novahobbies
Well-Known Member
Just a literary update tonight....I still want to place those gorgonia before I break out the camera again.
I've begun to regret not taking more accurate pictures of the tank during the past months. I mentioned before that the camera only captures what the operator wishes, and naturally this operator didn't wish to show off the algae problem. The trouble with that is obvious to me now: I won't be able to photographically document the progress I've made with hair algae battle. However, since I tend to use this thread as my own little seahorse diary, I shall endeavor to describe to you the events that led me down this dark, algae-covered path...and the steps I have taken that will perhaps lead me back out again.
I suspect that nuisance algae starts in a similar fashion for many people: Excess nutrients, not quite enough tank maintenance, that sort of thing. I've written before on what I believe caused my outbreak: An increase in lighting (the new MH kit), but with poor spectral output on what I believe to be sub-par Odyssea bulbs. Lack of proper maintenance on my part was also definitely a causative factor. Increasing the bioload by adding my favorite two fish from the 110g brakdown certainly played a hand in it, but in my opinion, it all comes down to simple maintenance. Sure, I knew the algae was kicking in. I saw the algae back when it was starting....and did little to stop it. I adopted the "I'll get to it when I can" mentality. Human nature, I suppose. It's hard to be motivated to clean a tank when you're tired out at the end of the day.
The hair algae never reached biblical proportions, but when I started to see some bryopsis sprout from a zoa frag I started to worry. When the hair algae down at the bottom was clogging the koralia powerhead, and the Bryopsis had choked out a small but expensive blue zoa colony, I finally went into action. It's been roughly three weeks to a month since I started fighting in earnest, and I'm happy to say that the algae is MOSTLY gone. Mostly, I say, because there is still plenty that I would like to see gone...but it is no longer choking out the zoa colonies and the like. Here's what I have been doing to fight it:
API Algaefix for saltwater. Yes, I admit it -- I tried it. And...it works. A little. Not enough to be called a cure-all. But this stuff did affect the regular hair algae. Used according to the directions for 2 weeks, it killed off the heavy hair algae clumps and loosened them to be siphoned off easily. This stuff deals with the symptom only, but it does it's job fairly well for all that.
[*]
Magnesium. Raised to 1600 ppm for 5 days, and the small bryopsis clumps I had literally melted away. Unfortunately, so did my acan frag. I was raising the Mg the same time I bought my new Phoenix bulbs, so I don't know if the Acan went belly up because of the Mg or the light. The large acan colony was added after a water change, and Mg levels were at 1450. It's doing fine.
[*]
Bacteria and vodka dosing. I'm going to try moving this over to a VLN system. For the past two weeks I've been dosing 10 mL of Microbacter7 daily, with carbon source dosing at the same time. I made it part of my nightly ritual while feeding the fish. I'm up to 0.4 mL carbon source (a blend of vodka, white vinegar, and glucose).
Increased to two purigen pillows, changed out every 2 to 4 weeks. I keep a set cleaned and charged, ready to go when I do decide to swap them.
All this work, and I'm happy to say I'm winning the battle. I expect to be doing more or less this same routine for the next month, but with luck I'll be completely hair algae free by that point. The bryopsis treatment seems to have worked completely -- I haven't seen hide nor feathery hair of that stuff since the Mg treatment. Regular hair algae has been beaten back to the bottom of the columns and the back, but I'm afraid if I let up on it now it will just creep back around to where I don't want it. It still likes to gather on the purple frilly gorgonian, too....I have no idea why it's so attracted to that piece more than the other two. I even moved the gorg, and it still pops up. I'm going to try a freshwater soak on that to see if it clears it up.
Ah, well....the Good Fight continues!
I've begun to regret not taking more accurate pictures of the tank during the past months. I mentioned before that the camera only captures what the operator wishes, and naturally this operator didn't wish to show off the algae problem. The trouble with that is obvious to me now: I won't be able to photographically document the progress I've made with hair algae battle. However, since I tend to use this thread as my own little seahorse diary, I shall endeavor to describe to you the events that led me down this dark, algae-covered path...and the steps I have taken that will perhaps lead me back out again.
