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Help - green algae out of control!
One way I have found to help keep hair algae under some control is to take
the rock out and scrub it off as much as possible and then turn the rock over in the tank so the hair algae that didn't come off is under the rock and not on top so the light doesn't hit it. Keep turning the rock as much as possible. It doesn't like not having light. Also works for macro algae your trying to get rid off on rocks Susan :). "George Patterson" wrote in message news:a1RXi.6623$Zz.2716@trnddc07... Big Habeeb wrote: OK, so I've already reduced the photoperiod of my tank to around 8 hours a day (night lamps on the rest of the time)...and as those who've read my stuff before know, this is a relatively new tank (I think its about 2 months running now). The only animal type stuff in the tank are about 8 turbo snails, 6 hermit crabs, and one lil' ol clownfish (plus a small coral piece). The issue that I'm having is that the algae growth seems to be absolutely out of control, coating the overflow box, and walls of the tank with thick, green, hairy algae. I've added phosphate remover in a sack to the sump, at the recommendation of my LFS...but am somewhat at a loss as to what else can be done. Is it, perhaps, time to add some kind of grazer, i.e. a yellow tang? This stuff is growing UNBELIEVABLY quickly...I scrubbed the tank sides last night, and came down this morning to new growth springing up all over. The live rock seems to be kept pretty clean, but it seems like the stuff is growing MUCH faster than anything the snails can keep up with... Sounds like hair algae. Your LFS is giving you good advice. This stuff lives off light, phosphates, and nitrates. With the type of setup you've described having, your nitrates will become negligible in six months to a year. Until then, water changes will keep them down. Phosphates frequently come in in your tap water and normal decay products add to this in the tank. A good phosphate remover can help, but many people buy a reverse-osmosis filter to treat the tap water used for water changes. There are a number of animals that eat hair algae. Blue-leg hermit crabs, Foxface Rabbitfish, some sea urchins, and one sea slug all have good reputations. I have a hair algae problem and have had no luck with hermit crabs or rabbitfish. Kurt G of this group had such great results from his sea slug that the poor thing is in danger of starving, so I intend to get one of those soon. In the meantime, I just scrub the glass and rock and filter out the debris. George Patterson If you torture the data long enough, eventually it will confess to anything. |
Help - green algae out of control!
On Nov 5, 10:31 pm, "Susan" wrote:
One way I have found to help keep hair algae under some control is to take the rock out and scrub it off as much as possible and then turn the rock over in the tank so the hair algae that didn't come off is under the rock and not on top so the light doesn't hit it. Keep turning the rock as much as possible. It doesn't like not having light. Also works for macro algae your trying to get rid off on rocks Susan :)."George Patterson" wrote in message news:a1RXi.6623$Zz.2716@trnddc07... Big Habeeb wrote: OK, so I've already reduced the photoperiod of my tank to around 8 hours a day (night lamps on the rest of the time)...and as those who've read my stuff before know, this is a relatively new tank (I think its about 2 months running now). The only animal type stuff in the tank are about 8 turbo snails, 6 hermit crabs, and one lil' ol clownfish (plus a small coral piece). The issue that I'm having is that the algae growth seems to be absolutely out of control, coating the overflow box, and walls of the tank with thick, green, hairy algae. I've added phosphate remover in a sack to the sump, at the recommendation of my LFS...but am somewhat at a loss as to what else can be done. Is it, perhaps, time to add some kind of grazer, i.e. a yellow tang? This stuff is growing UNBELIEVABLY quickly...I scrubbed the tank sides last night, and came down this morning to new growth springing up all over. The live rock seems to be kept pretty clean, but it seems like the stuff is growing MUCH faster than anything the snails can keep up with... Sounds like hair algae. Your LFS is giving you good advice. This stuff lives off light, phosphates, and nitrates. With the type of setup you've described having, your nitrates will become negligible in six months to a year. Until then, water changes will keep them down. Phosphates frequently come in in your tap water and normal decay products add to this in the tank. A good phosphate remover can help, but many people buy a reverse-osmosis filter to treat the tap water used for water changes. There are a number of animals that eat hair algae. Blue-leg hermit crabs, Foxface Rabbitfish, some sea urchins, and one sea slug all have good reputations. I have a hair algae problem and have had no luck with hermit crabs or rabbitfish. Kurt G of this group had such great results from his sea slug that the poor thing is in danger of starving, so I intend to get one of those soon. In the meantime, I just scrub the glass and rock and filter out the debris. George Patterson If you torture the data long enough, eventually it will confess to anything.- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - Actually the rock isn't the problem...the snails, crabs and the like are keeping the rocks relatively free and clear. Its everything else: the glass, the overflow box, the hoses etc. Mitch |
Help - green algae out of control!
