AlgaeFix Marine to control Hair Algae

You would need to look at the cells of the algae (under a scope) to get a better idea of what this algae is. As far as those algae that have that hair-like appearance, I can only separate the algae by whether they are siphonous or not. If they are siphonous then I doubt AF will work on them. The Bryopsis algae have a feather like growth appearance and they are siphonous.

You can try the AF and see if it works. If after 10 doses you don't see any changes then one may assume it will not work on your specie of algae.
 
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For reference:


This is a picture of siphonous algae growth. Notice there are no cell divisions present in the picture. What is pictured is one giant algae cell with many nuclei in one cell.


brya141.jpg


SIPHONOUS ALGAE
Algae with this body plan are actually giant unicells. These algae are coenocytic which means they undergo repeated nuclear division without the accompanying formation of cell walls. These have a tubular structure with the multinuclear cytoplasm lining the thallus (the Greek word for tube is siphon).


Bryopsis - a siphonous thallus

© Peter v. Sengbusch
mailto:b-online@botanik.uni-hamburg.de
 
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http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/feature/2001/6/the-challenge-of-siphonous-green-algae

From it:

"The Challenge of Siphonous Green Algae
One imagines that an organism composed of one big cell would prove quite fragile. Yet these single-celled marine plants are surprisingly robust

Peter Vroom, Celia Smith


Although some siphonous green algae (order Bryopsidales) can stand three feet tall, each is composed of a single, huge cell. Within, millions of nuclei, chloroplasts and mitochondria move about freely. This single-compartment architecture might suggest that such plants are particularly vulnerable to injury. In fact, these algae are quite robust: A plant can plug a wound in seconds and will in short order regenerate the lost tissue. Many species can even use a small bit of excised tissue to regenerates the rest of the plant. The ability to reproduce in this way offers these algae considerable competitive advantage over other marine organisms. In some settings where they have been accidentally introduced, notably the Mediterranean Sea, certain species of siphonous green algae have proved all too successful, displacing native marine flora over large areas."
 
Are hair algae and Bryopsis both Siphonous? Is that Bryopsis or hair algae in the previous magnified photo? As I understand AlgaeFix kills hair algae, but not Bryopsis. And, the AF mechanism relies on the algae's unicellular structure to puncture the singular cell wall so it essentially 'bleeds' to death? Just trying to get a better understranding. TIA!

OT - nice pic! Ugh, can't believe folks are swimming in that. Personally, I'd pass on that. Looks somewhat like small ponds here in Indiana "turning over" in the dog days of summer. I don't swim in those either. Yuch!
 
Bryopsis which is what is pictured in the magnified picture above is siphonous.

Hair algae is actually a meaningless term in science. In our hobby people refer to any algae that appears hair-like which can be many different algae inlcuding the siphonous in some cases. I assume the manufacturer chose to use hair algae as a term known in the hobby, but AF will not control all the algae that are hair-like in appearance. In my own situation, AF did not control Derbesia which looks like hair-algae but is siphonous. ;)

This is a picture of Derbesia in a tank. Looking at its general appearance you really can't tell what it is until you get a look at the cell structures and reproducing structures under the scope. Hobbyists may call Derbesia hair-algae. :)


images
 
Well after 3 doses I am noticing my chaeto broke apart in my sump into 2 sections?? So I figure instead of chancing anything I set up a 5 gallon tank with tank water , power head, heater and light for the chaeto. Hopefully it'll fair better in this tank than the sump during treatment. unfortunatly, other than light it wont have anythign to thrive on....

As for progress...havent seen much yet. I had added some atrea snails to the system and to my suprise they have actually been munching on this stuff. I'll see 3-4 on a rock and the following few days a section of that rock is spotless!

But of the covered rock that the HA is present growth hasnt appeared to slow yet. I have noticed it seems to be collecting air bubbles like a cynao algae would which wasnt there before treatment started. Will keep you all posted.
 
Well I have a pretty amazing update in just a few short weeks. Now I can't say it was all the AF but as of today 85% of my hair algae is gone! I had a 150 G that I had let go a few years ago. There were no corals or fish when I started ignoring my tank so when I turned the lights back on for the first time in 2 years with nothing done but RO water top offs ofcourse I had a pretty bad & quick HA bloom. Well after 4 50 gallon WC's over the last 3-4 weeks, Algae fix marine treated every other day instead of every 3 days, and adding a clean up crew again (this was the biggest help I feel) it's almost all gone.

