Help!!! Algea ? and refractmeter?

[melissasreef]

ok.. so we have been in hobby for awhile. We have been stubborn and and made mistakes like all others. We are trying to do things differantly and how we have been recommended for better success, but running into some ?

1- Allgea-
For quite a while we were do the no no of using tap water. Have had allgea issues, but knew where it was coming from.

in the past three months we have switched to Ro/DI water. I would say abotu 50% of our 125 has been replaced at this time. We had a red slime issue we treated with Chemicne ( spelling). and and did the recommended H20 change as the manufacter directions stated. I would say most of the red slime is gone, but in its wake is very short hair allgea. So short i can not pick it off.
Nitrates - 0
Ammonia - 0
But Phos is .50 which I know is when hair allgea can start to reproduce and spread.
We have a tang and a clean up crew we also started Phonephate E from Brightwell aquatics. LFS explained that the treatment would help the phosphates to " fall out" of the h2o column and be processed by the skimmer. Product label states it may take 3-6 weeks for results. Although I know I do not have an awful high posphate level.

I have a mimic tang that is munching on the stuff. It is not infested but I don;t want it to go any further either.

Is there anything else i can do in the mean time? The algea is so short i can't pick it out. I know for this type of issue the idea ia to get out as much as possible then treat, but I can;t grab it. I can feel it. and see it

2- we just purchased a refratometer. we had been using a bobber to measure our salt content in specific gravity until now, but we have been aquiring some high end corals and I wanted to be more specific in our salt content. What is the measurement we should be looking for. The refactormeter measures in spacif gravity and another # what should I be paying attention to?

 

[thegrun]

1. Mexican Turbo Snails also eat hair algae. Long term reduce the amount of food you feed and use quality water.
2. 1.025-1.026 SG or 35

 

[ReeferBill]

Algea + Refractometer?

Algea + Refractometer?

Hi Melissa ; As far as the red cyanbacteria you could do another dose of the Chemiclean Red Slime Remover as per the directions. The hair algea that you cannot grab or remove by hand is being fed somehow with the phosphates. You can try to feed less , no more than 2 minutes worth of food that is all consumed . Also drain and rinse all frozen foods offered and no more that can not be eaten within 2 minutes. Nerithe snails eat hair algea as do sea hares. As far as the refractometer I still use the old way but make sure you keep your salinity`at 1.025- 1.026 sp or 35ppt ... You also have to calibrate it from time to time. Good Luck and keep us posted....:beer:

 

[alanbates12]

Do you have live sand. Do you have Live rock? When you do a water change are you cleaning your sand and blowing off your rock with a turkey baster. I had the same problem a while back. My best advice is to find where your problem is coming from before you buy something to try to fix it.

 

[melissasreef]

When we do water changes we are "vacuming the rock". We just did tests
Salinity is low 1.019 so going to slowly bring that up.
kh-14
Calcium 500
ph was 7.6 but we had just turned light on about 5 hours ago after being off for 36 hours to cut back light source.
Ammonia - 0
nitrate - 0
Phosphates - .5

My thoughts re the phosohates are from the original tap water still in the tank before we changed to Ro/DI. i am not sure but since we treated for the red slim about two weeks ago there was a great improvment and we did do a water change after the treatment, but the slim continued to go away. I am thinking that the break down of the red slim sould be contibuting to the phosphates.

Making Ro/DI water now and tested that and it has no phosphates. i will test the water once the salt mix is added to see if there is a reading of phosphates.

 

[mtnbiker44]

Red Algea?

Red Algea?

Is this what you have? I've had this for some time but just recently getting out of control, like the past month. I am just gaining more knowledge in this hobby so I have no sump yet. 3 power heads, Fluval FX-5 filter. Salinity 1.023 Phosphates 2 ( Brine Shrimp Food is only in the water column for less than 2 minutes fed once a day.
90 gal.
Yellow tang
2 Wrasse
2 perc Clowns
6 Damsels ( soon to be gone, to aggressive)
What has changed? I now have a 6x54 but only left on 3-4 hrs a day. FOWLR, about 150lbs LR, 120lbs LS. The tank has been up for about 3 yrs. I used to use only tap water till 1 month ago. Started using distilled water a month ago just after I realized the algea was getting worse. I've since gotten an RoDi so , in the past month I've replaced 15 gals. with distilled water & just this past weekend 10 gals RoDi. This stuf is growing before my eyes.
I've looked on the boards & have not seen this stuff. Hope I've given you enough info.
ANy help would be appreciated.

 

[blue736]

I had a real bad HA problem for months from tap water also. it did not clear up until I put in a deep sand bed (4" or so at least). then it cleared up right away. the ro/di unit I got didn't clear up my algae issues by itself. I think my issue was I did not have adequate filtration.

 

[melissasreef]

Oh and we have some live sand, some CC. And all rock is live rock. the system although been moved a few times has been running for 4 years. We have a 40 gal sump on it with a skimmer, uv light , bio balls. Bio balls were cleaned in March. Light is a 12 Bulb 12,000k ho system 6 white, 6 actinics. it is less than a year old. Corals all look good. I have a range of softies to hard and leathers. Fish are happy. I have limilted feedings. the fish aren't happy with this everytime i walk by the tank they are begging.

