algae

glibgoat

glibgoat

Member
I was away for a month for reasons beyond my control. My tank was overtaken with hair algae. When I returned I hand removed the stuff on the sandbed and rearragnged rockwork which allowed my filter to aid in getting rid of about 25% of the problem.
I went to LFS and purchased a larger clean-up crew (Brittle star, 20 blue hermits, 3 zebra hermits, sally lightfoot, 3 emerald crabs, 5 turbo snails). The crew did a pretty good job of stirring up some of the algae and the tank looked considerably better.
Today I am noticing that the algae is again growing out of control. Am I missing something in my clean-up crew? Should I adjust my lights further? I adjusted them from going from noon to midnight to only 4-11 a few days ago.
Any info would be apprecited.
 
laddy

laddy

Active Member
You have to go to the root of the problem, and not just attempt to control the problem. It's probably a combination of things you are doing, barring that the tank has been setup for sometime. What type of lighting do you have and how long do you keep them on? How often do you feed your inhabitants? How much water are you circulating?
I started by dropping my photo period in half, from 8 to four hours a day, and dropped in another powerhead to increase circulation in the tank. This normally works 85% of the time given a few weeks.
 
glibgoat

glibgoat

Member
The tank is a 65, which has been running for a little over a year. I had been keeping triggers and decided to switch because they outgrow the tank too quickly.
I have pc lighting 2x96.
Feeding, right now I have been feeding small amounts each day. The only inhabitants are 2 clowns right now. I do feed my zoas and button polyps 2x a week with zoaplankton.
I cut the lights from 12 hours to 6, hopefully that does the trick.
I will add another power head and see if that works.
I will consider purple up.
Don't sea hares have a toxin that can destroy a system?
 
valgae

valgae

Member
so did you not do a water change the whole time you were gone? ur nit. could be high. purple up would help grow coraline fast enough to help ur problem right now. :scared:
 
craigbrown

craigbrown

Member
i found turning the lights out does not work i found this stuff cald phosphate filter it works great it will be gone in a few days comes with 2 pads put one in the filter for 24 hrs and put the powder in change the pad and take it out after another 24hrs and watch it go away its about 23 dollers but works great
 
rusting

rusting

Member
Originally Posted by craigbrown
i found turning the lights out does not work i found this stuff cald phosphate filter it works great it will be gone in a few days comes with 2 pads put one in the filter for 24 hrs and put the powder in change the pad and take it out after another 24hrs and watch it go away its about 23 dollers but works great
This is a good, quick fix, but you need to get to the root,of your problem, and fix it.
 
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