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Green Hair

post #1 of 28
10/25/10 at 5:20pm
Thread Starter 

So i have had my 46 Gallon bow up and running for close to 1.5 years now. For the past few months i have been battling the horrid green hair algae problem.

 

I am currently in process of constructing a 10 gallon sump/refugium/skimmer set up, but in the meantime i wanted to see if you all believe my HOB emperor 400 is a major contributing factor.

 

Currently all my parameters are in check and trates/trites/phos/ph/salinity, etc.. are all 0 or within normal parameters so often discussed on here.

 

I have been doing weekly or near weekly water changes and swapping out my filter cartridges during this time. 

Bulbs are under 6 months.  I feed every other day and no flake.

However every time i get to swapping the filters out of the emperor they are pretty dirty and the intakes are filled with algae.


So do you feel it might be best in the meantime to unplug the emperor and fill the void of water movement with another PH and let the live rock filter, or do you think this could be a shock to the tank?  I have been running charcoal in addition to the normal filters in the emperor.  I have since stopped using charcoal in the secondary filters.

 

I have around 50 lbs+ of live rock and 20lbs of live sand.

 

I know my skimmer refugium will definitely help, but besides pulling this green hair algae out, i am at wits end and want to pull my hair out!

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post #2 of 28
10/25/10 at 6:09pm



 

Quote:
Originally Posted by mcmasterson View Post

 

 

Currently all my parameters are in check and trates/trites/phos/ph/salinity, etc.. are all 0 or within normal parameters so often discussed on here.

 


However every time i get to swapping the filters out of the emperor they are pretty dirty and the intakes are filled with algae.

 

 

So do you feel it might be best in the meantime to unplug the emperor and fill the void of water movement with another PH and let the live rock filter, or do you think this could be a shock to the tank?  I have been running charcoal in addition to the normal filters in the emperor.  I have since stopped using charcoal in the secondary filters.

 



What does within normal parameters mean?

 

The emperor  filters are pretty dirty and the intakes are filled with algae, If you stop using it the dirtiness and algae will move in to the tank. 

 

Sounds like you are over feeding the tank, I don't mean to say that you are over feeding the fish because I don't know how much they need to eat, yet feeding every other day sounds like a lot of feeding. If you can not cut back the feeding then swapping a fish out for one that eats hair algae would help. Upgrade your cuc with more hair algae eaters...

 

You can remove the filter just keep eyes on the waste numbers and do the water changes as they are need.

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post #3 of 28
10/25/10 at 6:39pm
Thread Starter 

Normal parameters are what tanks should be running at:

 

trates/trites= 0

PH= 8.2

Salinity:34-35
SG:1.025

Phos: 0

 


I clean out the emperor every time i do a WC and replace the filters and clean the insides out. But i was most curious when the filters inside get dirty(1 week or so) do they breading grounds for stuff like nitrates and just keep flushing more of the bad stuff as the water pushes through the filter.

 

I have several blue legged hermits, dozen margarita, couple turbo's, dozen nerite, several cerith, few astrea, 2 fighting conch, lawnmower blenny.  Have used dobella's a few times as well.

 

None of these things keep up with the green hair. 

 

I feed about a half of cube of frozen food every other day to ever 3 days.  I have a couple blue chromis, coral beauty, blenny, cinnamon clown, foxface, mandarin, cleaner and coral banded shrimp.

 

How often should a person feed?  I figured every 2-3 days in limited amount is reasonable without starving them.  Perhaps i am off??

 

Thanks

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post #4 of 28
10/25/10 at 6:57pm

 What do you use for water?

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post #5 of 28
10/25/10 at 7:31pm
Thread Starter 

RO/DI with instant ocean reef crystals.

 

If i didnt have a sealed top acryllic tank i would have already procured a HOB skimmer.  I figured i need some sort of filter going all the time, but i am beginning to think the emperor is feeding my GHA more than helping it.

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post #6 of 28
10/25/10 at 8:58pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mcmasterson View Post

RO/DI with instant ocean reef crystals.

 

If i didnt have a sealed top acryllic tank i would have already procured a HOB skimmer.  I figured i need some sort of filter going all the time, but i am beginning to think the emperor is feeding my GHA more than helping it.



It probably is unfortunately.

 

Can you do an in tank refugium? They're not as effective, but it's something

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post #7 of 28
10/26/10 at 11:47am
Thread Starter 

I am going to attempt to build a small 10 gallon sump/refugium/skimmer.  I only have a 2"w x 15"L space at the top where i can use for overflow and return lines so I hope i can make it work.

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post #8 of 28
11/1/10 at 5:06pm

i feed every day flakes o-o i think im over feeding and i have ALL of there Green Hair all over my tank so i might think this is important to me :/

                                                                                               Thx You Bai :3

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post #9 of 28
11/1/10 at 5:09pm

I've heard several reports that when your lights start getting old that GHA starts growing faster for some reason. Have you replaced your lights on a regular schedule?

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post #10 of 28
11/1/10 at 5:11pm

no lol i used my lights for 1 year now and no replace XD why should i replace it . Is it to stop the growing?

 

 

                                                                                               Thx You Bai :3

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post #11 of 28
11/2/10 at 11:12am

just saying, Power compact lights should be replaced every 4 months, Metal halides every 6 months, T-5's every year and LED's every 11 years :)

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post #12 of 28
11/2/10 at 12:00pm

i thik i use LED :)

                                                                                               Thx You Bai :3

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post #13 of 28
11/2/10 at 12:05pm

HA! got any pictures?

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post #14 of 28
11/2/10 at 12:47pm

nah im at my grandma house :(

                                                                                               Thx You Bai :3

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post #15 of 28
11/2/10 at 1:06pm



 

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jstdv8 View Post

just saying, Power compact lights should be replaced every 4 months, Metal halides every 6 months, T-5's every year and LED's every 11 years :)



Every 4 months....that's crazy

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post #16 of 28
11/2/10 at 3:12pm

lol im home nao but im too lazy to take it :3 later lol but im think i should get meh shiny ready! preveiw video :o

Epic Huh?

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post #17 of 28
11/2/10 at 5:20pm

is that your tank?

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post #18 of 28
11/2/10 at 5:59pm
@jstdv8:
Huh? No way, or show some data as to why.
MHs can go a year, easy, per Sanjay Yoshis data. T5s probably go 18-24 months. They burn much slower and use better gases than Amy older generation Florida, per RPIs data analysis.
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post #19 of 28
11/2/10 at 6:13pm

I don't have any real data I guess, just going off of what Ive heard on ehre and other sites and LFS's several times.

the input always seemed to be the same from all the sources.

Lets do a test :) I'll e-mail ATI on thier t-5 bulbs and another comapny on thier halides and a PC manufacturer on thiers and see what they say. Then I'll post the results back here as I get answers

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post #20 of 28
11/2/10 at 7:31pm

yes that is my tank and  dont think i use t-d or any thing i use coralife 50 watts lol

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