[Black71gp]

Since i am still trying to figure out what in the heck is going on with my tank I will post it here to try and figure anything out. I have horrible green algea taking over everything, there is some coraline growing, but the green hair is covereing it up. The hair is either really short and light, looks like cut grass, this is whats all over the glass, and sometimes its gets large bubble of algea in them. and the other kind is really dark green and thick, I have no idea why, and its driving my nuts, and doesnt make my tank look that good. All corals and fish are doing great just this green stuff is killing me. the refuge, is also starting to get red cyno, could tha be from the lights, they are from home depot, it has been mentioned on RC not sure about here...
Here are tank parameter can you help me at all???

55 gallon, 20 gallon sump, and refuge full of cheato, (spaggetii)
Lighting 440 Watts VHO-2 atinic, one 10000k and one 50/50
schedual is atinics 10am to 10pm and days, 11 am to 9 pm
Temp-80
Specific gravety-1.024
Salinity ppt- 32.5
Ph- 8.4
Nitrite-0
Nitrate-0
Ammonia-0
Phosphates-0
dKh-9.6
Alk 3.43
Calicuim is 420.
This was all tested 10 min ago, and is all the test i currenty have, i drip pickling lime, and top of with ro/di water.

 

[ofblong]

well your nitrates and phosphates probably read 0 because the hair algae is eating it. something is producing them allowing the green algae to thrive. I had to turn my daylight lighting off for 2 weeks to get rid of the amount of hair algae I had. plus I added about 20 turbo snails. they ate it like it was going out of style. anyways something in your tank is causing it. Mine started when I changed my no lighting to power compact lighting. thats why I turned my daylights off and left the atinics on. then I slowly turned the daylights on. 30 mintues for 2 days 1 hour for 2 days until I got it up to the 10hr lighting period I wanted without any algae growing back. have not had a problem with it in around 10 or 11 months. tank is 1yr 3 months old =].

 

[Black71gp]

that sounds like a good idea...will my corals be ok.. i have a few mushrooms, xenia, open brain, and some figure leather or something, then a bunch of polyps and a toad stool, would they all be ok, It does make sense cause i went from NO to VHO and pretty much since then have had a problem, i will try that thanks......

 

[Newts]

How old is this tank?

 

[Black71gp]

a little over 8 months

 

[E-quality]

How fast is the chaeto growing? I never got chaeto to grow good even thought all other micro's grow well in my fuge.

Tell us more about your tank. what kind of skimmer, filtration? How many fish? What kind of fish? How big? How much do you feed? Do you have CC? How often do you do water changes and how many gallons? How much water flow do you have in the main tank?

Lights won't be a problem if the nutrient level is fine. Your phosphate test showed zero but remember that phosphate test kits are pretty much worthless. I hear you can get accurate ones that test for all phosphates for $250. Forget it, I know if I have phosphates in my tank by looking to see if there's algae. Water changes always help but you need to get the nutrients down and keep them there. Find the source and fix it.

One thing I find that helps is to use a PH to stir the tank up before doing a water change. I take a PH and blow dirt off the rocks, from inbetween rocks, etc.. When you direct the flow to a hole in a rock dirt will come out of other holes. When I do that the whole tank is cloudy and and that's a good way to ensure that your removing junk and not just water.

 

[ofblong]

that sounds like a good idea...will my corals be ok.. i have a few mushrooms, xenia, open brain, and some figure leather or something, then a bunch of polyps and a toad stool, would they all be ok, It does make sense cause i went from NO to VHO and pretty much since then have had a problem, i will try that thanks......

your soft corals would be fine but your brain would not be. what 75 gallon reef asked none of those had to do with my problem. mine had to do with not doing water changes. As for his ?'s the only thing about a skimmer we would need to know is if you have one. the amount of fish and size of tank would be a good idea to list as they could be the reason for the algae(due to excess waste that a tank with too many fish can not get rid of). water flow is not going to affect weather you have green hair or not. might affect cyano algae but not green hair. crushed coral would be a problem if you are using that for a sand bed. I am only explaining some of the ?'s not trying to answer them. Lighting will affect the algae if you have nutrients for them to grow. as micro algaes are photosynthetic lighting helps them grow. getting rid of the daylights helped me to control my problem and get rid of the algae that is why I said to try lowering the daylights but as you have that open brain I would not suggest it.

 

[E-quality]

what 75 gallon reef asked none of those had to do with my problem. mine had to do with not doing water changes.

That's cool but his situation may be different from yours.

As for his ?'s the only thing about a skimmer we would need to know is if you have one.

Some skimmers are alot more efficient than others. If you have a good one it will remove alot of things from the water that cause algae. If you have a bad one it won't do much to remove those things.

water flow is not going to affect weather you have green hair or not.

Water flow is very important because that's how "dirt\nutrients" get blown into the water to get filtered out. If you have bad water flow, nutrients will build up and cause algae.

