AlgaeFix Marine to control Hair Algae

[HighlandReefer]

That's good to hear. :thumbsup:

 

[helpinsmepls]

Where did you buy your live rock from?

Hi, the live rock in there I never had any problems with. It is fuji live rock. The Marco rock is what I feel may have been maby the catalyst for the algae.

The reason why I say this is because when the algae started it was only on the marco rock. Could it be that since the rock did not have anything live on it that it was an easy place for algae to get started? It was just a few patches to begin with so I did not bother removing it. I figured this would be a good "tell" on my water quality. Well almost overnight the bloom from hell came.

I do think the suggestion on removal is a good one. Ive tried 3 times scraping every rock till my arm gets sore and all wrinkly. I do think the problem I am having during the cleaning is catching the stuff once it comes off the rock. Most ends up in the filter sock which I rinse and reuse.

At the base of the algae there are very firm stalks almost like hair follicles attaching themselves to the rock. Even after I do remove the green part about half of an inch of the stalk is still left.

I can use the small end of a baby bottle brush and like twirling spaghetti with a fork curl it up that way and pull, but still never get the base.

Thanks for the help

 

[dread240]

The base rock is easy for it to get to as it's not competing for anything else. Coralline algae like on your live rock doesn't give the algae a firm footing to that piece.

Considering I only see 2 clowns in your tank, how often and how much are you feeding this tank?

 

[helpinsmepls]

Considering I only see 2 clowns in your tank, how often and how much are you feeding this tank?

The reason you only see 2 clowns is the rest of the fish are sleeping, and so were they really. I had just turned on my lights for a few minutes to snap the photo's then i turned them back off.

The rest of my stock list is in my post on this thread with the pictures. They are all alive and fine. In fact I do have allot of pods because of the algae and the mandarin is very happy with that.

As far as feeding I feed about 15-20 very small formula one pellets every 3-4 days. I rotate that with 1 regular cube of mysis or brine shrimp frozen every other feeding. I have been using this feeding program for about a month once the algae took off. My old feeding habit was 15-20 pellets once a day then on the 3rd or 4th day no pellets but a cube of frozen, and once a week during one of the days I would feed only about 30 live baby to mid sized live brine shrimp.

But to list my bio-load again:
2 clowns, 2 firefish, 1 female mandarin, 1 clown goby, 1 yellow watchman, 2 cleaner shrimp, 1 brittle star, 4 peppermint shrimp, about 20 or so snails, 4 hermit crabs (Not sure what type, 3 of them have green legs and one is a zebra) 1 bubble coral, 1 xenia, 1 frogspawn, a few patches of gsp, and a zoanthid, lots of pods various types.

About every 5 days I would need to empty my collection cup on the skimmer as it would be full with the bottom 1/3 cup of thick skim the upper part of the cup 2/3 wet skim.

My cuc is lacking I think but I have had problems with receiving cuc alive from the mail. (as far as snails go) Also I have had to get rid of problem crabs in the past. I had a large emerald that would snap at fish swimming by, and some hermits that liked to eat corals, even one of my current peppermints ate one of my watermelon green zoa corals while it was open and the lights were on. This may be do to the fact he is hungry.

 

[helpinsmepls]

I would like to know what everyone thinks my chances are on overcoming this?

Does anyone have any more suggestions? I can move my 2 cleaner shrimp, possibly the peppermints, hermits and corals if needed. but the corals only for a few day's as my quarantine tanks lighting is not the best.

Also should I change my salt? Im at the bottom of the bucket on the Instant Ocean reef crystals.

Thanks

 

[HighlandReefer]

If after about 10 doses with AF & you do not get results, then I would say there is not much hope using AF. AF does not kill all species of algae.

Hopefully, your nitrate and phosphate are reading zero currently?

IF the AF does not work, the next step I would try would be to use Tech M and raise your mag level by around 300-400 ppm total, by increasing the mag level 100 ppm daily. I would not do both the AF and increase the mag level at the same time though. This procedure has helped some hobbyists with Bryopsis, if this is what your algae is. AF has not worked on bryopsis that I am familiar with for past hobbyists, but each specie can be different and like I said earlier, this algae may not be a Bryopsis.

I would take it one step at a time and give the AF a good fighting chance to control this algae, by making sure your phosphate is low (run GFO if not). Keep your filter bag and skimmer clean daily & remove as much of this algae as possible before each dose. Keep in mind, AF will brake down within 24 hrs.

 

[HighlandReefer]

We have had several hobbyists loose their cuc while dosing AF, I am not sure if it was from the AF or not. Cuc do not have a good track record for surviving long in a reef tank. Cuc seem to only eat certain algae and if they don't eat your algae may starve to death. You may want to trade your cuc back if it is not eating the algae.

