Help Needed

rholguin · #1 01/04/2008, 04:38 PM

Hello everyone hopefully you guys can help me. I have a 29g mixed reef and 2 days ago I noticed little patches of hair algea on some of rocks. The tank consists of mostly sps and I also have 3 clams, so cutting down on my light would proably not bee good for the corals. Water params are Ca-450, Alk 3.5, Mag-1250, Ammonia and nitrite are 0, Nitrate below 10, Phos-0. Lighting 6 bulb t-5 fixture all bulbs are less than 2 mths old. As for flow I have 2 Korilia #2, 2 powersweeps 160 gph each, Skimmer and hob filter running carbon. My question is what can I do to get rid of H.A. before it gets out of control? Sorry so long.

killingseed · #2 01/04/2008, 04:57 PM

guess i am lucky becuase my tang, angle and scarlet hermits do the job for me. i think some most those are still hit and miss. not sure of a small fish that will do the trick sorry but maybe someone else does.

nmnative · #3 01/04/2008, 05:49 PM

I had hair algae that got out of control and all I could do was cut the light in the tank and the it finally went away. It started to come back and I added 10 astrea snails and one turbo snail and they are keeping it under control. I also reduced running my metal halide (175Watt 10K) from twelve hours to 8 and added some atinics lights and so far so good! Good luck!

Salty Sam · #4 01/04/2008, 06:02 PM

How many hours are your lights running.....your corals should be fine with a couple hours a day until the algae gets in check...in nature the corals go days without sunlight due to storms and cloudy conditions.

Also cut back on food and supplements.

SOULEMAN · #5 01/04/2008, 09:04 PM

you can also change your carbon out, when my tank started to get a little bit of hair algae , i realized that my chemi pure bag was old and i changed it out and then in a couple of days it started to go away. also you can try so purigen.
just my 2 cents

rholguin · #6 01/04/2008, 09:25 PM

I'm currently running the lights for 7hrs. As far as feedings go I only feed twice a day. The only things that I have done different is added some of dt's plankton would this be the cause. If so is it because phosphate problems. My test reads 0 but could be bad.

benjabba · #7 01/04/2008, 11:56 PM

The DT's will contribute to the problem for sure. Also the feedings. Try cutting back to once a day.

demonsp · #8 01/05/2008, 12:58 AM

Water source and Flow are the main reasons as well as overstocking a yough tank. Also didnt see any CUC listed. SPS like more mature tanks.Not that you couldnt have one just so many so soon.

http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/sta...opmistakes.htm

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2007/1/aafeature/view

rlcline76 · #9 01/05/2008, 10:31 AM

Start using RO/DI if you are not.
How many fish do you have? Also, what kind? Many fish only need to be fed once a day and can often go a day without.

As far as a CUC, I use turbos and margaritas.

What test kit are you using?

Salty Sam · #10 01/05/2008, 01:21 PM

Cut back the feeding and cut the DT's totally for a little while + water changes.

Salty Sam · #11 01/05/2008, 01:23 PM

Holy smoke Lance, you've been posting a little bit! Lol.

killingseed · #12 01/05/2008, 01:41 PM

ya he can post but he cant seem to show up for a meeting.

rholguin · #13 01/06/2008, 12:03 AM

As far as water goes I buy the water from the water house on trawood, I believe its ro/di. For fish I have a yellow coris wrasse, clown wrasse, yellow watchman, fire dartfish. CUC about 5 blue legged hermit and 5 zebra crabs, 3 red legged, 1 ateraes snail, 3 margarita. I will cut back on feedings and will stop using dt's. Thanks for all the advice.