Hair Algae!

[Trigs]

Originally Posted by niloc16

first off what type of water are using for new saltwater and topoff. if it is tapwater then i would say definitely thats the problem. if its ro/di water test the water before it goes into your tank and see if thats the problem. hair algae takes over from high nutrients, find the source and cure the problem. sometimes testing your tank water doesnt help cuz the algae eats the nutrients so fast you cant register it on your test kit

i use a Ro unit, but when i use to use tap water i never had any problems, it wasnt until i started using the Ro water that i ran into these problems.

[niloc16]

what is the tds reading coming out of the ro

[Trigs]

Originally Posted by niloc16

what is the tds reading coming out of the ro

not sure...

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Originally Posted by Trigs

i use a Ro unit, but when i use to use tap water i never had any problems, it wasnt until i started using the Ro water that i ran into these problems.

A few years ago I had a tap water tank and a RO tank. Similar lighting and whatnot. The tapwater tank had a higher bioload although it was smaller than the ro reef tank. I used to get HA in my RO tank but never in the tap water tank. I am not saying RO caused HA at all but I ended up switching all to tap water. Two years later I am using the same LR and mostly tap water (I use both now, whatever I have at the time) and never had HA. I do dose kalk though and that will precipitate phosphates, so I bet thats keeping things in check but whatever it is, I am very happy to use tap water.

My problem with RO is that I live in a condo and have no use for the waste water. I didn't have a great way to reuse it and couldn't justify wasting so much water. My parents would kill me if they knew how much I used to waste They are VERY, VERY "green" and brought me up that way.

I am happy with tap water but I test the TDS quite often and only use it when the TDS is below 10 or 20.

[Carmen]

The sea hare was extremely efficient for me - gone in 2 weeks and so far VERY little has come back. (My Phosphates tested 0 and I use tap water.)
As with my nano, once the initial HA cycle finished, that was it - never saw it again. (Hoping for the same!)

[fishytime]

You also could think about your feeding regiment. How much food? How often? What kind(s) of food. If you feed frozen foods what is your method?

[Der_Iron_Chef]

Plenty of good advice here. But here's some more: some people (including myself) find the pejorative use of the word "gay" to be extremely offensive, and it really isn't appropriate on a public forum like this.

[Reefer Rob]

Find something that will eat it. I.m not sure what's eating it in my tank, but something is. Try Mexican Turbo Snails, and an Abalone.

Run a refugium with macro-algae. Use a 5500K bulb or so to encourage the hair algae to grow in the fuge and not in your tank.

Run 1200K bulbs or higher on your display.

Use GFO! Hair algae needs phosphates to grow.

[tang daddy]

His tank is going through a cycle....

He set it up not even a month ago so this is normal just let it ride out the cycle then either put a seahare or golden rabbit fish both great for manicuring a tank.

[Trigs]

hmm yah i think i will either go with a sea hair or do a water change with tap water again like i use to, i feed frozen food, every other day mysis shrimp and brine, i mix with tank water and pour in, or feed from my hand.