Ideas on cleaning the Overflow

[Acro-Phobia]

My tank is just about algae free, but my overflows have hair algea growing to where it is blocking the water flowing from the tank thru the slats into the overflow (AGA mega flow). I know it's probably helping me remove nitrates, but I have a good crop of cheato for that now.

Any ideas on how to get that stuff out of the overflow. I've tried cutting, pulling and scraping and can't seem to make a dent in it. Really don't want to resort to using my drimel drill. Anybody got a technique that works?

[Redfish]

Long handled bottle brush. Use a filter bag on the pipe to sump.

[JaredWaites]

Manual removal of hair algae works great, for a start...but can become a chore on systems with a lot of it.

Have you identified the hair algae yet? Are you sure its not Bryopsis? If you can identify it, there maybe better alternatives to fighting it.

Bryopsis can be fought by raising Magnesium levels to 1500-1600. Let me know what you come up with.

[Acro-Phobia]

I googled it and that looks like the real culprit. I've pretty much got it out of the tank, but it's all moved to the overflows. As you can see, I've got a healthy crop going.




Any ideas are welcome.

[JaredWaites]

Looks like Bryopsis to me.




That is Bryopsis in this picture here...so compare to your algae

If it is, raise your magnesium levels to about 1600 and watch it die

[Acro-Phobia]

Will that have any negative effects on the SPS corals

[JaredWaites]

None at all. You'll be fine.

It won't effect corals at all. It will however kill the Bryopsis as it can't tolerate Mag levels that high because it can't process it as fast as some other algae can.

[JaredWaites]

If it doesn't die you can raise to 1700 but wouldn't go any higher than 1800.

If it doesn't die, or wither, then its not Bryopsis. But its actually a form of hair algae I do believe.

[Acro-Phobia]

What,s your recommended method of jacking up the mag to 1600? Right now mine is running about 1200 (salifert).

[JaredWaites]

Use Epsom salts since your just doing this temporarily you don't have to worry about it affecting your Ionic balance as you won't be using it to maintain, but just to raise it over a few days.

Go to http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chemcalc.html

Then type in your tank gallons, then go to Magnesium calc type in current level and then your desired level of say 1600, then click the product and choose Epsom Salts.

Don't raise it more than 100PPM a day and everything will be fine.

[Acro-Phobia]

What affect will this have on my Cheato in the fug? Do I need to remove it while I'm doing this?

[JaredWaites]

No, shouldn't have any effect on Chaeto whatsoever.

[Acro-Phobia]

I think I've found most of the treads that cover this. I haven't completely read thru them all, but it appears that many people have troble with Cal and ALK when they use strictly Epson Salt. The ones that use Kent Tech-M seem to have good luck with less swings in the other parameters. I'm going to read a bit more, but it looks good. I don't mind spending a few extra bucks for the Tech-M so I'll brobably go that root. Lets just hope this is Bryopsis I am dealing with.

[Redfish]

If it has a structured frond it is bryopsis. If not, it is just plain old hair algae. It is easy to tell the difference.

[Acro-Phobia]

I went thru the Algae slide show and bryopsis seemed to be the only "hair algae" shown. I've got some of it starting in my frag tank overflow thats easy to see. It's very small, but does apear to be stating little flag type fronds.

As a side note, I set this tank up in late January and used a couple of 50 pound show piece live rocks I aquired from another system. The guy had hair algae in the tank, but none was on these two big pieces. HA!!!!! So I thought. About the third night after I had it up and running, I'm standing there admiring my new system under the moon lights. I see this massive explosion of about a gazillion spores shoot out of one of the rocks. Two days later, I've got hair algae everywhere and have been battling it every since. Morale....never trust a pretty rock......they all have a dark side.

[JaredWaites]

Well you can use Epsom salts for a fix like I said, but overtime without doing water changes, then it can cause an Ionic balance issue that will effect a few things. Its fine to use it for bringing it up to do this algae treatment, I just don't use it to maintain, well I have but I did water changes every 2 weeks pretty much. 25% each time.

[Acro-Phobia]

Understand. As I read thru the threads on the subject, sometimes it's hard to tell whether guys who are having the problems with it are really following the procedure or are not following it and just screwing it up. I'm sure none want to admit that they caused thier own problem.

I'm going to read some more and get as smart as I can before I start. I'm not in a really big hurry because the way my system is structured now, the main tank is kinda protected from algea spores in the overflows. They have to go thru quite a gauntlet before they can arrive back in the main tank.

[Acro-Phobia]

If you stall long enough on a decision, the perfect solution always presents itself. I got a 2 gal tank from the store, put in a mini jet (24 gph) and a little light fixture for it. Kinda a stand alone fug for this stuff. I put in 2 gal of my tank water, harvested some of the algae and have it up and running. Now I can experiment with the magnesium's affect on the algae in a closed environment without messing with my tanks chems unless I need to. I'll give it a couple of days to settle and start growing before I start jacking up the mag.

[JaredWaites]

Alright now your thinking!

Make sure you document what happens with that tank and post back here.

Good things to document are:

Salinity
Temperature
Magnesium
Phosphate or Phosphorous
Nitrate
Calcium (yes, some plants have a calcium uptake)
Iron (which hopefully you have none)
Copper (which hopefully you have none of this either)

The copper and iron just do a one time test on them and document it, and keep tabs on the others and see how its feeding and also how it reacts to the magnesium additions. If nothing happens with the addition of magnesium then its not Bryopsis and could be another form of algae and we can figure it out at that time.

[Acro-Phobia]

I don't have a kit for copper or iron. The rest of it I've started.

Side note. My mag used to always stay about 1150-1180. I'm half way thru my conversion from IO to RC and my mag is now running about 1280. Once I get completely on RC, I'm hoping it will be up in the grove.

[JaredWaites]

So why the change from IO to RC?

I've always heard good things about RC...and IO has been getting worse as the years go by. GARF no longer recommends IO.

[JaredWaites]

I think I might have a copper and iron test kit you can borrow, let me go to the shop and see if I can find it for you

[JaredWaites]

OH I forgot to mention.

You can use Kent Tech-M to raise your Magnesium levels if you feel uncomfortable using Epsom salts.

All in all it accomplishes the same thing, but is cheaper to use Epsom salts on larger systems as long as your doing a short treatment and not maintaining levels, you would be ok.

[Acro-Phobia]

The main reason for the switch to RC is the chems. I have just about all Monti cap and Acro in the tank, all growing like gang busters and my Cal stays about 380 and mag 1180. Jury is still out, but it appears the RC is helping them move up into the desired range. I'm not ready to go with a cal reactor (still dos) so the better salt appears to be helping. Second, 50 gal of IO salt will only get about 42 gal of water up to 1.025. I'm hoping the RC won't take so much.

[JaredWaites]

I see.

IO needs better quality control I do believe from what I hear.