Lunchbucket
Premium Member
why would you stop doing water changes??
Lunchbucket
Lunchbucket
Algal genus Spotlight: Bryopsis "hair algae"
- Thread starter horge
- Start date
Lunchbucket
Premium Member
vest - you have it backwards. algae won't grow in clean nutrient poor water like a brand new water change. fish poop, detritus, etc are the nutrients it feeds off of...not the elements in fresh water change water
disolved organics in the water make it grow faster. remember the solution to polution is dilusion (hence water changes to dilute it)
Lunchbucket
disolved organics in the water make it grow faster. remember the solution to polution is dilusion (hence water changes to dilute it)
Lunchbucket
Lunchbucket
Premium Member
lucky you!!
Lunchbucket
Lunchbucket
I had my 120 set up in February. I went out, after the cycle and bought many neat things like clams, and fish and corals. One piece had some green algae on it that I thought the new sailfin would eat. I was wrong and now 6 months with the bryopsis, as I have learned what it is, is killing me. I am doing 40 gallon water changes every other weekend. It is not slowing at all. Before every water change my wife, bless her, and I hand pull as much of this nasty nuisance as possible. I have also invested in a nudibranch. He eats it alright but i would probably need a hundred to get control and then when you get control they die and then the bryopsis does not have anything to eat it it so it comes back.... sorry got carried away. I do not have a skimmer but I am looking at the ASM website for when currently. Does it make sense at this point to tear the tank down and scrub the rocks and sand with a slight bleach mixture and then set it all up again or will the skimmer make my life better. I just want to know there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Lunchbucket
Premium Member
angmoh - i just got a yellow tang about 2wks ago and much to my happiness he eats bryopsis!!! it seems that he won't eat it unless it is really short and right close to the rock. like if i just pull some seems like he eats the stubble that is left. he has not desimated the tank of it yhet but i think he is helping. by FAR my most priced fish right now. i hope manual plucking and him trimming will eventually get it out or not noticable. i can't believe how happy i am that i have that fish!!
i'm still doing eveyr other week water changes (20gal now), skimming hard, but feeding more to get my coral colors to come out more.
later
Lunchbucket
i'm still doing eveyr other week water changes (20gal now), skimming hard, but feeding more to get my coral colors to come out more.
later
Lunchbucket
Lunchbucket, precisely! I'm also very happy with my yellow tang!! i found that yellow tang loves bryopsis more than foxface (even though alot of them claimed that foxface is very good at clearing bryopsis)...
I'm surprised that no one here, neither anywhere or anyone propose/recommend yellow tang! i'v witnessed myself my yellow tang grazed off a bunch of bryopsis within one day! even the long ones! of course, i found that they still prefer short ones.
So now everyday i still pluck off any visible, long bryopsis alage each every other day. At least i can see that my bryopsis is under controlled with the help of yellow tang and foxface
hurrays! forget about snails, nudis, or whatever so... they are slow eaters! too slow!
I'm surprised that no one here, neither anywhere or anyone propose/recommend yellow tang! i'v witnessed myself my yellow tang grazed off a bunch of bryopsis within one day! even the long ones! of course, i found that they still prefer short ones.
So now everyday i still pluck off any visible, long bryopsis alage each every other day. At least i can see that my bryopsis is under controlled with the help of yellow tang and foxface
hurrays! forget about snails, nudis, or whatever so... they are slow eaters! too slow!
seamonkey2
New member
hmmm, I know that most of you do really hate hair algae and all its friends in your tanks, but I love it, I got a 215ga sea horse tank, with pipefish and I got lots and lots and lots (you get the point) of hair algae, culerpra and mexicana growing on the LR walls and returns loclines.
the thing is that all this algae hide hundreds upon hundreds of pods that my pipes feed upon, the hunt all day, the hover around the algae until they see one and BAM snack
I over feed my tank big time, when I first notice the hair algae I was going to remove it, but, yeah I know call me idiot, it looked cool to me, so I let it be, a couple of months later it was all over the back wall of the tank, then I said, "crap I got to get this thing under control", so I pull a hand full from the tank, and as I was going to dump it, I felt lots of creepy crawlers on my hand, so I took a closer look at it, and damn!!! copepods galore, by the hundreds, so I put it back, and ever since haven't touch it.
the culerpra has taken all of the floor of the tank and is about 6" tall, but the horses love it and the pipes hide in it
but there is an observation, I used to run 2 phospate remover reactors in this tank, but I stoped doing it, dont know why, 2 months ago, ever since, the hair algae has stop growing and is actually been over run by mexicana, wich if fine with me, but it just amazing that that alone happen, I do water changes every six months, and I run a skimmer one a week, any input on this?
