Hair algae

[Capt. Nemo]

I have what looks like grass growing on some areas of my LR. Would this be hair algae? If this is indeed hair algae I would like to know what the cause and treatment would be. I have seen my phosphates go from 0.03 to 0.25 in the last 2 weeks. I use RO/DI water and have only LR in my tank at this time. My tank is 3 weeks old. I've also had diatoms for the last week and a half. Ammonia and trites are 0 and trates have been holding steady at about 5. I would greatly appreicate feedback and advice. Thanks guys!

Gary

[Sk8r]

That's hair algae. Good on you for showing up with test results.
It's always present. It needs phosphate to grow. That comes from fishfood and inadequate bacterial strength of live rock and sand. You are also a young tank and are due for this, as part of a series of cycles you will go through. Certain species of fish and inverts love to eat it. Ideally, your nitrates, nitrites, ammonia and phosphate should all be 0, and in a FOWLR this is very hard to achieve. The main thing is not to overfeed and try to get a food chain going from the algae upward, ie, get some fish that eat it, get snails, get inverts that convert fish poop, etc, all the way up to your show-fish. You have a healthy tank going. Do some fish/invert research now and plan your population.

[Capt. Nemo]

Thanks SK8r for the excellent response. Since I dont have any fish, or fish food and waste material in my tank, I am assuming that the leading candidate for causing my elevated phosphates would be as you said, "inadequate bacterial strength of LR." Is there anything I need to do to help facilitate adequate bacterial strength or is it a matter of being patient and letting nature do its thing.

[Capt. Nemo]

Are there any safe and effective phosphate removers that I could use? Thanks.

[Capt. Nemo]

Anybody have anything to say about this topic? Thank you.

[lahos]

protein skimmers are good for removing both phosphates and nitrates, if you don't have one you should get one. another thing that you could do is to but some resins or nuitrient filtering media and place it in your filter. a good media to use is purigen.

[drillsar]

bacterial strength sand? So a detrivore kit will help this? Im having problems as well so it could be the sand causing this?

[Capt. Nemo]

Have the skimmer. I'll look into using purigen. Is this widely used and are there any drawbacks to using this? Thanks.

[lahos]

nope, in fact you can purchase a small pack of it for $12-$15 dollars and it will last for as long as the tank does. every few months you will probalby have to recharge it though.

[Capt. Nemo]

Sounds great! So this will help get my phosphates under control and help get rid of the hair algae?

[lahos]

yes, it also removes amonia, nitrite and nitrate

[lahos]

ammonia, sorry

[Capt. Nemo]

I had been using carbon. Would I use the purigen in conjunction with carbon or would I subsitute the purigen for the carbon? Do they basically do the same thing and if so what advantage does the purigen have over carbon? Is it some type of resin? Sorry about all the questions, but I'm really careful about what I put in my tank. Its my OC that gets the best of me sometimes. Thanks.

[lahos]

no problem, i understand. use it in conjunction with your carbon. it is a synthetic resin but it won't leak out anything into your tank. the store i work at has been using this for years, and i personally have been using it for 1 and a half years. one advantage is that it treats much more water for much less material. those little packs that i mentioned earlier treat up to 100 gallons.

[Capt. Nemo]

Thanks for your patience. Dont want to belabor this to death, but when you say that the purigen can treat much more water for much less material, then would I really need to have to use the carbon in conjunction with the purigen since this would be overkill? If they both do the same thing, then wouldnt I just need the purigen? I am really new to all of this so I still have alot to learn. Doesnt carbon remove metals and organic compounds. Does it also remove phosphates, trates and trites or does only the purigen do that? Thanks again.

[lahos]

i'm not sure about carbon removing heavy metals, i'll have to do some research on that, but purigen will definately remove phosphates. if you are going to go ahead and get the purigen keep using the carbon. it won't hurt anything.

if you have any other questions i'll be more than happy to answer. but i have to go now, sorry

[Capt. Nemo]

Do I just put the purigen in my sump in the path of the water flow? Thanks. If you cant answer now then perhaps tomorrow. Thanks again and have a good night.

