Won't go away

Umm, this might be a dumb question but do you have a reliable test kit? I had this problem with my bros 135. I did 2 50% water changes in 3 days and pulled half the rock out and scrubbed it in the first water change, and pulled the second half out and scrubbed it on the second one. The prefilter sponge in the overflow got cleaned, the polyfilter in the wet/dry got changed and a lot of carbon was added. I added enough bacteria to treat 500 gallons since there was probably quite a bit of loss there. (As scary as it is we had to clean the bioballs as well.) Now we just keep on top of it, scrubbing the rocks when it forms again, and doing water changes monthly. The tank is a FO right now so it is probably somewhat different from your situation, but I wanted to share that with you in case you get so fed up with it you want to wage war on it (that's what I did, and so far I'm winning).

 

If it hair algae try a sea hare it will be gone in a week. Absolutely wiped mine out and it has never come back.

 

Sorry gang, I've been off the past few days working on my new bathroom. I'm using a Salifert test kit that's only a few months old so I don't think that's the problem. RO water checks out ok. I'm stumped. It's getting to the point where the rock is all going to come out and go in a trash can full of water and bleach. I'm just worried about the fish surviving without rock.

 

Green Hair Algae, Why Me?

 

yea I just read that article a few days ago. I've tried everything in there including pulling the crap out by hand. The only water chemistry problem I still have is my MG and Ca being low. I'm working on getting them up but they were so low it's just going to take time.

 

hair algae cure?

I feel bad about this tank because I think the rock I sold you gets blamed for some of your problems. I don't think it's the cause because it wasn't overgrown with hair algae in my old tank when you took it. Also, I put the rock in my tank down here in Texas when I set it up. I did have one rock that had hair algae on it, and I added about 50 lbs of live rock that I bought down here. For the first 2 months, I didn't have any hair algae, then I bought a tang and fed it seaweed from the pet shop. BIG MISTAKE!!!! suddenly, hair algae was popping up everywhere and it took over my tank in less than a month after I got the tang.

I quit feeding the fish the seaweed stuff, and pulled almost all of the hair algae out of the tank, but it just grew back. I bought the polyfilters and a phos-pur pad from the doc's. It didn't help.

I was reading an article about how to get rid of red slime and it suggested using Thiel Redox+ liquid. I looked at the lfs, they didn't have that, but they did have a product called "clear pond, quick fix." It's supposed to increase the amount of oxygen in the tank. I tried it, and it didn't work. Then I re-read the article about the Redox. It said to keep adding it several times a day for about 2 weeks. I did this and the algae started to clear up..... then the algae began to change colors to more of a brown than green. Now, 2 weeks later, the algae is gone. The tank looks good now.

I'm not sure if it was the mangrove, the phospur pad, or the Quickfix, but the tank looks good and there's no algae at all!!

If anybody knows, does it make sense that this product would clean up the tank? After putting it in, the corals all closed up and looked bad, but the next day, they were all back open and looking healthy. Except for the xenia which died.... not a big loss because it was getting excessively large anyway.


Redox Plus Liquid - Cyanobacteria - Blue Green Algae - Bluegreen algae - Red Slime Algae, Algae, Undesirable Algae

Reefs.org: Where Reefkeeping Begins on the Internet - Redox and ORP

Really, what I'm asking is whether increasing oxygen by using an oxygen producing chemical (peroxide or this clearpond, quickfix stuff) can remove the DOC's and help to retard the growth of hair algae?

Maybe I should have started my own thead to ask that question.

 

Well Bruce I guess I should have nuked the stuff like Scott said.

I'm taking it as a lesson learned. I'm finally getting this under control though. The tank is still a ways away from looking like it should but it's getting there.

 

I don't think it needed to be nuked. Why is it any different from live rock you buy from a store? I bought corals from someone on this board, and a couple of those pieces had hair algae on it.

I think you have other problems than just the rock you put in the tank. If you take the philosphy that you should nuke all of the items that go into your tank, you can't buy any corals or anything else.

Heck, even snails and crabs have algae and other crap growing on them. Where do you draw the line once you decide to nuke everything.

The water needs to be controlled, it isn't the rocks fault. From what I've seen, every rock, plug animal has the potential of either growing hair algae or introducing it into the tank.

Adding rock alone does not cause algae to grow, the algae still need nutrients and the proper growing conditions to flourish. I think blaming the problems on the additional live rock avoids finding the root cause and correcting it.

Just my opinion.

 

I would agree with you to a point but rock acts like a sponge and if it sat in a poorly maintained tank long enough it would soak up all kinds of nitrates and phosphates. This could all mean nothing if you don't have the lighting to grow the algae like power compacts or something similar.

All I know Bruce is my tank looked flawless until I added that rock and within two weeks all the rock I had added had hair algae growing on it. Within another two weeks the algae had spread to the rest of the tank. Could this be coincidence? Definitely. But the thing that gets me is the algae started only on the rock I had added and then spread to the rest. I would think if it were slolely an issue with the water in the tank all of the rock would have started growing algae at once.

As for your comment on nuking corals and other inhabitants you don't nuke them you just dip corals (ask Otty about this) and you quarentine all live stock so it can be treated if it's sick.

In this hobby it's defeinitely to each his own and I can tell you no rock or coral will enter my tank without the proper precautions being taken.

With all that being said I'd like to finish by saying it's all good. I learned a lesson and my snails are eating like kings. (and queens)

 

I know you don't like the idea of turbo snails, but they cleaned my 65g in a matter of days. Green hair, red cyano slime, green slime...everything. I bought 6 and I'm going to take three back this weekend so they don't starve. Before the turbos I had a full (I thought) clean up crew hermits, snails and a star. Turbos made everything else look like childs play.