corals

MBuck · 02/26/2006, 10:14 AM

Ok, so i get home form work last night, and wanted to do a wtaer change on my cube...I have hair algae! Green and red, so I have been reading and have cut back on the food, and am doing 10-15% water changes every week, usually on Sunday, but I have to work today, so I decided to do it last night.

Anyways, I take out about 5 gallons after turning the lights on and blowing everything off with the turkey baster and waking everyone up. I have a small piece of rock with some shrooms on it, so I pull it out, place it in the bucket, and start pulling the hair off....not going so good...I go get a toothbrush and scrub the hair off, much better.

At two am, I have pulled the majority of my rock out of the tank, scrubbed the hair and basically reaquascaped my tank.
I start placing corals back into the tank, as they are completely pi$$ed at this point, as are the fish..

How do I know what corals can be touching or really close? I bought these as a package deal, and really don't know much about them, except that my shrooms have mulitpied, and my hairy mushroom has split. I guess I must be doing something right, but I have kept everyone away from each other, and when I look at pics on here, the tanks are practically consumed by corals.

I have hairy mushrooms, a kenya tree, a acropropa(sp), some flat mushrooms, are these ricordia? and a little rock with pretty yellow "flowers", not a feather duster type flower, but actually looks like a little tiny daisy. A very small frag of palovia(sp). Oh, I also have two stalks of Zenia.
Can these guys sit on top of each other, not literally, just touching? I have only really seen sweepers on the palovia.

I am in the process of buying a couple books on corals, just want my tank to be pretty like everyone elses!! And continue to keep thing's alive in there!
TIA!

OneThunder · 02/26/2006, 10:33 AM

Someday I would like to do corals too. We went snorkeling when we were in Hawaii and there are corals as far as the eye can see! and Fish! This is why I wanted a saltwater aquarium. To remind me of Hawaii. I've heard of this "hair algae" more than once. Doesn't anything eat it?

bigbenji · 02/26/2006, 10:37 AM

I'll be something on your fishlist does. Can you post it again?

Dubbin1 · 02/26/2006, 10:39 AM

The shrooms, zoas, yellow polyps, xenia and kenya tree should be ok to touch. I would keep everything else away from the rest.

MBuck · 02/26/2006, 10:41 AM

Supposedly some blue legged hermits, and certain snails....but I have not had much luck. My blue tuxedo urchin does a fine job, but the stuff grows faster than he moves!!

It looks alot better today, I have a fairly young tank, and probably have too much biolad on it right now. I bought the fish, 5 of them, and all the corals from the same person that was tearing their tank down...I already had two fish...

I had to put all those fish in the tank together, and since then have had to really keep up on the water changes, etc...They have been together since the first part of january, and I am guessing I am over feeding a little bit, Ok, alot...so I have tried to cut back a little bit...bought a good skimmer, added some chaeto to my sump/refuge, and just started getting this hair algae, it is nasty, grows on everything, makes my rocks green....the red is kinda pretty, but I am afraid it will choke out my corals.
Talk about personality, they all shrunk up, and closed, and i bet it was an hour before they decided to open back up, and be happy!

My lemon Peel angel was swimming all over, and I thought I was going to squish her with a rock a couple times, she has no fear!!

I have the reef, and want the puffer, you have the puffer, and want the reef!

Dubbin1 · 02/26/2006, 10:45 AM

I had a major hair algae problem when I had my 46g. I ended up scrubbing and cooking the rock. Seemed to work good though because I put alot of that rock in my 75g and I have zero issues with HA in my main tank.

MBuck · 02/26/2006, 10:50 AM

Benji,
my fish list is under each of my posts...

Dubbin1 · 02/26/2006, 10:53 AM

Hey Marie how does that lemonpeel do with your corals?

bigbenji · 02/26/2006, 10:54 AM

Sorry, I meant onethunder and her question about what will eat it. I'd think your lawnmower would help with the hair algae. Its called a lawnmower for a reason. A year ago I had to borrow an urchin from Gary and that guy ate it all. Turbo snails also plowed right through it.

