FEEDBACK...before I throw in the towel.

[ShelbyJK500]

Well, the last couple months have not treated me well as far as time spent on my displays. I am having SERIOUS algae issues. If someone has a promising idea of what is going wrong, then maybe i'll stay in. Otherwise I may have to bow out (with a nano exception most likely)...here is the problem;

Over the past 6 months I have had very high nitrates. I dosed NoPx for about 3 weeks and got myself to 0 Nitrates and 0 Phosphates. I backed off a bit as I've heard too clean isn't good. I figured getting both nitrates and phosphates this low would solve my algae issue, as it has for many people I know. WRONG...didn't even slow it down. So I dosed heavy again and have been running 0 for Nitrates/Phosphates for the past couple weeks.

On two separate occasions in the last two weeks I have manually removed algae from the displays (hours and hours of work) and completed two 15-20% water changes after the manual removal. The algae in both displays comes back with a vengence within 2-3 days. This is at 0 Nitrates and 0 Phosphates.

The very strange part is my two displays share the same water, fuge, skimmer etc...but the algae in both tanks are very different. I have hair algae in the FOWLR and green slime in the reef. Go figure?!?

Are LED's a possible culprit?? Corals and Nems are completely happy and healthy with the lighting, I'm just starting to wonder what this could be?

ANY feedback is welcomed! Hopefully I'm just overlooking something. I'm on the verge of breaking down the biggin's though.

 

[amonchak]

WHat is your photo period? Try reducing you photo period to 6 or 8 hours and after a while slowly ramp back up. This really helped the algae issues I was/am having.

 

[CRW Reef]

Evan how is your flow? Are you running any carbon? Are you running LEDs on both tanks? Have you ever tested for iron by chance? Reason I ask is another member on here found that his iron was crazy off the charts and I believe has equated his algae issues with that. Also is that skimmer pulling like a mad man?

Oh and as I think that maybe DJKMS might suggest have you tried the lights out for a few days? I think you have but can't remember.

Last thing I want to see is for you to bow out after you have come this far. Keep your head up bro you can see this through.

 

[CRW Reef]

Just read this on R2R. Might give you some insight or things to look at.

B]Green hair algae: DERBESIA[/B]

This is one of the most problematic Algae that is most commonly seen through out the hobby and is also one of the hardest to control once it is established and can be a daunting task to get under control and remove and will quickly take over your system if given the right conditions..


ID: This Algae is very easy to identify it forms green tuffs on the rock work and glass normally in areas of low flow it should be a solid green/brown color with strands of ( hair ) flowing away from the base.

CONTROL: One of the easiest ways to control the spread and outbreak of this algae is to have aggressive skimming and control the amount of food you add to the system. This in conjunction with a regular water change and light use of carbon ( a good carbon ) will help you control the outbreak of this and many more types of algae. Also a Alkalinty of 8DKH or higher will help stem the development of this Algae.

WHAT FEEDS THE GROWTH OF (GHA)?
Green hair algae feeds off of phosphates as it primary source of food followed by nitrate's. So if you have a reliable pure fish food that is soaked and rinsed is one way to control the addition of phosphates to the system. Also the reason it is advised to not skimp on quality when it comes to activated carbon is that a lot of problems with algae outbreaks is caused by carbon re-introducing phosphates into the system after the carbon is used to its full potential. Also along with re-introducing phosphates a lot of activated carbons leach phosphates from the time they are added to the system. So Good carbon is a must to help fight Algae outbreaks.

REMOVAL:
A toothbrush is your best friend against this Algae and you should scrub the rocks with it after removing as much as possible by hand.

NATURAL PREDATORS:
This Green hair algae has very little natural predators

ALGAE AGAINST ALGAE:
A refugium is a natural way of removing Phosphates and Nitrates from your system. If done correctly a refugium can eliminate a lot of algae problems..Simple to set up and maintain all you need is a 6,500k light source And some chaetomorpha on a reverse or 24hr light cycle. This Algae will out compete other algae for nutrients and will not leach nutrients back into the system and will not go sexual..[/QUOTE]

 

[CRW Reef]

I have also been reading that the gha can actually give you a false po4 andd nitrate reading "Ironically, if you have Green Hair Algae in your tank and your phosphate and nitrate tests read low or near zero, the algae in your tank could be eating and locking up the phosphates and nitrates so they won't show up in a test."

 

[ShelbyJK500]

WHat is your photo period? Try reducing you photo period to 6 or 8 hours and after a while slowly ramp back up. This really helped the algae issues I was/am having.

