Hello All

[Air Cooled V.W.]

Hi I am new to Reef Central. I'm in the west burbs of Cleveland. I've been in the hobby for about for about 16 years with a hiatus in between. I stumbled on this site trying to look up some info on hair algea breaking out in my tank. Well i hope you all have a great holiday!



Thanks for any help.

[oldreefer76]

[welcome]

[DevilBoy]

well first do you have a skimmer? have you checked your phosphates? do you use ro/di water? how old are your lights?

[crazyseany]

welcome to RC.

also devilboy meant welcome too...lol

but those are GREAT questions for a start on figuring out ur problem!

[rj ripetide]

WELCOME to RC

And to add to devilboy's list of questions... Do you use any type of filter media? filter pads? sponges? filter bags?
If so do you keep them clean / changed??
I hope these questions help to bring you answers.
Rj

[Radicaljbr]

Also, I do not see any fish in there. Are there any, how many and how much are you feeding?

When was this setup erected? How often are you doing water changes?

[Air Cooled V.W.]

Yes the fish and shrimp are hiding. I have a list of whats in it under Current Tanks.

I am running a skimmer and I have a Fluval 203 cannister with biomedia, sponges and I put some polywool into it a few weeks ago to see if that would help clear things up. I use RO/DI water from Distillata so my phosphates are 0.

I set this tank up probably about 7 months ago so it should be close to or mature by now no? I was using Kent Marine Nano Reef part A & B and I think that may have led to the outbreak of the hair algea. I discontinued the use of it about 1.5 months ago.

My lights are only a couple of months old and they are power compacts so they are fine. I am only running the lights for 9 hours a day also. My feeding is very sparse as I don't want to have too many nutrients in the water. I feed the goby and shrimp blood worms about 2 times a week. I try to do a 20% water change every two weeks.

P.H. 7.9
Nitrite 0
Nitrate0
K.H. 9-10 degrees
T.D.S. 180

[DevilBoy]

TDS 180??? how are you testing this? is this reading coming from your pure top off water and the water you use for your water changes?

[Radicaljbr]

One thing I would look into is the use of biomedia, sponges and so on.

When having a reef setup with live rock and live sand like you do, the bio media only works against the LR an LS and stores phosphates which then adds them back to your tank.

I persanally would get rid of these items you mentioned.

Bio media really should only be used in fish only tanks with out the life rock and sand.....in my opinion.

There are a ton of posts about this on RC and you might want to ask in the chemestry room or another expert room. Anthony Calfo had some input on this, but he is no longer part of RC. I could tell you where he is, but we are not allowed to promote other web sites on RC. Do a search for his name. He is really a valueable person to ask questions.

[Radicaljbr]

And do you have a sump growing macro in it?

[Kreeger1]

Come to the meeting tonight at the zoo, I'm sure you'll find some good advice there and have a good time
Erik

[Air Cooled V.W.]

The TDS is the tank water. I do not have a sump and I know that could cause some of the issues.

I think I might take out the biomedia and see how that goes. Should I keep the sponge in though? I would love to stop out at the zoo meeting tonight but I only have a few more days till x-mas and have to get a ton of stuff done still. Thanks for the invite.

[Radicaljbr]

I do have sponges in my tank that fliter particles before my water drains to the tank. I clean them all the time. In the past I did not even have those.

The TDS needs to be taken of the water you are putting into the tank.

[DevilBoy]

Originally posted by Radicaljbr
The TDS needs to be taken of the water you are putting into the tank.

Before you mix it with salt

[Air Cooled V.W.]

Originally posted by DevilBoy
Before you mix it with salt

I've heard that before but, the guy at my LFS told me that you can test the tank water for TDS?

[DevilBoy]

Originally posted by Air Cooled V.W.
I've heard that before but, the guy at my LFS told me that you can test the tank water for TDS?

No, sorry but he is wrong. from my understanding using a TDS meter with saltwater could ruin it.

[Radicaljbr]

Yes, you take the reading of your RO/DI water before you mix it. It should read "0"

[newsalt1]

I think salt qualifies for total disolved solids. Test your top off before you add saly to it.

[Radicaljbr]

Go buy a sea hare. When I had an algea break like this, I went and bought a sea hare and it ate almost all of it in a matter of days. I think I got mine at Tropical Aquarium which is around 303 and pearl down in Brunswick I think is the name of the town.

Two problems though.

First, you will need to find a home for the sea hare after it has finished eating all the algea. You can try and feed them Noria and stuff but it will not last long. Also they are very touchy critters and unless you have great water quality, it will die.

Second, the sea hare will only get rid of the algea momentarliy. You still need to find out where all the phosphates are coming from and fix the problem. Feeding is usually the problem and getting rid of the waste is the other.

[Air Cooled V.W.]

The only thing I can think of as far as feeding being a problem is that I wasn't rinsing off my frozen blood worms before adding them to the tank. I only feed every other day or so and no more than can be eaten by everyone in a few minutes.

I will start doing water changes every week for now and see what happens. Someone from RC was telling my about about this Sea Hare and he was saying some clubs have one that they pass around to different tanks do to it starving after it eats all the algea. He didn't know the name of the Sea Hare so thanks for lettin me know what it was.