MBuck · 02/26/2006, 10:59 AM

actually, she, don't know if it's she, but it's kinda prissy, so...she does pretty good, I have seen her pick at them a couple times, but not continually, just on occasion. I feed alot too, hence the HA! I have noticed she's a little aggressive with Lenny, my blenny, but he just gets out of her way....he is actually my favorite fish in the tank...
Lenny seems to eat the algae off the glass more so then the rocks, he leaves little lip prints all over the glass...

Dubbin1 · 02/26/2006, 10:59 AM

Our lawnmower blenny did nothing for the HA. All that stupid thing would eat was frozen food up until the day I smashed him when I was moving some rock

MBuck · 02/26/2006, 11:03 AM

I thought I sqiushed my tuxedo last night, but that damn acrylic is decieving....looked like it was on top of him against the glass, then I looked through the side, and it wasn't touching him! Wheww!! i like him alot too, and don't want to hurt them anyways!

MBuck · 02/26/2006, 11:06 AM

What about lighting? I have a metal halide over my tank, on at 8am, off at 9pm....should I cut it way down, what about the corals, will they be ok under less lighting/

Dubbin1 · 02/26/2006, 11:11 AM

My lights come on at 1pm and off at 10pm.

MBuck · 02/26/2006, 11:15 AM

I am reffering to the HA, would it help to cut the lighting? i cut mine out early in the evening, cuz I am usually at work anyways, and it's dark out, so why have it on....i tell ya though, it looks like a spaceship landed in my dining room when looking through the front door at night!!

sdsheeks · 02/26/2006, 11:25 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by MBuck
Supposedly some blue legged hermits, and certain snails....but I have not had much luck. My blue tuxedo urchin does a fine job, but the stuff grows faster than he moves!!
It looks alot better today, I have a fairly young tank, and probably have too much biolad on it right now. I bought the fish, 5 of them, and all the corals from the same person that was tearing their tank down...I already had two fish...

I had to put all those fish in the tank together, and since then have had to really keep up on the water changes, etc...They have been together since the first part of january, and I am guessing I am over feeding a little bit, Ok, alot...so I have tried to cut back a little bit...bought a good skimmer, added some chaeto to my sump/refuge, and just started getting this hair algae, it is nasty, grows on everything, makes my rocks green....the red is kinda pretty, but I am afraid it will choke out my corals.
Talk about personality, they all shrunk up, and closed, and i bet it was an hour before they decided to open back up, and be happy!

My lemon Peel angel was swimming all over, and I thought I was going to squish her with a rock a couple times, she has no fear!!

I have the reef, and want the puffer, you have the puffer, and want the reef!

I have turbo snails, bumblebee snails, and hermits that seem to be doing quite well off of the algae bloom I had. They have reduced it...oh 80% I would say. They start at one end of the rock and move their way to the other side and then onto another rock.

Dave

Dubbin1 · 02/26/2006, 08:08 PM

Marie it should help by cutting back the time. If I was you I wouldn't let it go over 8-9 hours. Really though, the only way you are going to get rid of it for sure is to cook the rock.

selgado · 02/26/2006, 08:20 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by MBuck
What about lighting? I have a metal halide over my tank, on at 8am, off at 9pm....should I cut it way down, what about the corals, will they be ok under less lighting/

Wowzer! 13 hours of full daytime lights. That could probably grow cyano and HA in a tank with zero nutrients. My halides are on at noon and off at 9 PM.

By the way everyone notice the
1000 Posts!

Dubbin1 · 02/26/2006, 08:32 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by selgado

By the way everyone notice the
1000 Posts!

John has reached a milestone!!!

broden · 02/26/2006, 09:22 PM

By the way everyone notice the
1000 Posts!

