pulling down tank to battle green hair algae!

[goinbroke]

i just got home from a month long vacation. my sister was doing the top off for me. i talked to my LFS about doing weekly water changes for me. long story short is they said to call when i got down to florida and no one ever came to do the change....
so i get home to barly being to be able to see through the glass! my buddy did a 20% change for me half way through the trip. he knows knothing about salt water tanks. he did me a favor and did the emergancy change. my air valve on my aqua c ev-180 skimmer was completly clogged with salt and wasnt working at all. dont know how long it had been like that. all i know is my buddy did the water change at 2 weeks in and he emptied the skimmer collection cup. it was bone dry when i got home!
anyway, the green hair algae is out of control. i'm going to take the tank down sunday and brush the algae off the rocks and rinse in clean, fresh salt water before putting back in the tank. going to scrape all surfaces of algae, totally drain sump and rinse all crud out of it then re set up. i also have a few domonio's and hum bugs that i've had for years that have gotton quite large that are very agressive. i'm going to re-locate them to a LFS.
last time i did this i got a diatom outbreak. i had also just changed all 8 bulbs in my t5ho setup. do you guys think i'll get another breakout?

 

[spanko]

Got to get at the source of the problem. Nutrients are needed to feed the algae, usually nitrate and phosphate. do some testing for those and figure out where they come from and reduce them. Feeding, water supply, salt supply, are a number of different places that you could be adding these from. In testing you may not get any reading as the algae may be using it faster than it shows up, but it is there or the algae would not grow. Someone else may chime in here but I think if it is not long and kept cropped down Turbo snails will keep it in check while you get a handle on the rest of the chemistry issues. The reason for the diatom outbreak is probably the excess nutrient from the algae dying the last time you cleaned it.

 

[natclanwy]

I would say you have got excess nutrient problem, you should be able to go much longer than a month without a water change without getting an algae outbreak. If you have to keep doing water changes to keep nitrates down you need to look at your feeding practices and your bioload to determine if both are where they should be then if they are okay look at ways to increase your nitrate export. Setting up a refugium with some chaeto is probably the simplest and least invasive way to export nitrates. Increasing your flow may help to combat excess nitrates also by keeping dietrus suspended in the water rather than building up underneath your rock and in crevices.
I have the same issue with my EV-180 on occasion never seems to occur on regular intervals sometimes I can go for months without getting salt inside the air valve other times I have to clean it a couple of times in a month

I'm not sure what causes it. I have a syringe setting next to my tank and I have just started to whenever I think about taking a syringe full of water and squirting it into the air valve a couple of times and that seems to keep it clear. Might be a good time to inspect your injection nozzle also and like I mentioned in your other post clean your skimmer pump and hose.

 

[wilsonreef]

I too had a hair algae problem although it doesn't sound like it was quite as bad as yours. Doing a complete tear down may not be needed. I got rid of mine by doing some maintenance. I did take the rocks, etc, and get as much of the algae off I could. Everyone is right, the problem is the nutrients in the water. This could be because over feeding, lights on too long etc. The reason for the diatom bloom after you tear down the tank is probably due to the tank going through the startup cycle again. When you do a really drastic water change it's like starting up a new tank because you have upset the balance that was already there. I did the following:
Do a partial water change (10%-20%)
Start getting as much of the hair algae off the rocks, pumps, glass, whatever
(this you'll have to do by hand, not the most fun, but your going to have to do it). What I did is when I did the water change, I would take the live rock that needed to be cleaned and put it in the old water to work on it, that way you will minimize the die off. The pumps and whatever, you can clean at a sink. Remember to rinse off everything in ro water, not tap water.
I also bought a small phosphate reactor and started it going immediately. You can get these for around $40-$50. I used I use GFO (granulate ferrus oxide) for the media. I will probably keep this going from now on.
This is going to take a while to do but I am completely rid of all my hair aglae and I believe the reactor will help to keep it gone.
I don't have a sump and the tank I was working on is a 75 gal reef. I am excited though I have just ordered my 240 gallon reef ready tank that I'm going to mount flush in the wall. For it I will have a 125 gallon fuge, and everything will be monitored by a lighthouse controller. But as for now my 75 gal is back to normal. Mine took about 2-3 weeks to completely clear up. You will just have to be patient.
Carl

 

[goinbroke]

what i ment by pulling tank down is taking the rock out, rinsing it in water from the tank then putting it back in.
i have a phosphate reactor. just started using phoslock a few days ago. i think my sis overfed my fish to cause such an algae problem. also, my GFI outlet died that ran my return while i was away. no idea how long it went but it probally played a role in the algae also.
i think my bio load is excessive also. i have 1, 5 inck coran angel, 1, 5 inch blue hippo, 1, 3 inch huge black domino, 2 large humbugs, 1 purple firefish, 1 large clown, 1 perc clown.
i'm also running 2 skimmers as of a week ago and my lights are on a 6 hour on cycle.
scrubbing the live rock is the easy way out. hopfully it dosnt just stir it up and spread the algae. i'm actually looking forward to doing this so i can take out the damnsels. they terrorize the other fish and move corals around!

 

[wilsonreef]

OK, I thnk your headed in the right direction. What size tank is this? Yeah, Damsels are a real pain in the rear.

 

[socal57che]

Originally Posted by goinbroke http:///forum/post/3001820
damnsels.

You could cook the rock....since you are removing and scrubbing it anyway.
I'll dig up a link and post in a few minutes.
Here is one...
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/330445/cooking-live-rock

 

[elijaher]

If you decide to cook the rock, cooked it for at least five days.

 

[goinbroke]

well. it took some time and made a mess!
my tank is a 75g. started bt going to home depot and getting some supplys at 8am yesterday morning. set up 4 rubbermaid bins. one for corals and snails and hermits(only found 3 snails though!) one bin for scrubbing. one for rinsing, amd one for storage till it was all done.
i rinsed and scrubbed in freshly made salt water. storage was in water from the tank. i ended taking about 1/3 of the water out of the tank and dumping it. after it was all scrubbed and rinsed we set it up on the floor. i had a plan in my head and got real close to it in the end. looks so much better!
damsels are gone. so is the big clown. i'm down to: 1 coran angel, 1 blue hippo, 1 perc and 1 purple fire gobey. when i get this tank under control i'm going to add a flame angel and yellow tang. thinking i should get a lawnmower blenny. found mine dead in the overflow when i got back from my trip!
i'm going to keep a daily log of what i do to my tank so if the algae starts to come back we can look back and figure out what the problem is! thanks for the help guys! i'll get a pic tonight and post it here!

 

[jahleon]

I bought a seahare for my 55 gal because i too had the same problem. In a week the seahare eat like 80% in a week. But mine triple in size

 

[gratefulhippie]

Your tank will be fine since you came home Thank God! The girl that watched my tanks over vacation put our horrible tap water in the tanks which gave me the same problems! She said she thought (bottled) water was a waste for a fish tank! AHHH! I HATE vacation time in this hobby! Funny note also as she gave the cats the r.o.! Shes Fired!