Urgent Advice Needed Re Hair And Turf Algae Control

[Nighthawk26]

Why scissors? It should easily come off if it is hair algae. Try doing it on a 225. Not a fun experience.

You have great advice from everyone here.

 

[heath]

I had a HORRIBLE outbreak when I set up the new tank.. there are so many reasons for an outbreak, mine was caused by my rock, it was full of phosphates..

with the help of a couple of friends this is what we did;
~ scraped and clean as much off the walls and rocks
~ huge water change
~ dosed the tank using the vodka method
~ 20-30% weekly water changes

within days (3-4) of dosing the tank you could see it reseeding, I continued with the vodka (it took a 26oz bottle at a capful per day) continued with the water changes..
That was well over a year ago and its never come back. Vodka worked for me..
I do believe that the treatment is different for different types of algae, are you sure you know what kind you have..

Good luck

 

[Kman]

I use plastic brushes for cleaning dishes to scrub my rocks. They work like a charm. I have different ones for different needs.

 

[Shooter000]

Air line tube or bigger attached to a old toothbrush (rubber band works)

Cut the tubing at a 45degree angle
Put 45degree into about half the length of brissles with sharp end into the brissles

Start a syphon

Slowly Scrap towards you then forward a touch then back towards you etc, the algae gets sucked right into the tubing and gone, phosphates removed from present algea and rock face, then do your normal water change
Repeat process if needed
This is what I've done, works great, and easy cleanup

Sean

 

[Salty Cracker]

Removing HA manually is like cutting the lawn and wondering why the grass is regrown next week....

 

[Salty Cracker]

Air line tube or bigger attached to a old toothbrush (rubber band works)

Cut the tubing at a 45degree angle
Put 45degree into about half the length of brissles with sharp end into the brissles

Start a syphon

Slowly Scrap towards you then forward a touch then back towards you etc, the algae gets sucked right into the tubing and gone, phosphates removed from present algea and rock face, then do your normal water change
Repeat process if needed
This is what I've done, works great, and easy cleanup

Sean

Maybe if you used some GFO you wouldn't have to do this

 

[Hong]

Maybe if you used some GFO you wouldn't have to do this

Using GFO is too easy, and does not require any elbow grease. How else are you going to get your hands wet?

 

[Shooter000]

Maybe if you used some GFO you wouldn't have to do this

That was when the tank was first setup bud, same problem some other people have, bad rocks full of crap!!..I keep my tanks clean

 

[Salty Cracker]

Using GFO is too easy, and does not require any elbow grease. How else are you going to get your hands wet?

Historically speaking? Floods

 

[Janice]

Thanks guys and gals. I did a lot of manual work last night. Removing what I could from the tank for a minute or two and pulling it off and then scrubbing the rest with a toothbrush. The problem is there is just some stuff that is hard to get at without the entire design of rock tumbling down. Does everyone agree with the phosban gfo rout, or are there some out there who are against it??

 

[Janice]

Like people mentioned the best approach is a multi approach attack on it. Combined they work better then one or two options. Manual removal sucks but it is effective. By manually removing you act as a algae grazer. If you keep damaging the tissue it will switch from growth and reproduction phase to repair mode. If you are limiting nutrients by water changes and controlling input of things like foods and keeping your source water as pure as you can you will see a slowing in growth and the color of the algae will change as it starts to die off. It will take some time but if you keep hammering on it things will turn around.

Thanks to everyone for your input.

 

[Neopimp]

Thanks guys and gals. I did a lot of manual work last night. Removing what I could from the tank for a minute or two and pulling it off and then scrubbing the rest with a toothbrush. The problem is there is just some stuff that is hard to get at without the entire design of rock tumbling down. Does everyone agree with the phosban gfo rout, or are there some out there who are against it??

Bottom line is that you very likely have an excess of nutrients in the water. If there are nutrients and light, algae will grow. You need to reduce your nutrient load.
All the things people have mentioned will do that for you, but it does not happen fast.

Simplest - Water Changes and Manual Removal. Takes a long time so usually this is done along side the other methods.

Natural - Big Ball of Chaeto - REquires a sump and a light.
- Clean up Crew, - Lawnmower blenny, sea hare, turbo snails etc

GFO, Rowaphos, BioPellets - requires an extra pump and a reactor chamber to be most effective. This is usually how people control nutrients but if you do not have a sump then the extra equipment is hard to hide.