_______________

Bill

bigdaddyadam · 02/26/2006, 09:40 PM

I had a major hair algea outbreak about 8 months ago. scrubbing the rock with a toothbrush had mixed results. it does help get it off, but it will come back because you are actually helping it spread that way, I tried to overcome this as much as possible by doing the scrubbing in a seperate bucket of saltwater, just do a water change, keep the old water in abucket or two and scrub in that and make sure you shake the rock when you are done to get as much off and make sure it's clean before putting it back in the tank. this will help alot and then the cleaners can try to keep it in check.

in my experience as well a lawnmower blenny didn't touch it, I think some do, but it's just luck of the draw. urchins will put a hurt on it, especially if it's kept short by scrubbing. but keep in mind urchins can also eat coralline algea so no purple rock, they also like to knock over corals and some of them have poison spines that leave a painful sting, but if the outbreak is bad you may want to bite the bullet and use the urchin for now. hermits, emerald crabs, and snails will sometimes take a little hair algea, but they really aren't very effective against it and the snail poop can really just make the problem worse.

longterm solutions that helped me get rid of mine:
-decrease nutrients by using ro (or ro/di water if possible) for water changes/top-off, and make sure that the membrane is in good working order, you can get this water at meijers and other places very cheap in fill your own jugs, or even distilled water will work, but it costs a lot more. this will reduce or eliminate most phosphate and silca the main things HA feeds on

-decrease nutrients by reducing feeding, using low ash foods, and rinsing off frozen foods with fresh water when ever possible to reduce phosphate and other nutrients

-use activated carbon, aggressive skimming, and consider phosphate and/or silica absorbing material, I used Kent's and had good success with it

-siphon out as much as possible each day and also blow on rock gently with a turkey baster to get all deterious material in the water column and into the skimmer

-reduce light cycle by at least 2 hours for a while, do this gradually so corals get used to it, or depending on your system, reduce wattage output for a while, that will also make a big difference

-do large water changes as often as possible with high quality ro or ro/di water

-increase flow especially at area's with a lot of algea, this stuff loves low flow/dead areas the most

-employ a refugium (or if appropriate in tank) of macro algea, most effective and the only one that CANNOT contaminate your system itself is cheatomorpha. if you need some that is uncontaminated by caulerpa or other less desirable algea I can personally provide you with some starter algea, just PM me and we can set something up, no charge just pick it up

-finally, use that urchin, you might as well, heck, get another one, or see if you can borrow one from someone. if you have to you can put them in a seperate bucket of rock and let them clean in there then return the rock to the tank

generally this stuff comes from a build up of nutrients, high light, low flow etc. stop that and you will stop the algea, be patient, it will take some time and it will be frustrating, but you will succeed, it took me almost 2 months to get rid of it but I am now HA free going on 7 months (other than a very small one inch patch in a very low flow area)

I hope this helps, and good luck

selgado · 02/26/2006, 11:32 PM

Thank you, thank you very much. Good thing you aren't here to see/hear my Elvis impersonation.

Dubbin1 · 02/27/2006, 12:11 AM

MBuck · 02/27/2006, 12:18 AM

[SIZE=3][COLOR=blue]AWESOME!!!!

Dubbin1 · 02/27/2006, 11:44 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by MBuck

[SIZE=3][COLOR=blue]AWESOME!!!!

