still battling hair algae

D

Daddyrawg

Member
90 gallon with 4 fish and 2 zoa frags...

tanks fairly new i think its been 5 months now...I'm still battling GHA..

used FLukanozole and it worked but its now creeping back. I run gfo, although may be exhausted by now..phosphates at around 0.1.. 10% weekly water changes and I don't overfeed. recently bought some snails and lawnmower blenny but I want to fight the source but cant figure it out...don't want to get more corals until gha situation is handled..

Is this just expected and now is a waiting game until its eradicated by my practices and current setup.. yes I have a Protein skimmer.

Have some NOPOx , may give that a shot.

Have new viparpsectra lights runing from 5pm to 930 pm only 4.5 hours a day for now. whites on from 6-830 blues entire time both only at 10% atm.

Thx all
 

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You bought rock that was leaching phosphates then as a tank shouldn't have .1ppm phosphate levels unless you brought it in on the rock or are overfeeding..

Continue with GFO and water changes to lower phosphate amounts and give it time..
5 months still new..

I always say plan on issues for the first 8-12 months of a tank as it takes time for it to mature..
What are your nitrate levels?
 
mcgyvr said:
You bought rock that was leaching phosphates then as a tank shouldn't have .1ppm phosphate levels unless you brought it in on the rock or are overfeeding..

Continue with GFO and water changes to lower phosphate amounts and give it time..
5 months still new..

I always say plan on issues for the first 8-12 months of a tank as it takes time for it to mature..
What are your nitrate levels?
Click to expand...


ok I will continue to fight the fight... I think I brought in the phopphates on the rock like you said. Nitrates 10-15
 
I used fluconazole and it worked, but like you it did come back. I did fluconazole one more time and that got rid of it for good. YOu could try a second dose.
 
tyleraoc said:
I used fluconazole and it worked, but like you it did come back. I did fluconazole one more time and that got rid of it for good. YOu could try a second dose.
Click to expand...

I thought of that also..I think I'll be more patient tho.. water changes
and maybe nopox
 
The fluconazole will probably knock it back again, but if you continue to have high phosphate, my experience is that you will continue to have algae issues. I would focus on the GFO, change it often as phos levels rise.
 
It's all good bud. That gha that died after the fluconazole treatment is breaking down and releasing its phosphates and nitrates back into the water causing new gha to return. Manually remove as much of it as you can and consider doing some water changes too
 
btmedic04 said:
It's all good bud. That gha that died after the fluconazole treatment is breaking down and releasing its phosphates and nitrates back into the water causing new gha to return. Manually remove as much of it as you can and consider doing some water changes too
Click to expand...

does scrubbing algae down with a toothbrush count as manual removal?
 
Your nutrient levels were elevated before Fluc treatment..
They still are after...
As such conditions for algae growth are still favorable..

I have used fluc before and did not do any manual removal prior to usage..
I did however fix my nutrient issues before/during treatment so the problem hasn't returned..

While manual removal can be beneficial if you have a major issue the amount in your tank doesn't really justify needing to resort to that..
 
mcgyvr said:
Your nutrient levels were elevated before Fluc treatment..
They still are after...
As such conditions for algae growth are still favorable..

I have used fluc before and did not do any manual removal prior to usage..
I did however fix my nutrient issues before/during treatment so the problem hasn't returned..

While manual removal can be beneficial if you have a major issue the amount in your tank doesn't really justify needing to resort to that..
Click to expand...
i just wish I knew what the issue was

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
 
Daddyrawg said:
i just wish I knew what the issue was
Click to expand...

The issue is simple..
For algae/life to grow you must have the following
1-Light (check)
2-Nutrients (check)
.1ppm of phosphate and 10-15ppm of nitrate is more than sufficient to fuel algae..
I always come back to a lawn/grass analogy..
Fluconazole is just like a one time lawn weed killer application.. Your lawn either requires yearly applications to keep the weeds (algae) down OR you need thick/lush grass that will out compete for the available nutrients and not allow weeds to be a problem.. Thick/lush grass comes with time/patience..

You didn't address the reason the algae was there in the first place as you (like many typical newbies) want that quick/easy button and though fluconazole was it.. Its not..... And the algae came back..