Liquid Carbon dosing - This is your vodka dose. Does the same thing as biolpellets in that it encourages bacteria growth in the tank, as bacteria reproduce they use up both nitrates and phosphates(one more than the other but i forget which way it goes) to build the new cells. Careful with this as it is easy to over dose the tank and you can end up with really cloudy water( best case) that goes away eventually or a tank crash if the bacteria spike to fast, die, and start decomposing(worst case)

Peroxide Dosing - Careful. This will kill your algae and stuff but it is not actually treating your core issue. A small amount of peroxide can have huge impacts to a tank. So research it well.


Go with water changes, and the animals listed. That will keep things in check usually. Research the last two as there is no extra equipment involved.

Double check my info as well as it has been a long time since I have researched such things, I think its fairly accurate though.

 

[Hong]

Historically speaking? Floods

That's not something I want to undertake.

 

[ThePaliga]

I hate to say this, but I can't leave this thread without doing it. SLOW DOWN. You've been told this by how many people on this forum? You've only had this tank cycled less than three months if I've read your previous threads properly and you've pushed a bunch of living creatures into a tank without letting your tank catch up. This is going to cause your levels to spike. I can't speak for everyone on here, but when the majority of us started, we had just started adding CUC or maybe 1 or 2 fish by this point. If you keep going at this pace you're either going to kill your fish or crash your tank or both. The easiest way to take care of an algae issue is to evaluate your situation, RESEARCH, and then take action. If you don't slow down, all thats going to happen is its going to come back over and over again and then this hobby will turn from an amazing addiction to just plain grunt work. Trust me, I've been there

 

[heath]

I think too, smaller tanks are more challenging than a bigger tank.. its harder to keep them stable, trust me, my pony tank is a 45g AIO and I HATE, HATE, HATE it, that's why its going.. with water evaporation 1/2" can throw everything out of whack...
Just take it really slow, doing things fast doesn't work and you will just get frustrated and give up the hobby...

 

[Neopimp]

Agree with Paliga Thats lesson one in the hooby

 

[nathan]

I hate to say this, but I can't leave this thread without doing it. SLOW DOWN. You've been told this by how many people on this forum? You've only had this tank cycled less than three months if I've read your previous threads properly and you've pushed a bunch of living creatures into a tank without letting your tank catch up. This is going to cause your levels to spike. I can't speak for everyone on here, but when the majority of us started, we had just started adding CUC or maybe 1 or 2 fish by this point. If you keep going at this pace you're either going to kill your fish or crash your tank or both. The easiest way to take care of an algae issue is to evaluate your situation, RESEARCH, and then take action. If you don't slow down, all thats going to happen is its going to come back over and over again and then this hobby will turn from an amazing addiction to just plain grunt work. Trust me, I've been there

Yessss slow down.... your going to crash your tank. You definitely put to much in to quick. In a small tank you can have a spike while you are not home and it's to late. Way to much to quick. This is your biggest problem with your algae. Huge bioload on a young tank. Right now your seeing the effects of that!!!

 

[Hong]

Very good advice here. I have a very similar setup. I have a 33 gal, with quite a bit of coral, and 7-8 fish also. With the smaller tanks you have less room for error and less time to react. Shooter has a smaller setup also, and he can attest. Things can get ugly real quick.
Good luck.

 

[Josh]

1) Manual removal
2) Weekly Water changes of 10%
3) use small amounts of phosban/gfo and change every few days
4) tuxedo urchin <-- like a lawnmower
5) if you can remove a rock out of the water, spray with peroxide, let sit a minute, rinse it with the water you took out from your ten percent water change, put back in..

Just a few thoughts....

I can confirm a tuxedo urchin is a bulldozer on algae, he will roll around the tank collecting it like a fur coat. I manually clean the excess off him after he has a big chunk on him (dont want to starve him) not appealing seeing this giant algae ball tho!

Of all my CUC i definately enjoy my urchin more than about anything.

Obviously control > CUC

 

[SamB]

its not your lights, its your phosphates.... po4 is the food light is the energy to process the food... if you take the food away , you can have as much light as you want, 12 hrs +blues if you want...

Yup - 100%
Great advice here - new tank syndrome