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Pet Forum / Aquaria / Marine Reef / October 2004Losing the war against Red hair Algae
I am losing the war against red hair algae in my tank. My nitrates are 0 and and my PH is steady between 8.0 and 8.2. The temperature of the tank is between 80 and 82 degrees. I have (2) 250W metal halides that are on 8 hours a day and (2) 45 Watt actinic lights that are on 12 hours a day. ( I don't have a phosphate test kit...could that be the problem?) The red hair algae does not grown on the live rock much. Instead it grows every day on the sand. I rake it each night until there sand is white again, but the next day it grows right back. I have crown snails, astral snails, some unidentied snail, emerald crabs, blue legged hermit crabs, brown lagged hermit crabs, but nothing seems to eat it. Any ideas? What's your phosphate levels? ~John I don't have a test kit. Guess, I'll go shopping tonight. I'll let you know. > What's your phosphate levels? > ~John I got an additional powerhead to increase circulation and installed a protein skimmer. I haven't had any red algae since. > What's your phosphate levels? > ~John The red algae in my 30-gallon tank disappeared when I added another powerhead to increase circulation and installed a protein skimmer. > I am losing the war against red hair algae in my tank. My nitrates are 0 > and and my PH is steady between 8.0 and 8.2. The temperature of the tank is [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > snails, some unidentied snail, emerald crabs, blue legged hermit crabs, > brown lagged hermit crabs, but nothing seems to eat it. Any ideas? I have noticed that it helps when I keep the surface of the sand moving with a power head it helps, but i makes a mess. I have a good protein skimmer. > The red algae in my 30-gallon tank disappeared when I added another > powerhead to increase circulation and installed a protein skimmer. [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > > snails, some unidentied snail, emerald crabs, blue legged hermit crabs, > > brown lagged hermit crabs, but nothing seems to eat it. Any ideas? What you describe sounds much more like Cyano Bacteria. It will grow like a mat or sheet on your sand, and you can even gently scoop it together and siphon it out. If nothing else will get rid of it, ChemiClean by Boyd Enterprises will kill it off. Marc > I am losing the war against red hair algae in my tank. My nitrates are 0 > and and my PH is steady between 8.0 and 8.2. The temperature of the tank is [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > snails, some unidentied snail, emerald crabs, blue legged hermit crabs, > brown lagged hermit crabs, but nothing seems to eat it. Any ideas?  SignaturePersonal Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com/oanda/index.html Business Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com Marine Hobbyist: http://www.melevsreef.com Yes, it does grow like a matt. I assume ChemiClean is reef safe? Thanks for the help! > What you describe sounds much more like Cyano Bacteria. It > will grow like a mat or sheet on your sand, and you can even [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] > > snails, some unidentied snail, emerald crabs, blue legged hermit crabs, > > brown lagged hermit crabs, but nothing seems to eat it. Any ideas? Why not just try adding more water circulation to the sand area but not directly blasting it. Try to avoid adding any chemical to your water if can avoid it. CapFusion,... > Yes, it does grow like a matt. I assume ChemiClean is reef safe? Thanks > for the help! [quoted text clipped - 29 lines] > > Business Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com > > Marine Hobbyist: http://www.melevsreef.com > What you describe sounds much more like Cyano Bacteria. It > will grow like a mat or sheet on your sand, and you can even > gently scoop it together and siphon it out. > > If nothing else will get rid of it, ChemiClean by Boyd > Enterprises will kill it off. Dear Marc and the original poster. *DISCLAIMER* Far be it from me (a freshwater dude) to be giving advice to reefkeepers (those who have crossed over to the dark side) but would'nt it be cheating to be adding chemicals to a reef? You would only be treating the symptom anyway. Would'nt it just return once the course of chemicals is finished? If it is Cyano as Marc states then its not that much of a problem, as this is one of the easier algaes to control. To the OP, you say your Nitrates are Nil, this IS the problem. Nitrates and phosphates work hand in hand and when one of them tips the balance as in 0 Nitrates and available phosphates you will get Cyano. Basically you have a chemical imbalance. Don't waste your money on buying a P04 test kit as you already know THIS IS THE PROBLEM, no need for the test kit. Either do some water changes (to correct the imbalance) or buy a phosphate sponge to remove excess po4. If you decide to just let it run its course it will EVENTUALLY balance out, your tank has probably been disturbed, as in maybe you lost some fish or possibly have too many photosynthesising plants (hence 0 NO3), it will take a while, you have to be patient and just keep attacking the stuff, physical removal etc. During this time the cyano will be dying off you MUST have your skimmer working optimally and I do suggest doing smaller frequent water changes because as the Cyano dies it will release some nutrients back into the water (Notably Iron) which will be fuel for other algae species like Hair or thread algae. On second thought maybe your tank has not changed and your tap water has! This is quite common during seasonal changes, perhaps your water is sourced from a different reservoir! Maybe that po4 kit is not such a bad idea after all. -- **So long, and thanks for all the fish!