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Unread 08/19/2018, 09:06 AM   #1
Horace
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Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Atlanta
Posts: 5,009
Nitrate Dosing, Carbon Dosing, Po4 Remover...Still HA...

Hey folks,

I have been fighting a long battle with Hair Algae that I have been unable to get control of. However, before you start with the common responses of Control your feeding, lower lights, add po4 remover blah blah, know that I am not a novice reefer. I am aware of the fundamentals and then some .

What I would like to hear some expert opinions on is how I should continue to battle. Fundamentally I KNOW I NEED TO KNOCK OUT THE NUTRIENTS.....but I am looking for opinions on next steps.

I have been testing nutrients in my system from the start, but to my continued surprise, my water tests at basically 0/0 No3/Po4 with my test kits. I realize they are not likely accurate, but the fact that they show no detectable nutrients is very telling, and does indicate at the least that my nutrients are NOT built up in my water column like most observe.

So far I have the following action in play:

1. I have been running po4 remover (Rowaphos) for at least 6 months and continue to do so.

2. I have been running activated carbon since the start of the tank (about a year now).

3. the last 1+ month I have been dosing Vinegar. I am now up to dosing about 100ml+ per day to my roughly 215g total system volume.

4. I have a Lifereef skimmer which is pulling a fair amount of gunk.

5. I have a Rollermat that is constantly keeping semi-fresh filter floss in my system (IE I dont leave rotting filter bags in the tank.)

6. I have Chaeto section in my sump (more on this in a sec)

7. I used to have a Algae Turf Scrubber on the tank that I built. It worked well but was a MAJOR maintenance item that I didnt want to deal with any longer so it has been removed (Algae was an issue then as well). It was also loud, which I disliked (water splashing/draining from the box).

8. After reading about some folks needing to actually dose No3 to get the Po4 down (I can only assume at this point I have Po4 since the HA continues to grow). I dosed approximately 3-4ppm of Nitrate (via KNo3) to the tank. This Nitrate was nearly INSTANTLY absorbed by the tank. The Cheato ball nearly tripped in size in a matter of a few days (its now about the size of a soccer ball), and if anything the HA in the display is worse than before (though not much).

9. I have a fairly small clean up crew, and perhaps some help here is in order, but I have a large Melanaris wrasse so some of my options are limited. I do have a couple urchins, one fairly good size Long Spine, and a pin cushion a bit larger than a golf ball. Both are quite active....

So as far as I am concerned, I am basically doing everything that I know of to try to starve the tank of nutrients, short of starving my fish (I really dont think I overfeed them!). I have about 12 medium to small fish in the 180g tank. The largest being a 4" Blue Tang, and they go down from there.

So my question to you all is how would you proceed? Would you keep dosing the No3??? (I have not added further No3 since the first few doses). Should I continue to ramp up the Vinegar? More P04 Remover??? Honestly I am a bit at wits end here.....I want this freggin HA gone, and it is being EXTREMELY subborn and resistant to any Nutrient reduction, and from the look of it, is absorbing the nutrients so fast that my other methods of attacking the nutrients are apparently not out competing the HA....

My thoughts on next steps are to incorporate a more aggressive bacteria program like Zeovit (I have had success with this in the past, but really dont want to add that maintenance intensive routine and significant cost to my tank)


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-Horace Pinker

Current Tank Info: New 180g Mixed SPS Build in progress

Last edited by Horace; 08/19/2018 at 09:13 AM.
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