Jose
the thing is that all this algae hide hundreds upon hundreds of pods that my pipes feed upon, the hunt all day, the hover around the algae until they see one and BAM snack
I over feed my tank big time, when I first notice the hair algae I was going to remove it, but, yeah I know call me idiot, it looked cool to me, so I let it be, a couple of months later it was all over the back wall of the tank, then I said, "crap I got to get this thing under control", so I pull a hand full from the tank, and as I was going to dump it, I felt lots of creepy crawlers on my hand, so I took a closer look at it, and damn!!! copepods galore, by the hundreds, so I put it back, and ever since haven't touch it.
the culerpra has taken all of the floor of the tank and is about 6" tall, but the horses love it and the pipes hide in it
but there is an observation, I used to run 2 phospate remover reactors in this tank, but I stoped doing it, dont know why, 2 months ago, ever since, the hair algae has stop growing and is actually been over run by mexicana, wich if fine with me, but it just amazing that that alone happen, I do water changes every six months, and I run a skimmer one a week, any input on this?
Jose
Ryanqk
Active member
ok i have this problem i was thinking about taking all the desirable algaes out of my display temporarily, and putting them in the fuge, then introducing two small sea urchins and let them mow down my turf algae, once done they go back to the store and i re-plant my algaes. my phosphate is 0, nitrates a little high. Keep my fuge light on 24/7 as well. what do yall think?
Ryan
Ryan
daveverdo
New member
I just read this entire thread and still have a big problem and a bigger question. Are there any small fish that will eat this stuff? I only have 30g do things like a Foxface and tangs aren't going to make it unless someone wants to lend (or rent) me one for a few weeks.
I have a variety of snails, the ceriths are useless, I have 5 Trochus and 3 Astrea, 1 of those 8 eats it but 1 alone is losing the battle.
Any small fish? Even if they only eat a little its will help, I guess. This is the first tank I even had this kind of problem with. It is only in its early stages but I want to nip it in the bud(as the saying goes).
Dave
I have a variety of snails, the ceriths are useless, I have 5 Trochus and 3 Astrea, 1 of those 8 eats it but 1 alone is losing the battle.
Any small fish? Even if they only eat a little its will help, I guess. This is the first tank I even had this kind of problem with. It is only in its early stages but I want to nip it in the bud(as the saying goes).
Dave
I'm in the same boat Dave, 30 gallon hair algae farm. I'm considering buying a baby yellow tang to munch on the algae for a couple of weeks, then trading him back in.
Opcn
Member
http://www.etropicals.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?siteid=43&pCatId=1303
On sale too, Get two of them, only the small ones really deal with filimentous algaes, obviously not a fish.
On sale too, Get two of them, only the small ones really deal with filimentous algaes, obviously not a fish.
Kinetic
Active member
i bought two turbos and two lettuce "nudi's" recently to fight my hair algae, and the lettuce nudi's climbed onto the hair algae and laid eggs, then dissapeared.
the turbos ate some algae and got full and stopped moving.
... not the greatest.
my late emerald grab used to eat hair/bubble like mad. but once he died the hair algae kept coming (he died because the tank was cleaned out by him). He started eating gobies, armor of gods, acropora colonies, and such, but eventually i had to feed algae tablets twice daily to him. eventually he didn't get enough food (i left for long vacations) and died.
sad, but kind of good since I might be able to keep gobies now and zoos.
I was going to try an urchin, but found out that they may scratch acrylic with their mouths =(
manually pulling, running dual oversized skimmers, isn't helping.
i have about 80x turnover in the tank.
one day I'll figure it out...
the turbos ate some algae and got full and stopped moving.
... not the greatest.
my late emerald grab used to eat hair/bubble like mad. but once he died the hair algae kept coming (he died because the tank was cleaned out by him). He started eating gobies, armor of gods, acropora colonies, and such, but eventually i had to feed algae tablets twice daily to him. eventually he didn't get enough food (i left for long vacations) and died.
sad, but kind of good since I might be able to keep gobies now and zoos.
I was going to try an urchin, but found out that they may scratch acrylic with their mouths =(
manually pulling, running dual oversized skimmers, isn't helping.
i have about 80x turnover in the tank.
one day I'll figure it out...
!!! Just add alittle Vodka every morning, and every night, up the dose till its gone, keep it up for a few days, then slowly bring it down so you dont have a huge bacteria dieoff. Ive never seen a problem with my sps, or anything else, and so far for me it works.
"If one day you see alittle green growing, get your fish drunk!"
"If one day you see alittle green growing, get your fish drunk!"
graveyardworm
Premium Member
The vodka provides a carbon source for bacteria, which in turn bind up phosphates and nitrates making it exportable by skimming. Hope I got that right its been awhile since I've read up on vodka dosing.
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