Gary

[Sk8r]

Sorry to have left you in the lurch there. Supper. But yes, at a certain stage, algae just happens. A new tank has a certain amount of phosphate just in the way of a raw system...but imho there's nothing wrong with disposing of it.

YOu should have about 4 inches of sand being cycled, and about 2 pounds of rock per gallon [rock varies enormously, so this is deceptive---if it's light rock, or corals, the volume matters more. This is figuring on average rock type rock.]

[Capt. Nemo]

Is purigen an effective phosphate removing media? How about PhosBan? Thanks. Hope you had a nice supper.

[Sk8r]

I've never used Purigen myself, but it has a good reputation. I would run only one thing at a time, ie, if Purigen, then withdraw the carbon: life gets too complex, otherwise. And don't forget about having it in there...a forgotten bag of anything in the sump begins to be a nitrate bed---

You'll find these things are complex. Keeping a FOWLR in some ways is harder than stony corals, because there is just the water, the rock, the sand, and a BIG biomass of high-protein-consuming fish all sending waste into the sandbed.

The best defense against spikes and blooms is a really healthy deep [4"] sandbed and a good holey arrangement of live rock with lots of inverts---like worms, which some of the aforesaid fish will eat on sight. And pods.

My own theory is that nurturing a good pod/amphipod population and trying to save as many worms as possible from predation will help immensely---if your rock structure is such that fish can't get into it to strip it of all inverts. Those of us who keep pod-eating fish do much the same with a 'rubble pile' of bits and bobs of broken rock and coral: it's rapidly colonized by things fish would love to get it, but they can't move the rock. So it becomes a breeding base for pods and worms. Holey rock helps protect worms. A 'fuge down in the sump helps. Feeding phyto can, paradoxically, increase the pods, who help eat the algae bits before they can take hold and become an algae bloom.

I'm a firm believer in a 'pyramid' of lots of inverts supporting the tank, and a reasonable fish population that won't succeed at taking them out. Then you end up with a tank that's pretty self-protective, because the inverts break down the fish poop, and the bacteria in the sand finishes the job, turns it into fertilizer, which goes to the sump, where it grows the cheato that grows the pods that eat the algae spores, and so on. This kind of system works well for coral-fish tanks, and it works well for all-fish tanks. Think of it as the sanitation department.

So back to your purigen or Phosban, yes: it will help. So will getting a really good invert setup going and protecting it with your rockwork, so that the rascally fish can't wipe it out in the first week. ;)

HTH.

[Capt. Nemo]

Is there a cleaning crew I could utilize that wont be dinner for the porcuppine puffer who will soon be taking up residence in my tank. Are there any inverts or fish that would be a puffer safe cleaning crew? I dont know much about pods. Need to do some research. Thanks!

[appellativo]

to be nitpicky, the package on Purigen says it "controls ammonia nitrites and nitrates by removing notrogenous organic waste that would otherwise release these harmful compounds...." In other words, it does not REMOVE ammonia nitrite or nitrate but it prevents organics from degrading and being converted INTO ammonia, nitrite then nitrate. So, if you ALREADY have a ammonia nitrite nitrate or phosphate problem, it isnt going to REMOVE these, but it will help clean up existing organic matter and help halt/prevent the decay process from continuing to happen (thus improving your situation). In order to tackle a high-nutrient/phosphate problem, you need to approach the matter from several angles (address overfeeding, overstocking, source water, lack of filtration and skimming, water changes,.... using phosphate absorbers such as phosguard or phosban being the LAST of which you will want to do, you know, to help clean up any remaining problem.... Now that you have adopted your NEWLY IMPROVED maintenance regimen, will improve the situation (but it may take some time, be patient. Nothing good happens quickly in a reef tank)

The description on Purigen claims to highly polish the water, giving it superb clarity (colorless). which is the same thing carbon does (removes organic waste from the water column...organic waste tends to tint the water yellow), it just probably does it more efficiently than carbon. and its renewable so you spend less money in the longrun.

I hope I have been of some help.