HELP!!! How can i prevent or take out most of what i see will be a large algae bloom?

[seth16]

Well, my 29 gallon is already screwed, it is COVERED in hair algae, but what im most worried about is my nano and my 75. My nano has very little, but there is algae, and i dont want it to spread and take over my tank. My 75, which has new been setup for about 2 weeks, is starting to show alot of green on the rocks, it is not hair algae yet, but i mean, the rocks are green, not the color of when i put it in there...lol...there has to be a chemical or remedy for this algae problem. Like something you put a couple drops in once a week or something? please let me know wha this is, my nitrates are not high, especially in my nano, which i keep a very close eye on, as alot of moneys worth of coral is in there, but my 75 is still cycling, but if i can prevent or speed up the algae bloom,,i wantt o know how. Also, if there is a chemical or something, does anybody have a little bit that i could use to see if it works in my tank, and then i would go out and buy the big bottle with confidence. Just let me know if there is naything i can do. I have been scrubbing down some of the peices of rock with a toothbrush (just for rock and corals and such...no crest residew...lol) but i mena, you can get all of it, and the algae will always be in there, i will ahve a UV in there soon, but until then..........OMG< i dont want a bloom to happen...but guess what guys............IM FINALLY GETTING MY OWN RO UNIT!!!whoo hooooooo!!!!!!

 

[chrisstie]

Blooms will happen if there is something in the tank to fuel it. I've heard a lot of people even suggest that as a tank cycles it has the nitrogen cycle as well as its own "algae cycle" which really seems to be from any die off getting your rock in, things on the rock adjusting to your lighting system etc..

You have a brand new tank you don't want to put chemicals in yet!

Have you tested for phosphates and nitrates? If both of those show zero I still say you hold off.

I've had some wild rockstar algae when my rock cured and cycled in my tank.. when the water parameters were safe to put in critters I got a bunch of mexican turbos which helped a lot and a foxface lo (too big for your 29 unless you get a small one and put him in the 75.. rabbit fish are great hair algae munchers!)

the hermits marcye sells at sitc are good at eating the stuff too. Ever since I bulked up my clean up crew my tank has been doing very well - the phyto i add for my pods sometimes makes a nice green film on the side of the tank every few days which keeps my snails fed so they don't die


If you do get a phos or nitrate reading take a look at what you're feeding and hold back a little on it.. keep up on your water changes - you could try running a little phosban if you have phosphates.. ummm thats pretty much the extent of putting things into my tank i'd want to do for algae. I like the au natural way of going about it- and you'll probably always have some kind of algae in your tank even if its just micro algae growing on your rock

Hope this helps

 

[seth16]

Also, do you think that this is a good deal?

one good condition Red Sea Wavemaker pro

two Maxijet 1200's

for $75

 

[chrisstie]

I don't know much about wavemakers but at a few online places i saw a mag1200 running around $20

 

[seth16]

Thanks Chrisstie, i will get a crapload of hermits then, i already have like 10 in there, small ones, and two HUGE ones that were caught off the coast. Now, i heard that a "Sea Hare" will take care of any algae problem like nithng else, is that true? my lfs has two of those in the store now, and if that is true, i will pick one up, it was only $14 for like a 6" one

and my parameters differe, i mena, it is cycling, but the phos, and nitrates remain zero everytime i check.

so i will let it run its course then

 

[seth16]

on www.drfosterandsmith.com, thye have MJ's for $19, but with shipping, that brings it all up again. THe average price for MJ 1200's is about $25, and the new price of these wavemakers is around $130, so to me at least, i think it is a good deal, but if someone knows it is now, and knows of a better place to get things cheaper, then please, let me know

 

[DJChesnutRabbit]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9482504#post9482504 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by seth16
Also, do you think that this is a good deal?

one good condition Red Sea Wavemaker pro

two Maxijet 1200's

for $75

Red Sea wavemakers are like $120-140 new. I'm about to buy a used Red Sea wavemaker for $75 ....So if I were you I'd jump on that deal.


And algae blooms are part of the process. Watch you parems. and once they come down, then add you cleanup crew and in a few days all will be good.

 

[seth16]

OK, i will jump on this then......

 

[sytanek]

Ok sea Hairs are awesome for, well you guessed it Hair Algae. I would grab one of those, and some mexican turbos. Worked for my wifes tank which had the worst green algae outbreak ever.

 

[seth16]

ok cool, i will get one as soon as i can!

 

[sytanek]

Possibly run carbon, that tends to help too. not sure how long you should wait after having your tank setup before you do that tho.

 

[flfirefighter13]

New tank syndrom for sure, let it run its course for a while, check nitrates and phosphates. Phos tends to be the fuel for most hair algae I have seen. Just cause a test kit indicates 0 DO NOT believe it is not there. Its merely tied up in the algae at the moment. Pull as much out by hand as you can get to without going nuts. After the tank settles down and params level out it will start going away. the best luck I have had with GHA is the large zebra snails, may be Turbos but im really not sure. they are big and have zebra stripes on their shell. Ive seen them take 4" of hair algae off the back glass of a 75 in 2 days...... and im talking 4" long covering the complete back pane of glass. They then moved to the rock and had it gone in no time.

 

[jay24k]

Just let it run its course. Hair algae is fueld by phosphates. It is either coming out of the rock or from die off. Is your water pure RO/DI?

No chemical will fix it and a sea hare imo will not either. Just putting a bandaid on the issue.

 

[taketz]

Cleaning crew can sometimes help but like Jay24k said, ideally you want to just let it run its course if its a new tank and if its established, you'll want to find the cause of the nutrients...

 

[seth16]

ok, well i used 60 gallons of RO/DI water, and had to put water in yesterday... and it was tap, conditoned and de clorinated and all, but i felt soo bad putting that in there, but the algae has been there for days...so it was still with the RO water.

 

[InLimbo87]

If you are looking to correct an algae problem, putting tap water in is only going to make things way worse. Especially the orlando tap water, ugh, I can't even imagine what our TDS is around here.

 

[chrisstie]

Even if you had to use tap, it isn't like whatever was in the tap will always stay in your system. If you can stick to RODI in the future you'll be able to slowly pull that stuff out and after a month or so you probably wont see much algae at all going on in your tank

*fingers crossed!*

 

[seth16]

well like i said, the algae problem was there before any tap water went into it. at it has stayed abotu the smae since...so that didnt do anything to the problem, if not just kept it at a standstill....

 

[InLimbo87]

All I was saying is that the tap water is only going to make it worse. Regardless of whether or not you used it to begin with, if you don't stop adding any form of tap water to your system, the algae will never get better. I have never let a drop of tap water come near my tank and never will. Have you actually looked at the tap water around here? Its blue its so chocked full of chemicals...

 

[seth16]

well, the tap weater in my area (kissimmee) has a low TDS level, and low everything actually, somsone did a test with the water in Kissimmee and it was surprisignly clean.....but i know, i feel terrible about it, but now i know...