GFO and Hair algae

[crazywesc]

My 45g reef is about is about 10 months old. I have hair algae growing all over the place now. I'm sure its from me overfeeding flake food or my p.o.s. skimmer. It wasnt too bad untill I started pulling it out, and not its growing everywhere. I used 150 grams of pellet GFO from bulk reef supply about four weeks ago and it hasnt helped yet. I'm doing another water change in a few days and was wanting to know how many grams of gfo do I need to run in a reactor that would help to solve this problem. By the way phosphates test at 0.01 and nitrate 0 per ELOS.

[bertoni]

It might take a while for the GFO to kill off the hair algae, if it manages to do the job. I might try a cup or two in that size tank, but I'd ramp the amount up slowly, and watch the corals carefully.

[rtecanoe]

I've read that flake food is very high in phosphates, you may want to try a different food for a reef.

[gigiba]

I thought flake food is better than pellet ??

:confused:



<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14238469#post14238469 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by rtecanoe
I've read that flake food is very high in phosphates, you may want to try a different food for a reef.

[therealfatman]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14239088#post14239088 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by gigiba
I thought flake food is better than pellet ??

:confused:
Both pellet and flake foods are often high in phosphates as is the liquid from frozen foods. In general feeding less and feeding just the larger particles from freshly thawed frozen foods is a good way to lower the phosphates you are ading to the water. Usually all the finer small aparticls in the fluid of thawed frozen foods are to small for most fish and therefore they basically just become algae nutrients. Some people use tea bells or tea straining spoons ot thaw theo ir food and then pour it on a piece of paer towel and feed only the large particles they an pick of the paer towel. The paper towel method does waste a lot of the food however and it is further reduced in size as you pick it off of the paper.

[crazywesc]

Thanks for the replies, I'll add another half cup this week and then go from there.

[swearint]

When you have such an extensive hair algae problem as yours, there is no single magic bullet. When I had this problem, I attacked it with several methods. First, continue picking out as much of the algae as possible. Vacuum the gravel if you have any or remove it altogether if you don't mind the bare bottom look. Try a reduced photoperiod for awhile. Pull out any rocks that don't have corals on them and cure them in a seperate tank/container with a protein skimmer and no lighting. Use a good cleanup crew, I have had good results using pink urchins, they don't seem as clumsy as others. In the past I had problems using snails since they had a tendency to fall over in inaccessable areas and die, thus making the problem worse. Recently I got some banded trochus snails and they have done a great job. They are much better able to right themselves if they fall over and even seem comfortable trekking across the sand. I also added a GFO reactor and started a more regular routine of GAC.

Todd

[cham]

Often I think you'll find that a tank that has been exposed to higher levels of P04 will take some time to get rid of algea outbreaks.

This is due in part to the system "soaking" up the phosphate and releaching them slowly out back into your tank. Rocks, calcifications, DSB's and other porus materials that are in your tank can all be contributors.

As with everything in this hobby, a little proper care and a LOT of patience go a long way. Give it time, GFO is very powerful stuff.

[Jason Donohoe]

I am slowly but surely winning my GHA war. I found a huge benefit to using a reactor over the GFO in a filter bag. Manual removal also continues to be an important part of clearing up the problem. I pick (I won't lie, my wife is the algae picker) the algae off where possible and scrub it off with a toothbrush where it is difficult to reach or too short to pick off. I had GHA on every single surface so I wasn't worried about spreading it around. I put a prefilter in the overflow box and remove it 6 to 8 hours after a scrubbing session. In addition to the GFO I have chaeto in a refugium that is lit 24/7. Lastly, my clean up crew includes trochus snails (I also found the others would only clean the glass or fall off the reef and get stuck in the rockwork) as well as hermit crabs.

Keep it up, you CAN win.

[bertoni]

I agree that removing the hair alga by hand can be useful. The idea is to export nutrients, so just picking the easiest areas is fine. The goal is volume, not scraping an area clean. Some tanks don't lend themselves to this practice, as they're too deep.

[tmz]

Not all flake foods are high in phosphate . Many compare quite favorably in terms of phosphate to protein ratios with frozen foods. Prime Reef flake is a good example.

[crazywesc]

I just did a water change monday so I picked and scraped off what I could get to. I added a half cup more of GFO to. I'll wait patiently for a while to see if it will eventually go away before I start taking any rock out. I think I have coral on every peice of rock I have. All coral,fish and inverts look great, its just a eye sore to see all the hair algae. I blame the hair algae on me over feeding and my skimmer. My skimmer is a coralife hang on back. It seems to overflow when I'm not home, so I'm scared to run it all the time. I plan on drilling the tank and adding a sump in the near future so I can get a real skimmer. This is my first tank and I have learned from my mistakes, so I will be ready to do things right from the start when I can talk my wife into letting me upgrade.

[Genetics]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14247704#post14247704 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by swearint
When you have such an extensive hair algae problem as yours, there is no single magic bullet. When I had this problem, I attacked it with several methods. First, continue picking out as much of the algae as possible... Use a good cleanup crew... I also added a GFO reactor ...

Todd

Great advice.

GFO will go along way but will not answer the problem on why it is accumulating. Look at your RO system and make sure it is functioning correctly. Look at adding chaetomorpha or adding a refugium. What kind of skimmer do you run? You could probably upgrade and save yourself just on the cost of GFO...

[swearint]

Hey crazywesc,

I just noticed that you are in Alabama, here is the link for the alabama reef club if you were not already aware of it. There are a few that frequent the forum that are in your local area.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=167

Todd