Green algae forming

sorry lain, i sent this directly to you, here it again for others to read as
well......

i have battled this problem for about 6-9 mos, i can tell you this. i did a
study on it after giving up trying to get rid of it the quick way, like
scraping it off rocks, vacuuming etc.. you can use a biocide, but that
would be stupid if you have a reef. so heres what i found out.

I believe it is the worms that attacked it finally, they spawn on the hair
algae it self using it for nesting grounds. they cut the hair algae from
the roots, then the tank biodegrades the bulk of the mass that is left over.
it was a slow process but once it kicked in, i now have a green hair algae
eating machine and 90 percent of the stuff is gone.

Dont scrape off your rocks of you will be killing off the worms. go and buy
some worms if you want but you already have the basis and they will multiply
with a little patience.

I let the hair algae take over completely, and lost nothing but a micro
patch of hard coral that was destined to die anyway because i have 4NO bulbs
only. If you let the hair algae get so long(about 2-3 inches long) and
cover your whole tank you will create a breeding ground for the worms and
they will multiply, and then you will finally see a patch of hair algae that
looks like its dying and you will start to see a film develop over it
indicating its being attaked by your tank. this may take a month or two or
three. this is called letting your system cycle. when you see this
happening, then and only then vacuum out the longest hair algae that IS NOT
being attacked or you will vacuum out some beneficial organisms that are
doing the attacking. once your at that point, it will be a few more weeks
at most and all will be decimated but a few small patches. you will notice
most of the patches that will be left are the patches that are unpatiently
prematurely vacuumed stripping off the beneficial hair algae killers. if
you dont let it get long enough it will be forever before you grow up enough
hair algae killers.

my mushrooms and tube worms all survived this could of hair algae growing
over them for about 2-3 months, they are still alive and now i have more
coralline and white rocks than i did before. before my rocks were looking
sort of dark colors like something was in the tank. what you should do is
keep the nitrates down to Nill! dont assume you have a problem with
nitrates and its all locked up in the hair algae, that doesnt matter, just
assume only what your test kit tells you. dont worry abotu phosphates
anymore i went the same route and sponged my water several times and none of
it worked.

Keep the lights pumped at full volume to get the hair algae to grow fast and
to help kill off itself, it will reach a point where it will start to die
off.

i wish i could send you pics of my tank, last month i had hair algae
EVERYWHERE, and after i had a few patches being covered by this clear white
slime and alot of oxygen bubbles tied into it, i knew i was winning the
battle, then i vacuumed the bulk of what wasnt being attacked being careful
not to suck off any life(worms, sand etc..)off the rocks by only vacuuming
the tips of the hair algae and only taking what would come off with the
suction.

from the time i gave up on the hair algae and decided to do the test and put
all my bulbs back inthe tank to full brightness and just let the algae grow,
it took only abotu a month or month and half before this point where about
atleast 90+ percent of hair algae died off.

i had some leftover hair algae in the sump too covering my grape caluerpa,
that has died off too. what i have noticed is that alot of beneficial green
plant is in the tank now, like these very short types of algae that will not
become a nuiscance because its so sparse, it just looks beautiful, and a
good sized patch of feather caluerpa that is growing on a rock in the tank
that adds alot of beauty in the tank.

basically everything thrived even though the hair algae was covering 95% of
every rock and thick cyano covering 85% of the sandy bottom..

i just started a refugium about 3 mos ago that has 25lb of aragonite in it,
it must be doing great by now.

the cyano is on a retreat also.

all this with no interaction on my part, i just let the system take care of
itself..

i found that when i removed the rocks and scrubbed them down i was making
things take longer.. i found that when i was vacuuming the hair algae i was
taking off beneficial life that would eventually get a grip on killing it.
i found that if i didnt let the hair algae take its course it wasnt ever
going to go away.(this went on for about 9 hellish months) i found that my
worms multiplyed 10 fold when i started to let the hair algae just grow. i
found that if i crank up my lights if would accelerate the process. I
found that now my tank has much more beneficial life in the tank as a whole
and my critters are much more happy now after this process because the hair
algae actually killed off nothing, it just made me worry thats all. i found
that the fact that i was so frustrated it was very easy to just let the tank
alone, with no water changes for the last 3 months, i didnt even stick a
tester in the water, only salt during the time i was just letting it grow.
however i did have my water stabilized before i started this procedure.

after the mass die off, i used vacuuming the tips of the remaining hair
algae, being careful as mentioned above not to vacuum anything beneficial,
was good to do with the water change. i did a 25 percent water change, then
2 weeks later another 25 percent water change, and now my hair algae is
90-95% gone, and my nitrate is UNDETECTABLE, my refugium looks great, the
coralline is thriving, and my DKH is about 9.5. calcium is too high but
still ok at about 650ppm. i think that is from the aragonite in the refuge.

oh you mentioned your halides are on about 6 hrs a day, crank them up to
about 13hrs a day!!! and watch the system fly. my temp was a steady 77-80
the whole time, target 79degreesF

I remind you, my mushroom was covered over in inches of thick green hair
algae and he is now on a rock that looks pristene with coralling and no hair
algae and is reviving and survived this whole 9month ordeal. i wish i would
have tried this sooner...

please reply with any questions, i sometimes dont have the patience to input
all the information and skip around alot.

wolf


--
wolf

Wolfdogg's site
http://www.home.earthlink.net/~wolfdoggsite


"Iain" wrote in message
...
Hi

Can anyone help

I've been plagued for some time now by green algae forming on the glass.
I
know you cannot get away from cleaning the glass, but this is just too
much.
It also seems to settle on the rocks, and after a period of time the rocks
turn a deep matt green and start growing grass. Not nice I can tell you.
Nothing seems to eat it at all.

The obvious thing that I can think of is phosphate, but it measures zero,
as
does my nitrite and nitrate.

I regularly replace my MH lights and keep them on for no more than 8 hours
a
day.

What else could be causing it ?


cheers


Iain