I have done that, not recently, but over the past 6 months I dabbled at photo period as well. Admittedly it isn't "short" right now. I turned them down to 6 hours tonight. I'll give this another week or two before I make a decision. :/

Evan how is your flow? Are you running any carbon? Are you running LEDs on both tanks? Have you ever tested for iron by chance? Reason I ask is another member on here found that his iron was crazy off the charts and I believe has equated his algae issues with that. Also is that skimmer pulling like a mad man?

Oh and as I think that maybe DJKMS might suggest have you tried the lights out for a few days? I think you have but can't remember.

Last thing I want to see is for you to bow out after you have come this far. Keep your head up bro you can see this through.

Flow is really good in the Reef tank...with two nozzles with high flow on one side, and an MP40 on the other. Funny thing is, I get a ton of the green "slime" algae on rock right in front of the MP40 as it gets blasted. Flow doesn't seem to affect the stuff in the Reef tank.

Flow in the FOWLR is much lower as I don't use powerheads in there. I have 8 nozzles from my return pump giving that tank flow. Again, algae grows just as good as anywhere else in the tank, right in front of the nozzles.

Thanks for the support....it literally takes me 3-4 hours per tank to manually remove. (see comment below on more) Add that on top of all the other maintenance and water changes over the past couple months, it's been completely monopolizing my time.

 

[ShelbyJK500]

just read this on r2r. Might give you some insight or things to look at.

this is one of the most problematic algae that is most commonly seen through out the hobby and is also one of the hardest to control once it is established and can be a daunting task to get under control and remove and will quickly take over your system if given the right conditions..


control: one of the easiest ways to control the spread and outbreak of this algae is to have aggressive skimming and control the amount of food you add to the system. This in conjunction with a regular water change and light use of carbon ( a good carbon ) will help you control the outbreak of this and many more types of algae. Also a alkalinty of 8dkh or higher will help stem the development of this algae.

I have a huge skimmer that skims good. Not crazy but consistently fills my external waste collector every two weeks. I have also cut my feeding from twice daily to once daily a few weeks ago. I have not tried carbon.

what feeds the growth of (gha)?
green hair algae feeds off of phosphates as it primary source of food followed by nitrate's. So if you have a reliable pure fish food that is soaked and rinsed is one way to control the addition of phosphates to the system. Also the reason it is advised to not skimp on quality when it comes to activated carbon is that a lot of problems with algae outbreaks is caused by carbon re-introducing phosphates into the system after the carbon is used to its full potential. Also along with re-introducing phosphates a lot of activated carbons leach phosphates from the time they are added to the system. So good carbon is a must to help fight algae outbreaks.

My phosphates went from high...to 0. I have read some good articles by "experts" in our hobby about the false belief that phosphate levels are greatly affected by just food alone. Most of the time it requires multiple sources of problems to have increased phosphates rather than just one sole "issue". With the amount of water volume i'm running, I HIGHLY doubt any phosphates from the food I use is causing the issue.

removal:
a toothbrush is your best friend against this algae and you should scrub the rocks with it after removing as much as possible by hand.

Over the past few weeks, I would manually pull as much algae as possible from the displays and then used a large sterilized kitchen dish scrubber (like a huge toothbrush) to scrub the heck out of the rock. I would then do a water change shortly after to get as much of the free floating out as possible. I also have poly-filter grabbing all the free floating as well, which I have changed countless times as it gets clogged with so much of this algae.

natural predators:
this green hair algae has very little natural predators

Yup, tried at least 4 sea hares, nudi's, and a tuxedo in the reef. No luck at all...

algae against algae:
a refugium is a natural way of removing phosphates and nitrates from your system. If done correctly a refugium can eliminate a lot of algae problems..simple to set up and maintain all you need is a 6,500k light source and some chaetomorpha on a reverse or 24hr light cycle. This algae will out compete other algae for nutrients and will not leach nutrients back into the system and will not go sexual..

I have a fuge which has been and is still growing red (don't know which kind) macro very well, though for another strange reason, any cheato I put in there dies?!? It was growing caulerpa very well, but I pulled it all because of concerns with going sexual. I had the same algae issues before and after pulling the caulerpa, just fyi.

OH, and I forgot to mention. My RO/DI water is at 0 and not more than 10ppm before I change the resin. I have two 28g Nano's in the house as well that get the same RO water, salt mix, and fish food that these big displays get. No issue with algae in those nanos!!


Much of my algae problem looks just like the first picture, just MUCH worse!

 

[ShelbyJK500]

I have also been reading that the gha can actually give you a false po4 andd nitrate reading "Ironically, if you have Green Hair Algae in your tank and your phosphate and nitrate tests read low or near zero, the algae in your tank could be eating and locking up the phosphates and nitrates so they won't show up in a test."