On Nov 5, 10:21 pm, George Patterson wrote:
Big Habeeb wrote: I dont mind the tank getting scummy, as long as I know that it will pass a 'breaking point' where it will start clearing up. My first instinct, stemming from my freshwater days, is to get something in there to eat the crap... Do that. It won't hit a breaking point, and it may smother stuff you really would like to have. Any filter feeders are likely to be history soon. George Patterson If you torture the data long enough, eventually it will confess to anything. George, When you say 'do that' you mean, get something to eat the crap? Any recommendations apart from what I already have in there (snails and hermits)? Not sure what you mean by filter feeders are likely to be history soon either, can you possibly clarify? Thanks, Mitch |
Help - green algae out of control!
On Nov 5, 1:00 pm, Big Habeeb wrote:
As for the lighting its your typical newbie aquarist stuff...nothing fancy, day/night flourescents I believe. Have the box at home so can clarify that later on. Clearly strong enough that it's generating a hell of a lot of the algae. personally, i would look no further to the source of your problem. if you get your nitrates and phosphates down to 0, the algae may or may not disappear. even 1ppm may keep it healthy. it could be your lights. i had teh same problem. NO means Normal Output flourescent bulbs with standard ballasts. NO fluorescents cause algae growth when they are older than about 6 mos to a year old. i found this out the hard way, and never wanted to believe it, so didn't replace the bulbs, and payed the price a couple years back. if your running old 4ft 40w fluorescents, or similar, then they are likely the cause of the growth due to shifting spectrum bulbs, or even worse, if they are daylight flourescents not for fish, then that IS the cause for sure, but im not sure since i haven't been following your tank background. take a look at them, if they say daylight(non reef), or full spectrum, or cool white, warm white, they are the wrong type of bulbs. if they say 50/50, actinic, or 10k, or vitalite, or similar, then they would be the right bulbs but could be old and have shifted spectrum. proper light spectrum for a reef will not grow hair algae under normal conditions unless nitrates are high. the worst thing you can do is let the algae spread. try to keep it under control by picking the long shafts per the article on marc's melevs reef website, so that none of the long hairs get so long that they will transplant themselves. this way once you get the nitrates and phos down, then the algae will just stop growing so much at best. it may take months to starve it out, i have even shut out teh lights on my previous NO tank for a week at a time, twice, only to find out i killed some hermits and a scooter blenny. i finally gave up and tried the biological approach of letting it overgrow int eh entire tank in which worms and other bio activity decimated the lot of it, but it wasnt a pretty sight. i lost my mushrooms that time too, as George Patterson mentioned other stuff can be smothered, and will be smothered from light, nutrients, and gas exchange. so check your lights right away to see the spectrum and type to make sure that its not the cause, if it is, you would want to change out teh bulbs right away. assuming its regular flourescent lights, you would want to get either a couple 50/50's which is 50% actinic and 50% reef spectrum, or an actinic and a 10k. if you wanted to save a bit of money first you could just buy the 10k if you have a way to run one bulb by itself, and wait to buy the actinic the next week or two after. either way, be sure its not the lights, cause if it is, the problem will compound daily no matter WHAT you do. good luck on this, i feel for you, alot of us have been thru this before and its un-nerving to say the least. |
Help - green algae out of control!
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Help - green algae out of control!
either way, be sure its not the lights, cause if it is, the problem will compound daily no matter WHAT you do. good luck on this, i feel for you, alot of us have been thru this before and its un-nerving to say the least. The lights I have are of the 10k variety, bulbs are about 2 months old. Mitch |
Help - green algae out of control!