 

[blue736]

that crushed coral substrate will raise your nitrates and fuel algae... and the bio balls will too over time. I would remove both. the CC will be a PITA. :/

 

[disc1]

The phosphate also gets into the rocks and will continue to leech out for some time.

As for the refractometer, one side reads refractive index and the other side reads ppt salinity. They are just two scales of the same thing as far as we are concerned. So 1.026 on one scale or 35 on the other is the same thing, and what you should shoot for. Remember to calibrate that refractometer before you use it. Some manufacturers recommend calibrating with RODI water and setting it to zero, but this is not the good way. If you have no other choice do it that way, but you will be better off to get a calibration solution, or look up Randy Holmes Farley's DIY calibration solution. It works great. At least to the level of precision that we need.

 

[melissasreef]

MTNbiker44- yes that is the red slim we had earlier. the treatment worked for that, but hair algea was either under it or had stated as a result of the red slim breaking down and feeding phosphates into the system.. still trying to find the source.

 

[mtnbiker44]

This weekend I started noticing hair algea. This red stuff is litterally growing noticeably daily. My fish are all happy & very active. I'm very concerned at the rate it is growing. I will try another 5 gal water change tonight & again every other day.

 

[mtnbiker44]

One other thing is 2-3 months ago I changed frozen food.

 

[disc1]

One other thing is 2-3 months ago I changed frozen food.

A lot of those frozen foods need a good rinse before you feed them. They come in frozen in water that is full of phosphate.

 

[melissasreef]

Well according to the Brightwell aquatics directions on the Phosphat- E i can't test for phosphates while treating as i may get a false positive. I have decreased the light and feedings along with the start of using this product. I have noticed that I have not had to clean the glass since adding it, and the HA looks as if it has stopped growing nad possibly breaking down a bit. it was always short and you had to really look to notice it. I don't know how to tell if i should keep testing for phosphates, do a water change., Let the treatment continue to work. The directions on their site and on the bottle say results may take 3-6 weeks. Does that mean I do not do anything but treat the tank for that period of time? I just don't know what the next step is. I can not pull out the hair algea since it is so short. Will it kind of disintergrate once the phosphate issue is under control?

Thank you everyone for your advice.

 

[alanbates12]

mtnbiker44, that is cyano or red slime. This is what you need to get rid of it, http://www.marvelousproducts.com/Chemiclean-Red-Slime-Algae-Remover-p/chemiclean.htm

It may take two treatments to get rid of all of it. One box did two treatments on my 180. For me I was overfeeding and this caused a spike in the p04 and nitrates so that aided the algae growth. Once I learned to use a turkey baster to clean my LR and how to vacuum the sand bed its taken care off. If I can be of any help just let me know and good luck

 

[mgraf]

Everyone always wants to dump chemicals into there tank to "fix" problems, IMO not always the best solution, maybe a nice band aid but, not solution.

 

[alanbates12]

Agree with you mgraf. But never said its a solution, yes it's a band aid. Proper husbandry is the key. The only other way to get rid of cyano is manually. If you've been through this you'll understand. It's very difficult to get it out of all the cracks and holes in your live rock. Chemiclean will get rid of it then use proper husbandry to control it. First you need to find the source. IMO 90% of algae issues are to many nutrients in the system, ie overfeeding....

 

[Faye]

I didn't read the replies here, there are to many. I am sure you got great advice and I am just repeating what others have saiid. First off, who is this "we" you speak of? Secondly this is what I would do if it were my tank. I would continue doing water changes weekly with RODI water. Maybe 10 percent a week. I would make sure the TDS going into a clean bucket of fresh RODI water is 0. If it's more than 0, switch your filters. Next would be to add some fighting conches, turbo snails, cerith snails, and nassarius snails. Manually remove as much as you possibly can. The reason you have this algae is because you added tap water, no doubt. Is the algae all over the sand? Is it brown hair algae, not green? I have done this in the past. It takes time to correct. Also make sure you have very good flow circulating around your rocks, over the top of the sand bed, and make sure the flow can go through your rock work. GIve it a few months and you will see a turn around.

P.S. Personally, I was never in love with chemicals going into the reef tank, just good RODI water and good quality salt. You may also want to consider some way to export nutrients aside from water changes. Carbon dosing, macro algae, good wet skim, mangroves, ect.

 

[mtnbiker44]

mtnbiker44, that is cyano or red slime. This is what you need to get rid of it, http://www.marvelousproducts.com/Chemiclean-Red-Slime-Algae-Remover-p/chemiclean.htm

It may take two treatments to get rid of all of it. One box did two treatments on my 180. For me I was overfeeding and this caused a spike in the p04 and nitrates so that aided the algae growth. Once I learned to use a turkey baster to clean my LR and how to vacuum the sand bed its taken care off. If I can be of any help just let me know and good luck

I didnt think it was a good idea to vacuum the sand bed. I had been using tap water till a month ago, now I'm using RoDi water. bought a phosphorus Hanna checker. Reads .6125 extremely high. Doing water changes 2x weekly.
Thanks for all your replies. Will keep you updated.