Kessil

Raddogz's 120g Piece of Reef

Yep, I have hair algae from hell - all different kinds.

All different kinds you say????? Yep, there's that green cottony stuff and I have Dersebia (however you spell it). Wowsers - that Dersebia can be scraped or scrubbed off or mowed down by tangs (apparently Tomini's don't like the stuff) off of frag plugs. If it's large pieces of rocks or frag racks then forget it.

So what have I been doing about it.

1) large 25g to 30g weekly water changes (no changes)
2) weeding followed up with the above water changes
3) GFO (Granular Ferric Oxide) i.e. Rowaphos and now trying the Warner Marine Phosar stuff in dual Phosban reactors
4) The last is experimental - overdosing on Magnesium. There's a thread on RC that indicates that hair algae and high levels of Magnesium don't get along to the tune of 1600 to 1800 parts per million
5) Algae blenny apparently is doing very little to put any kind of dent in the stuff
6) The white spiney urchin I got from Alvin who got it from Dudley has done less except move my frags around the tank <grrrr> >:(

Phosphates have tested at 0.25 or less (been testing every week). Nitrates are the same. I have tried the lights off for three days, and some of the tips of the algae turned white <still not dead though>. I typically feed frozen and dry pelleted food, but have gone back to using just pelleted food for a bit till I make a better dent into the algae problem.

I have just turned off the calcium reactor and will be seeing if that makes any kind of dent as well - <excess co2 can cause algae blooms as well>. I will be dosing three part until all of this goes away. Luckily for me I still have (2 each) three quarter gallons of (2-part) B-ionic and just bough one gallon Kent's Tech-M.

Skimmer was just completely disassembled and cleaned out via a dilute vinegar bath. I hope to install the skimmer back tonight.

For those who have been keeping up with my tank know that I have two Tomini tangs that get relatively get along. I also have a rescue yellow tang that is currently residing in my sump while I am holding onto some other fish in my smaller tank. The yellow tang chows down on the algae like no one's business. I have been slowly adding frags into the sump area (since I was cleaning out the skimmer it freed up the large middle portion of the sump). I am so tempted to put the yellow in the main display to clear out the hair algae, but I fear for the Tomini's lives (they are all roughly the same size).
 
From my experience the only true hair algae killer is a yellow tang. I've had algae blennys, sea hairs, turbo snails and emerald crabs. Of them all the yellow tang is BY FAR the best.
 
My hair algae killer is the sea hare. The big dookie looking one which has the mouth that looks serrated when it's eating. Too bad it shrank and died. It really has a crazy appetite.
 
I'm always confused about the names of algae, you say hair algae that's the poof stuff? And the stuff like grass (or hair *sigh*) is turf algae? Either way I'm dealing with some of that too, not the "from hell" part but enough for me to be a bit pissy. The main tank is for the most part clean, occasionally in cracks that get very little flow I'll see some red poofy algae growing in there etc. But no big deal, fish in the tank that can deal with this.. basically a yellow tang and Tomani tang, and a few emerald crabs.

However my sump/refugium/frag-growout tank is getting hit uber hard by this red poofy stuff. Now those of you who've seen my tank(s) know that this is all in the greenhouse out back powered by sunlight (ok and some pumps), so while obviously there are some nutrient issues I think the larger issue is the sunlight which is supercharging the growth (oh my corals like it too). Other than manual removal there isn't much that has phased it.. of course I only put a couple emeralds in there hoping to get some dent.

Now I had one such refugium rock that was absolutely covered in the stuff, along with some caulerpa (but more so the green/red poofy algae), on a hunch I grabbed it tossed it in my softie tank. Now the fish in my softie tank are a foxface rabbitfish, coral beauty, bicolor angel & couple clowns (obviously not going to do anything), there's also a handful of hermit crabs & snails (not very many mind you).. well fast foward approximately a week (simply because I haven't been keeping track) and that rock is absolutely clean, smooth down to the coraline. So something in that tank is an uber king of algae, I'd guess my foxface off hand, unfortunately these fish are much too large to put in my frag growout tank, unless I update to a nice 4x2 grow out maybe... but its something to think about if you are having huge algae issues in your main tank. When (if) I build my 4x4 he's definitely going along for the ride (most because I'm going to break down the softie tank)
 
The turf stuff is called Dersebia or whatever is the p'oer.

