New to the forums

[F16Freek]

Hello everyone,

I joined several months ago and wanted to cast off my lurker status. My name is Andrew and I've got two tanks, one 36 gallon bow front currently housing a couple of orandas and a couple of fan tails and a 55 gallon reef tank. I've been reading the forums off and on for a while now and of the forums I've been checking out, these seem to be the most friendly and knowledgeable so I figured I'd attempt to join the community.

 

[daugherty]

welcome just join on in

 

[yote]

Welcome to the reef.
Dont attempt to join.JOIN.

 

[Hornet]

Welcome to the land of the living :D

 

[RyanG]

Welcome to the Reef lurker! have fun and enjoy.

 

[Piggy]

Welcome to the Reef! Feel free to mingle and ask away.

 

[Bifferwine]

Hi and welcome!
Please ask any questions you may have.

 

[simpleman]

Welcome!

 

[F16Freek]

Thanks for your warm welcomes! What do you guys suggest when dealing with a hair algae outbreak from hell?

 

[daugherty]

a long spine urchin will do a great job but will also eat all your coraline alage. a lawn mower blenny will eat it sometimes. or there is marine SAT that will also help. http://www.aquaticexchange.com/product_info.php?products_id=1827

 

[F16Freek]

or there is marine SAT that will also help

Does that not contain copper? Its my reef tank that's green. Also do the long spines chew on the coral?

 

[daugherty]

the marine sat is a bacteria culture that out competes the hair alage(completely reef safe). and as for the urchin i use to have on in my old tank and never had problems but never put one in my new tank because i like the coraline better.

 

[yote]

The SAT does great on hair algae.But you still need to figure out where its nutrients are coming from.Phosphates and nitrates fuel the green hell.
Cut back on the lights and remove as much of the algae as you can.When algae die,they release the nutrients they have stored right back into your water.

 

[F16Freek]

After reading several threads I've got a few ideas of where the nutrients are coming from...

First I've got a 1/2 & 1/2 crushed coral/sand bed... As I've read crushed coral is for the loss...
Second, I've got a canister filter running all the time. I clean it once every week or 2 and its pretty full of nasty by then, so I can imagine what its dumping back into the tank.
Thirdly, I've got bio-balls in my wet/dry sump and I have cleaned them once since I had the tank set up. I didn't realize you needed to clean them... thought they were the main source of filtration.

I've already throttled back my Halides by a lot, and my actinics by a little. I've also added five mangroves I found for a good price on ebay. I think/hope they will help, but they've been in there less than a week and I would guess it's going to take a little bit longer than that to start showing.

I can't afford to change my bed now, and will prob wait till I upgrade my tank... But I'm going to yank the canister off the system and rinse the bio balls off when I get home.

 

[reeffreak]

Welcome to the site!

It's not really recommended to clean the bioballs all at once.Try rinsing 1/3 bioballs a week apart.BTW,if you have plenty of live rock(One lb. a gallon or more),you can actually just remove 1/2-1/3 each week til there is none.

 

[Bifferwine]

Thanks for your warm welcomes! What do you guys suggest when dealing with a hair algae outbreak from hell?

Deal with the source of your problems - water quality. High nitrates and/or phosphates.

 

[Altohombre]

I've got the same problems. Try lowering the amount of time your tank is exposed to your lights. I just try to hand remove or toothbrush remove most of the hair algae which lasts about a week then starts growing back. I'm hoping as my tank matures it will naturally fight things off better.