Algae needs light to grow. It also needs nutrients to grow. If both are present, algae will grow. If only one is present, the algae can't grow. Since most "marine life" found in home aquaria need light to survive, turning off the lights is a rare option. In most cases cutting off the source of the algae (nutrients) is the only option to use in order to rid the tank of algae.

 

[Black71gp]

I have a fox face, puprle firefish, two green chromis, and two false percs, i feed small portions a few times daily, i do like 10 gallon water changes about once i month, i think i am going to step it up to maybe 5 gallons a week, and see if that helps, the cheato in my fuge is growing like a weed, i rip huge amounts out every week, its insaine, i leave the light on 24/7. maybe increases water flow will help get the green algea along with a little bigger clean up crew, i am not going to cut the lights down, as i want my open brain and RBTA to be ok. Thanks all for the help i love this board, way more than RC they give one reply and thats all iget, but i understand they are a lot more crowed, any other questions let me know thanks
jarrod
will keep ya updated.

 

[cmpenney]

Here is how I got things back under control in the past:

1) Went out and bought a couple Emerald crabs, some more snails, and lots of cheap hermits( $1.00 ea.).
2) Increased water changes.
3) Started dosing Kalk 24/7 ( removes phosphates )
4) Got a Good Skimmer.
5) Cut back on my lighting time. From 12 to 10 hours. And Even left them off a couple times for a day or two. Seems to really slow down the growth and the critters don't stop eating hte algea just because the lights are out.
6) Took rocks that didn't have anything attached to them out of the tank and scrubbed them. Only do 1 or 2 every couple days. I actually used hot freshwater to do this. It kills off the algae on the rock and also flushes out all the detris that has built up in the rock.
7) Check your water source, Make sure you are using good RO/DI water for all water put into your tank..

Hair algae can be almost self sustaining once it gets hold because the filiments continually trap detrius. This just provides a never ending food source that surrounds the algea. Even if you don't scrub you should at least blast all your rocks with a powerhead or turkey baster every other day or so. It helps.

 

[E-quality]

It sounds like you have the maximum amount of fish you can have for your tank. You said you feed a few times per day, fish really don't need alot of food so you can feed once or twice daily to reduce the bio-load.

To start with I'd do 10-15 gallon changes to remove as much nutrients as possible. Once things start to look better you can do 5-10 gallons weekly. 5 gallons a month sounds like the main cause to me, that would cause nutrient problems in a 30 gallon tank.

It's good you have some chaeto that grows, that'll help. Do you have a skimmer? If so, what kind?

Water changes, Water changes, Water changes.

 

[ofblong]

when you do a water change you may want to keep that green hair in a bucket and look through it. You could pick up some creatures that are good for the aquarium in that algae that you will want to put back into the tank =].

75gal i was explaining what my situtation was and never mentioned that his situation was that way. a skimmer is a skimmer. I dont care how bad or good they are its not going to"fix" a green hair algae problem in itself no matter how good a skimmer you have. However if he doesnt have a skimmer then that could be a problem. although I dont know of too many people that have a fuge and a skimmer on a 30 gallon tank. not saying a person should not put one on that size tank because it is still a good thing. However I have a 55 hex without a skimmer but I do have a fuge. reason I dont have a skimmer is because if any bubbles get into the tank they could get into the sh's I will be adding here shortly and kill them. as for water flow all I can say is for that 30 gallon if hes got at least 400gph flowing through it I dont think he will have any problems. but he did not say how much he has. I did not think about the detritus and stuff settling. sorry that was my mistake.

 

[Black71gp]

just making sure you all know i have a55 gallon tank. flow is decent, but i am in the middle of installing a closed loop right now, that will give me tons of flow. as far as a skimmer, i have a home built version of an Aqua C, it works really good and pulls tons of nasty stuff oout. I will up my water changes, and start scrubbing rocks, most of my stuff is on small rocks so its not relaly attached, its all pretty much frags, I need to get a better clean up crew also, where did you get hermits for a dollar.... I am getting more turbos, and some red hermits and stuff once i save money, i dont have a lot, but that is probaly my problem too, I have about 50 of those nassioros type snails from the guy off ebay, and they are doing an ok, job, just need more, thanks I will let you know how my stuff goes and I really apreciate everyones help. as for flow right now, i have an 802 powerhead, a cap 1800 hooks to a spray bar behind the rock work, and a cap 2200 for return so its like 800gph or more.. i am stepping up to a mag 18 with a scwd and spray bar behind the rock, so that will be plenty,

 

[cmpenney]

The Hermits are from Sea Dweller's in Angola, IN. It's a bit of a drive for most people here.

Your Nassarius snails won't do alot for algae control they will eat alittel but they are primarily detris eaters. You need to get turbos or even better trochus.