hair algea questions

[hndakd]

my tank has been up and running for a little over a year. for about a month i have been battling hair algea. does anyone know of any way to help get rid of this stuff, its totally out of control

nitrate 5.0
nitrite 0.0
ammonia 0.0
ph 8.4
phosphate 0.0
calcium 450

the nitrate could have been called a zero. i have been running phosguard for about 5 days now and nothing seems to be happening. i top off with distilled water

 

[drummereef]

Do you use RO/DI water and know what the tds is?

 

[Jerry W]

When is the last time you changed your bulbs?

 

[hndakd]

i use distilled water and i dont have access to a tds meter

bulbs were changed almost 3 weeks ago when the ballasts blew on my fixture

 

[drummereef]

Could be from the new bulbs then. Any excess nutrients in the water source isn't going to help the problem either.

 

[hndakd]

any suggestions to help get rid of it? im skimming the crap out of it with my junk skimmer.

 

[drummereef]

How much flow do you have? What brand skimmer? What size tank?

 

[hndakd]

i have 90 gallon with built in overflow 2 hydor # 3's, 4 maxijet 900, return is mag 9, sump is pro 75 wetdry with crap skimmer

 

[drummereef]

What inverts/animals do you have that would enjoy hair algae? Sounds like you are wanting a new skimmer...?

What do you have in the wet/dry?

 

[hndakd]

im lovin how fast you respond i actually just bought a aqua euro 135 recirculating. then i plan on adding a huge fuge... after building a new stand for all my new toys... and havin my daughter... ahh the joys of a very expensive hobby. umm animal wise i did have a lawn mower blenny but he mysteriously died a couple of weeks ago. as far as inhabitants go i have a purple tang asfur angel maroon clown lots of softies and mushrooms, blue hermits (along with one holloween crab ) and a sally light foot crab

 

[drummereef]

And the purple tang ignores it?.... I'd add some astrea/turbos if you don't have any snails in there. When I've kept hermits they've done nothing for algae probs. Mexican turbos are good lawn mowers.

 

[hndakd]

theres only so much he can eat before hes full. i do have a couple of snails in there but they have been murdered by the halloween crab on a couple of occasions

 

[drummereef]

Yeah, I've never had much luck with hermits and snails in the same tank. I only keep snails now.

 

[drummereef]

You might want to try some Phosar HC or Phosban. I think they are better products than Phosguard. The 0 level on the phosphates isn't probably accurate since the hair algae is feeding on the nutrients.

LINK:
http://www.melevsreef.com/2007/02/im-trying-out-new-product-that-reduces.html

 

[hndakd]

what should i look into a reactor? or is it just a usless piece

 

[drummereef]

The Phosban reactor can make both medias more effective because of the increased contact time in the flow. I would just start with it in a media bag and see if it makes a dent, then upgrade to the reactor if you get good results.

 

[hndakd]

i guess i have been on the right track. ill get back to ya in a month

 

[drummereef]

Sounds good. :thumbsup: