High Tide Aquatics

New to BAR, and my science experiment

Pictures of said algae would be helpful.

2 360s on a 190? That is not much light for such a big tank.

I've found it is a combination of things that rid my tank of algae.

Aggressive manual removal - you are exporting whatever nutrients are fueling the algae

GFO - keep running as you do the removal. Change often!

Macro algae - my chaeto didn't start really taking off until I removed 90% of the algae. I also upped the five light to a 300w grow light and actively dosed iron.

These actions effectively removed all algae from my DT. I do have them in my overflow but that's because detritus collects in spots.


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Agreed. I have been pulling algae out on a daily basis. GFO is running 24/7 and changed weekly (way ahead of normal).

I saw the picture of your sump with the 300W light. Wow. Considering an upgrade (not as extensive).

I am concerned about dosing anything that encouraged the growth of macro algae at this point.
 
Another thing you might want to try is a black-out period of around 3 days. Corals wont like it, but they shouldnt really die either. You could also try this in conjunction with the H2O2. As mentioned above, make sure its not bryopsis. Bryopsis is simply a nightmare:mad: I literally took all my rock out, scrubbed it down and doused it in H2O2. Thought it was gone for good. A month later is was back with a vengeance:( I ended up starting fresh in a new tank with new rock, I hope you dont have to do this. One question, how is your flow? In my tank, I experienced the greatest growth when one of my power heads died, and then had an algae die off when the flow increased again.

William, sorry to hear of your tribulation with the tank. I am hoping my experience will be a bit different.

My tank is all LPS and polyps, so lighting and flow less than an SPS tank. I clean the powerheads each day as part of the daily routine, so no big changes there.
 
Pictures of said algae would be helpful.

2 360s on a 190? That is not much light for such a big tank.

I've found it is a combination of things that rid my tank of algae.

Aggressive manual removal - you are exporting whatever nutrients are fueling the algae

GFO - keep running as you do the removal. Change often!

Macro algae - my chaeto didn't start really taking off until I removed 90% of the algae. I also upped the five light to a 300w grow light and actively dosed iron.

These actions effectively removed all algae from my DT. I do have them in my overflow but that's because detritus collects in spots.


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Friends, I have been attempting to attach a photo, but have not succeeded. I have uploaded the file, but it won't seem to attach to a reply or posting. What am I missing, please?
 
Jim, I fought with the hair algae for about 2 years in the past. I have tried various herbivores from snails & crabs to fish & sea hares. I tried various chemicals. I tried periods of lights off, elevated magnesium, you name it! They either didn't make a difference, had directly a negative effect (for example, the algae fix chemicals had little effect on GHA but it knocked out my chaeto), or had only a temporarily positive effect followed by a negative effect (specially when livestock such as the sea hare died in the tank).

In the end, what worked for me, was to let the algae do its way until it finished the nutrients in the tank. So, I made sure the system & maintenance is good:
- good RO/DI water
- aggressive skimming
- longer lighting cycle for sump, although at that time my chaeto was overtaken by algae. But by having the algae growing faster in the sump, it competed with the one from DT
- phosphate reducing media. I ended up using bio-pellets because the lower maintenance, but a lot of folks had very good results with GFO as well
- regular WCs
- control the feeding
- control the livestock, stopped adding CUC & reduced the number of fish. I was down to about ~10 snails, ~20 crabs, 2 shrimps and 5 fish in my 125G.
- manual removal of the algae + scrubbing of the rocks
- good flow inside DT and through the sump

When the algae finally receded it even surprised me - around that time I was contemplating to throw in the towel and shut down the tank. Once I noticed that it doesn't grow as much, I continued the manual removal & then fish+CUC were finally slowly able to contain it. My livestock of snails, crabs, couple tangs and dwarf angels seemed not to like GHA unless it was very short or very soft/dying.

My last step in the fight with GHA was to scrub GHA from the sump & fuge, then refill the fuge with clean chaeto. Now chaeto grows again in my fuge.

It's been more than 3 years since my tank is algae "free". Since then I saw a few specks around one coral that is slowly recovering. I never saw them growing to more than that.

From the earlier posts in the thread, I see you pretty much doing the same maintenance as I enumerated above. IMO, that's the right way to get rid of GHA. The reef keeping article posted by @Judah001 is also very good & makes similar points. Continue on this path, let the algae consume the excess nutrients from your tank and you'll succeed in get rid of it. It takes time though, arm yourself with plenty of patience.
 