02/26/2006, 10:14 AM	#1
MBuck Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Shelby, Ohio Posts: 461	corals Ok, so i get home form work last night, and wanted to do a wtaer change on my cube...I have hair algae! Green and red, so I have been reading and have cut back on the food, and am doing 10-15% water changes every week, usually on Sunday, but I have to work today, so I decided to do it last night. Anyways, I take out about 5 gallons after turning the lights on and blowing everything off with the turkey baster and waking everyone up. I have a small piece of rock with some shrooms on it, so I pull it out, place it in the bucket, and start pulling the hair off....not going so good...I go get a toothbrush and scrub the hair off, much better. At two am, I have pulled the majority of my rock out of the tank, scrubbed the hair and basically reaquascaped my tank. I start placing corals back into the tank, as they are completely pi$$ed at this point, as are the fish.. How do I know what corals can be touching or really close? I bought these as a package deal, and really don't know much about them, except that my shrooms have mulitpied, and my hairy mushroom has split. I guess I must be doing something right, but I have kept everyone away from each other, and when I look at pics on here, the tanks are practically consumed by corals. I have hairy mushrooms, a kenya tree, a acropropa(sp), some flat mushrooms, are these ricordia? and a little rock with pretty yellow "flowers", not a feather duster type flower, but actually looks like a little tiny daisy. A very small frag of palovia(sp). Oh, I also have two stalks of Zenia. Can these guys sit on top of each other, not literally, just touching? I have only really seen sweepers on the palovia. I am in the process of buying a couple books on corals, just want my tank to be pretty like everyone elses!! And continue to keep thing's alive in there! TIA! __________________ Marie Do not dwell on the past, improve the future!! ~ M. Current Tank Info: 180g Reef, mated pair B/W percs, 3- pajama cardinals, long-spined urchin, yellow tang, six-line wrasse, hermits, snails, 2 Chromis, LP Angel, Foxface, 2- Royal Grammas, LMB, Sailfin Tang, pink damsel.

02/26/2006, 10:33 AM	#2
OneThunder Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Petersburg Michigan Posts: 416	Someday I would like to do corals too. We went snorkeling when we were in Hawaii and there are corals as far as the eye can see! and Fish! This is why I wanted a saltwater aquarium. To remind me of Hawaii. I've heard of this "hair algae" more than once. Doesn't anything eat it? __________________ Got Salt? Current Tank Info: 75 gallon reef aquarium , 16 gallon custom cube. Husband: where did that tank come from? Wife: What tank? Husband: That one. Wife: We had that.

02/26/2006, 10:37 AM	#3
bigbenji Premium Member Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Oak Harbor OH Posts: 1,201	I'll be something on your fishlist does. Can you post it again? __________________ "But Dad, it's shark week!" Ben Current Tank Info: I have tank envy.

02/26/2006, 10:41 AM	#5
MBuck Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Shelby, Ohio Posts: 461	Supposedly some blue legged hermits, and certain snails....but I have not had much luck. My blue tuxedo urchin does a fine job, but the stuff grows faster than he moves!! It looks alot better today, I have a fairly young tank, and probably have too much biolad on it right now. I bought the fish, 5 of them, and all the corals from the same person that was tearing their tank down...I already had two fish... I had to put all those fish in the tank together, and since then have had to really keep up on the water changes, etc...They have been together since the first part of january, and I am guessing I am over feeding a little bit, Ok, alot...so I have tried to cut back a little bit...bought a good skimmer, added some chaeto to my sump/refuge, and just started getting this hair algae, it is nasty, grows on everything, makes my rocks green....the red is kinda pretty, but I am afraid it will choke out my corals. Talk about personality, they all shrunk up, and closed, and i bet it was an hour before they decided to open back up, and be happy! My lemon Peel angel was swimming all over, and I thought I was going to squish her with a rock a couple times, she has no fear!! I have the reef, and want the puffer, you have the puffer, and want the reef! __________________ Marie Do not dwell on the past, improve the future!! ~ M. Current Tank Info: 180g Reef, mated pair B/W percs, 3- pajama cardinals, long-spined urchin, yellow tang, six-line wrasse, hermits, snails, 2 Chromis, LP Angel, Foxface, 2- Royal Grammas, LMB, Sailfin Tang, pink damsel.

02/26/2006, 10:50 AM	#7
MBuck Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Shelby, Ohio Posts: 461	Benji, my fish list is under each of my posts... __________________ Marie Do not dwell on the past, improve the future!! ~ M. Current Tank Info: 180g Reef, mated pair B/W percs, 3- pajama cardinals, long-spined urchin, yellow tang, six-line wrasse, hermits, snails, 2 Chromis, LP Angel, Foxface, 2- Royal Grammas, LMB, Sailfin Tang, pink damsel.

02/26/2006, 10:39 AM	#4
Dubbin1 Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Findlay, Ohio Posts: 11,547	The shrooms, zoas, yellow polyps, xenia and kenya tree should be ok to touch. I would keep everything else away from the rest.

