stancfii
Member
I wish I had a before picture. I tore down my previous 58 and got out of the hobby for a year or so due to the most horrendous hair algae problem I'd ever had. I fought it for months and could never beat it. Fast forward to a couple months ago and a 40 breeder that had been running for a year. I was out of town for work as usual, when one night while on the phone with my wife, she said, "It's back." I didn't even have to ask what "it" was, the shudder down my spine was enough.
I immediately considered listing everything for sale on here. I got home to find every rock and powerhead covered in the thickest, lushest, dark green forest of hair algae. Before I left, I had a minor algae issue, which I thought buying a cleanup crew would resolve. The crew took care of the minor problem, leaving room for the bigger problem to take over, and leaving me to fix the major problem. Hermits and snails wouldn't touch it, and if they did, it grew back twice for every strand they may have consumed. Oh yeah, and my nutrient levels? If you've ever had to fight this, you know NO3 and PO4 were -0-.
I looked through Google images to try and find exactly what I was fighting. Was it Bryopsis? Derbesia? Cladophora? After several hours, it all looked the same. I read and read RC and Google searched every forum I could find to see what I could do to win this fight and not waste months fighting and giving up like last time. I bought a lawnmower blenny and transitioned a trio of mollies because I heard they were good algae consumers. Maybe so, but I never saw them eat a strand of this stuff. Back to the old fight--toothbrush, siphon, water change, repeat. Day after day for the 10 days I was home.
I left town for another couple of weeks for another work trip, and came home unsurprised by the fact that the algae was worse than before, and to the point of choking out my coral, some of my SPS already completely gone. During my time away, I read more, researched more, and bought my arsenal:
Algaefix marine
Kent Tech M
MicroBacter 7
Sodium Nitrate
I also thought back to everything I did with my 58, the same and different, compared to my 40. Finally, after days of thinking, I finally realized the only common element was my Eheim automated feeder, and the NLS Thera A pellets inside it. Traveling for weeks at a time on occasion over the years, I bought a feeder and stuffed it with pellets. It was carefully metered so it wouldn't dispense too many, but the pellets would last months before needing to be replaced. Pellets sitting in a feeder, for months, in a humid environment. It was a time bomb waiting to go off. Of course the fish still ate them, but the hair algae rapidly sucked all the nutrients from their rotted existence and multiplied.
My assault went as followed:
Stop using the feeder, throw away all the pellets inside it, and buy new food.
No halide for the first week, and the light on my fuge went from counter schedule to 24/7.
Filter sock, tooth brush, scrub, siphon. No water change. I ran the siphon through the sock and replaced the volume change with new saltwater. The amount that first time was compressed to the size of a racquet ball, and dense. This was done every day, until I couldn't get a anything else off of the rocks (about 7 days).
Added a small Tomini tang. The day after I added him, he was sucking up strands of hair algae like spaghetti!
Check magnesium. It was 1250. I dosed the recommended dosage of Tech M to raise 20ppm, every day, for 8 days. Again, no water changes.
I dosed Algaefix Marine. I have a 40br with an eshopps r200 sump. I assumed 50g of water, conservatively, and dosed accordingly once every three days for 4 total doses. Again, no water changes. My clam, bta, lps, and montis were unaffected, however all but one acro frag rtn'd. I changed many things at once, so I can't blame it on this product (my tricolor valida colony stn'd entirely while I was gone and prior to starting this treatment fwiw), but it may be a risk.
I had initially blamed my dry rock for leaching PO4, but determined that that was not necessarily the case. Either way, after having read numerous threads on "cooking" liverock, I decided my system had become algae dependent and not bacteria dependent. Thus the MB7 and NaNO3. I dosed per the MB7 bottle, every day for just 5 days, and then a few drops a day since. I do turn off my skimmer for a few hours when I do this, as recommended. For the NaNO3, I bought it off of eBay, and calculated that 1g/10mL RO water would give me 1ppm/day if dosed 3.3mL of that solution each day. I did that every day for a week, and again, no water changes. For the first time in months, my Elos kit showed a tinge of pink, never enough to call it 1ppm, but I was happy to see something.
It is worth noting that I had to back my skimmer down significantly, and this is where having the DC pump helped a lot. I dropped it to 4/6 until the skimmate production slowed down, then I was able to bump it back up to 5/6. It still skims really wet, really foul smelling skimmate, and I have to empty the cup every couple of days instead of every couple of weeks. I also get a pile (~1 tbsb) of mulm every day in a low flow section of my display, it sounds like what other guys in the rock cooking threads get during that process. Whether that is bacteria byproduct from PO4 in the rock, I don't know, but it is consistent and in an easy place to siphon out.
I dosed NO3 for 7 days, and have not dosed it the past 3. I'll lay off another 4 days and see if there are visual changes, but have a brs 1.1 doser on standby for my next trip out if I decide I like the results. My Elos tests are back to zero for NO3, so I think I see myself dosing regularly.
On day 10 I did my first water change. Only 5 gallons. I'll wait a week and do another 5, and then go back to my usual 5gal every 2 weeks.
Salifert never showed any detectable PO4. Ever.
GAC was not changed until I did my first water change. I run it passively in a filter bag, using 1/2 cup.