Look this product up:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0017JHBGY/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

There are various threads on RC with its uses and a buddy of mine turn me onto it 5 months ago when I was dealing with some bubble algae. I run a decent amount of flow and an oversized skimmer for my tank and didn't have any issues with using it even at 3-4x above recommended dosage (misread the directions :p ). It took about 4 days but it eventually disintegrated the bubble algae (went from glossy green to opaque, then slowly disintegrated). In addition to the bubble algae it also took care of all other macroalgae, including the toadstool algae, Cladophora prolifera (kind of like a denser and compact form of Chaeto from KP Aquatics) and all other macroalgaes in the tank. What I was left with at the end of the week was clean rocks with no signs of any sort of algae, other than the occasion spots of coralline which began to colonize into the new space. I have yet to see the bubble algae reappear since the end of July.
 
Look this product up:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0017JHBGY/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

There are various threads on RC with its uses and a buddy of mine turn me onto it 5 months ago when I was dealing with some bubble algae. I run a decent amount of flow and an oversized skimmer for my tank and didn't have any issues with using it even at 3-4x above recommended dosage (misread the directions :p ). It took about 4 days but it eventually disintegrated the bubble algae (went from glossy green to opaque, then slowly disintegrated). In addition to the bubble algae it also took care of all other macroalgae, including the toadstool algae, Cladophora prolifera (kind of like a denser and compact form of Chaeto from KP Aquatics) and all other macroalgaes in the tank. What I was left with at the end of the week was clean rocks with no signs of any sort of algae, other than the occasion spots of coralline which began to colonize into the new space. I have yet to see the bubble algae reappear since the end of July.

Eric, Thanks for the lead. I will go this route if the H2O2 does not do the trick.
 
Look this product up:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0017JHBGY/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

There are various threads on RC with its uses and a buddy of mine turn me onto it 5 months ago when I was dealing with some bubble algae. I run a decent amount of flow and an oversized skimmer for my tank and didn't have any issues with using it even at 3-4x above recommended dosage (misread the directions :p ). It took about 4 days but it eventually disintegrated the bubble algae (went from glossy green to opaque, then slowly disintegrated). In addition to the bubble algae it also took care of all other macroalgae, including the toadstool algae, Cladophora prolifera (kind of like a denser and compact form of Chaeto from KP Aquatics) and all other macroalgaes in the tank. What I was left with at the end of the week was clean rocks with no signs of any sort of algae, other than the occasion spots of coralline which began to colonize into the new space. I have yet to see the bubble algae reappear since the end of July.

This is in a reef system? No casualties coral wise?
 
This is in a reef system? No casualties coral wise?

Same reef tank that I've been running and yes, no casualties coral wise. Skimmer and carbon was turned off during the week of the treatment. Both were powered back on after the week and a 50% WC was conducted. Skimmer pulled wet on the same settings as prior and continued to do so for ~5 gallons of additional wet output (hosing went to a 5G bucket).
 
Update on the experiment!

It is day 4 of dosing H2O2 in the tank. Last night I dosed the Fauna Marin DinoX. This morning, there was no visible change to the color, size or quantity of hair algae.

However, there was a noticeable change in strength. Previously, it was a challenge to pull the algae off the rock work. This afternoon, I found that it came up pretty easily. It seems to be losing strength. My plan is to pull and skim as much algae as possible as it is losing its grip. No need to let it decompose in the tank and spike nutrients.

My tank is an in-wall installation with no side or back access. This means removing glass algae with a scraper, rather than a magnet. Previously, I had to scrub to get it off. This afternoon, it came off as though it were on Teflon.

I'll keep you all posted on progress...

Jim
 
Update on the experiment:

There appears to be no new algae growth. Existing algae is turning a very light color and separating from the rocks on its own. I have random clumps floating in the water that I am removing with a net.

The Fauna Marin product indicates that it "may harm urchins during long term exposure". Change that to read "will kill urchins during medium term exposure". My urchins lost almost all their spines and looked like a goner before I moved them to the coral QT.

As a point of reference, here is a photo of a corner of my tank before the treatment began. It will give you a sense of what I was up against. The current rock is now almost completely free of algae.

Algae Before.jpg
 
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