AlgaeFix Marine to control Hair Algae

[HighlandReefer]

Sounds Good.

Algae problems are at the top as far as many reefers frustrations.

I'm a firm believer in using a quarantine tank for preventing algae & many other pest problems.

[Brando457]

Originally Posted by HighlandReefer

Sounds Good.

Algae problems are at the top as far as many reefers frustrations.

I'm a firm believer in using a quarantine tank for preventing algae & many other pest problems.

I'm almost at the point where the way I setup my tank to take it down and re-do it completely lol.

[dread240]

I'm not the expert by any means... but I seriously just brought my tank back from 2.5 years of algae take over, after trying numerous products. I finally talked with melev in depth on some issues, and I'm happy to say my tank is 100% algae free.

First I tried the lights out approach. It really did nothing against it. I was running high nitrate levels, and wasn't even testing phosphate, so I'm sure it was through the roof as well. I had a bad mix of GHA and cyano.

Then I tried the algone packets. I still use them to this day as another form of export, but they as well really did nothing to it.

Then I tried the algaefix marine. Again, 3 months of using it, nothing. Tank was still covered in algae.

I fixed it by good old hard work. I did an 85% water change on the tank twice in 2 days to knock out all the nutrients in the tank. Then went in with some airline tubing to siphon out detritus and all in and behind the rock work. I built a refugium and stuffed it with chaeto to absorb anything that was going into the tank, and reduced my feedings to 2-3 times a week. I can't find a spec of cyano or hair algae in the tank at all anymore, and I'm very very happy with that.

It sucks, and it's alotta work, but if you're fighting with it that bad trying to get rid of it all, sometimes drastic measures are needed

[SERVO]

This stuff works wonders on Dictoyta!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you've been plagued by that you'll know that no tang, rabbit fish, snail, urchin, crab or aquatic organism currently available in this hobby will find it palatable.

Cleared out my system!!!!

[HighlandReefer]

Servo,

Good to hear the AF worked on your Dictyota.

I'm curious as to how many doses it took to gain control?

[Tokyo]

I've been fighting Dictyota for 6 months and was at my wits end with it.

I started using AlgaeFix Marine last week, and after the 3rd dose I started to see an improvement. Now after the 4th dose it really is starting to receed properly. I've had such a struggle with it I still can't quite believe it !

I should point out this is the first chemical "quick fix" I've tried. Until now I've tried to address the root of the problem with good husbandy as well as changing all filters on my RO unit, changing the lights and reducing the period, reduced feeding, Rowaphos and carbon. This stuff seems to spread even with very good water quality which is why I resorted to a chemical as a last ditch attempt.

I'm going to do a water change tonight and siphon out the loose stuff before the next dose tomorrow.

[helpinsmepls]

I picked up a bottle of the fix. I'm starting today. I run a 5 stage spectrapure r/o, instant ocean reef crystals, SWC 160 cone skimmer, Nova extreme T5 8x54, 70 gallon tank, 35 gallon sump, hob refug with chaeto which will not grow and the stuff is a month old.

As far as I know water tests out fine. I have a few different brands of tests but admittedly all are expired except for the ammonia, nitrate, nitrite tests which all read fine. Even phosphate test was not showing up even after adding additional drops, but like I said this test is expired.

I will admit something is wrong as you will see in the pictures but I have tried to correct the problem with no avail for the past month.

With water changes, brs reactor running gfo, also a bag of chemi pure elite, a bag of purigen, a bag of seachem phosphate remover, nothing is hitting this stuff. I have tried 3 day's no light in the DT and nothing, the stuff seemed to grow better lol. I have my fish on a 3 to 4 day wait period between feedings. I even purchased 2 babby bottle brushes to scrubb the crud off and it just grows back.

My shrimp are mad, my fish are mad, my corals are mad, my snails seem ok with the situation as do my crabs.

I don't think im overstocked. I have 100lbs live rock, 2 clownfish, 2 firefish, 1 female mandarin, 1 clown goby, 1 yellow watchman, 1 brittle starfish, 2 cleaner shrimp, 4 peppermint shrimp, 3 to 4 small hermits, and about 20 or so snails. 1 bubble coral, 1 frogspawn, 1 xenia, a few gsp, and 2 zoa.

