AlgaeFix Marine to control Hair Algae

[tmz]

I agree PO4 at .4 is very high and contibutes nuisance algae. Lessthan .03ppm limits it.

[ampemployee1]

Agree, .4 phosphates too high! It was a typo, phosphates at .04.

Couple of pix after 3 doses. Sorry, iphone pix.

[txfatcat]

Bert.

It caused or what seemed to be the cause of my cheato die off and mangroves.

Amp. Did I miss in your post about. Ro/di tds readings. If sediment levels are high. This will contribute to algae growth. I too was running a gfo media amd then tried carbon and gfo. My red cyo only got worse. I stopped and stay on top of ro/di and keep the sand stirred up good every few days. I also changed the cycle time for my closed loop to make sure its running longer and more often during the day. Circulation increase has made a world of difference. Last thing is that I changed salt mixes and found obe that works extremely well. I do 25% about once a month or every other month. I have been told that some salts will introduce bad things into the tank.

[mc-cro]

I wanted to share my experience here.

I have been fighting HA for about 6 months, and as an absolute last ditch effort i decided to dose algae fix. I dosed slightly less than the directions, 20ml for a 220g system.

I will admit, my SPS had been a little stressed. a month previously I had dropped the lighting schedule by an hour to trying to battle the hair algae.

They went from this to this




To this: (edit this picture was actually taken 4 days after the dosing, the colors were already coming back- they were bone white the next morning after dosing)



And from this:

to this



I completely lost the large pink colony in the front do to RTN within a day or so.

[Blue Space]

Sorry you lost that beautiful pinky!

[nysbadmk8]

Just so everyone is aware, You cant just dose algaefix and BOOM YOUR ALGAE IS GONE, you need a CUC to eat the dying algae, and also the dying algae releases TONS of PO4. You must export that free floating P04... or it will be consumed again.

[Biodork]

Just wanted to share a major victory using Algaefix. I had hair algae covering just about every surface in my tank. Dosed 2ml Algaefix for a 30gal system. After about 1 month of treatment, the algae is essentially gone. I should mention that I probably dosed less frequently than 1x/3days. The only thing that looks a little worse for wear is the coralline algae. My corals actually looks quite a bit better now. Before and after photos attached.

[topjimmy]

Originally Posted by Biodork

Just wanted to share a major victory using Algaefix. I had hair algae covering just about every surface in my tank. Dosed 2ml Algaefix for a 30gal system. After about 1 month of treatment, the algae is essentially gone. I should mention that I probably dosed less frequently than 1x/3days. The only thing that looks a little worse for wear is the coralline algae. My corals actually looks quite a bit better now. Before and after photos attached.

Damn, and I thought I had an algae problem...

[containerman1]

Great info

[conceptvip]

I have a bad case of GHA and just ordered some AF. Do you think I could hook it up to one of my spare spots on my dosing pumps just to not shock the system? I have a 210gal with a 30gal sump.

[Ralph ATL]

Originally Posted by containerman1

Great info

however, be conservative.......

[Johnic]

Originally Posted by Biodork

Just wanted to share a major victory using Algaefix. I had hair algae covering just about every surface in my tank. Dosed 2ml Algaefix for a 30gal system. After about 1 month of treatment, the algae is essentially gone. I should mention that I probably dosed less frequently than 1x/3days. The only thing that looks a little worse for wear is the coralline algae. My corals actually looks quite a bit better now. Before and after photos attached.

Biodork. I have same size tank with HA problem. Can you give arun down on exactly the dosing per day and for how long did you dose again.

Thanks.

[mos90]

i would never dose in a reef tank unless it was a emergency.

i found that tons of gfo, carbon,filter socks,less feeding,wet skimming, cut back on lighting times are the way to go.

the problem is everyone wants the algae gone NOW. if it were only that easy.

now in a fish only. i would definitely. but why would you need to. ive never had an algae problem in a fowlr.

[Johnic]

I just received AF today in mail...I will dose 2.5ml for my 30 Gal...Lets see what happens.

[kharmaguru]

@Biodork.

Absolutely wild.

I used algaefix roughly 2 years ago and to this day I still have no green hair algae nor usual green glass haze. However a brown turf algae that algaefix had no effect on continues in my tank with extremely low nutrients. I would go so far as to say it's now the only algae that grows. I suspect this as I'm running an ATS to combat it and the algae that grows on it is the same brown turf. No CUC that I've tried touch it. Direct spot treatment outside my tank with H2O2 is the only thing that nukes it. Tedious but effective. Fortunately it's a slow grower.

Tanks are about balance - algaefix throws a wrench in that balance and you never know just what will result on the other side. Just my 2.

[Biodork]

I agree, Algaefix should deffinately be a last ditch solution. But hair algae had already defeated me on a previous tank (broke down everything and sold the system) and I didn't want to go that route again without one last shot. I tried phosphate remover, H2O2 in areas that were feasible, reduced lighting, new MH bulb, almost daily manual removal, additional cleanup crew... all with no success.

I dosed my system for approx one month. I have a 30 gallon system, but with a fair amount of live rock, so I opted to be conservative with each addition of Algaefix and used 2ml (manufacture recommends 1ml/10gal). I have to be honest and admit that I was not completely on the ball about dosing every 3 days. I never dosed more often, but it was probably more like every 3 days for the first few doses and then 1x per week for the last couple of weeks. I left my skimmer running. I think this is really important because as the algae started to die off, the skimmer went nuts. I also continued to do weekly 15% water changes.

Best of luck!

[Biodork]

One thing I forgot to add, I didn't really see much of a change for the first couple of weeks. After that, the algae turned pretty sickly and could be easily siphoned off the rock work. I did do some scrubbing afterwards. Lots of detritus from all the die off.

[Johnic]

Cool. I can't wait to dose. I too have reached a point where this is my last effort before I tear it down and get out of the hobby. Tired of looking at a Forrest of green HA.

[Biodork]

I hear ya, post some photos and let me know how it goes.

[Johnic]

Will do.....

[Johnic]

Well I dosed 2.5 ml for the first time last night..lets see how this goes.

Before Pics

[nolanrob123]

Originally Posted by Johnic

Well I dosed 2.5 ml for the first time last night..lets see how this goes.

Before Pics

How does the tank look now?

[petere1989]

Do you leave skimmer on or leave it off? And if off, for how long after treatment?

[Johnic]

Well. I'm about 3/4 of a month into it dosing every three days and the gha is almost all gone. There are done resilient patches but I'm still dosing.
Yes. I left skimmer on

[Johnic]

Well I have to say. Algae fix worked. My tank looks unreal. I ran skimmer while doing it and bought more turbo snail and a tang. Very very little left in tank. Im happy with results.
I think I'll dose once a week to keep it at bay. All more corals look better than ever and tank is back to normal.