johnr2604
Member
Originally Posted by AquaKnight
http:///forum/post/3159940
To me, adding things to your tank to help fight hair algae is like trying to make a 500 horsepower sports car fuel efficient. The bottom line is that it takes a certain amount of fuel/air mixture to make 500hp. There's no getting around that.
With hair algae (of any type) is a result from excess nutrients in your tank. Adding something which will only further increase that bioload, just seems counter-intuitive.
Start with the basics, replace your lights if they're older then 8 months, up your water changes, and reevaluate your current bioload. Unfortunately even moderately stocked tanks seem over the threshold point with hair algae, and there's just not too much we can do.
I battled hair algae in my 125g after the halides stayed on for 48 hours. Nothing was working, and knowing what I said above, decided to give the algae turf scrubber a try instead of adding inverts, which I know my puffer would have killed anyway. Within a week, I was noticing results, and by 3 weeks my tank looked much better. It was enough to 'break' the hold of the hair algae. About 2 months later when the feed pump died, I removed the ATS and the hair algae didn't return.
My thoughts are that if you can't win over the algae, try to redirect it, and the ATS allows you to control it (its not like turf algae can spread to your tank). If you have a real tank that's easy to give one a try (not like a sumpless nano), I would really suggest it.
If your grouping derbesia and bryopsis in (any type) of hair algae then I disagree. I have spoken to manufacturers and some very well known chemist about this very subject. They all say the same thing since there are so many species some things work on some while different things work on others. One of manufacturers I talked to have done extensive studies on these algaes. They have tried everything from low nutrients to things you would be scared to put in your aquarium.
The one answer I got was not one cure works for all the different species of what people refer to as hair algae. I did get a manufacturer to acknowledge that the Kent TechM did seam to have an effect on most bryopsis even though they still havn't figured out why. I thought that was funny becuase they are one of Kents biggest competitors. They have even anylized a bunch of magnesium products for byproducts and couldn't find the difference. This was the same company I talked to about the testing they have done on the different species of "hair algeas"
I did hear through the grapevine that this same company is currently working on a product to fight bryopsis. From my understanding this product will freeze the ability for the algea to repair itself after damage and make removal more effective. This is important because under a microscope you will see bryopsis starts repairing its cell structures within seconds of it being damaged. This is also why it spreads so easy and outcompetes other algeas I hear the product is still over a year away though
.
What a lot of people dont realize is that just like corals some algeas can synthesize a lot more nutrients than others eliminating most of the need for them to pull nutrients out of the water column. This is probably why bryopsis can live on dry rock not in the aquarium
http:///forum/post/3159940
To me, adding things to your tank to help fight hair algae is like trying to make a 500 horsepower sports car fuel efficient. The bottom line is that it takes a certain amount of fuel/air mixture to make 500hp. There's no getting around that.
With hair algae (of any type) is a result from excess nutrients in your tank. Adding something which will only further increase that bioload, just seems counter-intuitive.
Start with the basics, replace your lights if they're older then 8 months, up your water changes, and reevaluate your current bioload. Unfortunately even moderately stocked tanks seem over the threshold point with hair algae, and there's just not too much we can do.
I battled hair algae in my 125g after the halides stayed on for 48 hours. Nothing was working, and knowing what I said above, decided to give the algae turf scrubber a try instead of adding inverts, which I know my puffer would have killed anyway. Within a week, I was noticing results, and by 3 weeks my tank looked much better. It was enough to 'break' the hold of the hair algae. About 2 months later when the feed pump died, I removed the ATS and the hair algae didn't return.
My thoughts are that if you can't win over the algae, try to redirect it, and the ATS allows you to control it (its not like turf algae can spread to your tank). If you have a real tank that's easy to give one a try (not like a sumpless nano), I would really suggest it.
If your grouping derbesia and bryopsis in (any type) of hair algae then I disagree. I have spoken to manufacturers and some very well known chemist about this very subject. They all say the same thing since there are so many species some things work on some while different things work on others. One of manufacturers I talked to have done extensive studies on these algaes. They have tried everything from low nutrients to things you would be scared to put in your aquarium.
The one answer I got was not one cure works for all the different species of what people refer to as hair algae. I did get a manufacturer to acknowledge that the Kent TechM did seam to have an effect on most bryopsis even though they still havn't figured out why. I thought that was funny becuase they are one of Kents biggest competitors. They have even anylized a bunch of magnesium products for byproducts and couldn't find the difference. This was the same company I talked to about the testing they have done on the different species of "hair algeas"
I did hear through the grapevine that this same company is currently working on a product to fight bryopsis. From my understanding this product will freeze the ability for the algea to repair itself after damage and make removal more effective. This is important because under a microscope you will see bryopsis starts repairing its cell structures within seconds of it being damaged. This is also why it spreads so easy and outcompetes other algeas I hear the product is still over a year away though
What a lot of people dont realize is that just like corals some algeas can synthesize a lot more nutrients than others eliminating most of the need for them to pull nutrients out of the water column. This is probably why bryopsis can live on dry rock not in the aquarium
