Pics and a question

[kparton]

Thanks for the tips. I have done quite a bit of reading in the library here and I have implemented most of the ideas I saw.

I just shortened my timers by 2 hours per day so my lights will only be on 5 hours per day now. Also, I took out a ton of the algae with another water change so I should be manually removing some bound up phosphate as I do that.

I hadn't tried introducing other algaes although I do have some new macro coming up that I think is Caulerpa in the tank on its own, so maybe it will beging to compete with the hair algae.

I'll check out the other web site.

 

[esmithiii]

What do you have in the way of a cleanup crew?

Ernie

 

[kparton]

Right now I have about 5 each of nassarius snails, Cerith snails, and bumblebee snails. Also, I have 2 Margarita snails and 2 turbos. I have about 10 scarlet legged hermits and 2 serpent stars.

Since I introduced these inverts, I have definitely seen an improvement. I know they supposedly don't eat hair algae, so maybe it's a coincidence.

 

[Droggy]

Water movement is also needed to assist in the exchange of CO2.
Do you have adequate water movement in the tank?
CO2 can build up and help the algae grow along with the other minute traces of nutrients.Since you have seen a decline in the algae i`m certain your on the right track.

 

[Green Lantern]

How long has the tank been set up? What kind of herbivores do you have in there? I've had two tanks go through a cycle of algae that looks very similar to that.

 

[kparton]

The tank has been set up probably about 1 month and a half, so I'm definitely at a point when algae is expected.

As far as herbivores, have about 5 each of nassarius snails, Cerith snails, and bumblebee snails. Also, I have 2 Margarita snails and 2 turbos. I have about 10 scarlet legged hermits.

Flow has always been a concern of mine. I have two Maxi-Jet 900 and 2 more Maxi Jet 600 powerheads. I thought this would turn over the water plenty, but there still seem to be some low flow areas in the tank. I might switch out those 900s for 1200s if it would make a difference. I don't see more algae in any of the areas that sem lower flow though.

 

[esmithiii]

IME certain hermits will eat hair algae if they are hungry enough.

IMO you are in the course of the normal algae blooms, and given time they should subside.

Ernie

 

[jandree22]

Water produced by my own RO/DI unit.

explain, "my own"... my own as you purchased it and it is your property, or my own as you built one yourself? The RO/DI seems the only possible weak link in your system as you have no other sources of nutirents that couldve caused that monstrosity!!

I take it you don't own a TDS(total disolved solids) meter to test you RO/DI? I suggest you check into purchasing one to check out the quality of your 'pure water'

 

[Anonymous]

If this were my tank here's what I'd do:

1. Start a refugium. This can be done inside the stand, or as an adjacent stand-alone tank. You'll want to light it 24/7 until the macro algae you've placed into it has established itself. One easy way to do the external fuge is to use a powerhead to pump to it, and let water gravity drain back to the display or sump. Make sure the gravity return is BIG so that it won't clog.

2. Start running a canister filter with phosguard or phosSorb, etc... Like Seamaiden said, although your phosphate tests may show that things are "within acceptable range," my experience has been that ANY detectable phosphate will cause problems.

3. If you're not using a skimmer, now might be the time to think about getting one. For this size tank, an aqua-C Remora would do nicely.

4. Stop dosing all supplements except kalkwasser. Start daily top off with kalk drip. This will do many things for you. First, the elevated pH tends to cause nuisance algae to crash. Calcium hydroxide also functions to precipitate out phosphate molecules.

5. Lay off the water changes for a few weeks and see where things settle out.

6. Since you are not keeping any light dependent critters, you can shut the lights off altogether until the algae recedes. You'll want to aggressively skim and use phosguard, etc... while doing this.

7. Try taking the suction strainers off the intakes of your powerheads. They get clogged very easily and the resulting reduction in flow contributes to algae's abilty to cling onto things.

8. The critters you have are not the best algae eaters. I like emerald crabs and snails. Reeftopia.com has the cheapest, best deals around (Tell Edie that Eric in Fairfax sent you). Go with 100 of their really small Trochus or Astrea snails. (it's like $38.00 for a lot size this big) You'll see results almost overnight. Don't get the nudibranchs, they're cool to look at, but pretty much useless.

9. You can also circulate your top-off water thru a phosguard filter before mixing salt. That way you'll take an extra measure of removing silicates and phosphate molecules before the next step, salt.

