AlgaeFix Marine to control Hair Algae

[HighlandReefer]

thebanker,

Glad to hear your gaining control of your pest. Keep us posted.

[vegaskid11]

So with a large system is the consensus to dose half the treatment in the morning and half in the evening. I just started this morning on a 500 gallon system and I am starting light with 45 ml per day.

[thebanker]

Since i've had good results with the dosing so far, I think today will be my last dose.

What does everyone reccommend for the bloom of red cyano that seems to have beseiged my sandbed? Should I siphon-and-wait? Or hit it with the Blue Life treatment?

[iFisch]

Originally posted by thebanker
Since i've had good results with the dosing so far, I think today will be my last dose.

What does everyone reccommend for the bloom of red cyano that seems to have beseiged my sandbed? Should I siphon-and-wait? Or hit it with the Blue Life treatment?

I would say siphon as much out as you can, then nuke it with Bluelife.

However Cliff may, and likely could come up with something else.

[HighlandReefer]

Originally posted by vegaskid11
So with a large system is the consensus to dose half the treatment in the morning and half in the evening. I just started this morning on a 500 gallon system and I am starting light with 45 ml per day.

There have been complaints about coral problems and other things when dosing AF in large systems. I suspect that the large amount needed to dose these larger systems may cause problems if dosed all in one dose. IMHO, I would brake the dose up to allow the AF to disperse into your tank water well before the other dose. In your size system, perhaps three doses over the course of the day may be better if this is possible with your routine.

I would watch your occupants closely and stop dosing AF if you see negative signs you are concerned about.

As always, if you have significant build-up of your pest, I would clean it out as best as possible before dosing day. You don't want dead or dieing algae to brake down in your water any more than is possible. The decay can be harmful to your occupants similar to a dead fish in your system that is not removed.

[HighlandReefer]

Originally posted by thebanker
Since i've had good results with the dosing so far, I think today will be my last dose.

What does everyone reccommend for the bloom of red cyano that seems to have beseiged my sandbed? Should I siphon-and-wait? Or hit it with the Blue Life treatment?

Blue Life gets mixed ratings about its effectiveness. There are many hobbyists who have complained about the loss of coral. Others rave about it. Many claim the cyano comes back. I am a little weary about its use, unless it is a last resort. I am not sure about its active ingredients. Possibly an antibiotic (Erythromycin)?

Cyano problems are not uncommon after control of algae is achieved. My theory is that there is still a lot of DOM left over from the algae kill in one's water column. I would continue diligence with water changes, running GAC, siphoning debris & cyano, removing debris by hand and lightly siphoning the top thin layer of your sand bed to remove as much organic matter as possible. This will work in many cases.

The theories regarding the balance of N,P and DOM intrigue me and I feel there is merit here when fighting cyano. After concentrating on removing the dissolved organic matter build-up for a while, perhaps backing off a little on the use of GFO will help if you continue to have cyano problems, as many hobbyists have testified. Other's have dosed nitrate and claim this works as well. Personally I think the decrease in DOM is the most important part and perhaps the increasing of phosphate or nitrate may be coincidental.

[thebanker]

Highland - I've used the blue life once before, and the cyano stayed away for a while and then came back. I could get some erithromycin (Maracyn?) and dose the tank with that, I've heard good results about dosing that to kill cyanobacteria. I only want to do that when I am sure that the AF Marine regimen is over so I don't stress out the critters. Until then, I'm going to change the flow in the tank to make the cyano as unhappy as possible, and maybe leave it like that if the sand stays clean.

After realigning one of my Koralia 1's to kill off a dead zone, I dosed my tank with its fourth AF marine treatment.

Here are up-to-date before/afters. Keep in mind I did some scrubbing and siphoning. I call it "elbow grease dosing."


08/29, full tank, before dosing


09/07, full tank, just after 4th dose


08/29, example: hard-to-scrub rock, thickly coated in algae


09/07, same rock, moved a little after removal and cleaning, not as much algae


08/29, two large mushrooms over 3" in diameter, gha encrusted live rock


09/07, mushrooms are visibly affected, but rock looks clean and shows off great coraline growth


08/30 sand is all nasty with diatoms, gha, and cyano


09/07 cyano has succeeded the hair algae and diatoms


09/07 my anemone has crawled up here by a powerhead. I hope it's not too stressed.

The battle continues, but the war looks like it's almost over...

Correction to my last series of posts: they were after my 3rd dose, not my fourth.

[HighlandReefer]

thebanker,

I have not added any chemicals to fight cyano. Boomer has recommended Chemi-Clean by Boyd, which he has stated contains a type of Erythromycin. For the pests (cyano & algae) on the sand, I just kept siphoning them weekly and they disappeared. When I siphoned the sand, I did a bit of the top layer as well.

Your tank is looking good. The elbow grease is an important ticket to success when battling these pests. I found as the AF dosing proceeded, the algae became easier to remove. I resorted to a toothbrush for the smaller crannies and it worked well.

[iFisch]

I know you probably don't want to hear this, but that clown trigger when get's bigger can become very aggressive. I'd be careful.


Good luck.

[thebanker]

I've done quite a bit of toothbrushing in there. It's helped get a lot of the algae off.