I am so close to practically breaking down the tank and restarting just so I can start with no freakin rock that has "weird" shit on it. Weird as in nuisance things...i.e. a couple of ginormous aiptasia, bubble algae, and this crazy hair or whatever algae.

This crap is starting to invade the overflow area as well. <grrrrr>
 
Eileen,

Probably a stupid ideas cause you already thought of them, but did you change out your bulbs or are they excessively old?
How bout some monster turbos or a rabbit fish?
 
I know how that feels... sorry that you're going through it Eileen.

[quote author=Raddogz link=topic=2126.msg20986#msg20986 date=1181328730]
6) The white spiney urchin I got from Alvin who got it from Dudley has done less except move my frags around the tank <grrrr> >:( [/quote]

;D I did warn you.
 
Hey - good questions.

Relatively new bulbs installed at the end of January 07 (basically when I changed over from Reef Optix pendants to Lumenarcs).

Turbos didn't seem to touch it. I did think about a rabbitfish, but I think my swallowtail angel will beat on it for sure (she's a big girl who carries a big stick in my tank :D)
 
I had a problem with it about a year ago .I picked up 500 Blue legs on ebay and they ate it all up. But after that I should have resold them since they ran out of food :-[ NowI have about 20-3- left if that.
 
Well.........

I just did a twenty gallon water change and installed the ER 8-2 skimmer back into the sump area. Still dosing with magnesium, as well as b-ionic. I also did some pruning of the algae. The skimmer is pulling out yucky liquid stuff.

As a note - the tips of the algae are turning white and seem to receding somewhat. Since I picked up an additional 44g Brute trash can I will keep doing water changes sucking up the nasties in the sand bed every couple of days.
 
Honestly Eileen I don't know if doing more waterchanges will help, if your nitrates are 0.25ppm (hell my test kits couldn't even read that low!) then those are definitely not the issue. I'm unsure about the phosphates, what is an acceptable range. Although the calcium reactor might be to blame for them, you might consider running a phosphate reactor in conjunction with the calcium reactor if you aren't all ready.

But yeah, sucking crap out of the sand bed is good, I've been slowly sucking mine out completely, and when I got about a half inch down the sand turned from white to black, and that can't be good junk.
 
I am pretty close to just pulling the rock and definitely the frag rack which is covered in Hair Algae.

Yep, nitrates were zero (at least according to Red Sea test kit). The ELOS test kit for phosphates can go all the way down to 0.25 (as in my case).

After I got all the frags situated (a big thanks to everyone whom I received frags from), I did some scraping. You figure if someone takes the time to give you an algae scraper (ahem) that is a good hint to do some tank maintenance. I also picked up some turbos and a sea hare from Steve at New Alameda (great guy to talk to you by the way). I am willing to try everything before I take the big plunge of yanking out the existing rock all thought it's more due to the valonia and ginourmous aptasia I have.

I have since turned off the calcium reactor, and running two phosphate reactors with Warner Marine's Phospure C (which I meant to run at full flow in the reactor.

As of today -

Calcium 500ppm
Alkalinity 14dKh
Magnesium 1500ppm

Phosphates 0ppm

Salinity 1.030 Yikes way too high. I'll be doing a water change in my 58g today and use the water from the large tank as the make up water. I will then top off the 120g and bring the salinity back into line of a target 1.024 to 1.026
 
[quote author=Raddogz link=topic=2126.msg21105#msg21105 date=1181506411]
I am pretty close to just pulling the rock and definitely the frag rack which is covered in Hair Algae.

Yep, nitrates were zero (at least according to Red Sea test kit). The ELOS test kit for phosphates can go all the way down to 0.25 (as in my case).

After I got all the frags situated (a big thanks to everyone whom I received frags from), I did some scraping. You figure if someone takes the time to give you an algae scraper (ahem) that is a good hint to do some tank maintenance. I also picked up some turbos and a sea hare from Steve at New Alameda (great guy to talk to you by the way). I am willing to try everything before I take the big plunge of yanking out the existing rock all thought it's more due to the valonia and ginourmous aptasia I have.

I have since turned off the calcium reactor, and running two phosphate reactors with Warner Marine's Phospure C (which I meant to run at full flow in the reactor.

