High Tide Aquatics

hairy algae!!! help

reef89

reef89

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anybody out there knows how to stop hairy algae.... its getting anoying its growing every where.... any suggestions would be great... thanks
 
The best thing to do is to figure out why you have elevated nutrient levels. For starters I can see your tank is under skimmed. Short of getting a new protein skimmer you can:

1. step up on your water changes
2. use RODI water
3. use a GFO or other phosphate remover
4. remove any extra detritus that may be present in your system
5. feed less or make sure all food is actually consumed by the animals

In some cases old bulbs, especially PCs, can be a "extra" boost to hair algae, how old are your bulbs?

Does your tank receive natural sunlight at all?
 
i think the bulbs are preety old because i bought the tank second hand....and my sump sucks. my skimmer cost me 35 bucks it oddessy and it must suck cuz i hear a lot of people talking smack that its very cheap, i dont know sometimes i feel like giving up everything goes wrong machine wise. and i dont have the money to buy the good stuff...but my fish is great... i really dont know....
 
No need to get down because you don't have the money to upgrade.....there's a few of us that could open their own LFS due to all the extra equipment laying around. I may have an extra skimmer in my storage, amongst many other things :) Give me a couple days and I'll see what I can dig up for you.

The skimmer isn't the only option to solving this problem. What is your water source (RODI or tap water)?

I can get that sump rolling a bit better but honestly that is not causing you much problems. Like I said in my other post I'm a bit over whelmed at work for the next few days but when it calms down I'll post up some simple things you could do to improve your sump. The diagram Elite posted is a GREAT place to start from. I've got old acrylic laying around I could cut to size for you, problem is I don't make it up your way all that often (but that hurdle can easily be over come)
 
yea they are compact lights and i would really apreciate that very much... so if we where to meet where would it be because i live in sf.
 
oh yea i actually go down to my local fish store and get ocean water and ro...i dont deal with tap water no more.
 
[quote author=reef89 link=topic=4576.msg55692#msg55692 date=1221541990]
yea they are compact lights and i would really apreciate that very much... so if we where to meet where would it be because i live in sf.
[/quote]

I'm well aware of that fact. I may just ship it to you on my account as it's actually cheaper then driving to SF from Santa Cruz :)

Do you know the wattage of your PCs? I think when I took my 65w offline I had some new spares I put into a box and forgot about. Also, on the ends of your PC's they will either have the 4 pins in a square or a line, which do you have?
 
yea i got 4 pins in a line... here the pic of them
IMG00098.jpg

IMG00099.jpg
 
That helps, but what wattage are they? You can just tell me how long they are and I can figure out the wattage myself.
 
How much, how often and what do you feed your fish?

You really need to consider a differnt skimmer , not only to help with these hair algae issues but you have a fairly high bioload for a new tank (I saw 4 chromis, 2 clowns, blue hippo tang, goby) the tang will put out a ton of poop.
 
I've actually gotten one of those skimmers too work quite well with a modded Maxi-Jet. IME the only problem with them is they love to randomly overflow which can easily be fixed with a little creative plumbing.

What are your nitrates at? If they are not sky high Gresham's option of using GFO would be a good one, you don't really need a reactor, a bag with some in an area with moderate flow helps enough. If your nitrates are high, try doing a large water change with RO/DI to knock it down a little, then add some GFO.

I fight different types of algae all of the time, my tank is way over skimmed, I do decent sized water changes every week, run GFO, and yet still a little algae pops up here and there, I have to remove it manually when I do my water changes. I guess if I were to run a more aggressive fuge I might have less algae, I dunno..
 
[quote author=reef89 link=topic=4576.msg55750#msg55750 date=1221584259]
well i got an ps odessy skimmer that cost me 35 bucks...and thats probobly why....?
[/quote]Not exactly, read my first paragraph above, the actual skimmer body, and overall design of that skimmer is no too bad. It just comes with a crappy pump and the water level valve is unreliable. You could easily and cheaply mod that skimmer to work quite well IMO.
 
In your tank journal it looks like your tank is right against a window. How much natural light is your tank getting. My tank gets just a little sun light, and thats where I get the algea. You might want to think about putting a black backing on the tank. Also let me know if you want some GFO I have plenty to share.
 
yea it gets a little bit. but the sun does not directly hit it. would the black backing really help tho? and thanks alot for the coral it looks awsome.! i think it is my favorite one in my tank besides my giapora i think.oh yeah what is GFO?
 
I have been utterly swamped at work. Gimme some time, I haven't forgotten. Patience is key in this hobby, that is one thing all members will tell you :D
 
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