Algae issues Please help

Randy D · #1 01/23/2007, 08:58 AM

I have been in a 2 yr fight with this hair type algae on my rocks. It is on my marshall Island rock (which I have been told does tend to have this problem). The algae is a brown very fine almost cotton like. A simaler type grows on my Tunze's and around my overflows, just more dense and looks like hair. I am doing all the normal things to eradicate it like fuge with chaeto, good husbandry, good skimer, high alk, dose kalk, UV, carbon, snails, etc.

My water quality is good no detectible NO3 or PO4. I tried RowaPhos but did not like the depressed PH.

I am now wondering if it may be my lighting or light schedule.

I run the following

10am 4-110W VHO Actinic-on

3pm 2-250W Mh 10K reflux-on

9pm MH off

10pm VHO off.

I did this thinking the MH was contributing to the algae growth.

Am I right? Does anyone think that lighting could be an issue.

thanks

graveyardworm · #2 01/23/2007, 06:25 PM

Do you have any herbivorous fish? What about inverts?

Randy D · #3 01/23/2007, 06:37 PM

Some snails and hermits, however not enough. I am going to go with alot of Turbos and some hermits.

My only herbivore fish is a Kole Tang. I can't seem to keep a blenny, I think it becomes RBTA food.

graveyardworm · #4 01/23/2007, 11:24 PM

The Kole tang is more of microalgae/detritus eater, not so much filamentis.

Turbos are reported to munch on HA, and I have had some luck with them. It started out with a taste for HA, but must've found something it enjoys more.

scowar · #5 01/24/2007, 03:28 PM

I'm certainly no expert, but that seems like a long light cycle with the VHO's. 12 hours? I know out in a normal reef things get about that much light, but i've always had algae problems whenever I go over 8 hours with any kind of lighting. I'd cut down on the VHO's and see what happens. Try an hour before and after the halides so you've got them on for 8 hours.

TwentyTwenty · #6 01/24/2007, 06:06 PM

I have the same problem, Nothing works.I have done everything you could think of and more. Here is this weeks solution: bought a shop-vac. A wet-dry one of course. Built attachments to down size the hose diameter and sucked it off everything I could. It actually worked, got about half of it. Will do it again on next weeks water change and the one after that. You get the picture. Maybe at some point I will get ahead of the game and defeat it . If you want I will keep you updated on the success or failure. Good luck .

Randy D · #7 01/28/2007, 10:48 AM

Well, I have bought about 18 turbo snails and going to see what that does.

graveyardworm · #8 01/28/2007, 11:44 AM

Turbos eat alot, and require alot. When food supplies begin to dwindle think about trading some out before they starve.

schneijt · #9 01/29/2007, 05:43 PM

Well, I'm going to jump on this bandwagon; this perfectly describes the algae I have been watching in my tank for the last couple months. It doesn't spread that quickly, but it is spreading across my tank slowly. Great husbandry, but it doesn't help the algae problem. Turbos don't touch it. Various hermits don't touch it...

I'm going to start slowly cutting my light back to 8 hrs/day. I am also considering an emerald crab, though I worry about it munching on other things instead of the algae... I will also try a lawnmower blenny soon, because even if it doesn't work, they're still fun to watch and enjoy.

So, I guess I'll keep updating here along with the others battling this weird brown hair-like algae. Eventually I'm sure we'll find a good way to get it out of there permenantly...

-Joe

Randy D · #10 01/29/2007, 05:52 PM

Joe, I here ya on this algae. My turbos and hermits don't do much for me either. I can't keep a lawnmower blenny, I think it becomes food for my RTBA. My only tthought is the lighting however I don't like the idea of cutting down on the time over the long term because of asthetics.

Joe, do you have any Marshall Island Live Rock? My algae came from my Marshall Island rock. I did "cook" this rock, but not for as long as I would have liked to.

Randy

TwentyTwenty · #11 01/29/2007, 07:10 PM

Guys, I'm down to 7-8 hours of light a day now. The emerald does not touch it, but chows any other kind of algae. MY snails and crabs do not touch it either. I have a fuge with macro in it as well. The vacuum thing I did, seemed to slow it down. I'm going to suck more out tomorrow with my weekly water change. If anybody comes up with something please post. Good luck.

schneijt · #12 01/29/2007, 09:11 PM

My rock is the "Buna Branch" from Reefer Madness. I didn't cook it. It's (the brown hairy nightmare) my only real algae problem, other than the usual "tank startup algae cycle" algaes, which went away with time and good husbandry.

