Algae

[REEF_GUY]

I've had a big problem with algae in the past month. The stuff is growing so fast and I've tried everything. I've stepped up water changes to 10% every two days for the last two weeks. I've bumped up my salinity to 1.028 and even bought more hermit crabs and snails and none of it seems to be working. Any suggestions?

Thanks

[Bob I]

What kind of algae? Green algae, hair algae, Cyano?

[reefburnaby]

Hi,

I would starting raising the pH by drippig kalk. What kind of skimmer do you have and what kind of a tank/fish/corals do you have ? Also, what are your main methods of exporting nutrients ?


- Victor.

[BCOrchidGuy]

Are you filtering your water before adding it for top offs and water changes? I've seen our water be thick with phosphates from time to time.

[REEF_GUY]

The algae is like hair aglae but it's brown. I have a berlin with a mag 7 and in my sump. I'am growing macroalgae and am using a tap water purifier. I mostly have SPS with a few chromises and an algae blenny.


Thanks

[TANGOMAN]

Welcome to my world ! I'm just starting to see some improvement. I too have had a "browm-type" hair algae taking over my 90g. My feeding has been drastically reduced as I appear to have beaten a parasite problem. Heavy feeding can be a big source of nutrients if not accompanied by heavy skimming. Right Bob...? I'm pretty sure the culprit was aging bulbs. I replaced my 18 month old ops: PC's last month and the algae is now "bleaching" and falling off the rocks. The fish are also grazing more as I'm feeding less. I have a Damsel that has a constant "trail of poorly processed algae" coming out of his...well, you know . Very attractive !
I've made a lot of changes that have perhaps helped;
-Increased Actinic output
-dosing kalk
-reduce lighting cycle

Some other considerations ? -GAC, quality and "age". It will leach nutrients initially removed when it becomes "saturated".
-Daily replacement of "mechanical filtration" material. Get the "crap" out before it is converted into a nutrient.

Nitrates, phosphates/silicates, lighting...?

[dave111]

I too had your problem, I found that the tap water was high in phosphates, due to the regular water pipe flushing. I switched to ro/di filtered water, at the local Safeway or Save on foods. Now i can say i have been algae free for a year now . thanks to Canwest advice about a year now. ps I had tried a lot of tap filters but failed. dave