HA is getting me down

Koresample · #1 10-08-2009, 01:43 AM

i just did another 50% water change (oh my aching back!) and i noticed the algae came loose much easier this time, so maybe i am making progress. I think you and Mindy are right, its probably leeching from my rock. My tank looks very similar in algae growth to what you posted. When you say 'cooked in tank' what did you mean by that?

I want to post a big THANKS! here to Mindy as well, you have been a huge help in trying to understand what is going on and your articles were great to get a handle on things!

Quote:

Originally Posted by michika

And we have a winner!

I also did battle with hair algae, and ultimately the source was that phosphates were leaching from the rock and feeding the algae. The two options you have are a) let it cook in your tank, or b) remove and swap and either cook elsewhere, or dry it out.

I personally ended up letting it cook in the tank. I just did weekly maintenance of removing the hair algae and doing a regular waterchange shortly there after.

The best clean up crew I had, and still have, is a long-spine urchin. Great choice for a clean up crew, but they do grow very large.

Just so you have an idea of how bad it was in that tank:

michika · #2 10-08-2009, 04:22 AM

I just let it stay in the tank and I waited it out. It all vanished in about 3-4 months. Bigger water changes don't help, FYI.

Myka · #3 10-08-2009, 01:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Koresample

I want to post a big THANKS! here to Mindy as well, you have been a huge help in trying to understand what is going on and your articles were great to get a handle on things!

You're very welcome.

You can probably cut back on the water changes since the algae is growing so well, it will be absorbing all the nutrients that are leaching out anyway, and you're removing it with your scissors.

EDIT: Ooops, michika beat me to it. Bigger water changes do help if you're dealing with high nutrients in the water column, but your readings are all low, so the algae is eating it up well for you.

Koresample · #4 10-08-2009, 03:15 PM

Thanks for all the tips, i will go back to weekly 10% changes and just watch my garden grow.....well, make that die lol. I keep a detailed journal so it will be interesting to see how long this goes on for.

michika · #5 10-08-2009, 10:31 PM

I found photos to be most helpful in tracking the progress. Turning the rocks every once and awhile helps quite a bit.

gbeef · #6 10-09-2009, 07:14 PM

HA is caused from phosphates and overfeeding, i had the same thing happen to me. It was because i was using tap water.. Also there maybe phosphates in ur rock depending if your LFS store the rock in Tap water. And even if they did im sure they dont have light bleaming on the rock causing growth.

Turbo snails are the way to go. but really its a waiting game of water changes and time.