didn't think of this untill I was cleaning the canister today. I have my UV light on the output of the canister filter. Good or bad?

Also, I was pulling rocks out, and cleaning them with a toothbrush. But I cannot get them back to excatly like they were. So new rock is showing, and some exposed rock is now covered.

I have done have the tank. Should I stop, and wait, or finish? Just don't want to start the cycle all over again, and kill eveything in my tank.

[PhotoJohn]

I have a similar problem but the HA has literally covered every rock in my tank. I also have cyano. Now, I have been doing reef tanks for about 3 years now and have never had a problem like this before. I have undetectable amm, nitrite, and nitrate but I have phosphate at 0.1ppm. I am telling you this because with enough light and only a little phosphate you can easily fuel a jungle of HA. You will need to get your phosphates to undetectable to really whip your problem. That is what I am working on now

[CarmieJo]

I don't think that having new areas of the rocks exposes will make any difference.

[ryandlf]

Ya...thats a good way to do it if your willing to pull the rocks right out. Scrub em, then dip them and repeat. Keep in mind though your tank is gonna look great for about a week until the HA starts growing back. Getting rid of it helps, now I would get something to get your phosphates way down so you wont have to rescrub the rocks.

[JoshLongton]

See I have two spare ten gallon tanks. I mix some salt water up put it in the ten gallon, so my rock at least stays in water while I scrub.

[CarmieJo]

As a money saving tip, I'd put the new SW in the DT and use the water change water for scrubbing.

[JoshLongton]

Yes, thats what I do. Sorry for the confusion. I don't use the new water for scrubbing.

[7perseo7]

what i have seen works best is hermit crabbs, get a cleanup crew, also the lawnmower blenny is good for that, he will not eat the algae but rather tear it up and the crabs eat some specially the blue legged ones,i had a very simillar problem on a tank and had to start all over,by this i mean i setup a 50gallon tank with 25 gallons of freshly mixed water then using a setup that i have (iwaki pump and filter pumped 20 gallons from the old tank.waited a days acclimated all the tank fish to this and transfered them there. than i scrubbed as much as i could from the live rock then transfered it to a tote,used a power head with a sponge to turn the sand over and get rid of as much algae as i could and cleaned it up rinsed the rest with frash salt water, and started to place live rock . is a lot of work but if you have a bad Nitrate problem it could be acumulation of food end detritus in the sand. now my kids are not much into feeding my fish every 5 minutes anymore so i have not had to do it in a loong time.

[lReef lKeeper]

is this the tank that is using well water ??

[JoshLongton]

I have a lawnmower blenny, and hermit crabs.

[Iron E]

I have a lawnmower blenny, and hermit crabs.

What kind and how many?

[CarmieJo]

I have had blue leg, scarlet leg, zebra, red tip and electric blue hermits and I have never seen any of them eat nuisance algae.

[PhotoJohn]

give these a read
Nuisance Algae In The Reef Aquarium: Part I - Reef Hobbyist Online Magazine
Nuisance Algae In The Reef Aquarium, Part II by Scott Zachow - Reef Hobbyist Online Magazine
Nuisance Algae In The Reef Aquarium Part III - Reef Hobbyist Online Magazine

[JoshLongton]

Well some good news. Out of the rocks I have cleaned, no hair algae has come back. Tommerow I will cleaned the rest. Need some more water in my cleaning tank, and a heater. Water it way to cold, and have living things on some rocks.. Like a single Mushroom.

Not sure how I am going to pull out and clean the one with the anemone on it. Don't want him to start moving around the tank. He has been in this spot for about 3 months now. I feed him real well, to make he doesn't think he needs to move to find a better food source.

[CarmieJo]

Disrupting flow patterns by moving the rockwork around can cause the anemone to go walkabout. This is true no matter whether you move the anemone's rock or not.