Big Habeeb wrote:
When you say 'do that' you mean, get something to eat the crap? Yep. Any recommendations apart from what I already have in there (snails and hermits)? There's a sea slug that loves hair algae. Foxface Rabbitfish like it. Blue-leg hermit crabs like it, but you would need a lot of them to make a dent in it. Not sure what you mean by filter feeders are likely to be history soon either, can you possibly clarify? Any you have will probably be hitchhikers at this stage, but hair algae can smother things like clams, mussels, feather dusters, and the like. Anything that can't escape can get buried. George Patterson If you torture the data long enough, eventually it will confess to anything. |
Help - green algae out of control!
Big Habeeb wrote:
Actually the rock isn't the problem...the snails, crabs and the like are keeping the rocks relatively free and clear. Its everything else: the glass, the overflow box, the hoses etc. Ah! Then the problem is not as damaging as I had supposed. One solution is to scrape the algae off everything you can reach every few days. You may want to buy a filter like a Hot Magnum to pull the stuff out of the water after you scrape it. As long as the rock is staying fairly clear, your livestock will be ok, and that's the main thing (to me at least). Some time back, Wayne recommended using a toothbrush to get this stuff off of areas that larger scrapers can't handle (like the live rock). I find this to also work well in the corners and seams of the glass. George Patterson If you torture the data long enough, eventually it will confess to anything. |
Help - green algae out of control!
On Nov 6, 10:44 pm, George Patterson wrote:
Big Habeeb wrote: Actually the rock isn't the problem...the snails, crabs and the like are keeping the rocks relatively free and clear. Its everything else: the glass, the overflow box, the hoses etc. Ah! Then the problem is not as damaging as I had supposed. One solution is to scrape the algae off everything you can reach every few days. You may want to buy a filter like a Hot Magnum to pull the stuff out of the water after you scrape it. As long as the rock is staying fairly clear, your livestock will be ok, and that's the main thing (to me at least). Some time back, Wayne recommended using a toothbrush to get this stuff off of areas that larger scrapers can't handle (like the live rock). I find this to also work well in the corners and seams of the glass. George Patterson If you torture the data long enough, eventually it will confess to anything. George, Whew...you had me worried there! Yeah, there's one spot on the rock that seems to be a hot bed for the stuff, some thick green viscuous algae there...but I was able to take care of that with a rubber glove and a turkey baster (man, taken out of context that just sounds BAD). It's mostly just the glass, overflow box etc. The snails are doing the durndest and making a decent dent, but the stuff just seems to grow incredibly fast...and I don't really want to end up with 200 snails running around :p I'll go with the scrape it clean method, but I do have to ask: is this something that will stop as the tank ages or is this going to be a constant process? If it's going to be ongoing, that sea slug idea might start to sppeal to me... Mitch |
Help - green algae out of control!
Big Habeeb wrote:
I'll go with the scrape it clean method, but I do have to ask: is this something that will stop as the tank ages or is this going to be a constant process? You may get a variety of opinions on that. The most prevalent opinion is that, if you take steps to make sure your nitrates and phosphates stay near 0, this algae will disappear. With the usual setup, the bacteria in the live rock will eventually keep your nitrates at 0, especially with monthly water changes of 20% or more. Phosphates will be produced as a fish and food waste product, and are frequently present in tap water. One of the most common methods of handling this level is to buy a "phosphate reactor" and use compounds that reduce the level. Using an RO/DI filter to purify your tap water will prevent introduction of phosphates in the first place. With one of these, weekly water changes will bring the level down and you won't need to buy a phosphate reactor. After the level is down, you can go back to monthly water changes. Yet another method is to buy an animal that eats the algae. The most effective one is reported to be a sea slug. The problem with these is that they eat only hair algae. When the algae is gone, the slug starves. I'm not sure how well they work at keeping the stuff off the glass. You might want to take a look at this - http://saltaquarium.about.com/b/2007...hair-algae.htm George Patterson If you torture the data long enough, eventually it will confess to anything. |
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