Green Hair Algea
1 - 13 of 13 Posts
I am sure we can get the algae issue solved. My stock answer for most algae problems is to deny the tank light. I just turn the lights off and cover the tank with a sheet for about 4 or 5 days and only feed the fish when the room is darkened. It does not hurt them and will kill the green algae off. This works with any algae I have ever had. Also cut back on the amount you are feeding your fish.
I hope this helps or someone else gives you an answer that will. Thank you for joining us and I want to welcome you to the site.
Rose
I hope this helps or someone else gives you an answer that will. Thank you for joining us and I want to welcome you to the site.
Rose
Joined
·
119 Posts
I do agree but you must also find the source or your alge will come back. In most cases it is high nutrents and in your case you say you have red slime (cayno) then you deffently have high nutrents in your tank. are you running a skimmer how much flow do you have. Cut back on feedings and make sure you dont have dead spots in your tank. Also what are you feeding.
Joined
·
119 Posts
that works but if it is not to bad try redusing nutrents in the water and good old manual removal takes a while but it works
Joined
·
756 Posts
What he said. Blackout is usually not needed and only recommend for certain types of algae. If you can adjust lights, nutrients...etc, based on what you have above, you can usually solve or at least reduce the algae problem. However if you are using tap water, there may be only so much you can do as far as nutrients are concerned.
In a freshwater tank the hair algae and brown algae is usually due to excess silicates, and other nutrients like phosphates. Brown algae also prefers lower light conditions.
Joined
·
3,108 Posts
+1 for everything above, plus -
Does sun hit the tank any time of the day?
Does sun hit the tank any time of the day?
I neglected to mention that this is a salt water tank.............and yes there is a skimmer running on it. We have tried the "no-light trick" and it does work but then within 2 or 3 days.....the alegea is back - worse than ever.
Now I have a really crazy question - has anybody ever tried Barley Straw in their filtration systems.......????
It is recommended for use in ponds as an all natural material for algea control and I just wondered if anybody ever tried it in a saltwater system ???
Bek
Now I have a really crazy question - has anybody ever tried Barley Straw in their filtration systems.......????
It is recommended for use in ponds as an all natural material for algea control and I just wondered if anybody ever tried it in a saltwater system ???
Bek
Joined
·
119 Posts
never tried and would not try it. Get some phos pad and put it in there. Also read this thread.
RenegadeReefers.org • View topic - Green Hair Algae: Why me!
It should help you out alot.
RenegadeReefers.org • View topic - Green Hair Algae: Why me!
It should help you out alot.
Joined
·
440 Posts
The hair algae is not your biggest problem but the cyano means you have some feeding issues. Cyano is bacteria, not algae and it will not help you in any way so it is best to be rid of it. A little of it is normal in places like between the glass and substrait or at the base of certain corals but if you have a lot of it that is a problem. I am quite sure you are feeding way too much and probably too often. I have about 25 fish in my tank and they get maybe a small cube of mysis 5 times a week. Many of my fish are breeding so I know they are well fed. I feed other things but I wanted to demonstrate the amount of food. A fishes stomach is about as large as it's eye and doen not have to be filled each feeding. Yes I know they are always hungry, so am I.
You need to remove as much of the cyano you can manually. If you shoot a canister filter at it it should come off to be cleared out. Then feed much less and skip a day twice a week until the stuff is gone.
The algae is a different story and I just posted a long post on another thread which I will paste here, but in a new tank these things are normal.
Being you have both cyano and hair algae you will need to change some water after you siphon out the cyano.
Quote
"Unfortunately Hair algae is a part of this hobby but it is not a disease and it can not be cured. It grows on healthy reefs all over the world. Of course we don't want it covering our corals but if you only see a little of it, don't worry about it. If it is growing all over the place you can not really control it with animals. The hair algae just comes out in a little while as algae fertilizer. This works in the sea where there is unlimited water volume to disapate the nutrients and most of that is much too deep for algae to grow. In the sea there are uncountable tangs to eat it diring the day and at night urchins crawl out from everywhere.
(I have been diving at night for many years and have seen this many times)
Algae actuallty makes the water better and if you do not see any algae at all, your water may not be as healthy as you believe it to be.
You can eliminate the hair algae but it is time consuming. It will leave on it's own as soon as it depletes the nutrients it is living on. When that happens, it will die overnight and you will think your hermit crabs or sea hair ate it all, they did not.
You can speed up the process if you manually remove the hair algae where you can and do not change the water. Yes I know what everyone will tell you but changing the water at this point will just fuel more algae. If you pull out the algae along with the incorporated nutrients, very soon the algae nutrients will be exhausted and the algae will die on it's own. Then you can change water and in the future, feed less, rinse frozen food and remove any detritus you can see.