02/26/2006, 10:45 AM	#6
Dubbin1 Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Findlay, Ohio Posts: 11,547	I had a major hair algae problem when I had my 46g. I ended up scrubbing and cooking the rock. Seemed to work good though because I put alot of that rock in my 75g and I have zero issues with HA in my main tank.

02/26/2006, 10:53 AM	#8
Dubbin1 Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Findlay, Ohio Posts: 11,547	Hey Marie how does that lemonpeel do with your corals?

02/26/2006, 10:54 AM	#9
bigbenji Premium Member Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Oak Harbor OH Posts: 1,201	Sorry, I meant onethunder and her question about what will eat it. I'd think your lawnmower would help with the hair algae. Its called a lawnmower for a reason. A year ago I had to borrow an urchin from Gary and that guy ate it all. Turbo snails also plowed right through it. __________________ "But Dad, it's shark week!" Ben Current Tank Info: I have tank envy.

02/26/2006, 10:59 AM	#10
MBuck Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Shelby, Ohio Posts: 461	actually, she, don't know if it's she, but it's kinda prissy, so...she does pretty good, I have seen her pick at them a couple times, but not continually, just on occasion. I feed alot too, hence the HA! I have noticed she's a little aggressive with Lenny, my blenny, but he just gets out of her way....he is actually my favorite fish in the tank... Lenny seems to eat the algae off the glass more so then the rocks, he leaves little lip prints all over the glass... __________________ Marie Do not dwell on the past, improve the future!! ~ M. Current Tank Info: 180g Reef, mated pair B/W percs, 3- pajama cardinals, long-spined urchin, yellow tang, six-line wrasse, hermits, snails, 2 Chromis, LP Angel, Foxface, 2- Royal Grammas, LMB, Sailfin Tang, pink damsel.

02/26/2006, 11:03 AM	#12
MBuck Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Shelby, Ohio Posts: 461	I thought I sqiushed my tuxedo last night, but that damn acrylic is decieving....looked like it was on top of him against the glass, then I looked through the side, and it wasn't touching him! Wheww!! i like him alot too, and don't want to hurt them anyways! __________________ Marie Do not dwell on the past, improve the future!! ~ M. Current Tank Info: 180g Reef, mated pair B/W percs, 3- pajama cardinals, long-spined urchin, yellow tang, six-line wrasse, hermits, snails, 2 Chromis, LP Angel, Foxface, 2- Royal Grammas, LMB, Sailfin Tang, pink damsel.

02/26/2006, 11:06 AM	#13
MBuck Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Shelby, Ohio Posts: 461	What about lighting? I have a metal halide over my tank, on at 8am, off at 9pm....should I cut it way down, what about the corals, will they be ok under less lighting/ __________________ Marie Do not dwell on the past, improve the future!! ~ M. Current Tank Info: 180g Reef, mated pair B/W percs, 3- pajama cardinals, long-spined urchin, yellow tang, six-line wrasse, hermits, snails, 2 Chromis, LP Angel, Foxface, 2- Royal Grammas, LMB, Sailfin Tang, pink damsel.

02/26/2006, 11:11 AM	#14
Dubbin1 Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Findlay, Ohio Posts: 11,547	My lights come on at 1pm and off at 10pm.

02/26/2006, 11:15 AM	#15
MBuck Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Shelby, Ohio Posts: 461	I am reffering to the HA, would it help to cut the lighting? i cut mine out early in the evening, cuz I am usually at work anyways, and it's dark out, so why have it on....i tell ya though, it looks like a spaceship landed in my dining room when looking through the front door at night!! __________________ Marie Do not dwell on the past, improve the future!! ~ M. Current Tank Info: 180g Reef, mated pair B/W percs, 3- pajama cardinals, long-spined urchin, yellow tang, six-line wrasse, hermits, snails, 2 Chromis, LP Angel, Foxface, 2- Royal Grammas, LMB, Sailfin Tang, pink damsel.