** Well I ordered the ChemiClean and it will take a week to get here. So in the meantime I will step up my water changes and vaaccuum the substrate a little to get some nutrients out. I did buy the PO4 test and it says .25 mg/L which is ok??? we'll see how it goes. With a .25 Mg/L reading do you think I shoudl still get a Phosphate sponge? > > What you describe sounds much more like Cyano Bacteria. It > > will grow like a mat or sheet on your sand, and you can even [quoted text clipped - 37 lines] > -- > **So long, and thanks for all the fish!** PO4 should be <0.10 I believe. But my understanding is PO4 drives hair algae where nitrate is more responsible for cyano. Anyway, about adding chemicals to the reef, I did it because I figured the cyano was doing more damage than treating it would. And once you knock it way down (probably with just one dose), removing it manually is much more managable. Good luck... > Well I ordered the ChemiClean and it will take a week to get here. So in > the meantime I will step up my water changes and vaaccuum the substrate a [quoted text clipped - 57 lines] >> -- >> **So long, and thanks for all the fish!** I've used ChemiClean when necessary, and it was reefsafe. There are many times I've just waited until it died off, but that is 3 weeks of ugliness and you must watch your corals carefully to make sure they don't get smothered by this stuff. Using a turkeybaster you can blow of any affected corals, or use it to suck some out. Meticulous, but plausible. You need your nitrates under 10ppm. Some SPS corals need it to be 1ppm or less! PO4 should be .03 or less. My tank has been 2.0 for a while now, and by doing 50g water changes on my 280g every other day for the past week, I've brought it down to 1.0 or less. I'm skimming daily, and my circulation is strong in the tank. Tonight while pumping water out of the sump during the latest water change, I stirred up the water in the refugium briskly to get all the detritus water-borne so it could be pumped out. 17g of sludge was removed. I think I found the source of my P04 all this time. I've been running Phosban for weeks now, changing the media once a week. We don't want bandaid solutions to problems, because it needs to be solved at the source. But sometimes you need a foothold to get things back in line, and ChemiClean does the job. I was just about to use it on my tank this weekend, but my clowns just spawned babies and I don't want to risk harming them. http://www.melevsreef.com/pics/1004/babies.jpg Marc > PO4 should be <0.10 I believe. But my understanding is PO4 drives hair > algae where nitrate is more responsible for cyano. Anyway, about adding [quoted text clipped - 80 lines] >>>-- >>>**So long, and thanks for all the fish!** SignaturePersonal Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com/oanda/index.html Business Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com Marine Hobbyist: http://www.melevsreef.com Thanks marc. I'll start working to bring the phosphates down. > I've used ChemiClean when necessary, and it was reefsafe. > There are many times I've just waited until it died off, but [quoted text clipped - 111 lines] > >>>-- > >>>**So long, and thanks for all the fish!** > I've used ChemiClean when necessary, and it was reefsafe. There are many times > I've just waited until it died off, but that is 3 weeks of ugliness and you [quoted text clipped - 21 lines] > > Marc Great job, Marc. I have a mated pair of Maroon clowns that have spawned for quite some time now. I tried several times to raise the babies, but was unsuccessful, primarily because they need live plankton for food, and I'm too lazy to grow it. Any tips on alternatives? Honestly, I've never raised any fry so I've only got other people's experiences to go on. From what I've been told, you need Rotifers, although Brine Shrimp Direct suggested frozen rotifers (not live?!) or even Golden Pearls as a food source. I'm going to try to capture these clowns when they hatch in 6 days. Marc >>http://www.melevsreef.com/pics/1004/babies.jpg >> [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > unsuccessful, primarily because they need live plankton for food, and I'm too > lazy to grow it. Any tips on alternatives? SignaturePersonal Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com/oanda/index.html Business Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com Marine Hobbyist: