Hair alge and vodka

steveomori

New member
Background of my poor habits
- i dont test the water params(its been over a 1.5 years)
-I do however test ater ever 4-6 months
- go figure when i started the hobby i tested weekly (made LFS tons of money as i feed off every BS they threw at me) tank params were near perfect except P04 were higher (not bad enough to retard coral growth but then again didnt have sps)
- now i dont check params and tank is thriving fantastically

-I have had green hair alge pop up a few places. not a bad outbreak but enough for me to assume po4 was high. I starting dosing also hearing that the corals brighten up quite a bit.
-I starting dosing vodka 1ml in the morning and 1 ml in the afternoon after the lights come on. Reading more about vodka scared me into testing the params

my PO4 is 0
nitrate is 0
my cal is low 350
alk was also low 6.1
havent tested strontium, magnesium, ioddine, etc... but that isnt critical regarding hair alge right?
so what is the deal why is there GHA?
I also bought 50 more cleaner crabs bought a sea hair and cole tang. cole tang just died because not eating enough (was very skinny) but i would see him grazing rocks and glass all day and sea hair disappeared after 3 weeks. bought algegone (dindt help), i pick the hair alge off the rocks but it grows back i have used a toothbrush to scrub clean the rocks and it returns. i am just afraid this will take over my tank if dont take nip this in the bud. What can i do?
 
Its not surprising that your levels test at 0. The hair algae is efficiently removing all the nutrients right when they become available.
 
The algae can grab the phosphate out of the water before it is consumed by the bacteria. It may also be thriving on phoshate from the rock or substrate leaching back into the now low phosphate water.
 
heard about using vodka in ur tank. also heard about what it can do to ur fish. if algae is a problem, u need to start a refugium and cultivate red/brown algae to consume all xces nutrients. read up on ATS (algae turf scrubbing). but since u have decided against reef husbandry, this will probably be of no use to u. good luck
 
odellous,

welcome.gif

To Reef Central

It's always nice to see a fellow Marylander here on Reef Central. :D
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14751638#post14751638 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by odellous
heard about using vodka in ur tank. also heard about what it can do to ur fish. if algae is a problem, u need to start a refugium and cultivate red/brown algae to consume all xces nutrients. read up on ATS (algae turf scrubbing). but since u have decided against reef husbandry, this will probably be of no use to u. good luck

Welcome to RC. First, I want to start off by pointing out reef husbandry is the practice of keeping aquatic wildlife. I think you mean good reef husbandry practices. Second, attacking people on forums is not the ideal method of going about causing positive changes.

steveomori, I would look at boosting your alk a bit. Oddly magnesium could help counter HA by keeping it in good order (just a thought but probably won't address your issue). If you are having HA issues, you can try to add more vodka in order to out-compete the algae for growth. Some people have reported success by doing this. Just increase until the HA no longer grows back upon removal.

Why did your tang die? Did you only have it for a few weeks?
 
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did you read his beginning posts? about him not testing his water par in 4-6 mos? probably not. i didnt attack anyone. simple reiterated what was stated at the beginning of the post. scroll up and read...after all, reading is fundamental.
 
odellous,

Howard County here. I think you will find that the Chemistry Forum can be one of the most educational forums on RC, IMHO.

In this forum you will find many very educated chemists, Biologist,
Molecualr biologist........, etc. We are lucky to have them all here with us. They help keep us fellow reefers up to date on many of the cutting edge portions of our hobby. ;)

Genetics has written a feature article in the Reef Keeping Magazine which you may find interesting:

Vodka Dosing...Distilled!
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-08/nftt/index.php

Your opinions are always welcome here. After all, this is how we all learn. :D
 
A few little patches of GHA is not the kiss of death, it is natural and nothing to worry about.
In my system there are a couple of patches in my DT on the back glass down low behind the rocks and cannot be seen unless you are looking for it, it has not spread and I do not lose sleep over it.
My refugium has GHA on the back glass and overflow box, there is even a patch or red cyano on the substrate (the horror).
My seahorse tank grows a nice mat of GHA about the size of a dollar bill that is easily removed once a month.
Algae grows in saltwater - it is a fact of life, the struggle to totally eliminating it is what drives a lot of people out of the hobby.
Control is the key not elimination, IMHO of course.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14751689#post14751689 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by odellous
did you read his beginning posts? about him not testing his water par in 4-6 mos? probably not. i didnt attack anyone. simple reiterated what was stated at the beginning of the post. scroll up and read...after all, reading is fundamental.

You come across as a jerk, as evidenced by both replies in this thread. If anyone reads threads and helps people on this forum, it's Genetics.

Did you happen to read the RK article by Genetics referenced? You may learn something yourself, you never know.
 
Odellous-
I do have a refugium its about 30 gal it is posted in the thread. I am not against caring for the tank I am just stating that testing is not my priority as much as watching the tank and noticing if there is something a miss. Like I stated previously I used to test all the time and dose accordingly but not I seem to just get a routine in place and I don’t need to test as the tank is happy(most of the time).

Uncle Salty-
I agree with your statement as the GHA is not the kiss of death and realize that it is a part of life but I am afraid it may get out of control. I have noticed that the GHA is around the tube amoneme, the tentacles may be keeping the tangs away from picking at it.

Genetics-
I really don’t know why my tang died he was very skinny but we would see him eat the cube food and he would graze the glass and rocks all day. I had the tang for about 2 months I did notice when we purchased him he was very thin, but I figured he was just underfed and I could fatten him up (obviously was wrong). I am afraid of boosting the vodka dosing as I would be miserable if my tank crashed, so I am being very conservative with the vodka. After seeing my cal and alk low I have started boosting the dosage
 
O.K. folks, lets keep the discussion where it is supposed to be.

That is helping Steve with his problem.

I have not taken any offense to any comments in this thread so far. If you read it different than I do, please PM me for an explanation.

Otherwise, lets help Steve out. It is his thread. :)
 
I don’t mix my own water, I get Catalina water from the LFS. i have upped the dosing to get the cal and alk up.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14752896#post14752896 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by steveomori

Genetics-
I really don’t know why my tang died he was very skinny but we would see him eat the cube food and he would graze the glass and rocks all day. I had the tang for about 2 months I did notice when we purchased him he was very thin, but I figured he was just underfed and I could fatten him up (obviously was wrong). I am afraid of boosting the vodka dosing as I would be miserable if my tank crashed, so I am being very conservative with the vodka. After seeing my cal and alk low I have started boosting the dosage

Slow is the best way on vodka.

I would correct your calcium and alk first and see if your tank improves. You may want to test for magnesium as I will venture that is low also. Also, if you are purchasing any fish from a LFS make sure they look healthy. Too skinny can signal an issue.
 
I agree with Nate.

I have bought a lot of fish over the years and if it does not look healthy at the lfs, I would not buy it.

The other question I like to ask is how long have they had the fish. If under a week, I would put a deposit down and say I'll pick it up in a week or two.

I suspect that fish was doomed when you purchased it. So sad. :(
 
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