02/26/2006, 08:08 PM	#17
Dubbin1 Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Findlay, Ohio Posts: 11,547	Marie it should help by cutting back the time. If I was you I wouldn't let it go over 8-9 hours. Really though, the only way you are going to get rid of it for sure is to cook the rock.

02/26/2006, 09:22 PM	#20
broden Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Napoloen OH Posts: 234	By the way everyone notice the 1000 Posts! _______________ Bill

02/26/2006, 09:40 PM	#21
bigdaddyadam Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Cleveland, OH Posts: 751	I had a major hair algea outbreak about 8 months ago. scrubbing the rock with a toothbrush had mixed results. it does help get it off, but it will come back because you are actually helping it spread that way, I tried to overcome this as much as possible by doing the scrubbing in a seperate bucket of saltwater, just do a water change, keep the old water in abucket or two and scrub in that and make sure you shake the rock when you are done to get as much off and make sure it's clean before putting it back in the tank. this will help alot and then the cleaners can try to keep it in check. in my experience as well a lawnmower blenny didn't touch it, I think some do, but it's just luck of the draw. urchins will put a hurt on it, especially if it's kept short by scrubbing. but keep in mind urchins can also eat coralline algea so no purple rock, they also like to knock over corals and some of them have poison spines that leave a painful sting, but if the outbreak is bad you may want to bite the bullet and use the urchin for now. hermits, emerald crabs, and snails will sometimes take a little hair algea, but they really aren't very effective against it and the snail poop can really just make the problem worse. longterm solutions that helped me get rid of mine: -decrease nutrients by using ro (or ro/di water if possible) for water changes/top-off, and make sure that the membrane is in good working order, you can get this water at meijers and other places very cheap in fill your own jugs, or even distilled water will work, but it costs a lot more. this will reduce or eliminate most phosphate and silca the main things HA feeds on -decrease nutrients by reducing feeding, using low ash foods, and rinsing off frozen foods with fresh water when ever possible to reduce phosphate and other nutrients -use activated carbon, aggressive skimming, and consider phosphate and/or silica absorbing material, I used Kent's and had good success with it -siphon out as much as possible each day and also blow on rock gently with a turkey baster to get all deterious material in the water column and into the skimmer -reduce light cycle by at least 2 hours for a while, do this gradually so corals get used to it, or depending on your system, reduce wattage output for a while, that will also make a big difference -do large water changes as often as possible with high quality ro or ro/di water -increase flow especially at area's with a lot of algea, this stuff loves low flow/dead areas the most -employ a refugium (or if appropriate in tank) of macro algea, most effective and the only one that CANNOT contaminate your system itself is cheatomorpha. if you need some that is uncontaminated by caulerpa or other less desirable algea I can personally provide you with some starter algea, just PM me and we can set something up, no charge just pick it up -finally, use that urchin, you might as well, heck, get another one, or see if you can borrow one from someone. if you have to you can put them in a seperate bucket of rock and let them clean in there then return the rock to the tank generally this stuff comes from a build up of nutrients, high light, low flow etc. stop that and you will stop the algea, be patient, it will take some time and it will be frustrating, but you will succeed, it took me almost 2 months to get rid of it but I am now HA free going on 7 months (other than a very small one inch patch in a very low flow area) I hope this helps, and good luck

02/26/2006, 11:32 PM	#22
selgado Premium Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Toledo, OH Posts: 1,526	Thank you, thank you very much. Good thing you aren't here to see/hear my Elvis impersonation.

02/27/2006, 12:11 AM	#23
Dubbin1 Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Findlay, Ohio Posts: 11,547

02/27/2006, 12:18 AM	#24
MBuck Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Shelby, Ohio Posts: 461	[SIZE=3][COLOR=blue]AWESOME!!!! __________________ Marie Do not dwell on the past, improve the future!! ~ M. Current Tank Info: 180g Reef, mated pair B/W percs, 3- pajama cardinals, long-spined urchin, yellow tang, six-line wrasse, hermits, snails, 2 Chromis, LP Angel, Foxface, 2- Royal Grammas, LMB, Sailfin Tang, pink damsel.