natural nitrate reducer (Instant Ocean)

[smwreefgirl]

HI! I know there was a post on here somewhere about this but I can't seem to find it. That'll teach me I should have subscribed to the thread so I didn't lose it. Anyways, I've been using this product for a couple of months now. I started dosing due to hair algae problems. I still have a decent amount of hair algae even though I've doubled the dosage on a couple of occasions as they suggested on the bottle. I have a 29 gallon tank. Anyone else had good success with this product ridding you of your hair algae problems? If so please give me some info on how much/how often you dosed and how long it took you to clear up your problems. I'm trying to have patience(but even the bottle says it should take a few weeks is all) Just need to hear some success stories I guess. Even if it's not a success story please go ahead and share as well Or if it wasn't a success for you did you start dosing with something else? find something else to rid the hair algae prob??? Thanks

 

[jgrog76]

You need to get rid of the nutrients that are causing the hair algea problem. I have always had a 100% success rate by pulling it out by hand. This does two things. It removes the HA (literaly), and it removes the nutrients it is using for growth. It may take a few weeks but eventually it will not grow back. If it does you have excess nutrient issues from bioload, feeding too much, or not using RO/DI water.

 

[ms123]

Agree with above. I have been doing the above method to get rid of my hair algae. pulling out all that I can and then doing a water change. It seems to be working, it doesn't grow back as fast and isn't coming back in all the usual places.

 

[bertoni]

I think some people have had success with it, but it has its limitations, basically depending on how good the tank's skimmer is. You might need to give it some more time or increase the dose, or try another approach.

How good is the skimmer on the system?

 

[thebanker]

I documented my results in this thread: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1766100

Like Bertoni said, it works well, but make sure you can skim out the bacteria created by dosing the polymer. The skimmer on my current setup is not as strong, so I don't dose this anymore. Also it gets expensive when you have to keep buying bottles of this stuff.

If you don't have a strong skimmer, it will create a feedback driven nitrogen cycle. Bacteria will thrive, then die, and then turn into more nitrates for algae.

 

[smwreefgirl]

I have been pulling the hair algae manually every day to every other day for gosh I've lost all track of how many months now, but lets just say an awfully long time:-( Thanks for the advice though cause I know that seems to work for most people, but unfortunately that just doesn't seem to be helping my case much. My mexican turbo seems to be helping out the most.

Thanks for finding that other thread for me, that was the one I was thinking of.

I think I just need to give it some more time and see how this product works. Still sounds fairly new, not many that have tried it yet it seems. As per the skimmer question..... I'm not currently using the protein skimmer that originally came with the tank as it didn't seem to be working so well and I was frustrated so was given some advice to try something new...using the filter cartridge instead in the back right chamber of my oceanic biocube. My friend who gave me the advice had a gorgeous tank using the filter cartridge and not the skimmer so I know it can be done just now sure what's going on in my case. I do use RO/DI water and do biweekly to lately been trying monthly water changes. about a 50% water change each time.

 

[bertoni]

If the Turbo snails are eating the hair algae, I wouldn't much bother with hand-pruning, most likely. I suspect the tank just is getting too much food input for its export capabilities. The IO product won't do much of anything without a skimmer, since its purpose is to make nutrients skimmable.

 

[daveonbass]

more water changes, not less. Try doing weekly or biweekly (twice a week) waterchanges. That will start you on the right track. It will begin to remove (literally) the water that is holding all the excess nutrients that the HA is griwing from. That would be where to start. Also you really should invest in a good skimmer.