nitrates?

[richierich2000]

I have had this tanks set up for 2 years and have had problems with hair algae the hole time. I have bought and bought new things for it trying to help with the problem. I have a
150 gallon reef tank
275# l/r
160# CARIB SEA ARAGONITE
a etss 800 pro with a little gaint 5md running it (1050gph at 3 feet)
a Precision Marine calicum reactor cr622
a 1/4 chiller (water temp is 76)
a 29 gallon tank with micro algae and live sand and rock ruble.
I am useing 2 250 watt metal halides 12000 K (7 hours a day)
I have 6 serpent stars and crabs and some snails
1 salfin tang
1 coral beatuy
1 3 bar damsil
1 6 line rass
2 blue damsils
2 clams
corals
I have soft corals lethers , mushrooms ,ect.
I got a new test kit and have tested the water
ph 8.15
salt .023
kh is 18
calcium is 400
ammonia is 0
nitrite .25
phosphate 0
nitrate were at 50 and I did a 20% water change today. Is there any thing else I can do? I have been thinking about just putting my bio balls back in to see if that helps till I get it back under control? please help I am getting I see everyones tanks and they are so nice looking and mine would look great with out the hair algae I am just a bout ready to turn out the lights or sell it if anyone can help please

 

[nicenakago]

not an expert by any means... and hope i am not assuming too much...
But the info i have gathered is this:
Remove as much of it as you can by hand as often as possible... Keeping it short will be more likely to entice your crabs and lawnmower blennies. Keep the bio balls out. Fix your problem with the trates... sounds like you could use more frequent water changes if your trates are that high, and you are running a fuge with macro.
And use R/O water... test your water for trates before you throw it in your tank.
I haven't run into hair alage myself... but if i did... I would get a clean up crew so big that... well it would just be huge.

 

[richierich2000]

well I am useing a kent r/o di 60 hi-s I have in the past put alot of crabs and snails and they just die off some don't but most do everything else is ok I have go the monster from swf that is a big package and I have ordered another one that was bigger than that so I have put like 500 crabs and 400 snails and I probly have 50 crabs and 20 snails
as for water changes I did one and I am going to do another one in the morring and see where I am that was the first time nitrates where that high but my old test kit was like 3 years old. I have a new one. think that it is right and it could have been the nitrates I hope

 

[richierich2000]

look at this pic and tell me if this is hair algae because I have never seen anything eat it I have even scrubed all the rock and it still came back

 

[richierich2000]

any ideas help please

 

[adrian]

I agree with the above, manual removal and nutrient control is a must, try a foxface, they are very effective

 

[nicenakago]

One of my friends has been battling this for almost a year, and some info he recieved was this...
Hair algae is so hard to get rid of because it's hard to tell where the bio-load balance is. The hair algae sucks up the trates as soon as they are produced. So even when your test kit is reading 0 ppm - You quite possibly could still be having a problem with trates or more to the root of the problem... a problem with too many fish, over feeding, die off of macro, etc. - your bio-load. It makes sense to me... maybe some sharks have some opinions as well...
Also... I hinted at it earlier... but didn't out right reccomend it....
Get a lawnmower blennie if you don't already have one.

 

[nicenakago]

^^^^^^^
Forgot to tag on there... In addition to helping rid the tank of spores (or whatever it is called that makes algae spread) manual removal is so important because of the theory i was speaking of above.... "the algae will suck up the trates as soon as they are made"

 

[richierich2000]

thanks for the info!!!!!!!!!! I was even thinking of taking all the sand out and using finer sand I have about 4"to 5" in the bottom I guess that there is more than 160 # then but is CARIB SEA ARAGONITE (seaflor special grade reef sand)the right thing to use?

 

[nicenakago]

Sand is a whole 'nother topic...
I think Golfish was coming from the angle of 5" of sand means the potential for that much more life in the DSB. Life which will denitrify the tank. Hence... less food for the algae. - Please correct me if I am wrong -
If you want more opinions on sand I suggest a new post. But IMO I think the finer sand is the way to go. Not sure if it supports more life than the carib sea aragonite will... but from a purely asthetic vantage point... I like it better. I have the same sand you have now with a few pounds of the finer stuff from differant folks, and I wish that it was ALL fine sand... I add calcium weekly anyways... so the aragonite isn't helping me in that department.... just not worth it to me. Oh well.... next tank.

 

[bang guy]

If you already have a 5" sandbed do you see wormtracks against the glass? ie. How alive is your sand bed?
This should be good reading ---> http://www.rshimek.com/reef/sediment.htm

 

[bt_1999_66]

Richie,
How often do you feed your fish....? and when you do how much...?

 

[chris106m]

I had a problem with green hair algae in my tank also. I have since pretty much been able to control it. I cut the amount of light back to half of what I normally would use and hand picked all of the algae everytime it came back. I too had high nitrates and I think my phospates were a little on the high side as well. I did a bunch of water changes with RO water and used phosgaurd for a day. Also try a nitrate sponge with kent's de-nitrate granules. Of course I'm just a beginnerat this and the above worked for me, if anyone thinks this is a bad idea please say so.

 

[richierich2000]

I am feeding them every day or so I am only using a little bit I use frozen foods and put it in a bowl with a lid and put it in the frige and use a baby droper so only one dropper a day I put liquid garlic in it too
I have played with the lighting with clams what is the min.? a day

 

[richierich2000]

well I am not sure how alive my sand bed is I am reading that page I don't see any worms or anything moving in there in my 29 gallon tank that I have micro algae in I see bugs all the time

 

[smalltimer]

try 10-10
10%
10 days
Trates gotta go ....

 

[richierich2000]

I have a rio 800 ,2 rio 600 , 1 other small power head and a little giant 4md-sc 810 gallon per hour

 

[sgt__york]

Havn't seen anyone ask this yet... or seen it posted.. (unless i missed it)
what type of cleanup crew do you have? In the way of various snails, crabs and hermits??
I think i have a heavier bio load per volum than you do - AND i use bio balls as well (and determined to keep them - i like the fact they have 3x the oxygen content, and are more efficient in handling the ammonia/nitrite cycle). Nitrates can be offset by use of a refugium with a lot of success.
I also have a small shell/CC type of substrate. And yet, i'm having absolutely NO hair algae problems. I believe this is in large part to the cleanup crew; low feedings and the water being used (I use d/i - not r/o water).
I only do a 15gal water change about every 2-3 weeks.. and i have YET to show nitrates over 10. And i've see no reason to vacuum my substrate either. Crabs take care of any detris. I've got amphipods and copepods out the butt at night.
On my initial cyce..they popped up to 20... but the ensuing algae bloom... dropped em back to 10. I then got a cleanup crew consisting of 40 hermits (blue/red) and 40 snails (3 varieties) and a few crabs. It took them about 2wks to completely clean my tank. Green had completely covered most of the coraline - and now there isn't a shred of hair algae - not even on the back glass. The rock turns brown.. begins to turn green.. about that time.. snails and such are all over it..
I only feed about once every 3 days on average tho. I keep some romain and algae in the tank 'all' the time for the 2 tangs to graze on... and i 'feed' the rest about every 3 days. They generally gobble it right up.

 

[joe's reefer]

try scarlet reeef hermits,not using tap for water changes and evap water,less sunlight ,reduce feeding,etc read up on ur problem.ps that is a lot of hair algea they arent any bald spots

 

[javatech]

Test the water coming out of your RO/DI unit might not be working right??