That's quite interesting, though I don't think that is the case here. I monitored and tested for nitrates and phos the whole time I was dosing NoPx. I watched my levels go from extremely high to "0". So I know I got there, I think if it wasn't for the fact that I monitored it zeroing out, I might have to consider that theory.

 

[Haulin Oates]

I think it's funny that everyone in the Brighton/Thornton area are having algae problems. Craigar has a different source, but myself, Majicmike, you, and martinsreef are all dealing with serious water quality issues, even with the use of RO/DI units. I know Craigar has been running through DI resin like candy. Something's going on that we either can't test for... Or we are all missing...

 

[Craigar]

So this may sound stupid but does that room still have a ton of natural light coming in? If so you may want to try and put sheets over tge tanks for a week or two and see if they get better.

Also are you running any kinda uv sterilizer

 

[projectx]

Could be the lights as well, I had an issue that I couldnt pin down with algae and when I changed the lights things changed quickly.
how long have you had the LEDs on the tank?

 

[cremer9]

my nano looked like your wall thick and hairry same thing clean it up back twice as bad,I started running gfo I change out every 2 months and carbon I change once a month,got me a pin-cushion urchin,a big turbo,plus acouple more cuc's.I cut my light down to 6 hours a day,do my weekly 10%water changes,within two to three months my problem has cleared up,make sure no sunlight is beaming in on the tank.now I worryif my turbo and urchin have enough to eat.and also I put one of them rotating heads on my return pump

 

[cdrewferd]

creamer has some great thoughts. I would also go back to dosing the NoPx at the values you used before everything started going down. I have a bottle I used less than 20mL I'll give you if needed. There is still phosphates that you need to get out of the system. Do this for a week, do manual removal and see how it's going.


Drew

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Bajamike]

I think it's funny that everyone in the Brighton/Thornton area are having algae problems. Craigar has a different source, but myself, Majicmike, you, and martinsreef are all dealing with serious water quality issues, even with the use of RO/DI units. I know Craigar has been running through DI resin like candy. Something's going on that we either can't test for... Or we are all missing...

I now have like an 8 stage RODI no more problems knock on wood

Oh and as a side note Brighton gets most of its water from Thornton

 

[Craigar]

Mike what all are you running? I'm not having any isues other than flying through di knock on wood! But what all stages you running

 

[amonchak]

Your water district is required to report the yearly testing results in the Consumer Confidence Report (CCR). Typically these are liked on the water providers website. The CCR usually provide all the test results so that might be a good place to start looking at what constituents are in the water at your house

 

[Bajamike]

Mike what all are you running? I'm not having any isues other than flying through di knock on wood! But what all stages you running

I tore apart the 5 stage I had on my floor added that to my 4 stage and then I now run 2 pre fabric filters and 2 carbon filters 1 5 micron and 1 1 micron and then one DI. Now I dont chew up my DI after 2 water changes. Ill see if I cant get a pic tonight for you.

 

[09bumblebee]

Hey Evan, I'm about finished with battling this hair algea in my 30. Every inch of rock was covered. I pulled 90% of my rock out and soaked it in hydrogen peroxide and ro water and scrubbed. Took me 6 hrs to do the 30 yes you are Probly saying your crazy but you you do a few rocks a day in the FOWLR you will see change. Iron was my issue, I was off the charts. I had some bad frag plugs on e I removed them and did 5g water changed daily problem solved. I used a sea hair to finish off the rest of the algea I couldn't get and he's pretty much eliminated the rest. He won't eat it if it's long so you will have to trim it or scrub like I did. I used a poly filter to find out my issue of the iron. You want to get one and run it for a week to see what's high in your tank.

 

[adoucette]

I've also read that increasing mg levels will help. Heck you might even want to give that algea scrubber a try... I feel your pain. I took down my biocube a year ago because of algea problems. They totally suck! Here's one of many links with suggestions. Good luck would hate to see you throw in the towel.
http://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/388800/snakes-method-for-hair-algae-removal

 

[Ghosty]

I think it's funny that everyone in the Brighton/Thornton area are having algae problems. Craigar has a different source, but myself, Majicmike, you, and martinsreef are all dealing with serious water quality issues, even with the use of RO/DI units. I know Craigar has been running through DI resin like candy. Something's going on that we either can't test for... Or we are all missing...

Wow, scary that's even with RO/DI water? I also live in Thornton and don't want to start down the wrong path. I've always known Thornton water is some of the WORST in Colorado, practically toxic waste, ugh. So I've already decided to start with RO/DI'd water from an LFS or good local source. The wate rhere is so hard all your shower glass gets trashed if you don't keep up on cleaning. And sometimes you actually get a faint "pond-like" aftertaste/odor when drinking from tap, no thanks, yuck! :/ We only drink (5gallon) bottled in our house.