Good to know the emerald would just be adding more useless life to my cleanup crew. I guess the next step for me is a lawnmower blenny...but I have my doubts he/she'll eat it. I may just be stuck doing my best to limit the algae. I'm wary of pulling it out, since I'll probably just help it spread more by doing that. I may have to rig up a suction device to pull out the water as I scrape the algae off.

I guess we can just keep each other posted and maybe come up with some better ideas than we have right now...

Thanks all,
Joe

schneijt · #13 01/29/2007, 09:13 PM

One more thing... For me this algae doesn't spread very fast, so I think if you can scrape it off and suck out all the algae, you can easily stay ahead of the problem... I doubt it'll ever completely go away this way, but it shouldn't be too hard to keep the algae to a minimum if we just do regular scraping/vacuuming of it.

-Joe

schneijt · #14 01/30/2007, 10:02 AM

Well, these are two algaes I found through a photo search. Both look similar to what I have, but without much more detailed/zoomed in photos I can't say for sure if either of these species is what I'm having trouble with.

http://saltcorner.com/sections/guest...ous/Wargus.htm

http://saltcorner.com/sections/guest.../Nemastoma.htm

Since I don't have photos of the algae in my tank, I'll say that mine grows in clumps maybe 3/16" in diameter. There seems to be a smaller "anchor point" in the rockwork, and then it's like a ball of brownish cottony "fluff" that extends up maybe 1/2" high. I can pull out individual clumps with my hands, so that makes me think that if I siphon out the surrounding water as I pull it, I can easily "beat" or at least stay ahead of this algae.

-Joe

Randy D · #15 01/30/2007, 05:42 PM

Joe the first pic looks like mine. I noticed today that it is starting to grow more. I am going to cut my photo period down to 8 hrs. per day and get more cleanup critters and see what happens.

Randy

schneijt · #16 01/30/2007, 09:17 PM

I will also say that the first picture resembles mine more than the second.

-Joe

Randy D · #17 01/30/2007, 10:08 PM

I just posted a thread in Lighting, questioning what type of lighting will be LEAST effective on algae growth.

TwentyTwenty · #18 01/30/2007, 11:58 PM

Oh ya it's the first one. Vacuumed out as much as possible with my water change today.Do not go crazy with the clean up crew they really do not eat the stuff. It came back on the rocks,but not the substrate in the week.

schneijt · #19 01/31/2007, 12:34 PM

http://www.reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopi...3581cf04943d94

This person is also having our same problems, and nobody there was able to offer any suggestions either...

-Joe

Randy D · #20 01/31/2007, 12:35 PM

Thanks for the link I will follow it also.

TwentyTwenty · #21 01/31/2007, 02:27 PM

Anyone try a Molly ? I read on another thread somewhere they will eat most any type of algae. Just acclimate and let them have at it.

schneijt · #22 02/01/2007, 12:02 PM

http://www.3reef.com/forums/water-ch...lem-34473.html

http://www.3reef.com/forums/attachme...m-img_0575.jpg

There, that picture is EXACTLY what I'm dealing with... Mine's not as bad...yet...but it's comforting to know I'm not the only one who's unable to stop this brown fuzzy madness!

-Joe

schneijt · #23 02/01/2007, 07:31 PM

Well, I'm a bit stupid... I just now noticed there was a second page to that thread. The guy had outdated RO filters and DI resin. When he changed his filters, the problem fixed itself. But, I don't think my source water is my problem. Nonetheless, I'm still focusing on water quality. I've cut back to eight hours of light each day, and I'm feeding lightly every other day. I'm also working on getting the best skimmate possible. Combined with more frequent water changes, I'm hoping I can get this algae to give in and leave my tank for good. We'll see. If my fish start to look bad, I'll feed larger amounts, but I'm sure they can go with less food than usual for quite a while. Nutrients nutrients nutrients, I'm sure I can do better controlling them, even though I consider my husbandry to be quite good.

-Joe

schneijt · #24 02/01/2007, 07:31 PM

And I'm going to add some more flow to the tank, I'm sure that'll do it's part to help as well.

Randy D · #25 02/01/2007, 07:41 PM

Here is thread I posted about my problem.

http://www.fishheads.org/viewtopic.php?t=13839