My 90 gal tank has been up for about 4 months now and all my parameters are spot on. I have hair algae all over the back glass and on the powerheads. The yellow tang has taken care of most of it. Should I scrape off the algae off or just let it die off?? Also my rainbow pectin has started to stn from the top and my birdsnest has stopped growing all together. Also my plating monti has not shown any growth at all. I figured it would have taken off by now. My toadstool is opened up fully and my acans have sprouted new heads. I am running the current duel 250 watt mh double end with four actinic 54w t5ho lights. The bulbs are the ones that came with the lights and are about 2 months old. Could the lighting be the problem with growth?
Frustrated
- Thread starter kajhurley
- Start date
Lighting, water flow and water chemistry all come into play. "Spot on" doesn't really tell us much, please list your parameters and equipment along with the lighting schedule and we will be able to give you a lot better feedback, with what you have told us all we could do is take guesses.
heathlindner25
New member
could be a chemical imbalance?
lespaul339
Reefer
Did you cycle with dry rock? If so, it will leach nitrates and can leach them for up to a year. I started with dry rock and battled GHA for an entire year before my rocks stopped leaching phosphates. GFO reactor works, just takes a lot of time, manual removal, and patience. Now my tank looks amazing. So there is light at the end of the tunnel. Just keep at it and you will get the upper hand eventually.
seamonster124
New member
I would first look at the bulbs, then the ballast if this is a chinese fixture. Your rocks could be leaching as well.
CStrickland
New member
I don't think rock leaches nitrate lespaul
Like grun said, without more info it's hard to say. But yeah, if you don't like looking at it on the back glass, scrape it off. If you can do that while you're vacuuming the sand then you can point your siphon at the pieces as they come off and suck them out. That will keep them from rotting in the tank and fertilizing more algae.
The powerheads should be getting cleaned as part of your regular maintenance. I soak mine in vinager and then use a soft brush on the impellers etc. algae will come off along with the rest of the crud that they build up. I do it every 3 months or so.
Like grun said, without more info it's hard to say. But yeah, if you don't like looking at it on the back glass, scrape it off. If you can do that while you're vacuuming the sand then you can point your siphon at the pieces as they come off and suck them out. That will keep them from rotting in the tank and fertilizing more algae.
The powerheads should be getting cleaned as part of your regular maintenance. I soak mine in vinager and then use a soft brush on the impellers etc. algae will come off along with the rest of the crud that they build up. I do it every 3 months or so.
lespaul339
Reefer
Oops I meant phosphates.
Bent
I got nothin'
I'd get a new test kit, or just ignore it all together.
IMO if you have algae, you have po4, no matter what some hobby test kit will tell you. Algae can grow in as little as .05 ppm IME. Most of the time that's low enough for most test kits to simply read 0.
While it's possible (and likely) that the 10 TDS in your water was causing the issue, I would bet that you will still have issues after you address the problem. The rock acts like a sponge and will continue to leech po4 after the level in the surrounding water is low enough for osmosis to take over and start pulling it out of the rock.
I would bet you will need to run some GFO until the source (the rock) exhausts.
IMO if you have algae, you have po4, no matter what some hobby test kit will tell you. Algae can grow in as little as .05 ppm IME. Most of the time that's low enough for most test kits to simply read 0.
While it's possible (and likely) that the 10 TDS in your water was causing the issue, I would bet that you will still have issues after you address the problem. The rock acts like a sponge and will continue to leech po4 after the level in the surrounding water is low enough for osmosis to take over and start pulling it out of the rock.
I would bet you will need to run some GFO until the source (the rock) exhausts.
Dkuhlmann
New member
I agree with all that was posted. Get Mexican Turbo snails they love to eat GHA and eat tons of it. Don't get anymore than one per 10 gal of water volume, otherwise when the GHA is gone many will die. Now if you have a sump you can put some of them in there after your DT is free of most of the algae.
