derbesia algae outbreak

I have to agree with Marc about the snails I have just 2 Turbos and had 4
Astraea (until the hermit crabs and shrimp ate them). It took them all of
two days to clean house. I have since bought a Lawnmower Blenny. He tends
to help out but only really nibbles all day. The snails are the ticket. By
the way, mine is only a 30 gallon tank so you'll need to plan accordingly.

HTH

Ed

"Marc Levenson" wrote in message
...
That is hit or miss, using a Blenny. I tried it and within a week the
fish
disappeared. 8(

I don't think your nitrates are the issue. Nor phosphates, according to
your
original post. Just get in there and pluck, pluck, pluck. Rinse your
hand in a
bowl of water after every pinch. Also, be sure to add some new hungry
snails to
your tank, putting them where you need them to be.

Marc


Dave wrote:

I'm considering doing water changes twice a week rather than once, only
to
remove more algae before it has a chance to grow back.

Think adding an algae-eating blenny would be a good idea?

- thanks
Dave

"Marc Levenson" wrote in message
...
If your salinity and temperature match (or is within 1 degree
Fahrenheit),
water changes shouldn't stress the tank's inhabitants too much. How
often
are
you estimating?

Marc


Dave wrote:

Hi Marc;

Yes, but as I said before, I'm concerned that increasing the
frequency
of my
water changes will stress the fish. What do you think ... should
this
be a
concern?

And as I said before, I'm using RO/DI, from a Spectrapure unit.

- thanks again;
Dave

"Marc Levenson" wrote in message
...
If you prefer to just vacuum it out and replace it with freshly
made
up
sal****er, that is a better alternative, because you are sure to
avoid
adding
any spores into your tank. Hopefully you are using RO/DI?

Marc


Dave wrote:

Hi Marc;

That was the idea with the fine mesh bag I mentioned, but it
seems
to me
I
read somewhere that unless an extremely fine filter was used,
algae
cells
will be put back into the water, in suspension, and the problem
will
get
worse. My impression was that something like ordinary filter
floss/cotton
batting/etc. wouldn't be sufficient. Maybe this isn't correct
.....

thanks;

- dave

"Marc Levenson" wrote in message
...
You can set up a bucket in front of the tank, and take a
container
with
holes in
the base. Fill it up with cotton batting, and use your pump
method to
suck out
all you want. The batting will trap all the filth, and you
can
safely
add
the
water back to your tank.

Marc


Dave wrote:

Hi folks;

I've had my marine tank set up for about six months. 55gal,
Remora
HOB
skimmer, 67 lbs live rock, 260w lighting (50/50 blue
actinic/10000K),
two
MaxiJet 1200 powerheads, two inch aragonite reef sand layer.
One
sailfin
tang, one maroon clownfish, one engineer goby, two bubbletip
anemones
(was
one anemone until it split last week). Five turbo snails
and a
red-legged
hermit crab. 5% water changes with RO/DI water (Spectrapure
MPDI-25)
once a
week. Temp 76-79F, pH 7.9-8.2, s.g. 1.025. No detectable
phosphates, 1
ppm
nitrate (Salifert kits). I've been using the Spectrapure
unit
for
about
two
months; before that I was using an Aquarium Pharmaceuticals
Tap
Water
Filter.

Over the last month or so I've had real troubles with
derbesia
algae. I
suction as much as I can out with my water changes, but it
just
comes
back.
It's growing along the back glass and is covering at least
80%
of
the
live
rock surface. Now it appears to be growing in places on the
sand.

My live rock is anchored down with PVC piping and ties, so
I'd
rather
not
take it out to scrub it by hand. What course of action
should I
follow
to
get rid of the derbesia?

I've been thinking about using a waterpump and suctioning
the
water
through
a fine mesh media bag and back into the tank, in order to
trap
the
algae
in
the bag and remove it, but have been told that small amounts
of
the
algae
will get back into the tank in the form of smaller particles
(?),
making
the
situation worse.

I've also considered increasing the frequency of my water
changes,
suctioning out the algae as I've doing during my weekly
water
changes,
but
am concerned about stressing the fish.

Any advice? Thanks in advance.

--
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--
Personal Page:
http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com/oanda/index.html
Business Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com
Marine Hobbyist: http://www.melevsreef.com



--
Personal Page:
http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com/oanda/index.html
Business Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com
Marine Hobbyist: http://www.melevsreef.com



--
Personal Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com/oanda/index.html
Business Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com
Marine Hobbyist: http://www.melevsreef.com

I would say you have some kind of nutrient in your tank or else why you have
so much algae battle.

Testing for nitrate will not be usefull since your algae are obsorbing it.
It should read close to zero or untracible.

How are your water circulation?
How does your Romora Skimmer skimmate look like? Does it get dark and
smelly?
I assumed your are using RO/DI water?

Adding more snail are one of many tool to battle algae but you are not
focusing on the source of the cause(s).

CapFusion,...



"Dave" wrote in message
...
I'm considering doing water changes twice a week rather than once, only to
remove more algae before it has a chance to grow back.

Think adding an algae-eating blenny would be a good idea?

- thanks
Dave

Dave;

I had to deal with this same problem in my tank for many months before I
won the battle. The problem is the source of nutrient that is feeding
the algae. If there is no food to feed the algae it will starve. There
is no two ways about it. You must find the source of the nutrient and
find a way to reduce it.

I would suggest that you do bigger water changes less often. 5% seems
low to me. As my tank is now more mature, I do less and less water
changes and my tank is doing better and better. When I do one, I change
20-25 gal on my 90 gal tank. My system has a sump and a refugium now so
the water capacity is somewhere near 120 gallons when I factor in the
displacement of the LR. So I am doing around 15-16% at a time. I only
do them once every two to three months. I used to do water changes
every two weeks.
I would also sugesst you beef up the biological filtration of your
system. Two inches of sand is not enough. I would add some LS. A DSB
will improve things in your tank. I saw immediate improvement in my
tank when I added more live sand. I had 2 inches of crushed coral to
start with. (that was the suggestion of the LFS at the time but that is
a whole story for another post) I did it slowly over a period of time.

I understand that it may be difficult for you to scrub your LR. In my
tank there were several rocks that were very difficult/impossible to
remove from the tank. I did find that removing them and scrubbing them
in a bucket of old tank water followed by a rinse in another tank of old
tank water worked the best at reducing the amount of algae. By " dump
the bucket" I meant after you scrub the rock pour the old water into the
toilet and get rid of it. When you rip the algae out in your tank you
will allow some algae to float free in your tank and it will just land
somewhere else and start growing.

As I said before it can be a real bitch to get rid of. I almost gave up
the hobby a few times in frustration. I also battled cyno and
dinoflagellates at different times. Both were difficult but neithor had
the staying power of hair algae.

Good Luck Todd