The total transformation took about 7 days. I'm truly happy with the hobby again, and hope things stay this way and continue to improve. I plan on waiting a while before I add any more SPS, but coralline algae is starting to take off again. I hope my experience helps prevent others from giving up.
I immediately considered listing everything for sale on here. I got home to find every rock and powerhead covered in the thickest, lushest, dark green forest of hair algae. Before I left, I had a minor algae issue, which I thought buying a cleanup crew would resolve. The crew took care of the minor problem, leaving room for the bigger problem to take over, and leaving me to fix the major problem. Hermits and snails wouldn't touch it, and if they did, it grew back twice for every strand they may have consumed. Oh yeah, and my nutrient levels? If you've ever had to fight this, you know NO3 and PO4 were -0-.
I looked through Google images to try and find exactly what I was fighting. Was it Bryopsis? Derbesia? Cladophora? After several hours, it all looked the same. I read and read RC and Google searched every forum I could find to see what I could do to win this fight and not waste months fighting and giving up like last time. I bought a lawnmower blenny and transitioned a trio of mollies because I heard they were good algae consumers. Maybe so, but I never saw them eat a strand of this stuff. Back to the old fight--toothbrush, siphon, water change, repeat. Day after day for the 10 days I was home.
I left town for another couple of weeks for another work trip, and came home unsurprised by the fact that the algae was worse than before, and to the point of choking out my coral, some of my SPS already completely gone. During my time away, I read more, researched more, and bought my arsenal:
Algaefix marine
Kent Tech M
MicroBacter 7
Sodium Nitrate
I also thought back to everything I did with my 58, the same and different, compared to my 40. Finally, after days of thinking, I finally realized the only common element was my Eheim automated feeder, and the NLS Thera A pellets inside it. Traveling for weeks at a time on occasion over the years, I bought a feeder and stuffed it with pellets. It was carefully metered so it wouldn't dispense too many, but the pellets would last months before needing to be replaced. Pellets sitting in a feeder, for months, in a humid environment. It was a time bomb waiting to go off. Of course the fish still ate them, but the hair algae rapidly sucked all the nutrients from their rotted existence and multiplied.
My assault went as followed:
Stop using the feeder, throw away all the pellets inside it, and buy new food.
No halide for the first week, and the light on my fuge went from counter schedule to 24/7.
Filter sock, tooth brush, scrub, siphon. No water change. I ran the siphon through the sock and replaced the volume change with new saltwater. The amount that first time was compressed to the size of a racquet ball, and dense. This was done every day, until I couldn't get a anything else off of the rocks (about 7 days).
Added a small Tomini tang. The day after I added him, he was sucking up strands of hair algae like spaghetti!
Check magnesium. It was 1250. I dosed the recommended dosage of Tech M to raise 20ppm, every day, for 8 days. Again, no water changes.
I dosed Algaefix Marine. I have a 40br with an eshopps r200 sump. I assumed 50g of water, conservatively, and dosed accordingly once every three days for 4 total doses. Again, no water changes. My clam, bta, lps, and montis were unaffected, however all but one acro frag rtn'd. I changed many things at once, so I can't blame it on this product (my tricolor valida colony stn'd entirely while I was gone and prior to starting this treatment fwiw), but it may be a risk.
I had initially blamed my dry rock for leaching PO4, but determined that that was not necessarily the case. Either way, after having read numerous threads on "cooking" liverock, I decided my system had become algae dependent and not bacteria dependent. Thus the MB7 and NaNO3. I dosed per the MB7 bottle, every day for just 5 days, and then a few drops a day since. I do turn off my skimmer for a few hours when I do this, as recommended. For the NaNO3, I bought it off of eBay, and calculated that 1g/10mL RO water would give me 1ppm/day if dosed 3.3mL of that solution each day. I did that every day for a week, and again, no water changes. For the first time in months, my Elos kit showed a tinge of pink, never enough to call it 1ppm, but I was happy to see something.
It is worth noting that I had to back my skimmer down significantly, and this is where having the DC pump helped a lot. I dropped it to 4/6 until the skimmate production slowed down, then I was able to bump it back up to 5/6. It still skims really wet, really foul smelling skimmate, and I have to empty the cup every couple of days instead of every couple of weeks. I also get a pile (~1 tbsb) of mulm every day in a low flow section of my display, it sounds like what other guys in the rock cooking threads get during that process. Whether that is bacteria byproduct from PO4 in the rock, I don't know, but it is consistent and in an easy place to siphon out.
I dosed NO3 for 7 days, and have not dosed it the past 3. I'll lay off another 4 days and see if there are visual changes, but have a brs 1.1 doser on standby for my next trip out if I decide I like the results. My Elos tests are back to zero for NO3, so I think I see myself dosing regularly.
On day 10 I did my first water change. Only 5 gallons. I'll wait a week and do another 5, and then go back to my usual 5gal every 2 weeks.
Salifert never showed any detectable PO4. Ever.
GAC was not changed until I did my first water change. I run it passively in a filter bag, using 1/2 cup.
The total transformation took about 7 days. I'm truly happy with the hobby again, and hope things stay this way and continue to improve. I plan on waiting a while before I add any more SPS, but coralline algae is starting to take off again. I hope my experience helps prevent others from giving up.