http://www.melevsreef.com > Honestly, I've never raised any fry so I've only got other people's > experiences to go on. From what I've been told, you need Rotifers, although [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > > Marc I tried all kinds of "dead" food and nothing worked. I've always been told that nothing but live rotifers will work. If I were you, I'd set up a separate tank (like a 10 gal) and put the rock with the eggs on it into that tank ***before*** they hatch. And you should blow small air bubbles across the eggs to prevent them from having fungus grow on them. And it stimiulates the eggs as well. If you do this before they hatch, you will have a easier time of it. I don't think it is a good idea to try to transfer the hatchlings so soon after they hatch, and if you leave them in the main tank, they will get eaten. These buggers are the tiniest fry you've ever seen. You won't believe how small they are. >>>http://www.melevsreef.com/pics/1004/babies.jpg >>> [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] >> unsuccessful, primarily because they need live plankton for food, and I'm too >> lazy to grow it. Any tips on alternatives? Marc, im sure you have thought of it, but if not, you should slip a tile in after the eggs hatch this time and hopefully next time they will spawn on the tile. Once they do, it makes raising the fry much easier ;). I know you can keep a rotifer culture going, and thats 3/4 of the battle of raising clowns IMO. My clowns always use the tile.. If I forget to put it in, they look at me like "" Whats the deal?!!?"" kinda comical. If you have any questions, feel free to drop me an email or a PM at RC. Ive got a pretty good design for some nice DIY rotifer culture vessels. >Honestly, I've never raised any fry so I've only got other >people's experiences to go on. From what I've been told, [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] >too >> lazy to grow it. Any tips on alternatives? Rod, that would be great. You can email it to me when it is convenient. Marc > If you have any questions, feel free to drop me an email or a PM at RC. Ive got > a pretty good design for some nice DIY rotifer culture vessels. SignaturePersonal Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com/oanda/index.html Business Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com Marine Hobbyist: http://www.melevsreef.com I could have not said it better After my crash a few months ago( 7yrs SW no prob. than a 5 yr break of SW and never in 25yrs of fresh) I really thought about going back to CC with a UG since "old school" It was stable, never tested on those tanks, no need. LOOK at you tank if something is wrong you can see it, smell it , taste it Point is I missed something, Not shure what went wrong with the new tank but I do know That after 8 mo. of running great I must have missed some impending sign of doom . If it matters everything tested perfect before and after the crash. Sorry back to the point. Cyanobacteria sucks , Just like it sounds it's a bacteria, we all have it our tanks given the right enviroment it will thrive. I'm in no way a Guru but my recent experience is to have something to stir the sand will make a world of diference. in the past months I added some some small frags and everythig is fine, tonight I picked up a watchman goby, that I've had on hold for 2 months now The bugger is getting stettled and creating one hell of a sand storm. Dear Marc and the original poster. > *DISCLAIMER* > Far be it from me (a freshwater dude) to be giving advice to reefkeepers [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > is one of the easier algaes to control. > To the OP, you say your Nitrates are Nil, this IS the problem. Nitrates and > phosphates work hand in hand and when one of them tips the balance as in 0 > Nitrates and available phosphates you will get Cyano. Basically you have a > chemical imbalance. Don't waste your money on buying a P04 test kit as you > already know THIS IS THE PROBLEM, no need for the test kit. Either do some > water changes (to correct the imbalance) or buy a phosphate sponge to remove > excess po4. > > If you decide to just let it run its course it will EVENTUALLY balance out, > your tank has probably been disturbed, as in maybe you lost some fish or > possibly have too many photosynthesising plants (hence 0 NO3), it will take > a while, you have to be patient and just keep attacking the stuff, physical > removal etc. > During this time the cyano will be dying off you MUST have your skimmer > working optimally and I do suggest doing smaller frequent water changes > because as the Cyano dies it will release some nutrients back into the water > (Notably Iron) which will be fuel for other algae species like Hair or > thread algae. > > On second thought maybe your tank has not changed and your tap water has! > This is quite common during seasonal changes, perhaps your water is sourced > from a different reservoir! Maybe that po4 kit is not such a bad idea after > all. > -- > **So long, and thanks for all the fish!** |
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