Any Last Suggestions????

[RBU1]

I am about to pack the hobby in.........I have tried everything to rid my tank of hair algae. I have removed most of the rocks and SCRUBBED them. I have started using RowaPhos in a phosphate reactor. I am using Seachems De-Nitrate. I added a small refugium with some grape calurpa that grows fairly well. Added more flow to the tank. Purchased one of those SeaHares poor thing got stuck to my Seio powerhead. Don't know what else I can do but the algae is really getting on my nerves. It is starting to grow over and kill some of my SPS corals. My nitrates are 0 my phosphates are 0 calcium always around 400 Alk always around 11.2 dkh PH always 8.2 temp 81........Any more suggestions?????? I don't want to remove all my rock from the tank. BILL

[kass03]

Try some mexican turbos. Do you use RO/DI water?
Also if you have a substrate try siphening the top layer to get rid of detritis.

kass

[Ursus]

You using RO/DI for top off and mixing? The algae is getting its nutrients from somewhere...

[cham]

20 regular turbos or about half that many mexican turbos and one sea urchin. I put an urchin in my tank and it ate more hair algae than I could have imgained. It will munch on coraline but I didn't loose very much coraline at all. Mine concentrated most of its time on the algae.

IME (limited) I have found using natural things like peppermint shrimp for aptasia and turbos/urchin for algae are the easiest and most effective. Everything I've ever try to DIY fix has failed.

[chrismunn]

where there is algae, there is nutrients. your job is to find the source of these nutrients! dictated by the algae, we know the nutrients are there, but how are they being introduced into the system?

do you dose chemicals?
do you feed the tank anything?
whats in the tank as far as living thnigs?
you added flow, how much? and is it enough? is it being directed in the best possible way for efficiancy?
are you using pure water or tap?
do you have a substrate? fine argonite, crushed coral, or anything at all?
what lights do you have running, and for how long at a time? do you change the bulbs at the end of thier life expectancy?

there are so many factors to consider! make a list of EVERTHING having to do with your tank and i'll try to help you figure this thing out, as will others im sure!
dont let a little thing like a nutrient problem beat you at what you love! ( i dont know that you acctually love reefing? but i figured that since you are a reefer, you MUST love it! cuz when you dont, you normally want to get as far away from it as you can!)
we'll get you fixed...

[RBU1]

Thanks for the positive words. I hope I answer all the questions.

I do dose calcium (Seachems Reef Complete)
I do dose Magnesium (ESV)
I do dose Alk in my topoff water RO/DI. (Seachems Reef Buffer)
Every couple weeks I may add a some trace elements (Seachem)
I do 7 gallon water changes teice a month with well mixed salt and RO water.
I have even added some carbon and Phosguard to my topoff water and mixing water.
I do feed 1 time a day when I get home from work. I have an Atlantic Blue Tang, Six Line Wrasse and 2 clown fish in a 75.
My lights I have 4 - 96 watt PC's they come on at 9AM and off at 9:30 PM. I also have 2 - 250 watt hallides that come on at 11:30AM and go off at 5:30PM.
For substrate I have SouthDown sand.

As far as the Mexican Turbo's go. Every single one I have added has been dead within a couple weeks. I always acclimate them real slow. Then about 2 weeks later I see my hermits eating them........The only thing that gave me any hope was a seahare. But after about a week I found him sucked to the intake of my Seio powerhead.

As far as flow. I have my return pump that should be about 650GPH. I just added a Seio 1500. I must say it moves some water. I tried the 2600 but it was just to big.

Any thoughts are GREATLY appreciated. BILL

[cham]

I'm a fan of the urchin, wont get sucked into power heads and they are pretty hardy. If you were close I would loan you mine, hes a pig. Hermits wont touch him either.

[chrismunn]

south down....isnt that play sand er something? how deep is the sand bed? is that silicate sand? i have heard of it, but have no idea what it is?
do you have a skimmer by the way?
do you test for any of thoes additives that your putting into the tank?
does your water movement occur at the top, middle, or bottom of the tank, and if all of the above, where is it most prominant?
do you treat your actuall tank with carbon, or only the top off water?
i had bad dictyota, and i got rid of it by getting rid of my sandbed, and doing water changes more frequently.
hmmm...?

[petoonia]

Is it just me or does that seem like alot of lighting. 4 96w pc, and 2 250MH on a 75g. Do you have alot of corals that need all of that light. I would try reducing the MH lighting a little bit and see if that has an impact on the algae.

What other type of snails , crabs do you have. You should check out the algae cleaner packs many mail order sites offer. A combo. of snails and hermit crabs has worked great in my tank. We have 30 snails, 15 hermits, 1 emerald crab. Also you could try a green lettuce sea slug he has been munching on all of the algae in our tank. These are not a true nudibranch so they wont harm your corals.

Try researching an UV sterilizer as well.

Good Luck!!!

[petoonia]

How long has your tank been set up? How did you introduce your lighting as well? I only have a dual 96W PC on my 65g tank, and our LFS suggested we start out at 2 hours a day and gradually increase it an hour at a time. If your corals can withstand it I would try reducing your lighting for awhile.

Turbo snails should not be dieing if your paramters are good. How many hermits do you have and how big are they? Do you have plenty of empty shells in the tank that they can check out, and move into as they grow? They will kill the snail just to check out the shell even if they dont move into it they still like to take a look. You definately need to get some snails in the tank. Mexican turbo, astrea, and banded trochus are my favorite.

Also have you thought about a tang?

I hate to seee anyone give up on such a great hobby! Hang in there! Good Luck!!!