I suspect that nuisance algae starts in a similar fashion for many people: Excess nutrients, not quite enough tank maintenance, that sort of thing. I've written before on what I believe caused my outbreak: An increase in lighting (the new MH kit), but with poor spectral output on what I believe to be sub-par Odyssea bulbs. Lack of proper maintenance on my part was also definitely a causative factor. Increasing the bioload by adding my favorite two fish from the 110g brakdown certainly played a hand in it, but in my opinion, it all comes down to simple maintenance. Sure, I knew the algae was kicking in. I saw the algae back when it was starting....and did little to stop it. I adopted the "I'll get to it when I can" mentality. Human nature, I suppose. It's hard to be motivated to clean a tank when you're tired out at the end of the day.
The hair algae never reached biblical proportions, but when I started to see some bryopsis sprout from a zoa frag I started to worry. When the hair algae down at the bottom was clogging the koralia powerhead, and the Bryopsis had choked out a small but expensive blue zoa colony, I finally went into action. It's been roughly three weeks to a month since I started fighting in earnest, and I'm happy to say that the algae is MOSTLY gone. Mostly, I say, because there is still plenty that I would like to see gone...but it is no longer choking out the zoa colonies and the like. Here's what I have been doing to fight it:
Water changes. 10 gallons a week, in a system that runs 38 gallons of actual saltwater volume. I hope to reduce this to 5 gallons a week when I switch back to maintenance mode..... 27% is a pretty high number to be doing weekly. That being said, I think that this may be one of the biggest factors in reducing the excess nutrient level. Filter pads get changed every weekend, and rinsed mid-week.
Blowing off the rocks. I don't know where this crap is coming from, but it's obviously coming from somewhere! I blow off the rocks every other day with the baster, and I get clouds of debris cascading off the column. It's not the foam (as that would float...) but it's most concentrated around my ricordea section and the green star polyps. So, every other day we get a good cloud of dust blown off the rocks to be filtered out.
Toothbrush scrubbing. With every water change. Gently around the coral, more vigorously elsewhere. I can't easily remove the whole structure, which is certainly a drawback to the foamed rock column design I like so much. Instead I scrub down the areas I can reach with a toothbrush, let the filter remove what it can, and get the rest with the water change siphon.
API Algaefix for saltwater. Yes, I admit it -- I tried it. And...it works. A little. Not enough to be called a cure-all. But this stuff did affect the regular hair algae. Used according to the directions for 2 weeks, it killed off the heavy hair algae clumps and loosened them to be siphoned off easily. This stuff deals with the symptom only, but it does it's job fairly well for all that.
[*]
Magnesium. Raised to 1600 ppm for 5 days, and the small bryopsis clumps I had literally melted away. Unfortunately, so did my acan frag. I was raising the Mg the same time I bought my new Phoenix bulbs, so I don't know if the Acan went belly up because of the Mg or the light. The large acan colony was added after a water change, and Mg levels were at 1450. It's doing fine.
[*]
Bacteria and vodka dosing. I'm going to try moving this over to a VLN system. For the past two weeks I've been dosing 10 mL of Microbacter7 daily, with carbon source dosing at the same time. I made it part of my nightly ritual while feeding the fish. I'm up to 0.4 mL carbon source (a blend of vodka, white vinegar, and glucose).
Increased to two purigen pillows, changed out every 2 to 4 weeks. I keep a set cleaned and charged, ready to go when I do decide to swap them.
All this work, and I'm happy to say I'm winning the battle. I expect to be doing more or less this same routine for the next month, but with luck I'll be completely hair algae free by that point. The bryopsis treatment seems to have worked completely -- I haven't seen hide nor feathery hair of that stuff since the Mg treatment. Regular hair algae has been beaten back to the bottom of the columns and the back, but I'm afraid if I let up on it now it will just creep back around to where I don't want it. It still likes to gather on the purple frilly gorgonian, too....I have no idea why it's so attracted to that piece more than the other two. I even moved the gorg, and it still pops up. I'm going to try a freshwater soak on that to see if it clears it up.
Ah, well....the Good Fight continues!
