unexplainable hair algae bloom
- Thread starter Reeferhead
- Start date
Schplitter
New member
I'm surprised that your foxface is not taking care of the algae. I had a gigantic bloom of HA about 2 months into the system. It took the foxface about 3 weeks to eat all of it. ... I would look into your TDS from the RO. Another thing to do would be to cut the lighting down to 5 or 6 hours a day...
Good luck
Good luck
geoxman
Premium Member
If you want my input I would say increase the feedings 2-5 fold. I have never had HA and I feed the tank a ton, about 20 times what you do. If you have enough LR and skimmer power your system will adapt. JMHO
Feed more!
read the whole thread pretty interesting.
http://forum.marinedepot.com/Topic20086-9-1.aspx
good luck!
Feed more!
read the whole thread pretty interesting.
http://forum.marinedepot.com/Topic20086-9-1.aspx
good luck!
My tank is too small for any tangs or a foxface. I just got back from MS and bought 20 trochus snails and a lawnmower blenny. I have a Seahare but haven't seen him since I moved him from the frag tank to the main tank. From what I could tell he never did much damage to the algae in the frag tank anyway
I'd love to feed more, I'm sure the corals would greatly benefit. Unfortunately I don't think my current skimmer design is efficient enough to handle it. Finding the balance can sometimes be difficult.
Lost His Marbles Name
In Memoriam
I had the same problem. I tried about everything they had in and out of the book. So i bought a bunch of urchins and i haven't had any algee problems since. But you are talking to a crazy person.
DrBDC
Active member
Actually I found this page:
http://www.waterfiltersonline.com/carbon-gac-bulk.asp
I didn't look much further so there may be even better prices. I want to go back and read the article that was from and make sure the product tested was what is being sold and not another version. Here's part 1 of the article Dr. Randy always links to:
http://www.pets-warehouse.com/carbon.htm
http://www.waterfiltersonline.com/carbon-gac-bulk.asp
I didn't look much further so there may be even better prices. I want to go back and read the article that was from and make sure the product tested was what is being sold and not another version. Here's part 1 of the article Dr. Randy always links to:
http://www.pets-warehouse.com/carbon.htm
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9421890#post9421890 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by DrBDC
I don't think this is much of the problem but you may want to try a different carbon. Kent is about worthless IMO.
Well that's a bummer I still have about 4 gallons of Kent carbon. Do you have a link to this study?
On another note, I think I'm starting to get a handle on my HA problem. I think removing the filter sock helped and the increased flow by the Koralis. I need a couple more queen conchs though. The one I have really chows down on the stuff. Anyone know of any locally? currently?
Thankfully my HA problem is finally over. Unfortunately, I now have a resurgence of Lobophora and Bryopsis. 
frenchie
New member
if it is bryopsis growing in your tank not many things will eat it and if they do they will die it has a toxin or something in it that only a few inverts will eat and live like lettuce nudibranch eats byropsis. Did some reading on this cause my new setup 29 gallon has some and a few crabs have died already. i added a lettuce nudi in tank and a keyhole limpet, banded trochus snails, astrea, and nerite and sally archer crab and things are clearing up in my small tank.
My big tank has hair algae break out not bad just not going away all the way, think its de halide bulbs that came with fixture cause everything test good.
in order to keep nudibranches or sea slugs you will have to watch powerheads in my small tank i added prefilter sponge to maxi jet powerhead and hang on filter so no way for one to get sucked up and killed. Big tank can't do that with seio or mj modd so i added long spine urchin and 2 pincushion urchins and one purple urchin and there doing good on algae and haven't hurt one coral at all.
Did find some biological additive i bought at fairview pet store not sure what it was called but it had S.A.T. on the bottle i think but used it in my small tank for boosting bio filters and tank showing good improvement so got to buy more of that stuff its like a stress zyme i guess adds bacteria. On bottle it said to remove mats of algae while treating and i did that and it is not growing back, or yet anyway.
Shooter7
New member
Mine wasn't bryopsis, just some kind of scruffy turf algae. The sea hare definitely cleaned off a patch of it when I first put him in there, but then disappeared. Someone at the Planet Reef opening mentioned to me that they had heard of certain fish taking out sea hares in tanks before and that maybe that's what happened to mine. Don't know for sure. At any rate, I've just stayed on top of my water maintenance, running my skimmer a bit wet, added on my phosban reactor with PHOSaR in it, and did the other stuff I did regarding cutting back on feeding and the like, and the algae is 80% knocked back now and still fading.
I've tried lettuces nudibranchs in the past but I can't keep them out of my overflows and powerheads long enough for them to do their job.
I'm going to try some leads on a couple different urchin species. I don't think nutrient limitation will be the solution to these two problematic algaes.
I'm going to try some leads on a couple different urchin species. I don't think nutrient limitation will be the solution to these two problematic algaes.
I've gained a foothold on the Bryopsis by manual removal and utilizing the Magnesium method outlinedhere . I'd say I've eliminated about 90% of it with slower and slower growth noticed.
I'm still looking for a small (and very temporary) Naso Tang to fight the Lobophora. All in all the tank looks 10 times better than it did 3 month ago.
I'm still looking for a small (and very temporary) Naso Tang to fight the Lobophora. All in all the tank looks 10 times better than it did 3 month ago.