This happens to new tanks and it is normal. Eventually the bacteria population in your tank will settle down and the correct types of bacteria will grow in sufficient numbers to control the nutrients to an extent that you barely have any hair algae.
My tank is 40 years old and I occasionally see some. It leaves on it's own and I consider it a good thing"
You need to remove as much of the cyano you can manually. If you shoot a canister filter at it it should come off to be cleared out. Then feed much less and skip a day twice a week until the stuff is gone.The algae is a different story and I just posted a long post on another thread which I will paste here, but in a new tank these things are normal.
Being you have both cyano and hair algae you will need to change some water after you siphon out the cyano.
Quote
"Unfortunately Hair algae is a part of this hobby but it is not a disease and it can not be cured. It grows on healthy reefs all over the world. Of course we don't want it covering our corals but if you only see a little of it, don't worry about it. If it is growing all over the place you can not really control it with animals. The hair algae just comes out in a little while as algae fertilizer. This works in the sea where there is unlimited water volume to disapate the nutrients and most of that is much too deep for algae to grow. In the sea there are uncountable tangs to eat it diring the day and at night urchins crawl out from everywhere.
(I have been diving at night for many years and have seen this many times)
Algae actuallty makes the water better and if you do not see any algae at all, your water may not be as healthy as you believe it to be.
You can eliminate the hair algae but it is time consuming. It will leave on it's own as soon as it depletes the nutrients it is living on. When that happens, it will die overnight and you will think your hermit crabs or sea hair ate it all, they did not.
You can speed up the process if you manually remove the hair algae where you can and do not change the water. Yes I know what everyone will tell you but changing the water at this point will just fuel more algae. If you pull out the algae along with the incorporated nutrients, very soon the algae nutrients will be exhausted and the algae will die on it's own. Then you can change water and in the future, feed less, rinse frozen food and remove any detritus you can see.
This happens to new tanks and it is normal. Eventually the bacteria population in your tank will settle down and the correct types of bacteria will grow in sufficient numbers to control the nutrients to an extent that you barely have any hair algae.
My tank is 40 years old and I occasionally see some. It leaves on it's own and I consider it a good thing"
If you have algae and Cyno this is a clear sign of a unbalanced system with nutrient over load! Nothing more and nothing less. A little powering of glreen algae on the glass is reasonably accpetable and a hint that you need more clean up crew critters and lighten up on the food a tad, but its of no major concern just something that bears close watching. Hair Algae on the other hand and Cyno more so is an indication that things are a miss and needs to be addressed quickly and brought under control. Otherwise it can quickly get outta hand fast.
The link provided is pretty decent. One thing is for sure, if you can detect phosphates in your tank...they are too high already! If you are using Tap water start using R/O water! You didnt really giove us any info about your tank other than it SW and you have a skimmer, thats not much to work with. If you got fish feed them very sparingly. In extreme cases you might need to get rid of one or two, again we know very little about your set up. If this tank has been set up for a while you may need to change the bulbs depending up on what kinda lighting you have and what bulbs you have installed color spectrum wise. Agian we know very precious little about your system. You may need additional or different clean up crew members, again we dont know much about your system set up. You also would do well to suck out as much of the Cyno at water changes as possible, exporting nutrients through "harvesting" it form your system. You need to do the same with the Hair Algae. Running improved filtration system can also hel but since we dont know what you got we cant very well know for sure if this is a viable option.
Now if the "Hair Algae" is actually Bryopsis (they closely resemble each other until very closely veiwed) then we really got a problem here that is going to be difficult to deal with. Its very persistent and very few things will eat it on a consistent basis.
The link provided is pretty decent. One thing is for sure, if you can detect phosphates in your tank...they are too high already! If you are using Tap water start using R/O water! You didnt really giove us any info about your tank other than it SW and you have a skimmer, thats not much to work with. If you got fish feed them very sparingly. In extreme cases you might need to get rid of one or two, again we know very little about your set up. If this tank has been set up for a while you may need to change the bulbs depending up on what kinda lighting you have and what bulbs you have installed color spectrum wise. Agian we know very precious little about your system. You may need additional or different clean up crew members, again we dont know much about your system set up. You also would do well to suck out as much of the Cyno at water changes as possible, exporting nutrients through "harvesting" it form your system. You need to do the same with the Hair Algae. Running improved filtration system can also hel but since we dont know what you got we cant very well know for sure if this is a viable option.
Now if the "Hair Algae" is actually Bryopsis (they closely resemble each other until very closely veiwed) then we really got a problem here that is going to be difficult to deal with. Its very persistent and very few things will eat it on a consistent basis.
1 - 13 of 13 Posts
Join the discussion
Join now to ask and comment!