I'm not sure where my problem is cumming from but I do have one.

Please feel free to laugh.

[dread240]

HOLY CRAP lol

damn... I thought mine was bad as I had a few patches here and there I hope this works for you, but your first step is going to be some manual removal I think

[HighlandReefer]

That is a nasty algae.

I agree, you should get as much of the algae out of your tank as possible before each dose. Otherwise, the dead algae will add lots of nitrate and phosphate back into your water column.

The feathery branching on the stalks resembles the growth behavior of Bryopsis. It may be a Bryopsis, but I am not certain.

I would really like to know how the AF works on this algae. Where did you buy your live rock from?

[SERVO]

Originally Posted by HighlandReefer

Servo,

Good to hear the AF worked on your Dictyota.

I'm curious as to how many doses it took to gain control?

Well, I should have detailed it a little better. I had an aquacultured coral in my frag tank that had some small dictyota at it's base. The LFS's store owner was plucking it off. He cleared out his system later with the product and told me to try it. I was SUPER scared to put a pesticide in my tank, so I procrastiated for about 6-8 months until it was EVERYWHERE in my frag tank. Finally, after losing corals by overgrowth, I took the plunge. I had about 3-4 doses to my memory to clear out the dictyota algae. The only problem that I had is it may have caused a drop in my alkalinity. I'm not sure if that was serendipitious to another issue.

It also cleared up my cotten candy algae. (my poor turbo snails!)


I'm thrilled!!!

[HighlandReefer]

That's good to hear.

[helpinsmepls]

Originally Posted by HighlandReefer

Where did you buy your live rock from?

Hi, the live rock in there I never had any problems with. It is fuji live rock. The Marco rock is what I feel may have been maby the catalyst for the algae.

The reason why I say this is because when the algae started it was only on the marco rock. Could it be that since the rock did not have anything live on it that it was an easy place for algae to get started? It was just a few patches to begin with so I did not bother removing it. I figured this would be a good "tell" on my water quality. Well almost overnight the bloom from hell came.

I do think the suggestion on removal is a good one. Ive tried 3 times scraping every rock till my arm gets sore and all wrinkly. I do think the problem I am having during the cleaning is catching the stuff once it comes off the rock. Most ends up in the filter sock which I rinse and reuse.

At the base of the algae there are very firm stalks almost like hair follicles attaching themselves to the rock. Even after I do remove the green part about half of an inch of the stalk is still left.

I can use the small end of a baby bottle brush and like twirling spaghetti with a fork curl it up that way and pull, but still never get the base.

Thanks for the help

[dread240]

The base rock is easy for it to get to as it's not competing for anything else. Coralline algae like on your live rock doesn't give the algae a firm footing to that piece.

Considering I only see 2 clowns in your tank, how often and how much are you feeding this tank?

[helpinsmepls]

Originally Posted by dread240

Considering I only see 2 clowns in your tank, how often and how much are you feeding this tank?

The reason you only see 2 clowns is the rest of the fish are sleeping, and so were they really. I had just turned on my lights for a few minutes to snap the photo's then i turned them back off.

The rest of my stock list is in my post on this thread with the pictures. They are all alive and fine. In fact I do have allot of pods because of the algae and the mandarin is very happy with that.

As far as feeding I feed about 15-20 very small formula one pellets every 3-4 days. I rotate that with 1 regular cube of mysis or brine shrimp frozen every other feeding. I have been using this feeding program for about a month once the algae took off. My old feeding habit was 15-20 pellets once a day then on the 3rd or 4th day no pellets but a cube of frozen, and once a week during one of the days I would feed only about 30 live baby to mid sized live brine shrimp.

But to list my bio-load again:
2 clowns, 2 firefish, 1 female mandarin, 1 clown goby, 1 yellow watchman, 2 cleaner shrimp, 1 brittle star, 4 peppermint shrimp, about 20 or so snails, 4 hermit crabs (Not sure what type, 3 of them have green legs and one is a zebra) 1 bubble coral, 1 xenia, 1 frogspawn, a few patches of gsp, and a zoanthid, lots of pods various types.

