Hair algae

[snickers104]

Been trying to get rid of hair algae. Just bought 2 Koralia 3 pumps to up the flow and getting rid of all dead spots.
Tank is only about 3 months old.
40 lbs of live sand
50 lbs of live rock
Running protein skimmer with carbon running all the time.
Parameter are:
Nitrates 20
Nitrites .2
Ph 8.2
Dont have a phosphate test.

Did run a Phos-ban pouch for the last 3 weeks in with the carbon.
The hair algae gets so long the clown fish hosts in it!!

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[aztec reef]

Do regular water changes with ro/di water, and replace carbon with new. keep filters, powerheads, ect. clean..

 

[snickers104]

I have been doing 10 gal water changes every week (forgot to say it is a 55 gal) change carbon every 2 weeks. I only have 5 narcissus snails and 2 turbo snails.
Also have choc. chip starfish, cleaner shrimp, coral banded shrimp, firefish, false perc, two small damsels. Would more sand sifting snails help? Only use RODI water.

 

[aztec reef]

a few mexican turbo snails will be your best bet.. But the algea is getting fertelized by the excess nutrients in your water.. so u may be feeding too much..

 

[snickers104]

I just switched to feeding frozen (forget the name of it) with some cyclopeze will try cutting back on the amount. I only feed once a day.

 

[michaeltx]

what foods do you feed with?
some of them are high in phosphates the also feed the algae. Especially liquids and frozen foods are bad about this.
Mike

 

[snickers104]

The frozen food is made by H2O life and it is the "Fish and Reef".

 

[michaeltx]

do you thaw and rinse the food before adding it to the tank?
Mike

 

[aztec reef]

how long are ur lights on for ?

 

[snickers104]

I just thaw it in some tank water then put it in. I dont know how you would rinse it.

 

[snickers104]

I have 240 watts of compact flourescent (120 blue and 120 white) I run the blue for about an hour before turning them all on and I leave them on about 10 hours then run the blue for another hour then run the led's at night. The lights are only 2 months old.

 

[aztec reef]

Rinse in ro/di in a cup. if u use the tank water you're not doing nothing but thawing it..

 

[snickers104]

Ok I dont understand once I thaw it in RODI how do I get it to the tank

 

[aztec reef]

Are u sure u use ro/di water for water changes???
I don't doubt you, but it just doesn't fit.. do u have a tds meter that u can check the tds levels of ur ro water ??..

 

[aztec reef]

Originally Posted by snickers104
http:///forum/post/2740191
Ok I dont understand once I thaw it in RODI how do I get it to the tank
drain water in cup then put food in tank by inserting cup into the tank or by putting a little bit of tank water in cup, since it already has been rinsed it doesn't make a difference anymore...

 

[snickers104]

Yes I do. I get my RODI water from the power plant I work at and the TDS is about 3. The top off water I use is from my home RODI and the TDS is about 5.

 

[snickers104]

Dont you lose a lot of the food this way?

 

[aztec reef]

not necessarily, cause u only thaw it for a few minutes and not till the food disintigrades into the water. when u drain water make sure food doesn't go out too, you can use a drainer or your fish net to catch the solids..

 

[snickers104]

Will start doing this. Thanks, man I sure got a lot to learn. Thanks for taking the time to help.

 

[aztec reef]

something to keep in mind,
Usually 5 tds is considered on the high note , at 3 tds it is recomended that cartriges get changed..