I recieved this tank from my cousin and he had some hair algae on the rock and back wall. i thought i got rid of it all but it literally just took over my tank this weekend! what can i do to get rid of this stuff quick?!? please help!
Have you done water changes, get new lights, and get rid of the yellow tang yet? Also, what do you have for clean up crew, and are you running carbon/ gfo at all?
I have not done a water change yet. and by new lights you mean bulbs?? and yes i actually got rid of the fish my cousin had and started over. i just bought about 30 blue legged crabs and about 6 snails. i do run the oceanic biocue fliter pads that have carbon in it. I probably sound dumb but whats "gfo" haha
Its a 29 gal bicube with factory lights and one strip of leds. i have the uv sterlizer and protien skimmer made for the oceanic bio cube. i need a new bulb which i buying tm for it and i dont have the skimmer up yet. i have 3 chromis 2 clows a yellow head goby 2 cleaner shrimp a star fish and about 30 crabs and 6 snails. Im getting hair algae on the back wall like crazy! i need it gone soon. im leaving for vegas on thursday and im kinda nervous if i dont get it under control by then when i get home im going to be SOL. is it possible that hair algae can never go away?
GFO is Granulated Ferris Oxide. It is a product degigned to remove the phosphates from your system! The green hair algea in your tank is thriving most likely due to high nutrients (phosphates and nitrates). Removing these nutrients (or significantly reducing them) is the remedy to your problem!
I would get that skimmer going asap with that bioload. The skimmer is another key component to getting these unwanted nutrients out!
GFO is Granulated Ferris Oxide. It is a product degigned to remove the phosphates from your system! The green hair algea in your tank is thriving most likely due to high nutrients (phosphates and nitrates). Removing these nutrients (or significantly reducing them) is the remedy to your problem!
I would get that skimmer going asap with that bioload. The skimmer is another key component to getting these unwanted nutrients out!
Good luck,
Keith
its gotta be my phosphates! im going to go pick some GFO asap and hook up that skimmer! once i get all of this stuff working will the existing hair algae disapear or do i still have to pick it out?
Get the 11oz bag of Chemipure Elite and throw it in your second chamber. It's a great product used for removing excess nutrients and phosphates.
While doing your water change, while scraping, siphon out as much of the algae as possible. Make sure all flow is off.
Lower your feedings down to 1x daily and only the amount the fish will eat within 3 minutes. How long are you going to be gone? Do you have any corals? Reason I'm asking is that it wouldn't hurt to go with lights out for 3-5 days.
What you want to accomplish is to starve the algae out. Take away it's food source. Nutrients, phosphates and light. Are you using tap water? If so, stop!
Get the 11oz bag of Chemipure Elite and throw it in your second chamber. It's a great product used for removing excess nutrients and phosphates.
While doing your water change, while scraping, siphon out as much of the algae as possible. Make sure all flow is off.
Lower your feedings down to 1x daily and only the amount the fish will eat within 3 minutes. How long are you going to be gone? Do you have any corals? Reason I'm asking is that it wouldn't hurt to go with lights out for 3-5 days.
What you want to accomplish is to starve the algae out. Take away it's food source. Nutrients, phosphates and light. Are you using tap water? If so, stop!
I will deff go and pick some of that up! I only feed once a day right now because of the problem im having! i have one plate coral right now. ill be away from the tank thursday till sunday but i have timers on my lights that have them stay on for about 12 hours a day... is that too much? and when i first got the tank i didnt have enough buckets to take all of the water and i got the tank late at night so i had no choice but to use tap water and i havent done a water change yet...
---------- Post added at 02:57 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:55 PM ----------
one more thing would it hurt my tank or make the tank cycle again if i take all the rock out and scrub it with a tooth brush to get some hair algae off? and its mostly on the back of my tank where its hard to get to because my rock work is there.
Taking out the rock and scrubbing it won't really take care of the problem The algae will come back in force. IME water changes won't really help...in theory they should but in practice they don't. Small skimmers are all junk too.
Nothing good happens fast in this hobby. However, if you load up a media sock with some GFO (many of our sponsors carry it please try to purchase from them if possible , Bulk Reef Supply is probably the cheapest), you will see an improvement. Then I would make sure you have a few snails to deal with the issue. I recently had a some hair algae growing on the sides of my tank. I added two small turbo snails to my 29 biocube and within a week, the algae was completely gone. I didn't do anything else.
A few other questions for you:
How long have you had this tank? Sounds like you got it already setup and moved it? Did you reuse the substrate? If so what is the substrate. What size biocube is it? How many fish are in there? How often and what do you feed?
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hair algae biocube
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Originally Posted by chort55
, Bulk Reef Supply is probably the cheapest), you will see an improvement. Then I would make sure you have a few snails to deal with the issue. I recently had a some hair algae growing on the sides of my tank. I added two small turbo snails to my 29 biocube and within a week, the algae was completely gone. I didn't do anything else.
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