Major algae problem

[mfin77]

hI

I have a major algae problem. I have lots of hair algae and some red algae growing. Most of the hair algae is on the back of the glass and on the overflow, some is on the rocks. Red algae is on the sand and rocks. 75 gallon tank Tank is three years old

My tank was doing great until about six months ago when I really got busy with other things.


What should I do.... take my tank down, or clean it up. I really don't want to take it down and start over.

My phospate says zero but I know the algae is eating it up

Nitrate says between 5 and 7 on sailfert test kit.

Any suggestions

 

[CrAzY cOrAlS]

what type of water are you using? how much hair algae is there? yellow tangs are awesome for that kind of stuff.

 

[mfin77]

what type of water are you using? how much hair algae is there? yellow tangs are awesome for that kind of stuff.

I am using ro/di, just tested it 0ppm. I have a yellow tang already, he does not care for it. I also have a phosban reactor.

Like I said the algae is on the back wall and the overflow, covering them. a little bit on the rocks

 

[KathyC]

How often are you changing the phosban?
With a large algae issue, you should do so weekly.

Best to do a large-ish water change - about 30%, then change the phosban ban. Pull whatever algae you can by hand and then keep up on weekly water changes and phosban change and the tank should start coming back around. Be sure to empty your skimmer cup every few days also.

The 'red algae' you are describing, is it actually algae or cyano?

 

[mfin77]

The 'red algae' you are describing, is it actually algae or cyano?[/QUOTE]

Whats the difference between cyano and algae. I always thought they were the same. What I have is red hair on my glass and like a red slime on the rocks.

Should I change phosban weekly or should I just add biopellets.

Thanks
Mike

 

[tosiek]

You can overdose with phosban (you probably know that after 3 years but saying it anyway). Just be careful as it will drop your PH on a fresh phosban refill.

Also, biopellets are a completely separate and different thing. Its not a plug and play fix it all if that's what you meant by using it. And you can use bio pellets with phosban.

also, just a thought, how much are you feeding? How deep is the sand? any tank shots? It could be just overfeeding and build up in the sandbed/behind rocks, ect. your clean up crew might be too small. Either way one or two water changes won't help, its going to take a few weeks of maintenance.

 

[KathyC]

You can overdose with phosban (you probably know that after 3 years but saying it anyway). Just be careful as it will drop your PH on a fresh phosban refill.

Hence the suggestion to do a 30% water change first - before putting in new phosban - to bump up the pH first and to reduce some of the phosphates/nitrates that are creating the algae issue

Whats the difference between cyano and algae. I always thought they were the same. What I have is red hair on my glass and like a red slime on the rocks.

The red slime (as it is commonly referred to is cyano). Can't tell what the red hair on your glass is withut a pic.
Cyano is a bacteria. Here's some interesting reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyanobacteria

 

[TonyHNY]

Definitely do some manual plucking. I know it is not fun but along with water changes, it will get better. Then consider growing some other more friendly algae to compete for the nutrients.

 

[Donewiththisplace]

I would do a treatment for red slime and see what happens...did that on mine once before and got rid of most of the red and some of the green.

From there did regular maintenance with water changes and seemed to control it.

 

[NanoAquatic]

get a mexican turbo. two of them will clean out the tank in 4 days

 

[jrobbins]

the mex turbos will eat the hair algae but will do nothing for the cyano.

 

[TonyHNY]

AND they would knock everything around...I would try to find the source of the problem before buying another animal to "fix" this problem....Once you find out the source of the problem (ie...water issue...), you can buy the mex turbos to knock out the hair algae and for the cyano...you can just suck that up during a water change...