About every 5 days I would need to empty my collection cup on the skimmer as it would be full with the bottom 1/3 cup of thick skim the upper part of the cup 2/3 wet skim.

My cuc is lacking I think but I have had problems with receiving cuc alive from the mail. (as far as snails go) Also I have had to get rid of problem crabs in the past. I had a large emerald that would snap at fish swimming by, and some hermits that liked to eat corals, even one of my current peppermints ate one of my watermelon green zoa corals while it was open and the lights were on. This may be do to the fact he is hungry.

[helpinsmepls]

I would like to know what everyone thinks my chances are on overcoming this?

Does anyone have any more suggestions? I can move my 2 cleaner shrimp, possibly the peppermints, hermits and corals if needed. but the corals only for a few day's as my quarantine tanks lighting is not the best.

Also should I change my salt? Im at the bottom of the bucket on the Instant Ocean reef crystals.

Thanks

[HighlandReefer]

If after about 10 doses with AF & you do not get results, then I would say there is not much hope using AF. AF does not kill all species of algae.

Hopefully, your nitrate and phosphate are reading zero currently?

IF the AF does not work, the next step I would try would be to use Tech M and raise your mag level by around 300-400 ppm total, by increasing the mag level 100 ppm daily. I would not do both the AF and increase the mag level at the same time though. This procedure has helped some hobbyists with Bryopsis, if this is what your algae is. AF has not worked on bryopsis that I am familiar with for past hobbyists, but each specie can be different and like I said earlier, this algae may not be a Bryopsis.

I would take it one step at a time and give the AF a good fighting chance to control this algae, by making sure your phosphate is low (run GFO if not). Keep your filter bag and skimmer clean daily & remove as much of this algae as possible before each dose. Keep in mind, AF will brake down within 24 hrs.

[HighlandReefer]

We have had several hobbyists loose their cuc while dosing AF, I am not sure if it was from the AF or not. Cuc do not have a good track record for surviving long in a reef tank. Cuc seem to only eat certain algae and if they don't eat your algae may starve to death. You may want to trade your cuc back if it is not eating the algae.

[dread240]

Sorry, I was reading your post and then the pics caught my eye and it was a brain fart moment.

Seriously though... I wish you the best of luck on getting that taken care of. Hopefully you get a bit of a chuckle out of my idea though.... if the AF fails and you never beat it... how about getting a small white fence and it can be little reef on the prarie?

[goochesfish]

I have no visible algae since wiping everything out with algaefix. I developed this on my monty 2 weeks ago. I never did the weekly dosing because the new CUC seems to be keeping algae in control but they can't get on this coral. Would you dose again?

[HighlandReefer]

If you have the green algae under control I would hold off dosing the AF unless it recurs.

As far as the brown growth on your monty, I'm not sure what it is. Looks like a brown algae possibly. I would say this could be attacked two different ways. First, try scrubbing it off the monty with a toothbrush and see if it comes back. If it comes back, I would think about cutting that part off the monty. Perhaps that part of the monty has a problem like a disease of some sort and cutting it away may help. Just my two cents.

[Squanto804]

Im sorry if this has been covered but there is so much info here it was hard to find.

Does AF affect Cheato in my refugium?

Thanks, Scott

[HighlandReefer]

Scott,

IME, the AF did not effect the chaeto until after 10 doses or so. My cheato did turn to mush after around 15 or so doses of AF. If you decide to try the AF, I would watch your chaeto if you do need to do around 10 doses, but in most cases it is not necessary to do that many doses.

[Squanto804]

Thanks very much.

[HighlandReefer]

YOur welcome.

[spazthecat]

Hi,

I've been skimming this thread and haven't really come across a post about AF causing coral bleaching and was wondering if anyone has experienced this?

I decided to give AF a try and after 4 doses the algae did start to recede but now all of my softies are almost completely colorless. Leathers are snow white, mushrooms are almost translucent, zoas and LPS are also bleaching but not as bad as everything else. Oddly enough the montipora I have look fine.

The bleaching didn't start until a couple of days after the 4th dose.

Thanks,

Andy