As of today -

Calcium 500ppm
Alkalinity 14dKh
Magnesium 1500ppm

Phosphates 0ppm

Salinity 1.030 Yikes way too high. I'll be doing a water change in my 58g today and use the water from the large tank as the make up water. I will then top off the 120g and bring the salinity back into line of a target 1.024 to 1.026
[/quote]
I did that and also the no light for 3 days and none of it help much it would come back.Try the hermits they will eat all the hair algae :) Now only if that would work on the other macro algae I have ;D
 
Well, the magnesium is doing something but not killing it fast enough. ::)

So this is what I did this weekend -

I yanked out the hair algae covered frag rack and moved all the frags around. Dang, I have hella room in the back. I guess I need to do some major aquascaping back there (it's the area behind the overflow boxes).

I found my little male percula in the sump again. This is the third time he's managed to go from the tank into somewhere else where he's not supposed to be. Only once has he managed to stay in the overflow box, and not take the ride into the sump. For those who have not seen the sump, it's a 50g tank (I think 36x15x18 or something like that) which is partitioned into three areas. The skimmer area is the largest area. The partitioned area where the water dumps into has rocks and chaeto so plenty of areas to play hide from the net as angry hobbyiest tries to get fish out, and seek through the holes and silently laugh. :(

I changed out skimmers from an ER 8-2 that has a leaky union fitting to an ER 6-2+ (basically going from an 8" skimmer body to a 6" skimmer body). The newer skimmer is pulling out more junk than the old skimmer so we'll see what it does now.

I also added the disabled-abled rescue yellow tang in hopes that it will eat the hair algae, as it chowed down on the same if not similar algae on my 58g. I have been fairly hesitant in adding this tang for a number of reasons the biggest is because I already have two tomini's tangs in this tank and they like to tell every new fish coming into their tank where not to go. The other reason was/is the poop factor - these tangs produce a lot of waste. At least the tomini's poop in the same spots which are in corners.

I will also begin dosing at some point with Mag flake (10:1) when the Kent Tech M runs out.

As a side sad note the sea hare died or go chopped in half I can't tell. It's been motionless since yesterday so I guess it's dead. ???
 
[quote author=Raddogz link=topic=2126.msg21542#msg21542 date=1182798019]
As a side sad note the sea hare died or go chopped in half I can't tell. It's been motionless since yesterday so I guess it's dead. ???
[/quote]

My Sea Hare sleeps sometimes half hanging out of the rocks.
and it SLEEPS. even poking it doesn't wake him.
Check it in a few hours.
 
Did your Sea Hare make it? I just got one from Steave also. I thought he was dead for a day. The next morning he was gone with a nice patch of hair algea. So I'm assuming he woke up and had Brunch.
 
Good question. It went missing when I got home so I really have no idea whether it floated away underneath a rock. ::)

On another note - newer smaller skimmer is doing a way better job, as it is taking way more crap out then the larger skimmer - hmmm... go figure. :)

The hair algae is not quite some darn green anymore and is looking a bit more brown. :D

Two days ago I found my male clownfish in the overflow - again. >:( Apparently the rollercoast ride down the overflow is not so nice because he refuses to go down the drain again <sigh>. Fwiw, the drain is almost a straight shot down that has a 45 degree angle the bottom third of the way into the sump. There should be some silly fish rule that strictly prohibits fish going into the overflow to start out with. >:(
 
Euro-Reef 8-2 to Euro-Reef 6-2+

The 8-2 has a somewhat leaky union (still after changing out the o-ring). ER wants $50 to inspect the skimmer (excluding parts and shipping from and to me). I will be placing the 8-2 in the 155g and let it do it's slow leak there. I think I will be cutting a piece of epdm gasket material to fix it down the road. I think what has happened is the mating surface of the skimmer body part of the union is warped, so when the o-ring is mating up the bottom service it's not perfectly flat. So since it's not flat the water is slowly leaking out from the union.
 
Here is an interesting observation made by Jdieck on RC

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=10242854#post10242854

Okay for those not wanting to read it, there seems to be some kind of chemical leeching from styrene made eggcrate you would normally get from the hardware store.

So we'll see. The only thing that radically changed in the tank was the addition of the eggcrate frag rack in that tank.
 
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