10. Use only Instant Ocean salt.


Hope this helps. Keep us informed and update with a pic when you can.

Snapper

 

[kparton]

Thanks again for al the advice.

As far as my RO/DI unit, I purchased it, did not build it. I will get a total dissolved solids testing kit though to verify that my water is pure.

I have used Instant Ocean salt and I have been aggressively skimming with my AquaC Remora (which I think is great). I think this is the reason my nitrates have never gotten high.

I would like to set up a refugium, I'm going to have to look into how to do that, it's probablyt he biggest single thing I can do that I have not yet tried.

Thanks again, I'll keep this forum close by and resubmit pictures later regardless of whether it gets better or worse.

Thanks

 

[Green Lantern]

Just out of curiousity, did y'all catch that part where he said his tank's been up for a month and a half? As someone above mentioned, it's a normal part of the cycle.

Use only IO salt 8O ?

 

[Anonymous]

Yeah, Instant Ocean. Lots of us oldtimers love it! Besides, that old adage "If it ain't broke.."

 

[sstephen]

It seems like some people may be overreacting to the situation. As Green Lantern pointed out, kparton only just set up this tank. Personally, I would have (actually, I am doing this) waited a little longer before adding anything to the tank. By feeding your tank right now, you are continuing to add nutrients to it. The original growth of the algae seems to be a normal occurrence when curing live rock in a tank. Still, it would not be a bad idea to test the water from your RO/DI filter. But if things are improving now, you may not need to take much action. My hair algae problem has been relatively minor compared to yours, but I've been curing rock gradually (adding just a few pounds every couple of weeks) with a reduced photo period, and almost daily small water changes. Small, frequent partial water changes would be my recommendation at this point. Also, keep the feeding pretty light.

- Scott

 

[Anonymous]

yeah, probably a bit of general quarters involved, but sometimes, tanks that don't start out well never get better. It's really easy to add nutrients, but tough to export. Sometimes radicalogy is in order :lol:

 

[Anonymous]

Is your tank exposed to sunlight? If so...You may want to move it. I had the same problem but not as bad as yours. I started using Phosphate Sponge and added a few large Turbo Snails. The algae was gone in no time. I broke that tank down and set up another so it did not get any sunlight and I have had no problem at all with algae. I had a Brittle Star too and one day it looked like it exploded into small pieces. I have not had another since then.

 

[Green Lantern]

Yeah, Instant Ocean. Lots of us oldtimers love it! Besides, that old adage "If it ain't broke.."

Nothing wrong with IO, I use it myself but then there's nothing wrong with Kent or a number of others either. Hell, when I started I used Coralife until the salt report came out and told of copious amounts of lithium . None of my corals or fish cared . I just thought #10 was funny.

 

[mooner]

I just wound down a battle with dino's and my pre-existing moderate hair algae was the first to disappear during my attack. I can assure you that if you really wanna kill off that hair algae you can do it with 48 hours of dark, a following week of 4 hour/day photo period, then a week of 8 hours/day then back to normal all the while doubling your hair algae prone cleanup crew (previously listed critters are good), cutting your feeding in half and religious 10-15% water changes every other day. That stuff WILL be gone. But...

I agree that you need to do little of the above as this is a newer tank and just let this cycle pass but you should watch your nutrient input and make sure your RO/DI is near 0 ppm with a good TDS meter. Also, make sure your skimmer is cranking it out too.

Good luck.

 

[esmithiii]

Water produced by my own RO/DI unit.

explain, "my own"... my own as you purchased it and it is your property, or my own as you built one yourself? The RO/DI seems the only possible weak link in your system as you have no other sources of nutirents that couldve caused that monstrosity!!

I take it you don't own a TDS(total disolved solids) meter to test you RO/DI? I suggest you check into purchasing one to check out the quality of your 'pure water'

Since the tank is so new, the nutrients could easily come from die-off on the liverock. IMO this is a normal part of the cycle of the tank. Every new tank will go through this cycle or one similar.

Ernie

 

[Jamesurq]

how new are the lights? You mentioned 10K 175 watters. I bought what I thought were "brand new" lights from my LFS. Turns out that one of the bulbs was 6 months old and one was over a year old. The resulting low spectrum caused a significant hair algae growth.

 

[kparton]

As far as the lights, they are actually relatively old, but they had never been run until this set up, so they had never burned until 1.5 months ago. I thought the spectrum only started to degrade as the lights were actualy used, in other words, if they sat on the shelf, it was OK.