Don't let anyone tell you astrea snails don't eat HA! All I had left after my 2 year neglect was about 8 nassarius snails that I saw. I added 12 Turbos, 35 Astreas to start and within 3 days they mowed through almost every starnd I had. Now I don't know if the AF helped aid the breakdown of the algae therefore it was more managable? I will say during every water change I scrubbed and removed as much as possible as well. But nothing mowed it down like the snails did. The last few days I have been removing them from the glass or overflows and placing them when they are needed. So tell me is this normal or is it due to the weaker algae?
 
There are lots of species of algae and many species of snail. I would not be surprised either way if snails ate a pest alga of some sort.
 
Just to update, algaefix marine worked for what little hair algae I had. It also took away a fuzzy type algae on my sand. Manually removing the hair algae was essential. However, since dosing with it, I have developed another algae problem. Everyone thought it was diatoms, but it is dinoflagellates. I had noticed a few spots at the start of treatment, but was unsure if it was actually dino. With only the cheato as competition, this stuff is taking over my tank. I am trying to deal with it after researching several methods. What a plague!! So be warned of the possibility.
 
It is working for me..

2nd doses...I only uses 2ml for my biocube 29 ( approx 22-24 SW)

I'm seeing algaue hair turns brown then white...then I clean it up when do water change...

Thanks
Jake
 
After 9 doses I stopped using it. Some algae died off, and I did have 2 sps colonies brown out, but are recovering nicely. I am combating at all angles including upgrading my pump on my brs dual reactor, changing my gfo & rox carbon weekly, 7 day water changes, 10 ml vodka per day, rinsing off pe mysis & hakari brine (still adding Selcon, though), and changing out some sand and rock here and there...

I have just started Kent Tech M. I just reached <1800 today in mag.

80% of algae is gone, I have a little here and there with this pic being worst area on back area...

what dja think?

 

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The picture may be a Bryopsis. I can understand why AF may not give you complete control of it since it is a siphonous algae. Increasing mag level in combination sounds like a good way to proceed to me. ;)
 
I have read 1/3 of this post. I am guessing that I have hair algae. My zoa frags look like chia pets. I have manually cleaned them with tweezers but it comes back within days. I went and bought some af and started dosing today. It is only a 12g AP. I started with 1.2ml but after reading this post I am going to cut back to 1ml. on the next dose. This is what I am dealing with. Any ideas or comments would be appreciated.

<a href="http://s934.photobucket.com/albums/ad190/slag009/?action=view&current=corals020.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i934.photobucket.com/albums/ad190/slag009/corals020.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

<a href="http://s934.photobucket.com/albums/ad190/slag009/?action=view&current=corals021.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i934.photobucket.com/albums/ad190/slag009/corals021.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

<a href="http://s934.photobucket.com/albums/ad190/slag009/?action=view&current=corals022.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i934.photobucket.com/albums/ad190/slag009/corals022.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
 
Im starting up a sulfur denitrator, and it goes thru a "mini" cycle during startup. Nitrites begin to climb, then they fall and thats when nitrates are supposed to start to decline. Over a course of about two weeks the nitrites fell from 1.0 to just about zero, and I thought the reactor was about to start reducing nitrates. It was at this time I added one dose of the algaefix. The next day nitrites climbed back to 1.0 and it looks like the reactor is going thru another mini cycle. I dont know what to make of this. Any thoughts ?
 
slag009,

Your algae may be one of the ones that AF will control. Without looking at it under a scope it is hard to say.

If AF does control, I would expect that you will see it kicking in around the 6th dose. ;)
 
purge43 said:
Im starting up a sulfur denitrator, and it goes thru a "mini" cycle during startup. Nitrites begin to climb, then they fall and thats when nitrates are supposed to start to decline. Over a course of about two weeks the nitrites fell from 1.0 to just about zero, and I thought the reactor was about to start reducing nitrates. It was at this time I added one dose of the algaefix. The next day nitrites climbed back to 1.0 and it looks like the reactor is going thru another mini cycle. I dont know what to make of this. Any thoughts ?
Click to expand...

When AF kills algae, the nutrients within the algae cells are released, which can increase nitrate and phosphate. ;)

This is one reason why the manufacturer recommends to remove as much of the algae as possible before each dose. ;)
 
Well, I have one of those algaes that Algae Fix doesnt fix! I've been using it now every other day for 3 weeks, No lights on execpt time to feed the 2 fish that are in it. I only feed once every 2-3 days. What a bummer.

So is there something else that will kill the "hair algae" that this product wont touch?
 
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