Bad news though- I've sustained minor losses, so I'm starting to get a little freaked out about my AF dosing. My anemone kicked the bucket, but he was looking bad before I started dosing. I also lost a tiny acro frag in what looked like a case of rapid tissue necrosis. The once brown acro is now completely Antarctic. Here's what really got to me: I just looked at my frogspawn and it looks as if some of it has ripped and detached from the skeleton. This is happening on the common body beneath the polyps (coenosarc?). My goniopora is still looking okay, but I'm watching it closely for signs of stress.

I'm spooked, and I'm going off AF Marine until all the coral begins looking better.

iFisch - I don't want to hear it! jk. it's true... That clown trigger's already a little terror. But he's got a lot of personality for a fish, and will take food straight from your hand. At least he's a crowd pleaser.

[HighlandReefer]

Thebanker,

Sorry to hear about your loses.

How many doses of AlgaeFix have you made?

[thebanker]

Today would be the 5th dose of AF, and I'm going to hold off and go a different route. I'm doing what you suggested and vaccuuming the organic matter of the sandbed as part of a large water change.

To more permanently solve the issue, i'm upgrading from a Seaclone 100 I got at petsmart to a new skimmer. I'm going with the brand spankin new CPR AeroForce. My friend at a local LFS has tested it and says it pulls way more skimmate than the ubiquitous AquaC Remora. I have another thread about that going in the Lighting/Filtration forum.

[HighlandReefer]

Sounds like a good plan.

Good luck with your battle.

[racingrich]

Wednesday I did my 10th dose and when I got home from work I found some red on my rocks and sand. From what I can tell it's a bit of cyno. Algaefix got rid of the last of what I was told to be some type of cladophora. Now that I got rid of my pest how do I get rid of the cyno. I remember When my rock was new it had a cyno period during the cycle and went away by itself.
thanks Rich

[HighlandReefer]

racingrich,

I'm glad to hear your algae pest is under control. At 10 doses, I would stop the regular every three day dosing. Many hobbyist's have stated they developed problems after 10 doses. After 10 doses of AF, it killed my macro.

============================================================================================

Cyano is tougher then algae, in that it can derive its phosphate directly from the fish food and organic matter (dead algae, decaying fish food, fish excrement, etc) in your water column. Lower phosphate levels will help, but will not eradicate it.

At this point I would concentrate on cleaning your water as much as possible by using proper skimming habits, cleaning the very top level of your sand frequently (this will remove the cyano). Running GAC, increasing frequency of water changes and removing any debris floating around or on your rocks.

Reducing feeding frequency to once every other day or every three days + decreasing the wattage of your lights and day-length will help also until you gain control.

[racingrich]

Thanks for the info. and wow the algaefix did work very good so I think the cyno is from dead algae. I will post some before and after pics soon oh I did use the algaefix freshwater

[HighlandReefer]

Your welcome.

One more hobbyist who successfully used the cheaper fresh water version without problems.

I look forward to your pictures.

[racingrich]

Before and after photo's

[racingrich]

Top photo is the after algaefix lol

[HighlandReefer]

[racingrich]

My wife called me and told me that the cyano is taking over much more today should I do a big water change. Also when my live rock was new years ago it was coverd with it after the cycle and then it went away after some days could this happen again?
thanks for any info.
Rich

[HighlandReefer]

I would continue siphoning the cyano often, along with any debris. Perhaps using a brush to get it off the rock work will help. Once the organic matter that the cyano is feeding on is removed, it should fade away. The siphoning should translate into addition water changes. I would maintain your normal water change schedule in addition to this (say at least 30% per month on a weekly basis).

[thebanker]

The bad news: I've stopped dosing AF Marine since 09/07, as it seems to have done its job. I have a frogspawn that is dying, and is looking worse every day.

The good news: Well I overhauled my tank entirely. Bought a new skimmer, vacuumed the substrate and scrubbed the live rock in an outside bucket. While I was moving the LR around, I decided to remodel, and fix my substrate issues. When I started my tank I used crushed coral, because I didn't know any better, and I had a large patch of it I "repaved" with caribsea live sand. Now I have at least 2-3 inches of sand everywhere in the tank. I removed about 6 Starbucks Venti cups of crushed coral, and added about 7 Venti cups of live sand (20 lbs).

Here's the remodeled tank and new skimmer.






Just tested the water and got the following parameters:

Specific Gravity: 1.022
Carbonate hardness: 9 dkh
PO4: 0 ppm
NO3: 0-5 ppm

So far so great!

Ca: 580 ppm ... yikes...

Adding all that sand must have spiked the tank's dissolved calcium, and that should go down naturally and over the course of a few water changes. The nice thing is, every time I walk by the tank, I swear there's more coralline algae.

I'm going to watch and see how it goes. Does anyone know if the frogspawn can be saved? It's peeling apart from the base on up...

[HighlandReefer]

You will need to bump up your salinity for coral. They will not do well at 1.022. Natural seawater is around 1.0264. I keep mine between 1.026-1.027. Certainly no lower than 1.024.

If you are using a hydrometer to measure specific gravity, it would be advisable to calibrate it with a properly calibrate refractometer from a friend or the LFS.

Randy goes into more details regarding all the recommended water parameters for coral in this article:

Reef Aquarium Water Parameters
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.htm

[fishgeek88]

where can I find this Algae fix marine?