Whats your PH

[Anonymous]

I have Hair Algae.
Have had it for a long time. I am cooking most of my rock. I am sure it came from not doing water changes and other maintance.
I have been doing water changes and baisting the rock to clean every thing up and the algae is not spreding but its still there. one of the things I am thinking of doing next is dosing lime water and viniger. Its only a 20 gal. tank and the PH is 7.9 in the morning and it get to 8.2 at night. The lights are only on 4:00 pm till 11:30pm but it gets sun all morning.
What would you do to make this tank better?


Thanks
Teddy

 

[Anonymous]

Need lots more info. I don't see anything wrong with your PH.

Please list:

Age of the tank
size of the tank
Waterflow
livestock
filter
skimmer
water source
export mechanisms
Phosphate level
Nitrate level

 

[Anonymous]

Age - About 1 year
Size - 20 Gal.
Water flow - A canister filter just to filter the stuff I get from the rock and a maxi-jet 1200 going to 4 nozzles that get moved around a lot.
Live stock - 1 real small leather, and some star polops, and a dwarlf angle.
Filter - 10lbs live rock, the pad in the filter gets cleaned every week with the water change.
Skimmer - none, the Aqua c remora never did anything more then light green water so I am using the pump for more water flow.
Water sorce RO/DI. TDS reads 40 after RO and 0 after DI, and Instant ocean salt.
export mechanisms - weekly water change and the sponge from the canister filter.
Phosphate level - none
Nitrate level - I will have to test.


Thanks
Teddy

 

[Anonymous]

If the Hair has not taken over yet then I'm thinking that all you need is a herbivore to eat it. Would you consider one of the following?

Diadema Urchin (these are algae eating machines)
Sally Lightfoot Crab (Can be trained to be very friendly)
Emerald Crab (Slow & Steady, will eventually get the job done)

 

[Anonymous]

I have a urchin(don't know what kind it brown with white tips) I forgot about and 12 or so hermits and snails. I will sersh the Diadema Urchin to see. the hair did take over but with scrubbing the rock and starting water changes its getting better. I still have half the rock being cooked in a container.



Teddy

 

[Anonymous]

Is there any thing you think I can do to get rid of the hair/make the tank better. Is adding lime water way out in left feild?



Teddy

 

[NMreefer]

Don't give up for starters. Hair algae is hard to get rid of once well established, but take it from me, it can be done. It is probably a nutrient export problem that keeps compounding. You need a skimmer in my IMO. Most critters won't eat it if it's very long. You may have to harvest it by hand and then they will munch away. I really like the little blue legs for algae control. You need to remember once the algae is gone to either return some of the critters or feed them. If not, they'll starve. Run some phosguard too. Your makeup water may be clean, but as the algae that's in the tank dies, up it goes and the cycle repeats.

Phillip

 

[Anonymous]

Dripping limewater has a small potential to help so it's definately not out in left field. It will acquire a lot of the CO2 that the algae needs to produce sugar. I'm not convinced it will be a noticeable difference though because it won't remove all of the CO2.

Most snails won't eat hair algae. Hermits will but not if there's more yummy food around. If your Urchin in a Pencil urchin then it's a carnivore. I can't tell from your description what kind of Urchin you have though.

 

[Anonymous]

There is no cure for hair algae!
_________________
Ferrari Testarossa

 

[Anonymous]

Rob,
I think we are in the same boat but I only have a small tank. I have followed all your threads on this topic and have tried what you have for the most part. Mine is not spreading and more and I have not scrubbed any for 3 weeks. But its still there. I wish you luck in cooking.



For the others,
If I blast 1 rock about the size of my fist with a turky baister the entire tank is clouded so that you can not see the other rocks. Do you think that is normal?

But last night I was lightly baisting some rock and the brown stuff was comming out of different holes and even the other side of the rock. I am looking at as a good thing and am going to try to make every thing more stable.



Teddy

 

[NMreefer]

That's all stuff you should be exporting out of your tank. That stuff is contributing to your problem.

 

[Anonymous]

Where is it comming from. Am I producing it or once its gone its gone. I was thinking its waste or uneaten food but I don't see how its that. Maybe it was there when I bought the tank.
When will it stop do you get that much out of your rock like never ending?



Teddy

 

[Anonymous]

In my experience what you have is the result of live rock that has not had an easy life. My ultimate suggestion would be to get some good live rock and not subject it to high ammonia spikes.

I'm not saying that's what you did but I've seen it far too often. For some reason the trend is to see how high you can spike ammonia when curing rock. In my opinion this results in base rock that is loaded to the gills with dead animals inside it.

"Cooking the rock" doesn't result in live rock either IMO. Perhaps it can purge the rock of the corpses rotting inside but it won't put live organisms back into the rock.

 

[Anonymous]

Ok, I can see times when I could have killed every thing off. That is one reason why I am looking to keep every thing more stable. I am adding top off water every day instead of when I see it needs a gal or more....

Do you think I need all new live rock. What do you think of those seed kits to re-seed your sand and rocks?

I see lots of "bugs" but only ones I can see with a 10X loop.

So now what do you think I should do?

Thanks
Teddy

 

[Anonymous]

Guy,
Do you think every thing is lost and I should start over and do it right this time?




Teddy

 

[Anonymous]

If you can afford it thats what I would do.

When I reset up my tank recently I replaced most of the rock, but left some that I have had for years. Now I have hair algae that grows almost exclusively on the old rock I used in my tank, and none at all on the new rock.

 

[Anonymous]

Ok,
If I find a home for fish and coral.
and get some new rock to seed what does it take to sustain the life and make that the best live rock every?

Right now I only do water changes and feed the fist nothing else goes in the tank.




Teddy

 

[Anonymous]

I'll ditto what PitPat said.

IMO sustaining live rock just requires normal reef husbandry. Keep ammonia levels below 0.5ppm while it's cycling, lots of waterflow, consistent water parameters (salinity, temp, Calcium, Carbonate...), and regular water changes.

A skimmer on a small tank is one of those things that's possible to do without but when things go wrong having a skimmer can lessen the effect drastically. It can be the difference between a tank crash and temporarily having unhappy corals.

 

[Anonymous]

I'm going to chime in here.

Teddy doesn't mention how much water he changes during water changes. A 10% water change isn't going to do much but a 30 to 50% one will. I think that is very important. Large and frequent water changes are key in getting rid of hair algea. I know cause I'm fighting that battle too (And if I hadn't slacked off for a few weeks, it would be gone). Adding more flow combined with the water changes will decrease nutrients, debris and rock shedding material. It all goes hand in hand.

Hooking that skimmer back up wouldn't be a bad idea either.

 

[dave_atl]

Damn, if I gave up half as easy as some of you, I'd probably be out of the hobby now.

I've got a 25 that has been covered in hair algae several times over the last 8 years. I only use the tank when I want something I can't put in my 180 reeftank, and when not ocupied I just let it sit, one time for 2 years with no water changes (a miracle the snails and hermits lived) Anyway, when I want to put something in it again I use the following steps:

1. pull all loose algae out
2. blow off liverock
3. stir sand
4. 30-50% water change (as much water as I can without exposing liverock)
5. change mechanical filter cartidge/carbon

repeat every week for 4 weeks or so.

Not saying it will work for you, but it works for me everytime.