Will Phos. removers kill existing algae?

[Tang Salad]

Hey all-

I have had some turf algae on some of my live rock for about 10 months now. It is not growing and is not spreading. But it's not disappearing, either.

I use RODI water, and my tank tests zero for phosphates. I assume this is because the Phos. are trapped in the existing algae. I also have a fuge with chaeto that grows, albeit slowly.

If I start running Phosban, or similar, can I expect the algae to die off and ultimately disappear?

If I do this, I'll probably need to put my refugium chaeto into a seperate system for the duration, right?

Thanks!

[ralphie16]

i had a decent outbreak of slime and hair algae and decided to run phosphate remover in a reactor. about a month later about 80% of the algae is gone. looks like the removal media is robbing the nutrients the algae need to thrive.

i have no macro algae in my fuge.

i also added about 40 snails to my tank at the same time as i got the reactor, along with 6 hermits.

so i am not sure which party is more responsible the the algae reduction..the snails and hermits or the phosphate reactor.

probably a combo of both.

[Tang Salad]

Cool, thanks for the input.

I guess what I'm wondering is if Phosban can actually suck the phosphates out of living algae, rather than just remove it from the water column and keep algae from spreading.

It's strange to me that the algae hasn't started to die on it's own. I've cut down on bioload, light period and feedings, but it seems like it's here to stay.

[SDguy]

IME, no. And some of those turf algaes do well in low phosphate conditions. I would add the phosban type reactor nontheless. Then manual removal, and live grazers. Then just make sure the poop from said grazers gets caught up in your skimmer, not just sitting in the algae, feeding it :D

[Tang Salad]

Thanks-

I haven't had any luck finding anything to graze on this stuff. Hermits, mithrax crabs, tangs, snails, nothing touches it.

I guess manual removal is my last option, but I'm not really looking forward to that. It'd be a week-long chore. :(

[mrongi1]

No but its a good idea to run it. Also you should be skimming and running carbon for at least one week out of the month. Water changes and manual removal are the best ways to control algae. Do not rely on biological controls to remove the problem, they will not. But they will help keep the take clean and under control once you get a handle on it. Good luck!!

[Tang Salad]

Thanks- I skim 24/7 and remove a decent amount of skimmate every few days. I run lots of carbon, too.

So am I wrong to think that Phosban can help kill existing algae?

[The Saltwater Kid]

I am in sort of the same situation. I have a couple small patches of Cyano that i want to get rid of. I order some PHOSaR from Premium aquatics as it is a pelletized phosphate removal media instead of granulated or liquid and can easily be put in a media bag and set in the fuge. Everybody that has used it raves about it so I'm giving it a try. I skim 24/7 and get about 3/4 of a cup full every 4 - 5 days. I also have a small minifuge (DIY AC70) with some slow growing chaeto and i think my problem would be worse if i didn't have it. I do 10% weekly water changes using R/O water. I am wondering if I put this phosphate remover in my minifuge will it kill the chaeto that's in there?

[Tang Salad]

Anyone else?

[zoomfish1]

Phosphates removers only remove the pO4 from the water column. It can do nothing to kill the algea. Algea feeds off pO4 and nO4. Removing the phosphates from the water won't kill the chaeto. It thrives on nitrates as well.

When the phosphates and nitrates are removed, or lessened to a great extent, the algea has nothing to feed off of and slowly dies. As stated above water changes will reduce the concentration of nitrates. phos pad reduces or eliminates the phosphates, algea dies.

Oh, if it were as simple in practice as it is to read.

[Tang Salad]

Thanks Zoomfish.

Anyone else?

[Rhodesholar]

This was my experience with that type of algae and here is what I did to solve it. I first added more flow. Yank out what you can manually and then direct good flow over the area. In my case I found the algae built up where detritus accumulated. I thought I had really good flow and the detritus still built up. The problem in my experience is that algae of that type is self sustaining. Once the algae is there, it catches every particle in the water and thus the cycle continues. By manually removing the algae, it obviously isn't there to catch anything. Then by directing flow over the area, the detritus can't settle. It may take several episodes of ripping it out and even scrubbing what remains off.

That is exactly what I did and it solved my problems. I have zero turf/hair algae anywhere in my system. This was 3 years ago.

For the record I now run a 100 micron filter pad that I clean daily, a small amount of carbon changed every 3-5 days, I skim 24x7, have a DSB for nitrate reduction and for PO4 I run about 5 tablespoons of Phosar HC which rocks, awesome stuff. I also grow chaeto in my fuge.

If I do something stupid like disturb my DSB I will get a cyano outbreak in that immediate area for a week or so that clears up on it's own, but I have 0 algae other then coralline.

[DarthBaiter]

My hair algae in my 30 disapeared after i put phos remover in my filter. I had rock with a few acan lord that was suffocating from the hair algae around it, and all of the algae is gone. Cyno is gone too.

[WI Reef Lover]

I have had this problem too and still do. I have phosphate removers in the filter. I added sea hares and lettuce slugs. i have turbo snails, i added macro algae in the tank to absorb nutrients (which is growing quite nicely), i have power heads on both sides of the tank, one is stationary the other pivets, i cut down on feeding and lighting hours, I scrub algae off of rocks at least every 2 weeks and that's at the absolute minimum, I rinse all the sponge filters on the powerheads and filter often since it grows on them too. I have even added a sand sifting goby to help keep the sand sifted in hopes that will help eliminate the growth of it on the sand. All my water parameters are good, the phosphates are low (but not non-existant). I have even been trying something suggested to me by my LFS, what she calls puffing. That is taking a turkey baster and blowing any setiments off of the rocks and such everyother day. Last but not least, yes of course I do have a protein skimmer. After 2 months of all this I am just now starting to see some results. The sea hares are great eaters of the stuff but they spend a lot of time on the glass, the areas they have cleaned on the rocks seem to stay cleaned off or at least so far. All i know is i want it to go away because it is choking off some of my zooanthids and i lost 2 of my gorgonians that just couldn't handle the algae build up all the time (funny it doesn't seem to affect my sponges, go figure not that I'm complaining about that). I do have coralline algae growing and I'm hoping that will eventually overtake the hair algae since the hair algae doesn't grow wherever the coralline algae is growing. I do partial water changes every week. I watch my PH.

I have no advise to give really. All I can say is I feel your pain!!
Try it all, it can't hurt i guess. I know I'm not giving up until i have kicked this plaque because it truly is a nightmare!

Ok, glad I got that off my chest. (My apologies to all)