Will the algae ever go away?

escape2thewater

escape2thewater

Active Member
Ok, this is driving me crazy now! Any help greatly appriciated. My 120g has been running for about a year now. Everything a-ok until about a month or two ago. I had hair algae start to appear all over my tank & fuge. I tested the water to find zero NO3 & zero PO4. All params checked out fine. Then I realized my flourescent bulbs were 8 months old so I replaced each of them over a month long period. The algae still remained. I then replaced the bulbs over my fuge too. no luck. Then I replaced my MH bulbs. Im now running 2 250w 20k radiums & 4 VHO super actinics. All brand new. The algae remains. I have limited the photo period now too. I have physically removed the algae with a toothbrush & syphon once a week for a few weeks now too. I have also started dosing the tank with Microb Lift as suggested by my LFS. The algae is slowly going away. Is there anything else I can do? How long should this take? My corals are not opening all the way anymore & the tank just doesnt seem as healthy as normal since all this. I have been doing 10% water changes every week now too. Sorry for the long post but this is driving me nuts!
Thanks,
KYle
:notsure:
 
humuhumu

humuhumu

Member
Are you using RO water from a reliable source? You may be introducing phosphates everytime you do a water change.
 
escape2thewater

escape2thewater

Active Member
100% RO/DI water every time from a very reliable source. The same source for the past year. I tested for phosphates too and found zero. I cleaned all PH's & filters too so water turnover is not an issue either.
Thanks though,
KYle
:nervous:
 
jauringer

jauringer

Member
what kind of test kit are you using? everyone with algea problems always tests out at 0. I don't have any algea and my PO4 is .01 and nitrates are 2.5. everyone seems to be fooling themselves with low rent test kits.
if the water source isn't bad then what is your feeding schedule?
how often do you do water changes?
 
miner

miner

Member
I got it pretty bad after buying a new Coral rock. I got a Yellow Tang and no more algae.
 
escape2thewater

escape2thewater

Active Member
Jauringer I'm using salifert test kit for phosphate & tetra for nitrate. I know the tetra isnt the best but the results have been consistent with nitrate ever since the tank finished cycling almost a year ago. I do 10% water changes about every other week, sometimes a little sooner. The thing thats really wierd is that there is a white powdery kind of stuff that builds up on everything after a few days. Ive been vacuuming it off with a syphon when I do the water changes. Its almost like a white dust. Then the hair algae grows too. It seems to be getting slightly better but at this rate it will take several weeks to go away completely. Is the white dust a normal part of hair algae infestation?
Thanks,
KYle
 
jauringer

jauringer

Member
(knock on wood) I have never had a hair algae problem, so I am not sure about the wite powder.
does is feel and look like precipitation?
do you drip Kalk?
DSB?
 
spmnarciso

spmnarciso

Active Member
You know that's weird...I was just talking to an old friend, who I haven't seen for quite some time. He was returning alot of his fish to the LFS(wanted to start a reef), and he was telling me that he gets the same white, milky residue and has to vacuum it out every month. Never heard of it, and I didn't want to bust on the guy and tell him that he had no clue what he was doing. Anyway, the LFS sold him some type of Diatom filter a while back and that seemed to help. Till this day I have no clue what he was talking about or why he was having such issues. If anyone can explain I would like to know.
But I've read that Diatoms as they die, their skeletons appear like grains of salt or sand.
 
verde_ad

verde_ad

Member
A couple things that I have heard on this board is that your phosphate's will measure zero becasue the algae is using it to live. It doesn't mean that their isn't phosphate in your system. You might want to try a phosphate spunge and see if that helps.
 
escape2thewater

escape2thewater

Active Member
It doesnt seem to be precipitation. Its more like a light dusty type powder or almost like dirt. It comes off in chunks sometimes. I never thought of diatoms, I thought diamtoms turned brown though when they died. Or is that just during a tank cycle? I think im going to beef up my clean up crew too. I had about 30 turbo snails & 35 misc hermits & other crabs. I think the hermits may have killed off some of my snails though over time. I dont drip kalk, I just manually dose the tank with CA & Alk buffer. Im using a DSB too BTW. The levels for CA are 440 & dkh 9.0.
KYle
 
neowind

neowind

Member
I tried the Phos sponge and it did nothing for me at all. I am going with a Sea Hare because I have tried everything else.
 
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