Hairy Algae

[vicki]

Hi

I am a relative newcome to reef tanks. I have a six month old 750 litre tank with a refrugium. Lately it has developed masses of stringy brown hairy algae that covers the rock and corals, plus the glass. I brush it off but can't get rid of it all and it comes back thick and fast. My heylides are on 8 hrs and blue lights an hour either side of that.

Any body got any suggestions...PLEASE!!!
Vicki:frustrat:

[email protected]

 

[yote]

Welcome to the site Vicki.
Can you give us a little more information on your tank?If you can give us the results for ammonia,nitrite,nitrate,phosphate,salinity,calcium, and alkalinity,it'll help a lot.
Also whats your stock list look like?How much,how often,and type of foods ( frozen,flakes,pellets) ?

 

[dcantucson]

Hello Vicki.
The more information you provide the easier it will be to diagnose the problem your having. Often it can be a combination of more than one thing.

 

[vicki]

Thanks
Nitrates and Nitrites negligible, usually zero or hardly detectable. Calcium maintained at about 440, kH at about = 8, ammonia between zero and 0.6 Salinity 0.24, Magnesium around 1200 to 1280, pH 8.3, Phosphates = 0
In the tank I have:
3 clowns
1 bi coloured Blennie
1 Purple tang
1 Blue tang
1 Yellow tang
1 Lieutenant tang
2 Golden headed Gobbies
1 Pixie Hawkfish
1 Royal Dotty
1 Foxface
1 Flame Angel
1 Harlequin tusk

These fish are all small except the lieutenant tang.
I have a dozen or so frags (mostly polyps) and 2 anenomes.

There is a protein skimmer in the sump too.

So, any ideas about the hairy algae?
Thanks
Vicki

 

[vicki]

P.S.
Sorry, forgot to mention the feeding.
I feed them about a teaspoon of flakes in the morning and about 1-2 tsp in the evening of chopped fresh mussel or frozen marine foods.

 

[yote]

If I'm thinking right,your tanks close to 200 gallons.
6 of your fish are big waste producers.I think your way over stocked.Especially for a 6 month old tank.
I'd suggest cutting back on the feeding some.Cut out the flakes completely.Feed the frozen once a day to once every other day.
Increase the water changes.
Remove as much of the algae as possible manually.

 

[vicki]

Thanks for that. Which 6 fish are waste producers?

 

[daugherty]

the tangs, the foxface and the harlequin

 

[vicki]

Today I'm going to throw caution to the wind and turn the lights off for 24 hrs. I'll put what corals I can remove in the sump where the lights for the Caulerpra will shine on them, the rest will have to remain unlit. See if this knocks back the brown algae and gets things unde control a bit.
Do you think this will help?

 

[daugherty]

it will help. do you have any phosphate remover like phosban that will help also. getting your ph up closer to 8.6 and rasing your alk and mag higher will also help to get rid of alage.alk around 10-12 dkh some people go even higher than that. and mag at about 1500

 

[vicki]

Thanks a bunch!!

 

[reefsahoy]

vicki, are you adding tap water for topoff or for salt mix? do you have some sort of phosphate media remover and protien skimmer? if you are using tap water that's probably where your issue began. if you are using ro add a DI chamber to it. this will strip everything from the water and starve the algae. if you are not using some phosphate media add some. good luck

 

[vicki]

I am using R.O. water, it's quite a big unit. But I've never heard of a DI chamber. Can you describe? Thanks a lot.

vicki, are you adding tap water for topoff or for salt mix? do you have some sort of phosphate media remover and protien skimmer? if you are using tap water that's probably where your issue began. if you are using ro add a DI chamber to it. this will strip everything from the water and starve the algae. if you are not using some phosphate media add some. good luck

 

[reefsahoy]

I am using R.O. water, it's quite a big unit. But I've never heard of a DI chamber. Can you describe? Thanks a lot.

the DI filter is the last chamber to the right. It's green in color and as the filter begin to get exhausted it turns into a browinsh yellow color. the TDS going into the DI should be somewhere in the low 20ties to teens (the lower the better) and out of the DI you should get 0 TDS. what is the TDS output of you RO unit?

 

[Ted]

DI (De-Ionizing) cartridges do an excellent job of removing phosphates, silicates and nitrates from tap water. They are highly recommended for reef tanks but work just as well for fish-only tanks. I copied that from marine depot. Another thing you could try is a UV.

 

[reefsahoy]

vicki, where did you get your rocks? were they dead or live rocks? the reason i'm asking is that phosphates might be leaching from your rocks because they are new. if that is where your problem is then you have no choice other than be patient and use lots of phosphate remover. the reason you are reading 0 phosphates is because the algae is taking it up to grow and therefore you won't be able to read any phosphate. the other question is how clean is your sand? have you ever vacuumed it?

 

[vicki]

Hi reefsahoy,
Now thats interesting! Yes they were dead rocks! you're the first person that's suggested that as my problem. I've got 2 bags of Phosguard in the sump too. I turned the lights off for 2 days and the brown algae has gone and green is now growing back. I've cut my lights down to 7 hrs a day and cut the fish food down.
It will be interesting to see if it comes back. I have some stuff that you put in the water and its supposed to kill nuisance algaes and not affect corals, fish or coraline algae, but I'm worried it will kill my Caulerpa.
Cheers

 

[reefsahoy]

Hi reefsahoy,
Now thats interesting! Yes they were dead rocks! you're the first person that's suggested that as my problem. I've got 2 bags of Phosguard in the sump too. I turned the lights off for 2 days and the brown algae has gone and green is now growing back. I've cut my lights down to 7 hrs a day and cut the fish food down.
It will be interesting to see if it comes back. I have some stuff that you put in the water and its supposed to kill nuisance algaes and not affect corals, fish or coraline algae, but I'm worried it will kill my Caulerpa.
Cheers

if you can, take one of the rocks and soak it into a bucket of new saltwater overnight, then test the water for phosphate. if you get a reading, then the rocks are leaching phosphate.

goodluck!

 

[reefsahoy]

vicki, did you try seperating the rock and testing for phosphate?