HELP with Algae

[WillWorkForFish]

Whats the best way to get rid of algae?
I have brown algae growing on my rocks.. and green hair algae..
I have greenish brown algae starting to cover my sand..
I have green algae that covers my glass everyday.. constantly scrubbing.. and this has happened fast... it came out of no where..

I recently lost my job.. and i'm looking for the most effective / cheapest way of getting rid of this... its taking over... its covering my chilli coral now.. moving toward my yuma's

whats my best bet?
120 gallon with 216W T5
blueline 40md return

[sir_dudeguy]

well what are the nitrates and phosphates at? Those feed the algae. Get those tested and see what they are.

[papagimp]

how old is the setup? Algea comes in stages when a tank is initially setup. After that, phosphates and nitrates can cause new outbreaks if not in check. I was able to rid my tank of every bit of nuisance algea except for the bubble algea by simply adding a ball of cheato to my sump and letting it export the phosphates and nitrates for me. Sounds like you have hair algea, diatoms, and possibly even some cyno outbreaking in your tank. What do you have for flow inthe tank, algea cleanup crews, and livestock?

[WillWorkForFish]

almost 2 years..
I was thinking of getting some cheato for my sump... how much would i need, and what kind of light setup? (keep it cheap if possible)

Inside the tank a max-jet 1200 and 900 and my blueline 40md has 4 outlets in the tank.. (loc-line)

about 40 snails.. mixed bunch..
20 hermits.. blue and red.. mostly red.. and one large zebra
blue tang, bi-color blenny, fairy wrasse, yellow watchman, flame hawk, 2 long fin basslets.. actually i dont know what they are.. but they're small and rarely come out.. I'll try and get a pic..

Capnella, ricordia yuma, chilli coral, small hammer coral..

2-3" sandbed.. 115lbs LR

[WillWorkForFish]

my sterlizier recently fell off the side of my sump and flooded my stand which burnt out my gen-x pcx30 and my sterlizer itself.. and made quite a mess.. the algae really started getting bad after that incident..

I had to buy a new pump which i got raped on the price, but i needed a pump and thats the only place i could find one at the time..

Soo i'm pretty much out of funds.. so any cheap ideas will help..

[buiboy]

If you go to the Propogated Corals forums were they sell live stuff you can usually get chaeto for like 10-15 bucks and get like a $10 light from home depot.

[WillWorkForFish]

what kind of lighting fixture would be best?

[papagimp]

No light fixture needed PEZ, go to home depot, get one of those clip on dish style lights, rated for 150w , and use one of the daylight spiral type bulbs, try to find one that actually lists a color spectrum, if the package doesn't state this, look at the base of the bulb, sometimes it's there. I paid about $8 for the "fixture" and about $6 for a three pack of bulbs from dollar general. I use a 5037K bulb, but I've also used a 6500K before with great results, as for the amount of cheato you need, it's not going to matter, get the smallest cheapest piece you can and it'll grow. Mine grows like a weed in my sump and I have to trim it down about every two weeks, try and find some locally, I give my extra cheato away to club members here in oklahoma, if you find a club there I'm sure somebody will have some for donations.

[mrichardson]

How can you tell when chaeto is working / growing well? I added it to my sump about three weeks ago. Are there any signs or characteristics to look for? I noticed that is has formed a tighter ball and has surfaced...thanks

[WillWorkForFish]

how do i find a club around my area?

[papagimp]

mrichardson: that's what my ball did for a while, once it starts to grow well, you'll know it, it'll start getting larger and larger until it fills the area you have it in. I had a piece in my sump for almost a month, the whole time thinking it wasn't doing anything, but then one day I kinda noticed it looked a bit bigger, I placed a mark on the tank to judge growth, sure enough it'll get bigger.

PEZ: Look here on reefcentral, they have a forum section just for reef clubs, for instance, my club: the Central Oklahoma Marine Aquarium Society, has it's own forum here. Go to the main forum page and scroll down towards the bottom, it's low on the list, and will take you to another list of all the club only forums, find one thats in florida and start asking around. I know florida has to have some clubs, your right there by the ocean for gods sake!

[papagimp]

Even better, click here:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=80

that's the list of reef clubs here on RC

[WillWorkForFish]

ok, any other suggestions?
I'm gonna try and get some cheato for my sump..
what can i do about the algae that's currently in my tank?

[mrichardson]

If you don't have activated carbon or phosphate absorbtion, I would add both. I went and bought a big can of carbon and some mesh bags to put in and place it in my sump.

[papagimp]

I use no carbon or phosphate removers in my 55g. The cheato takes care of all my phosphate and havn't had a need for carbon yet. That's not to say it wouldn't benefit, It's just a personaly preference that i don't use it. The algea currently in your tank will go away once the cheato out competes it for nutrients. Basically, the cheato will suck up all the good stuff and the crabs and algea clean up crew you have will work on the stuff already in the tank. may look into getting a small queen conch, my queeny will roll through the hair algea like it's the best stuff on the planet. Them and turbo snails, I like the conch myself. I also utilize stometalla snails for algea control, they keep my fuge clean as the display, but i wouldn't know where you could buy those, i got mine as a hitchiker and they've since bred like crazy. Somebody there in FL is likely to have some in there tank, may just take some asking around the forums. Don't give up hope yet people, I'm 100% serious when i say that since I've added cheato to my tank, I havn't had any water quality issues in a long long time. And the only algea I see in my tank, other than what I intentional put there, is the bubble algea, and I've gone through 4 emerald crabs and not one will touch it, so its here to stay for awhile I think.

[WillWorkForFish]

how about some more ideas? or opinions...
anything and everything helps..