tech question/hair algae

[Bsmith_SigEp]

Technical question: I have recently been battling hair algae like crazy lately....bought me a new clean up crew last week and a small goby type fish i think it was that eats hair algae....well needless to say it died after a few days......next i replaced all of my RODI filters....and even the membrane.....im trying to eliminate all sources of why im getting the hair algae.....Now today i went to a local store in Jackson,tn called "Below Sea Level" and he suggested that i put some "GFO" in my tank in a hanging bag and let it circulate.....i kinda have no clue what this is but he sold it to me very cheap so i got it to try or figure out what it is...ha....
now my next question is should i still do water changes each week now to try to elimiate my algae issues...or since im going to use the GFO wait and not do water changes as much?? need help......i really hate seeing my tank struggle like this and plus its a lot of extra work at a bad time...haha....please please help.....

 

[nck1992]

Simply say, it's a phosphate removing media. Because algae blooming can be caused by phosphate accumulation, if you can control phosphate level, you can control algae growth.

 

[OneReef]

Does GFO work just sitting in a bag? I thought it had to tumble in a reactor.... But I'm not sure.

 

[OneReef]

Basically, you gotta find out what is causing the hair algae or it will never go away. It could be: not enough water changes, too high phosphates, over feeding, too high bioload, not enough filtration (mechanical or biological), old light bulbs causing bad spectrum, bad RO water. I know you just changed yours but you have to make sure that you bought the correct size membrane. Those are some places to start looking.

 

[Rudolph]

GFO is much more effective in a reactor. The tumbling, as Jay noted, will expose more GFO surface to the water (making it more effective). I have always used mine in a a reactor, but I hear that it will clump up in a bag and of course not be very effective.

I would definately continue to do regular water changes until it is gone. I would change at least 20% each week.

I had a small outbreak recently and could not figure out why. I finally got around to testing my ROI water and it was really high. I changed my DI resin and I am back to zero on my TDS meter. I changed my GFO and did 25% water changes for a few weeks and the two spots are gone.

Hang in there, it is frustraiting. We have all been there at one time or the other. It is frustraiting as it can take some time to see the effects of any changes. Changing the water frequently and larger than normal can speed it up.

 

[Larson]

You can use the gfo in bag but I'd suggest moving it around with your hand every day to keep from clumping and more surface area getting used. I also never use the full amount. But start in baby steps, it's a good phosphate remover. You never want to change any parameter to fast. Could have a negative response on your corals. To many factors into hair algea, it's going down the list and control each one as best as you can.

Depending on the size of the tank you definitely want some herbivores in there besides just snails . And I do reccomend a huge variety of snails. Not all snails will eat 'all algea' , each has a preference .

If you get a lawnmower blenny they are good , but they are only herbivorous , they'll never eat frozen. Dragon Goby/Hectors/Rainford goby will pick at the algea and do some sand sifting, though the Dragon is much larger.
Urchins = double edged sword, while usually eating your hair algea they eat coraline, and knock things over, or scratch acrylic.

Make sure your rinsing your frozen food well with cold water after defrosting it in a brine shrimp net to discard the 'dirty water' that food gets packed in, that just becomes a food source for algea. Remember most 'fishes' stomach is about as large as it's eye. It doesn't take much to fill one up. Feed in smaller quanities but more often .

Check your bulbs ( unless your using LED ) and see if it's time to replace, I've used algea outbreaks as a sign to check to see if they need to be replaced, they've shifted spectrum to much and are more beneficial to algea. Also make sure your photo period hasn't gotten changed or is to long. I really like 8 hours personally but 9-10 can be acceptable. But that figures into bulb life if your running it longer.

Hope that helps some and points you in the right direction.

Larson