Typically nuisance algae is present when "elevated" nutrient levels are present..
Its all about a competition for nutrients.. When competition is low like what occurs with a new tank and nutrient levels are higher then algae thrives..
Denitrifying bacterial counts are typically also still lower with a new tank and as such nutrient levels are more of an issue/harder to maintain..
Start getting a bunch of corals in there and sufficient bacterial colonies and now there is competition..

Patience...
Carbon dosing will also be very beneficial for you..

I always use it in the first year of a tank while its "maturing" to maintain/achieve low nutrient levels.. After about the 8-12 month mark I typically don't need to use it anymore as sufficient bacterial colonies are in place.
 
mcgyvr said:
The issue is simple..
For algae/life to grow you must have the following
1-Light (check)
2-Nutrients (check)
.1ppm of phosphate and 10-15ppm of nitrate is more than sufficient to fuel algae..
I always come back to a lawn/grass analogy..
Fluconazole is just like a one time lawn weed killer application.. Your lawn either requires yearly applications to keep the weeds (algae) down OR you need thick/lush grass that will out compete for the available nutrients and not allow weeds to be a problem.. Thick/lush grass comes with time/patience..

You didn't address the reason the algae was there in the first place as you (like many typical newbies) want that quick/easy button and though fluconazole was it.. Its not..... And the algae came back..

Typically nuisance algae is present when "elevated" nutrient levels are present..
Its all about a competition for nutrients.. When competition is low like what occurs with a new tank and nutrient levels are higher then algae thrives..
Denitrifying bacterial counts are typically also still lower with a new tank and as such nutrient levels are more of an issue/harder to maintain..
Start getting a bunch of corals in there and sufficient bacterial colonies and now there is competition..

Patience...
Carbon dosing will also be very beneficial for you..

I always use it in the first year of a tank while its "maturing" to maintain/achieve low nutrient levels.. After about the 8-12 month mark I typically don't need to use it anymore as sufficient bacterial colonies are in place.
Click to expand...
thx mac..you da bomb

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
 
mcgyvr said:
The issue is simple..
For algae/life to grow you must have the following
1-Light (check)
2-Nutrients (check)
.1ppm of phosphate and 10-15ppm of nitrate is more than sufficient to fuel algae..
I always come back to a lawn/grass analogy..
Fluconazole is just like a one time lawn weed killer application.. Your lawn either requires yearly applications to keep the weeds (algae) down OR you need thick/lush grass that will out compete for the available nutrients and not allow weeds to be a problem.. Thick/lush grass comes with time/patience..

You didn't address the reason the algae was there in the first place as you (like many typical newbies) want that quick/easy button and though fluconazole was it.. Its not..... And the algae came back..

Typically nuisance algae is present when "elevated" nutrient levels are present..
Its all about a competition for nutrients.. When competition is low like what occurs with a new tank and nutrient levels are higher then algae thrives..
Denitrifying bacterial counts are typically also still lower with a new tank and as such nutrient levels are more of an issue/harder to maintain..
Start getting a bunch of corals in there and sufficient bacterial colonies and now there is competition..

Patience...
Carbon dosing will also be very beneficial for you..

I always use it in the first year of a tank while its "maturing" to maintain/achieve low nutrient levels.. After about the 8-12 month mark I typically don't need to use it anymore as sufficient bacterial colonies are in place.
Click to expand...
ok i was thinking the opposite...fix algae then get corals

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
 
Daddyrawg said:
ok i was thinking the opposite...fix algae then get corals
Click to expand...

I didn't intend to imply that you add a bunch of corals in a tank with an algae problem..
Only that once algae/nutrient issues are in check that having corals provides competition for nutrients to help prevent further algae issues..

Its far easier to fix issues when you don't have a bunch of corals in the tank..
Corals like stability.. Fixing issues sometimes causes instability..
 
mcgyvr said:
I didn't intend to imply that you add a bunch of corals in a tank with an algae problem..
Only that once algae/nutrient issues are in check that having corals provides competition for nutrients to help prevent further algae issues..

Its far easier to fix issues when you don't have a bunch of corals in the tank..
Corals like stability.. Fixing issues sometimes causes instability..
Click to expand...
ok makes sense

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
 
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