Green Hair Algae - HELP!

[sroot17]

I would feed a little less, water changes weekly, scrub larger areas w a tooth brush, cones right off, keep testing for phos, and run gfo

been doing this for months and it just keeps coming back. something has to be feeding this stuff and its not me. My fish are starving.

 

[sroot17]

Well I finally found the source of my phosphates, it's my ro/di water.

Out of the tap readings are 1.8. Out of my ro/di are .11. Thinking about adding a second carbon block and di canister.

 

[dbriceno]

I had a similar problem. It fully took over the tank. All water parameters seemed to be near perfect. Snails, Sea Slugs, toothbrush scrubs, nothing seemed to work. I eventually removed all the invertibrates & corals (fish only) and dropped the salinity to about 1.012 for a few weeks. The algae seemed to die but returned after bringing the level back to 1.023. I then got tough and removed all my live rock, bleached it and re-cure it. This took about 6 weeks. I bought an oversized protein skimmer and a new sump w/refugium to fit it. 7 months without algae, I'm happy. This was a drastic measure but after multiple attempts I was at wits end. Bottom line, I believe it was the water quality and the new protein skimmer did the trick. I couldn't have done it without Mike from Tropical Island's help.

 

[sroot17]

Todays tests,
tank water - .20
ro/di water - .15

this is driving me nuts!

anything anyone can do to help please let me know!

 

[dherrera83]

Have you tried shutting your lights for three days? Not sure if that works but when i had some algae issues i did a water change, changed sock and shut the lights off for 3 days. on the third day i did another water change, changed sock and turned lights back on but only for 5 hours then increased one hour per week till i reached 9 hours. That seemed to take care of it but then again mine wasnt that bad just had some small patches in some areas and some red slime. If helps if you also have emerald crabs.

I also heard of people using peroxide by dosing it. There is a thread on that you should look it up by searching it.

Good luck!!

 

[sroot17]

Have you tried shutting your lights for three days? Not sure if that works but when i had some algae issues i did a water change, changed sock and shut the lights off for 3 days. on the third day i did another water change, changed sock and turned lights back on but only for 5 hours then increased one hour per week till i reached 9 hours. That seemed to take care of it but then again mine wasnt that bad just had some small patches in some areas and some red slime. If helps if you also have emerald crabs.

I also heard of people using peroxide by dosing it. There is a thread on that you should look it up by searching it.

Good luck!!

Yes I have tried everything apart from vodka and peroxide dosing. Just did 4 days of darkness last week which helped but only a little. Need to figure out how to get them down out of my rodi and figur out why my gfo isn't working.

 

[cybermeez]

Maybe a stupid question, but have you tried adding a phosphate reactor? It won't fix the R/O problem, but it will help pull out what's already in your tank.

 

[tentacles]

doing a blackout period is only going to starve the algae that is in your tank, but as long as your PO4 is high it's going to come back. I honestly wouldn't even bother unless it's seriously encroaching on your corals. What is your reservoir made out of? Some plastics can leach PO4

 

[James983]

Todays tests,
tank water - .20
ro/di water - .15

this is driving me nuts!

anything anyone can do to help please let me know!

You found your problem. You need to change all your RO filters and consider changing your membrane as well. Adding a second DI chamber like you mentioned.

 

[sroot17]

Made some progress today. I reduced the flow into my ro membrane to 60 psi using my flush valve. This dropped my p04 almost .10 ppm!

 

[sroot17]

doing a blackout period is only going to starve the algae that is in your tank, but as long as your PO4 is high it's going to come back. I honestly wouldn't even bother unless it's seriously encroaching on your corals. What is your reservoir made out of? Some plastics can leach PO4

I switched to a 5 gal glass aquarium to rule this out.

 

[Tarazed]

If you haven't changed the RO membrane then do so If you already have maybe consider a whole new unit.

Hows your nitrates?

 

[ducati335i]

I just replaced all elements of my ro, including two membranes,,, the lowest my tds reading is .02 at lowest... When my phosphate checker comes in I'll run a test,, any suggestions on how to get it lower?

 

[Mattl22]

U running biopellets or vinegar dosing?? my tank had ha and dinos up the wazioo for first year went I'n cycles I believe it's part of a new tank settling I'n good luck !! A tank ur size might be more cost effective to try pellets then the lg amounts of Gfo u would need!

 

[ducati335i]

U running biopellets or vinegar dosing?? my tank had ha and dinos up the wazioo for first year went I'n cycles I believe it's part of a new tank settling I'n good luck !! A tank ur size might be more cost effective to try pellets then the lg amounts of Gfo u would need!

True, gonna start w lots of gfo slowly and test, I def think its first yr cycle still, I have pretty good maintenance schedule

 

[mbg75]

I just replaced all elements of my ro, including two membranes,,, the lowest my tds reading is .02 at lowest... When my phosphate checker comes in I'll run a test,, any suggestions on how to get it lower?

Is their a Di on it? You using an inline meter or handheld?

Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk

 

[xxxAngeloxxx]

Hope both of this links help you out.

http://saltaquarium.about.com/gi/dy...reeftank.com/html/reeftank_algae_control.html

http://saltaquarium.about.com/gi/dy...ium&zu=http://www.janetsreef.com/sea_hare.htm

 

[kakado]

Tag

 

[sroot17]

I did a couple of things to get this under control and I seem to be finally winning the battle. My biggest challenge are the extremely high phosphates in my tap water.

I replaced my RODI membrane which brought my phos down another .10 or so. I then added an additional DI canister to my rodi unit but replaced the di with gfo. So now my top off and salt mix water runs through the gfo before being put into my tank. I also run gfo in a reactor as well which I find I have to replace every two weeks.