 

[dread240]

Sorry, I was reading your post and then the pics caught my eye and it was a brain fart moment.

Seriously though... I wish you the best of luck on getting that taken care of. Hopefully you get a bit of a chuckle out of my idea though.... if the AF fails and you never beat it... how about getting a small white fence and it can be little reef on the prarie?

 

[goochesfish]

I have no visible algae since wiping everything out with algaefix. I developed this on my monty 2 weeks ago. I never did the weekly dosing because the new CUC seems to be keeping algae in control but they can't get on this coral. Would you dose again?

 

[HighlandReefer]

If you have the green algae under control I would hold off dosing the AF unless it recurs.

As far as the brown growth on your monty, I'm not sure what it is. Looks like a brown algae possibly. I would say this could be attacked two different ways. First, try scrubbing it off the monty with a toothbrush and see if it comes back. If it comes back, I would think about cutting that part off the monty. Perhaps that part of the monty has a problem like a disease of some sort and cutting it away may help. Just my two cents.

 

[Squanto804]

Im sorry if this has been covered but there is so much info here it was hard to find.

Does AF affect Cheato in my refugium?

Thanks, Scott

 

[HighlandReefer]

Scott,

IME, the AF did not effect the chaeto until after 10 doses or so. My cheato did turn to mush after around 15 or so doses of AF. If you decide to try the AF, I would watch your chaeto if you do need to do around 10 doses, but in most cases it is not necessary to do that many doses.

 

[Squanto804]

Thanks very much.

 

[HighlandReefer]

YOur welcome.

 

[spazthecat]

Hi,

I've been skimming this thread and haven't really come across a post about AF causing coral bleaching and was wondering if anyone has experienced this?

I decided to give AF a try and after 4 doses the algae did start to recede but now all of my softies are almost completely colorless. Leathers are snow white, mushrooms are almost translucent, zoas and LPS are also bleaching but not as bad as everything else. Oddly enough the montipora I have look fine.

The bleaching didn't start until a couple of days after the 4th dose.

Thanks,

Andy

 

[HighlandReefer]

spazthecat,

Sorry to hear about your coral bleaching.

We have not had any hobbyists who have had an experience like yours, at least that I recall, while using AlgaeFix.

It would be nice to get a few other details regarding your reef tank system.

How much AlgaeFix are you adding for each dose, how often and to what total volume of water (excluding rock, sand...etc)?

 

[spazthecat]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. Tank details are as follows:

-75 gallon display tank with a 30 gallon sump (total water volume about 75 gallons).
-Tank has been up for 7 years with the past 2 years having algae issues on and off. Now mostly on
-Tank parameters are solid and have been so for a while (Ca 380; Mg 1400; dKh 9; pH 7.2). I quit testing for phos and nitrate as they are always zero.
-Mixed reef with mostly LPS and softies. Montipora being the only stony coral I have.
-I followed the dosing instructions on the bottle. So, 7.5ml every 3 days initially.
-I have been dosing VSV for a few months now but stopped it a week before starting the algae fix by tapering down the dose over a 10 day period before stopping. I've used the same tapering procedure before without issue whenever we go on vacation.

I'm in the process of mixing up water to do a 50% water change and I'll add in some carbon and GFO also.

Thanks,

Andy

 

[yeldarbj]

I would like to know what everyone thinks my chances are on overcoming this?

Does anyone have any more suggestions? I can move my 2 cleaner shrimp, possibly the peppermints, hermits and corals if needed. but the corals only for a few day's as my quarantine tanks lighting is not the best.

Also should I change my salt? Im at the bottom of the bucket on the Instant Ocean reef crystals.

Thanks

I'm pretty sure that your algae problem is bryopsis, that fern-like structure is a good indicator. There are some threads on RC about it. It's a brutal pest b/c nothing touches it, but the Kent Tech M - magnesium treatment is very effective. I would do as much manual removal as possible then start dosing the Tech M. Good luck.

 

[helpinsmepls]

Thanks,

Any idea on the Kent-M treatments effect on pods, corals ( bubble, xenia, frogspawn, greenstar polyps) cleaner shrimp and sea stars?


Tomorrow will be my 3rd dose of alagefix. Every dose sort of dazes my mandarin, she will swim along the top of the aquarium. Then the next day she goes back to picking pods again.

I've noticed the very tips of the algae start to thin out and some are turning white at the tip. Others are greening up nicely.

I have pulled out what I can pinch. My clowns are starting to get mad at me, I cleaned the rock they like to sleep at and now they have started to host the algae thats left in the tank.

 

[helpinsmepls]

I have added my UV sterilizer and my diatom filter to the mix as well.

Has anyone had any ill effects with UV and using Alagefix?

I do turn the UV off when I doze that day, more of a precaution for the mandarin.