hair algae on sand

[jong101]

ok, so i have a dsb about 3.5" thick. It was doing great untill recently when it grew some brownish red hair algae. I have read that i should not touch the sand bed, but i am going insane looking at that crap. I just added a 20 gallon refugium w/ plenty of macro for nutrient export to help this not to continue. I purchased a lawnmower blenny to cut back the algae, and he hasent done too much. any sugestions on what i can get to pick it off the sand?

 

[conformity]

you can carfully remove it but , when trying to remove any algea from the sand bed has the potental to do more harm. it is almost impossable to remove large amounts of algae w/o just covering some w/ sand. thats pretty much like tilling a field to fertilize for the next harvest. it's a doupble edge sword.

 

[jong101]

i gotcha so really there isnt much i can do.

 

[drummereef]

How much flow do you have? Do you use RO/DI water? What is your nitrate and phosphate levels?

 

[Chrsnwk]

You could try to cut back on your feeding and add a queen conch or a sea hare.

 

[jong101]

I only us ro/di water. and have cut back on feeding

 

[dbui]

Cut back on the feeding, do water change, used ro/di water only make sure the ro/di water at 0ppm, add more current to the tank, removed the algae, check you nitrates, phosphate level they all should be at 0 that the idea condition, also lights how old are they? all of these factors can contributes to the algae. Good Luck! Everyone has the go thru these once as new to the hobby.

 

[jong101]

i realized what caused it. i had a slight rase in nitrate due to the adition of my refugium. i just ran all my tests. once the refugium sets in and the macro algea starts to grow it will hopefully level out.

 

[wizzbane15]

A queen conch or Sea Hare is a good idea. Most red algae is affected by using Boyd chemi-Clean. it's a reef and invert safe product. I use it regurally.

 

[cdbias2]

Nothing kills algae like a lack of light! Step your light cycle down slowly. A bunch of dead algae is as bad as a bunch of live algae.

 

[sage_commander]

Re: hair algae on sand

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9763910#post9763910 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jong101
I have read that i should not touch the sand bed...

Is that only true with a DSB? I thought (at least with a sand bed an inch or so deep) that I could give it a stir once in a while to keep algae from wanting to accumulate too much.

 

[sage_commander]

Sorry, I hate to be a "bumper," but could someone tell me: is it OK to give a shallow sand bed an occasional stir to keep algae from accumulating on it?

 

[drummereef]

Do you know what your nitrate and phosphate levels are?

 

[sage_commander]

drummereef, are you asking me? I'm sure they're both zero - there's no water in my tank yet. But the good news is that my tax refund *should* be here any day now. Then I'll be able to actually get my LR ordered.

 

[jong101]

yea, i tested them nitrate is at 20, and my phosphates are at 1