Brown on everything, hair and cyno!

All was well with the tank until about 8-9 months ago when it started to go downhill. Now I have hair algae, red cyno on the sand and some on teh rocks and all of my rock looks brown. I took a toothbrush to the rock in a couple places and it comes off. Lights were changed about 6 months ago, all reading are good and even had a pro come out and test water twice. Tank is about 2.5 years old. Snails keep ending up dead too. Any ideas? Help.

Sea Clear System 90 gallon, no bio balls, with Aqua Sea sea urchin skimmer (bigger than needed), lots of live rock and corals and crabs and snails. Don't overfeed.

Nitates are 0
Phos 0.2-0.4
PH 8.3
DKH 275
Salinity .025

 

How long are you keeping your lights on. And a question totally off topic. Is Major your last name?

 

about 10 hours a day. IS there a reason you are asking about the last name? You are making me nervous.

 

Oxidize it!!

Here's my response to your problem and I know it will cause some disagreements, but it worked for me and I'd do it again if it were a problem again.

1st. I made sure there is no reason for nitrates, phosphates. I used the sponges and the phos-guard and removed activated carbon and dead crap.

2nd. I arranged the rocks so water flowed through and around.... I only have 3 rocks on the bottom now, and then there are caves under the rest to ensure water moves above, under and around the rocks.

3rd (And this is where they will disagree) I used an oxidizer. I used the stuff made for ponds at petco. this cleared up the algae and the red cyano.

4th I enjoyed the tank.

My tank was having issues where I'd kill the hair algae and then it would come back....with a vengence.... and the cyano crap. After I dosed it with the oxidizer, I haven't had the problem come back. The cyano bubble up and floated to the top of the tank. The hair algae either floated to the top or died. and went through the skimmer. I only used a little of the oxidizer at a time every day for a week. (check out reefkeeping.com ORP and the Reef Aquarium by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com )

If you try this, remember not to overdo the oxidizer or it will kill your fragiles.

After using this, I haven't had a problem for over a year. No hair, no cyano, no brown. It works great, now all I have it coralline in purple and pink.

If you want to research like I did, you will find there are several products our there that are designed for reefs which do the same thing, but they're more expensive. I bought a big bottle of the stuff (it comes in a powder) and it was more than enough for my 55 gallon tank.

You can also read up on the theories before you do it. Reefkeeping.com has an article on ORP which discusses this.

My personal opinion is that this is a reading which many overlook. I think that after a while the oxygen gets depleated and sometimes the rocks and gravel need a little help to remove the gunk. Once a bad case of hair algae takes over a tank, you have to do something to bring the orp back up to a normal level, or you will never get rid of the hair algae even if you do everything right.... but scrubbing the rocks doesn't work because the hair algae gets in the water and spreads elsewhere.


Or, you can take the simplistic approach used here.... get rid of your nitrates and phosphates... (which I never could find when I had the algae)

 

After I treated the tank, I haven't done anything to it since. And I haven't had a strand of hair or cyano. I think it takes drastic measures to get it under control after losing control.

You may ask other's for their opinions, but this is what worked for me. I didn't have any expensive corals.... just a toadstool, polyps, kenya tree, zenia..... I will be honest, the zenia didn't like the oxigen much, so you may ask others what it will do to corals.

 

don't be nervous. LOL that's my last name.

 

How much do you use if it is made for a pond?

 

Sorry I asked.

 

there aren't too many of us around. sorry should have put a happy facr or somethign.

 

After more research, I found that a UV light works as an oxidizer also, so this would help.


Aquarium Redox Potential; How it relates to proper aquatic health