Hair Algae begone!

For the past couple weeks I had noticed a major algae problem starting up. I started to get several patches on sand bed of hair algae. I cut down my light cyle with no results. I tried higher flow, thinking I had dead spots.. almost killed my xenia in the process. I was doing water changes religiously, and noticed a yellowish tint to my tank water. Hmm.. I run a refugium on opposite light cylce as well as carbon. I had cut my feeding in half.. what was the problem? (Also changed my lights.. which helped a lil.. i think).
My last resort to the problem was the water I was getting from the LFS.. having 16 gallons of tank I found it affordable to just buy water. So I decided to get my own tap filter, and mix my own water. I did two 20% water changes with in 5 days of each other. Water quality was looking better, and the algae sotpped spreading, and the yellow tint went away. With a CUC of 6 Blue Hermits, 6 Astreas, and 4 Nass snails, they were not doing much, which led me to believe I needed more. I went to the "New" LFS and purchased 2 huge turbo snails. 2 days later my tank is pristine. They cleaned up everything! I took my turkey baster to my rocks yesterday, and literally had no detritus coming off the rock.. usually I have a ton! The sand no longer has a greenish brown tint, and the hair algae patches are gone. The sand is bright white again. I can't believe it. The only thing I would suggest is to glue your frags down, or they will knock Sh-t over! If you are having algae issues, rule out your water and lighting, and then try turbos! Now I may have to throw algae wafers in the tank for them, b/c they ate everything! I'll post a before and after pic tonight! I also switched my bulbs from 10k/6700k to 12k/10k.. nort sure if that helped! Hope this success story helps, I'm so happy, I was freaking out!

 

Old bulbs may have been the cause of the algea. Snails are good to have in there anyways.

 

Yeah, found out too my LFS was giving me their waterchange water, and their RO was loaded with phosphates. I'd have a bloom after I'd do a waterchange. They we'rent changing their filters. I agree snails are good. Just needed more I guess.

edit
the bulbs were only 3 months old, they were stock bulbs, I would hope they we'rent the prob.

 

You were buying used water? That stinks... Just go invest on a nice RODI system, and have 100% control on your water. I wouldnt trust a pet store, I've seen a store manager replace his bulbs, and put the old ones back in the sleaves to re-sell, some stores suck... but I'm sure there are a lot of good stores out there as well...

 

Not much of a way to tell either.. that makes me mad. Where's Dateline NBC?

 

I thought I was buying fresh mixed water, it had to be used.. I got my own DI unit last week.. huge difference in water quality! Crisp and clear! Wow bulb swapping! That's sheisty! Yeah I'd get my saltwater form the LFS, before I went I rinsed out my containers.. when I'd get home, there'd be dark chunks of stuff at the bottom of my container. I can tell the difference between mixing my own, and using theirs.. there were tons of nutrients in their water, and I was having PH problems.

 

Yeah, sad too.. I thought they were really nice people.. when I first went there I think the water was good.. but their tanks lately look bad! They're def not changing their RO/DI unit filters... can't be! Of course I can't prove it.. all I can do is mix my own, and hold myself accountable from now on. When I get home I'll post a before and after pic.

 

Now you should see me when I buy new bulbs... I inspect them, every detail, looking for dust, wear & tear, finger prints...etc...lol

 

Wow.. I'm gonna do the same! Bas-ards!

 

yeah... I don't think I would buy anything from that store any longer if I were you.

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