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View Full Version : Cyano/Hair algae again!!!


woogy
12/29/2008, 07:25 PM
My tank is a 12 gallon aquapod. Cyano mostly was gone after a 3 days lights out period. Now it is about a month later and back with a vegenance!!! Tank is approaching one year. Also been battling hair algae for quite sometime.

Filtration: I run chemipure elite in the 3rd chamber and filter floss in the first chamber which I change out every 1-2 days. The upper and lower intake is covered with acrylic. I swapped the stock pump with a mj900.

Livestock: Toadstool, palythoa polyps, blue shrooms and a colt coral. Colt coral is growing like a bad weed and mushrooms are growing well. Toadstool has good days and bad days. There is always algae on his stem which I blow off quite frequently but never seems to go away. Peppermint shrimp and a halloween hermit crab. So far 2 fish have died. One clownfish which may have went carpet surfing because he was always jumping in the back. But only my cat knows this answer for sure:D
And my poor bicolor blenny which has a great personality and would great me everytime I would approach the tank. He started to get some white spots on him before his death. :sad:

Parameters: Temp is always around 78. Phosphates are 0. Nitrate was between 2.5-5ppm.

I faithfully do 2-3 gallon weekly water changes with RO/DI water (TDS comes about to 0.4-0.6) and been using red sea coral pro but since this seemed to make the cyano worse I went back to RC. I try to syphon out as much cyano and GHA as much as I can.
I uped the water change up to 4 gallons.

Please give me your recommendations on how to beat this algae problem.

2_zoa
12/29/2008, 07:55 PM
Sounds like my tank, I am still on the front line as well. I too have done all the standard regimine to battle this with no success. If I manage to find a solution I will let you know. I am trying some unorthadox (spelling) methods. So for no luck but I am almost a week into the new one so I will let you know.

Also, I will be following along.:) Sorry I can't help.

The only other thing I can come up with is my LR is bound with Phosphates.

NanoReefWanabe
12/29/2008, 08:10 PM
i have been blessed with the lousy blue green algae myself...and have no idea what sprung it on...my lights are new...params read zero...etc.. new bulbs and still have it...i tried the three days out...and brought on a nice case of STN on all my montipora...they have recovered now and...stilll battling the algae/ bacteria...

i have resorted to Red slime remover...i have noticed a drastic reduction after the first treatment...second treatment tonight...i also added 10 new blue leg hermits and 2 large "Australian reef hermits" or that is what the LFS called them...i couldnt care what they are...they were hammering down on the nori sheet in the LFS tank so i bought them...needless to say my red scarlet hermits are not liking the new company...LOL i dont care though they werent pulling their weight...

Bill Cobb
12/29/2008, 08:25 PM
Sounds like low flow, especially with the algae staying on the TS stem. Increases your tank flow, check magnesium level and place a sock w/PFO in third chamber.

rayster2000
12/29/2008, 08:46 PM
Could you post some pictures of the issue?

Thanks.

woogy
12/29/2008, 08:50 PM
the chemipure elite already has some GFO. Should I add more and what brand?

Bill Cobb
12/29/2008, 10:19 PM
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14038705#post14038705 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by woogy
the chemipure elite already has some GFO. Should I add more and what brand?
I've been using Rowa Phos. I don't think the Chemipure has much GFO at least not enough for what you're experiencing.

OwenInAZ
12/29/2008, 10:46 PM
Before trying a bunch of chemicals, look into your water quality issues. High levels of available nitrogen and dissolved organics in your topoff/mixing water will contribute more than you might guess to nuisance algae. When you get those under control I imagine you'll start seeing a significant difference. Also you might try moving to daily or semi-daily water changes, even if you only change out a gallon or two. More water turnover could mean more efficient nutrient export and less available for your algae.

laszlo805
12/30/2008, 12:53 AM
ok i have the same proplem i have a a/p 24 i do 5 gallon water change every week
with tropic marine pro .i have a korall nano a rioe 50 and i still can not get rid of the alge
i turend the lights of for 3 days the alge turend brown but then it came back.also using cempur elite and pos ban nitrats at .20 and posphat 0 any help would be great turing off the lights today for the secound time

rhunter513
12/30/2008, 07:48 AM
I am stuggling with hair algae and had a little cyano at one time. Higher flow and sucking out the cyano will take care of that. Increase the flow in your tank as much as possible - start with your return pump, maybe go to a MJ1200. Use a turkey baster to blow off rock daily and use a sponge to catch the detitus. Add a protein skimmer if you can. If you have a sand bed (hopefully its not deeper than an inch) vacuum it with water changes, you will be shocked at how much detitus it holds. If your bulbs are older than 6 months than change them. Decrease SG to 1.023 if its higher than that. And here's the big one...literally. Do larger volume water changes. Start with weekly 50-60% changes, be extra careful to match parameters. You should start to see a HUGE difference with larger volume water changes.

I did all those things and stopped the algae. The biggest affect I had on the algae was when I started doing larger water changes. Water changes are the cure-all.